creative faery

Heavenly Angel Returning and Blessings

A beautiful angel, one of my kindergarteners went home to her Heavenly Father this week.  It was a tragic accident.  One which left the tiny community I teach in devastated.  It was a weird accident.  Their family was driving near a cliff near their house when a 250 pound rock landed only on her side of the car, killing her instantly.  Her family is really having a difficult time because this young girl was a lot like my little sunshine, happy and bright all the time.  The picture slides they showed of her made the whole church crumble because it's a great loss of joy to our community.  Her sister is the one I'm most worried about because they were so very close and she was sitting next to her.  I know how close my daughters are and how tragic that would be if they were separated.  I can't imagine what this is doing to her.  God must of really needed a bright spirit in heaven.  I know she's dancing there because you could always find her dancing.  Her magnificent spirit will be sorely missed.

Some blessings for this week have been our bright sunny days and finally the feeling of summer.  It's awesome!   I breathe sunshine and feel like myself again.  The flowers are blooming all around so beautifully.  (pictures later)

I'm learning a lot in school and stretching myself so much.  I never knew one subject, art, could make me smile and cry at the same time.  I also never knew it would be so crazy difficult!!!!   Where I hope I'm blessed in the future is really getting proportions and how to balance something...and maybe get a little swifter on coming up with ideas for these abstract projects.  It's challenging when you don't even know or understand what these projects are about...but they're fun, and I'm growing in ways I didn't think were possible.

So hey, here's to ART in ALL its glory!  AND here's to YOU in having a great week.

Sylvia day

I declared a "Sylvia day" last week as one of my favorite students from all time had to leave us and go to another school.  You aren't supposed to have favorites...but children like this one don't come along very often.  There's not a person I've ever met who doesn't like her; and I don't believe there's a person in our brand new school who doesn't know who she is.  She's that kind of girl - spitfire joyous, loving to all, kind in ways you could never imagine.  The irony of it all is this is a young girl who has had a very challenging life, many times not being loved in the way any child so deserves to be loved.  She has suffered more in her five years of life than many of us have in our lifetimes.  And she is still joyous and loving...

How can you go through all that and not be bitter?  How can you still be so joyous?  How can you live a life so forgiving?  You are truly an example of grace.

Sylvia is also the perfect example of "dynamite comes in small packages."  She explodes a room!

So, we had a Sylvia day.  I gave her a crown.. and we sang Sylvia songs and we danced Sylvia dances, and together we made her a treasure box to put all her kindergarten things...and we had special treats and made up a special "we will miss you" song sung to the tune of Happy Birthday so she will remember us and we will remember her when others have a birthday.   She soaked it all in, and she didn't look back...It wasn't because she wasn't going to miss us or that we weren't important to her life.  She was ready for her new adventure, a life with her sisters, and she was sooooooooo excited!  A reminder to me to live in the moment and enjoy the people you have now....

The best part is that we don't have to wait once a year to have a Sylvia day.  In honor of her, we can celebrate Sylvia day anytime we're needin' a little ray of sunshine joy or we're counting our blessings.  What would Sylvia do?  She'd keep on livin' that's what she'd do!!! 

She taught the teacher so very much.....................

Knowing yourself - Just be

I was compelled to write this post today...mostly because it made me think a lot.

Out of the mouths of babes.  Today I was reading some poems from a book to my kinder kids...remember, these little guys are only 5 and they're sooooo wise!  The poem was about a seed, and it asked a question of  "how does a seed know if it will be a flower or a weed?"  So, being curious to what goes on in those little minds, I asked them the question.  How does that seed know?   

The first kid said, well, he looks at the signs!  I laughed, because in the picture were those little homemade signs on popsicle sticks that you see put in gardens that tell the gardener (or so I thought) what is being planted...but, now you now, those sign are for the seed to know what it looks like...

But my favorite answer came from the youngest kid in my class who said, "He knows hisself.  He KNOWs what he looks like!"  It was the most confident thing I ever heard him say in class, and one of the most pure thoughts I've heard.  I'm entrusted to these little beings who teach me so very much about life and living and knowing myself.  To them, it's easy to know yourself...you just be..be what God intended me to be...just be what my heart tells me, but most of all, just be.  To him, I shall say his name, Noah (because I think it's a cool name), to Noah, was the easiest question in the world.  How did it get so difficult for us?