October is a month of abundance! I am resisting my normal fall gloom due to the shorter days and the winter spanning before me. I am finding joy in the colour and crispness of the harvest. This is the season of plenty. This is the season of gratitude.
Last year I attended #TEDxKelowna2014 and explored abundant ideologies around the theme “When I Grow Up”. As I review my notes, I find the following quotes:
How would our stories change, if we realized we were the author? ~Cheryl Bernard
Stories are guides to life. Children want to embody the story. ~Sam Mcloughlin
Live with a sense of adventure, risk, and discovery….What is uniquely you? ~Ryan Clements
Under pressure we make decisions to please instead of to dream. ~Rachel Creighton
The key to human success at all levels is adaptability. ~Dr. Shimi Kang
Happiness best grows when transplanted into the soil of other people’s lives. ~David Maclean
Let your thoughts spark, your life glow. ~Darius Konstant
Our Learn Forward themes of “climbing to the peaks of selfhood and belonging” echo throughout the ideas worth sharing.
Adapting. Dreaming. Authoring. Creating. Giving.
BUT, if the truth be known, my world doesn’t always fall neatly into the hopefulness and idealism I love to swirl around in my mind for inspiration and intoxication. Sometimes I’m struggling to keep my chin above the water. If the truth be known, this week’s family pressures brought me to that age-old fear, “Am I Enough?”
Fear. Awkward. Pressures. Questions. Grief. How do we hold the questions and the pain? How do we manage the challenges?
Adapt.
When everything doesn’t fit neatly into the package we ideally designed…we must adapt. Here are some strategies that we use at Willowstone Academy and in my own heart to adapt in a sea of change.
1. Keep children safe.
We focus on the basic needs of children. We discuss sleeping and nutrition; we work to keep hearts and bodies safe. We don’t underestimate the power of the basics. And, I have science to back up my mother’s common sense.
2. Come to the table.
Our week had the blessing of coming to the table of learning with parents on both small and large scale. We had private and heartfelt meetings with parents of children who have unique needs. We had meetings with parents, students, and educators to restore relationships and learn about each other. We had meetings with parents to explore values and vision in broad brushstrokes. I wrote in one reflective email, “when members of a community have an opportunity to dialogue in a respectful way and share ideas, it is healthy.”
3. Reaffirm our values.
It’s not always easy to hold onto values in a shifting and organic learning community. It requires standing in the gap, in a struggle between the ideal of perfection and the challenging realities. As an example, we value meeting the needs of children in a personalized way with strong attachments and big doses of attention. Student-educator ratios are important in this value. However, it isn’t always perfectly in proportion.
4. Adjust to align with our values.
When things can’t be perfect, LearnForward says, ‘How can they be better?” While it isn’t always perfect, as a community, we can make an effort to be better.
5. Keep asking questions.
How can we improve?
6. Brainstorm.
Let’s think about new possibilities…
I love it when a team member sends me a Saturday email of brainstorms or we solve problems collaboratively in the hallway. Or, our hearts come together to hold what is yet unsolved…
7. Encourage our hearts.
Within our community, this happens with mindful attention to what others are going through in their lives and in their classrooms. We cry with, pray for, and lean on each other. We are a community of learners. We did all this adapting together..in relationships!
You see, when all is said and done, happiness is found in warm relationships. The Grant Study of Harvard found over the last 75 years of studying 268 men that, “It is the capacity for intimate relationships that predicted flourishing in all aspects of these men’s lives.” LearnForward calls that belonging.
When I don’t know what to do, I know where I belong. That’s enough for me.
We must model these adapting journeys for our children…We must model creating warm relationships.
Where are you living in the gap between the ideal and the challenge of reality? How are you courageously facing the unknown? How are you moving towards what you value? What is encouraging your heart along the way? How can you invest in your learning community where you belong?
The abundance is the journey!
For the sake of the children,
Karine