Thankfulness...

Taking a moment today to meditate on thankfulness, and also appreciating publicly just some of the countless ways in which I am blessed:

My wife.  It is difficult to express all of the ways that our relationship (which has spanned more than half my life) is important to me.  She keeps me in balance, alert and aware, and provides an anchor of familiarity and capability that allows me to be the best version of me.  She offers that other perspective, the one I don't consider.  She is my partner in changing lives and in building a world of which we can proud.

My children.  The work of being a parent is different from anything I could have prepared for.  I'm amazed at how my girls have been active contributors to my own learning of how to be the kind of parent they've needed me to be.  They are each very different people, but they are each and in their own way just what I've needed to grow well into the role.  Without the gifts (and challenges) of their own distinct selves, the rough edges of my parenting style could never have been softened like they needed to.

My school.  Over my almost 20 years of teaching, I have become ever more convinced that my place in the vast universe that is the education system is in the tiny corner that includes small, alternative, community-focused, individualized schools like Compass.  It is a difficult place to exist, for it is a sparsely populated and oft disrespected region, but for the students who need it there is no place more important.  I am grateful every day for the existence of schools like Compass, and for all that I am learning about how to serve those schools and their students well.

My home.  I am not a person of place by heritage.  I have a very strong need to wander, to travel, to explore and this makes settling down an unnatural act--or, rather, it did until we moved into the Red House.  I've told many of you the story of how this came to be (the serendipitous nature of it is nothing short of mythical to me) and for all that I accepted that this was a thing meant to happen, I could never have imagined just how deep would be my commitment to this place.  I am discovering a sense of belonging that I've never really felt before.  A sense of exhalation.  Like I'm right where I'm supposed to be. 

My vast and diverse community.  I am honored to be connected in so many ways to so many people I love.  Some of these people I see fairly often.  Some I must be content to stalk on Facebook.  Wherever you are, though, I am blessed to know that you are part of my life.  Thank you for all you are and all you offer me and the rest of the world!