What Matters

It happens every year.  It happens to the best of us.  There comes a day when we ask ourselves is it all worth it. Are we making a difference?  The task seems so daunting; the demands ever-increasing.  As teachers of small children, we rarely see immediate results of our efforts.  Last year, on one of those days I wrote these words and left them in my colleagues' boxes as a small token of encouragement:

The sum of our days is a tally of all things good and bad. 

Every day, every moment is a chance to add a little bit to the good

 or a little bit to the bad.  

The choice is ours. 

So we show up every day, 

see the best in every child, 

do the best we can and 

hope that we have added 

a bit to the good in their lives.  

When it’s all said and done, 

that’s all that matters.  

All that we can ask for 

is that we are remembered 

because we let them go 

a little bit smarter, 

a little bit more confident, 

a little bit happier 

than when they came in 

through our doors.