Self care is quite the buzz word or term these days, isn’t it. I’ll be honest that up until three months ago, I’ve ignored the cry for it. Wasn’t it just taking care of yourself? Shouldn’t we all be doing that anyway? Eat well, get a good night’s sleep, and exercise whenever we can. Seems obvious, right?
But then February came, and the wheels fell off the bus that is my Kindergarten classroom. Well not exactly the whole bus or all the wheels. Just one of the 20 wheels. Out of respect to the parties involved, I won’t elaborate. But after 20 years of teaching, I thought I’d seen it all, and realized I hadn’t. It’s been a very stressful late winter/early spring. I’ve found myself in my classroom later than ever before, bringing home more work than ever before, and the upkeep of my classroom (stuff everywhere!) becoming more and more challenging than ever before. And it’s been raining daily since like forever. I’m done. Ask me how many days left and I’ll tell you — six weeks and two days!
I find myself feeling like I need some help, and maybe a bit of self care is in order after all. So yesterday, after teaching for six hours, attending a 30 minute IEP meeting, attending a 60 minute faculty meeting, and then driving next door to a contract negotiations update meeting, I decided it was time. The sun finally came out, it was in the 60s, so I drove home and went for a walk. I’m so glad I did, because look what I saw.
The work was still waiting for me and the worries were still there, but taking some time for myself for just that one hour made a world of difference. I’ll be doing that more often.
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Many thanks to the crew at Two Writing Teachers, and the extended SOL community, for giving us the time, space, and encouragement to live the writerly life here each Tuesday and every day in March. Won’t you join us?
Wondering and Wandering 