Teachers...

I work as a sub in the local school here in the Junction.  We have one K-12 school, all the students harmoniously mixed together in a great facility.  I enjoy the fact that I'm not tied down to a full time job.  I can better manage a healthy balance between family and work but I get lots of time in the school getting to know and having fun with the students and enjoying the camaraderie of being a part of a staff with some really fantastic educators.

And last week I was reminded of a teacher I worked with occasionally in Winnipeg.  She was very creative, had wonderful routines and affectionately called her grade one/two kids her "little ducks".  Every Friday they shared a pancake meal together and practiced their manners and talked about their week together.  And as she would wind up her Friday with her kids they would join hands and sing the chorus to Bob Marley's song
 "Everything's Gonna Be Alright".  She knew that some of those kids were going home and things wouldn't always be alright for them over the weekend.  But at least in her classroom she could give them stability and structure and lots of care.   She was quite inspiring.

And then she had one or two of those students who valiantly struggled through even the simplest tasks required of them.  They had a hard time just getting in the door and putting their stuff in their cubbies never mind the 3 R's!  These dear ones were often on modified programs and needed lots of coaching and support.  They had a special place in their teachers heart.  To her they were her "wobbly ducks". 

"Wobbly ducks".  Something goes to mush in me when I think of it.  It's just so darn cute on one hand but on another I have to confess it strikes a deeper chord in me.  I think it's because ultimately I'm a wobbly duck. 

I'm wobbly in all kinds of ways.  But I don't want to focus on that.  What really captures my attention as I think about my "wobbliness" is how grateful I am for the kindnesses I've received from the "teachers" in my life.  People who, along the way, have shared a meal with me, teaching me valuable life lessons.  People who have held my hand and have sang "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" to me in countless ways through their hugs, their listening ears, their words of encouragement, their laughter, their prayer.  People who, knowing that at times everything was NOT alright, sang it to me anyway because they knew one day it would be. And like the teacher I described, they are really quite inspiring. 

And maybe, just maybe, as I wobble along I can inspire too.

Jesus,


I'm glad you have a special place in your heart for us "wobbly ducks".  In you I feel the safety to wobble through.  I love you.

'til next time,

Dianna