Sweet Strength

With age and time, one believes strength ebbs.

The stones weather, the trees grow and split.

Through the passage of time, our hopes can fade away.

But that passage breed strength.

Reserves, once hollow, fill with the passage of each season.

The tenuous connection at birth becomes firm.

We see things, we know things

Where once we knew only fear and doubt.

We grow powerful within our own skin.

For truth, the mad rush of youth is gone

And the sunset is closer than the dawn.

But the sweetness of this strength is strong.

Each Other's Fire

Back in January, I wrote about some of the things that I and my co-workers should be grateful for and why. Here’s a look back:

We have a lot to be grateful for. Grateful for Playworks Coach Jena with her energy and persistence. Grateful for students who play Playworks games like Unfreeze Tag and give each other praise. Grateful for student Junior Coaches who want to learn and work. Grateful for assistant staffing that covers the playground with more than bare-minimums. Grateful for a principal who goes to meetings and who steps in to fill-in any position that needs filling. Grateful for teachers and other staff who embrace ideas like Playworks in their daily activities and who go outside to play.

Inevitably, we sometimes crash. Times change. What interested us previously, becomes tedious or hopeless or even painful. However, there are those people and those moments that touch us in a way that the fire inside is fed a burst of oxygen and WOOMPH! our imaginations are ignited and we again see potential for new and wonderful things.

I can’t order up a dose of rekindling online. In fact, when we need it most, we probably don’t even see the point in looking for flint and tinder. That’s why we always need to be open to being that firestarter! You have no idea when the spark of your smile, hug, text, call or positive comment in line at Starbucks will fall on the waiting kindling of another’s soul to flame up into something beautiful. Remember: you are a part of a great big web of people.

I am your fire when yours flickers.

You are my fire when mine flickers.