Another day

I have completed another day, and started another week.  My world did not change much. Some parents did not get to feel that way this morning, when they should have been getting their kids ready for school.
I came to work feeling a little bit different. 
That all of these kids are mine.  For a short period of time, they belong to me.  I am here to encourage, to enrich and teach.  I am here to love them for that 40 minutes they share with me.  They don't realize that their world changed a little on Friday.
I am a realist-I know bad things happen all the time to good people.  Bad things happen to children and adults. We are not immune to pain. 
However, I came to work today reminded that what I do is important and special and that while they are in my class for that 40 minutes I will teach them and enrich them and not remind them of the bad things of the world, but the beauty that is out there.
As silly as this sounds, I kept remembering movie quotes this weekend whenever a news report would come on TV.  So I am closing with these.  Keep Sandy Hook Elementary and Newton, CT in your prayers.

“Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”  ~Albus Dumbledore

“It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Peace, Love, Happiness and Joy be with you and your families this Christmas Season.