This morning as I completed my daily tasks, my mind roamed sampling themes that I might weave into the Saturday Stream of Consciousness post. I believe most of you reading this do the same. I started on a lovely jaunt on the differences between Family Day Care as opposed to Center-based childcare. Oh, the wonderful poignant phrases were many and my fear that I’d lose that fluent story once I sat at the computer great! But, as my tasks went along, of course my mind kept churning landing on a memory that inspired this independent post.
I noted in my previous post that I’ve always been a ‘people watcher’. Having embraced this interest as a small child, I never was a ‘judger’ but rather a pure observer hoping to learn lessons that would serve me as either ‘good’ or ‘poor’ examples of how I might behave. It was for increasing my own knowledge alone. In my Kindergarten class, was a little girl who gave me my first lesson about being grateful. In the 1960s the predominant family structure was made of two parents and siblings. Much of this little girl’s situation was not known to me at my tender age but somehow, I was aware that she lived with parents that were not biological. This little girl was frail in stature, and I remember how her hands shook like an old woman’s. My heart had empathized with her before I even got a glimpse of her reality.
One day, our teacher called her from her desk to meet someone in the hallway. When the door opened there stood an adult woman holding out her arms which caused the girl to sob leaping into a smothering hug. At this point, both the woman and girl were shaking and sobbing as my teacher closed the door.
That raw emotion touched me so deeply that the scene has been one of my most frequently revisited school memories. I somehow knew that the woman was part of her real and known family and she had missed her terribly. Any other detail remains forever unknown to me. That was enough to make my 5-year-old self profoundly grateful from head to toe for having a safe, loving, home and family. It was such a mind-blowing revelation that I believe it has been the inspiration for all of my lifelong persistent gratefulness for all my large and small blessings.
If I could, I’d thank that girl today because being grateful is the most fundamental foundation for being happy and she gave that to me for a lifetime in kindergarten.
I just wanted to share a memory and my lesson with everyone. 😉
Thanks. ❤