Reflections from Class

Hello,

Today one of my students told me that she is a very serious person, and that she really needs to work on that.

As I looked at her I was aware of how magnificently playful and silly and positive she is.I have countless memories of watching her in the playroom playing with autistic children where I have be moved by her silliness into laughter. In fact I have just seen her dressed up as a cat taking a little autistic boy for a ride on her back.

Loads of memories of being inspired by her to be the best of myself.
Touched by her examples of gratitude towards me, and marvelled by her ability to change and overcome challenges.

I brought some of this to her attention, but she poo pooed them saying, no really she is very serious and uptight and reiterated that she needs to "look at this".
And I am sure there are times in her life when she feels serious and uptight, but she was making this all of who she is.

After this interaction I was thinking about how we make our unhappiness so big, we give it so much attention, growing it from a seed into a tree. In turn we put no thought to the moments where we choose happiness and kindness, thus shrinking it to a pea in our minds. What if we all did the opposite? We put our attention to and grew our happiness, and dared to see the beauty that shines within us?

If at night when we ponder our day we think about all things we did that were kind, and generous, silly and playful, and dared to see ourselves as nothing but the great human beings that we are.

Would we still grow? I think yes, and in leaps and bounds.