In a bad mood?  Hunt for the good.

Sometimes the winter is just depressing.  The days are short: I go to work and it’s still dark.  My room has no real windows to see sun (although I am one of the lucky ones who has some windows, so I’m not completely complaining!).  I leave work and the sun is going down.  I try to get myself outside regularly but it’s still about bundling up and being quick about enjoying the time.  There is little lingering or exploring further.  My toes are cold, my nose is running, I can’t hold another poop bag in my hands and still walk my dog safely due to the clunky mittens I decided to wear on the walk.  

I had a bit of a time yesterday.  It was not a finer moment. Luckily I have an understanding husband who loves me and he took the vow to do that unconditionally.  Sometimes I remind him of that (yesterday was a great example that he is doing his job and this is part of it).  But I was sooooo down.  I was negative.  I was finding everything wrong with everything.  I wanted to blame it all on everyone else, it couldn’t possibly be me.  

But as I’ve been reminded so eloquently by more than a handful of people: wherever you go, there you are.  The explanation is that when I think something is wrong with everything, there is probably a pretty good chance that there’s actually something going on with me.  Today I woke up after my grumpy stupor and had an epiphany.  It was time for me to change it and start hunting the good…

So that’s what I did each day this week…

I hunted the good and here’s what I found…

The good can be found in many places…

I found good in watching students work together to piece together a project together.  

I found good watching students point out strengths to one another anonymously.  

I found good watching each of the students quietly read these words that others saw in them, that sometimes they found difficult to see in themselves.  

I found good when I observed coworkers sitting around a table laughing at the shared humanity of our problems.  No judgment.  Just truth.  A group of people sharing in the absurdity of family, friends, parenting and humanness.  

I found good when I sat with a group of people volunteering their time to figure out how to help and where to place certain students who needed special services.  There are hundreds of students who we look over but there is always time in our school to figure out how to help a student who doesn’t have money to buy lunch or doesn’t have insurance to see our school counselor.  

I found good when I heard a coworker consistently chime in at the same meeting that she would be making a house call.  Yes, she can get paperwork signed because she needs to bring that family groceries this week.  

I found good when I witnessed students putting post it notes on each of the thousand lockers in our school.  The brightly colored notes had messages like “You’re loved,” “Someone cares about you,” and “    “

In a world where negativity can be found around every corner, hunting for the good allowed me to get past the obvious discontent and see our often unsung heroes.  These are the people and students I get to spend my every day with.  I am honored.  I am blessed.  I will continue hunting for the good and I challenge you to do the same.  It’s there.  I promise.  We may just need to look a little deeper, but you may be surprised at how much good you can find when you go looking for it.