One Good Thing: 19May2025

This past week started rocky.

I was out sick Monday. Although I took the day off, I didn’t make time to rest. The milieu of household chores I fell behind on being ill over the weekend loomed heavy in my mind. It is hard for me to sleep when I’m worried about the laundry. At the end of the day, before I knew it, it was time to run a series of errands - including after school pick up - that would catapult me to 7PM before I even processed the mid afternoon sun. And 7PM usually means I’m more tired than usual.

By Wednesday, I was back out sick for myself and driving to the pediatrician for my child who, unsurprisingly, was also ill. 

It didn’t seem like the week would be going my way.

Until Wednesday night when I got on a call with a group from the church I grew up in to discuss teaching a course about gardening. I’m no master gardener but, I love the satisfaction of growing food on my own and showing others how to accomplish the same. One of my goals for 2026 is to complete a master gardener training to develop this skill further to help my community back home!

Early on in the call, the conversation evolved beyond growing vegetables and turned to building food networks. It made me excited for the hour long class I will lead in June. 

Invitations to engage in teaching and training always reinvigorate me. Not only because I love leading a class but because I am reminded of the skills and education I’ve developed throughout my career. Helping people with something I know even a little bit about makes all of my own training and development worthwhile. 

This week’s one good thing was the reminder that my value is not intrinsically tied to my employment - that my offerings extend far beyond the work I complete from 9A to 5P. I’m a teacher - like my grandparents and great grandparents. I work to educate people around me, to edify my community. There’s so much power in that - I'm choosing to lean into that power this week.