This snowfall in 2011 has really wreaked some havoc on my daily schedule, but in keeping with my Ranch Hand Guide for 2011, I’m just going with the flow.  I took advantage of a snow day last week by cleaning and reorganizing my craft closet.  This of course, affected other closets in my home, but I found some words that made me smile.

By “cleaning” I mean I dumped items out onto the floor and separated them into one of three piles: estate sale, burn pile, and trash.  If I could justify keeping it, I put it in a container and moved on.  Eventually, I made my way upstairs and started going through my folder from all of my years of teaching.  I took a little time to reorganize my work history, and then I opened a file folder that I had named “Love Letters.”

I remember making that folder.

This folder holds my motivation for going to work every day.  I am a teacher.  We are up against scrutiny from every direction, but every once in a while we make a difference.  Even less often, someone thanks us for it.  Even less often than that, someone actually writes a note expressing his or her gratitude.  Those notes from parents and students written to me expressing some kind of thanks for something I did for them are in that folder.

I read every one.

The topics of the notes had nothing to do with the subject I taught at the time.  Parents wrote about getting their kids through “a difficult” year; students wrote about getting them through “a difficult” year.  Neither group mentioned a noun, verb, or essay.

I needed to be reminded of that.

Continue reading Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch: Some Days Words Are Enough →