Look Up Child!
One of my favorite contemporary Christian artists is Lauren Daigle (https://laurendaigle.com/). On my playlist I have her single "Look Up Child" which has a wonderful rich reggae beat and simple soulful lyrics that remind us, "Even in our suffering, even when it can't be seen, I know you're in control. Oh I, I hear you say, I hear you say 'Look up, Child!'"
All that fussing I did! All that frustration I unleashed on my family
and colleagues! All of that, “if you
only understood my high needs child”…and in the end I couldn’t even get in the
*&%$# webinar! All along I was
hoping I could just dissect recordings so that I could learn at my own pace when Ben was on the “electronic babysitter” and that ends up being what I’ll
have to do anyway! Without taking a sick
day! God has a funny way of paving the
path for me it seems. This week I found
that when I just surrendered and declared once and for all, “I can’t do it
all. I need help. I need to put my family first and take some
scheduled time away from my job to keep it together” I found it didn’t end up
being necessary as often as I expected.
I found out now that we were in week 3, Ben and I have both settled into
work routines and he is far more independent with his required school
activities. He has hardly needed me that
much at all. It’s not foolproof. I was able to get in 2 webinars this week
with minimal distraction but then today when I was able to get in my 1pm
session all heck broke loose at one time, and of course Matt was off the grid
too. I had to notify my principal I had
to leave the session, I emailed HR to deduct a half a sick day, I took care of
Ben, and we survived. I will watch the
recording and I will still learn and develop professionally. Stressing over the crisis was 100 times worse
than having the crisis! Why I stress in the first place is beyond me. I don't generally panic in an actual crisis. I’ve
always tended to be the “voice of reason” calm, collected doer in times of need. For me everything becomes clear in a
mess. Ben needed me, I left the webinar,
I took care of his needs, I notified the powers that be, and I went on humming
“Look Up! Child.”
I know many are suffering, but most of us do have everything we truly need. I’ve seen many astute observations posted on social media lately about how we all tend to prioritize better in troubled times. At this time learning all of the life science seventh grade standards may not be the most important thing for my school babies. The most important thing might be that they know their parents and I love them, and we want them to be successful in their learning and later in life, in years well beyond this one. The most important thing is that we all follow the rules and stay safe so that we can all have "future". Many experts are saying that life will be different after the quarantine; that we will all be changed. I suppose it depends on how deeply entrenched people were in their present state of being and how much this new “normal” is different from their regular normal. My students have recently studied “adaptations” with regard to extinction level events. This COVID crisis is a crash real life course in that standard! Some of us adapt easily, and staying home isn’t a big deal, but managing a new way of taking care of our responsibilities has been a huge learning curve for me at least. But I also know people who have always worked from home and this is hardly an adjustment for them at all!
Most of us in education, at least, agree that when this is all over we cannot go back to exactly the way things were before. We’ve broken through too many glass ceilings with our tech tools, we’ve explored too many unchartered waters and tested way too many amazing tools out of the proverbial box to go back to only the old tools we used before. Dr. Latessa from my YSU graduate course, “Building Models & Processes” told us many many times in class, “Everyone needs either a tool or a skill and they can improve”. For many of us, we are drawing upon both new skills and new tools. I love the novelty of experimentation without harsh consequences if we fail. Truly, this is trial and error for everyone. Nothing is off the table in terms of what we try next. When we waste time worrying, though, instead of simply choosing to “Look Up, Child!” take a deep breath, plunge, and see what happens, assess the damage, or analyze the outcome, we can discover new strategies that may help us be more successful in some aspects than ever before!
I hope those of you who are reading are enjoying my thoughts & insights. Please subscribe, there’s more yet to come. We should all be thinking always “there’s more out there”, “there’s bigger and better out there”. I don’t necessarily mean dump your spouse or job because you deserve better.
I
mean, constantly assess where you are on YOUR journey and how you are working
to improve yourself, your outlook, your skills, your expectations, and what you
can offer the world. Those things you
can control!
Though I have listened to this song for many months now, it's lyrics hold new meaning to me this week. I find that although we may not use the same words in the same cultural rhythm as Daigle does in this single, as parents, teachers and caregivers everywhere, we utter this phrase in a million different ways all the time. “Have I made myself clear?”, “Did you hear what I said
to you?”, “Look at me. Look. Here.” We
want to always make sure they are heeding our instructions because we want to
keep them safe, we want them to learn. We want them to grow in a healthy way. But most importantly, we want them to know we are looking after them to protect them.
"Look Up, Child" is like a
lullaby that reassures us that our heavenly Father is always there for us to
turn to when we have troubles. When we
have challenges, He is always by our side.
He wants us to turn to Him and He wants us to Look to Him. This is probably hardest when we are going
through challenges, but isn't that when our parents and role models want us to turn to them most? I don't believe my parents would ever reach a point where they would say, "don't call me with your problems." They may not always have advice as I've gotten older and my challenges have gotten way more complex. I've undertaken much in my life with which my parents are entirely unfamiliar. They still allow me to air my frustrations, grievances, woes, sorrows and pain without judgement or condemnation. Only love and support. Knowing they let me come to them does, in fact, help, even when I know they can't or won't solve my problem. Do we give our Heavenly Father the same measure of grace? Do we only go to Him when we expect Him to intervene? Or do we trust Him to know what's best for us and guide our path through our personal intimate relationship with Him?
Last week my blog was full of me being stuck on my
challenges. I pulled up my bootstraps, stepped back, breathed deep, prayed and prepared my self mentally and structurally for added responsibilities this week. I went into a
series of “scheduled meetings” in good faith, having delegated “Ben duty” to
Daddy for times I needed to sign in to a webinar live. Low and behold I couldn’t even get in the
first two! I wasn’t alone. Several of us couldn’t sign in to a meeting
maxed out with 300.
I know many are suffering, but most of us do have everything we truly need. I’ve seen many astute observations posted on social media lately about how we all tend to prioritize better in troubled times. At this time learning all of the life science seventh grade standards may not be the most important thing for my school babies. The most important thing might be that they know their parents and I love them, and we want them to be successful in their learning and later in life, in years well beyond this one. The most important thing is that we all follow the rules and stay safe so that we can all have "future". Many experts are saying that life will be different after the quarantine; that we will all be changed. I suppose it depends on how deeply entrenched people were in their present state of being and how much this new “normal” is different from their regular normal. My students have recently studied “adaptations” with regard to extinction level events. This COVID crisis is a crash real life course in that standard! Some of us adapt easily, and staying home isn’t a big deal, but managing a new way of taking care of our responsibilities has been a huge learning curve for me at least. But I also know people who have always worked from home and this is hardly an adjustment for them at all!
Most of us in education, at least, agree that when this is all over we cannot go back to exactly the way things were before. We’ve broken through too many glass ceilings with our tech tools, we’ve explored too many unchartered waters and tested way too many amazing tools out of the proverbial box to go back to only the old tools we used before. Dr. Latessa from my YSU graduate course, “Building Models & Processes” told us many many times in class, “Everyone needs either a tool or a skill and they can improve”. For many of us, we are drawing upon both new skills and new tools. I love the novelty of experimentation without harsh consequences if we fail. Truly, this is trial and error for everyone. Nothing is off the table in terms of what we try next. When we waste time worrying, though, instead of simply choosing to “Look Up, Child!” take a deep breath, plunge, and see what happens, assess the damage, or analyze the outcome, we can discover new strategies that may help us be more successful in some aspects than ever before!
I hope those of you who are reading are enjoying my thoughts & insights. Please subscribe, there’s more yet to come. We should all be thinking always “there’s more out there”, “there’s bigger and better out there”. I don’t necessarily mean dump your spouse or job because you deserve better.
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