Hello again, dear and faithful readers!
For those of you perhaps wondering what’s been the delay in my posting a new blog, it’s that I’m teaching full-time AND working on my next book, which I hope to have “out” by next May 2019. That sounds like a long time away, but if you’re already putting in 50+ hours a week in one job, that leaves you little time for your other job–and just living a life. Plus, I’ve been sick for some months now and am just now getting better! I’m not a very “patient” patient, so I know I’ve been trying the patience of everyone in my household!
In my teaching “life,” I’ve been hearing many of my students talking about how stressed they are with the pressures of school. Often they also have a job, younger siblings to care for, extracurricular activities, etc.
One of my best students came to me in utter frustration one day. “Mrs. Lacey,” she said breathlessly, “how can we handle the stress of life now, when it’s not nearly as stressful as it’s sure to be later, when we’re adults?”
I thought for a minute or two then addressed her question to the class, and this is what I told them: “Think about a diamond. It begins its life as a piece of carbon, deep in the ground. With the pressure of the weight of the earth, combined with intense heat, it becomes a diamond.”
I thought for a second or two, then, seeing I had the entire classes’ attention (a rare thing), added this: “Now think about a pearl. A pearl begins as a tiny grain of sand, which somehow gets inside an oyster. The oyster reacts by secreting a substance around the grain of sand, to protect itself from the abrasive effects of the sand. After a time, the secreted substance becomes smooth and round as it hardens around the grain of sand.”
I continued, “The oyster and the carbon both reacted to something that stressed them. What resulted from that stress was a pearl and a diamond. So think of this as you, making pearls and diamonds!”
All of a sudden, the atmosphere in the room seemed to feel less tense, and I think this helped most of them see that we all have stress, but need to bring something positive out of it.
What about YOU? What stresses do you have, that you can make into diamonds and pearls? I’d love to see your comments about this!
Until next time,
TJL
