Serena’s Secret #1

This week was an awfully big week for Ashley. She started a new job! Exhausted from a week of Spring Break camp at the Gardens on Spring Creek, she asked if I would write the blog this week! I said, ‘Of course!” Sorry it is a day late. I work at a snail's pace.
 
If you have been lucky enough to see a sneak peak of our upcoming book you know that snails are the keepers of the secrets to the universe. We move so slowly we notice things that everyone else misses as they rush about as they do. Since you have taken the time to slow down and follow our blog I wanted to share some of my secrets with you.
 
This week I spent some time with Ashley as she was working with 25 wonderful campers. Most of the time the students were eager, excited to learn and full of joy. Sometimes, they were lost in their dreams, disruptive or uninterested in what the teachers asked them to do. Then, every once in a while, a student would dissolve into tears of frustration, loss, insecurity or pain. While watching each unique young spirit deal with the day’s circumstances in different ways, I realized that children have many different emotions that do not always make sense to adults. However, these emotions and behaviors did not define the child. There was no ‘bad’ child in the room. In actuality, each child and adult had both smooth and rocky moments. The beauty was in how everyone dealt with the emotions. It was inspiring see teachers and children reach out to those who were struggling and offer love. In those moments one spirit recognized and honored the experience of another spirit and from it grew only good things.
 
So I think that there are no bad people, just difficult behaviors and the first step to understanding why someone is struggling is to love them, even if it is from afar. Our worth is not defined by our behavior.