Tearful

Today, my third graders finished reading Charlotte's Web. If you haven't read this selection since you were in third grade, you should consider revisiting it. E.B. White is a genius- children adore his stories and the characters he writes, all while learning some very difficult life lessons. The story of Charlotte and Wilbur is all about love and loss.

As I read to my students, I got so choked up that I had to have them finish. I was touched by their graciousness, as the two sitting on either side of me rested their arms around my shoulders and another got me a tissue. No one laughed or perceived me as being weird (at least not to my face). It is amazing what looking at things through the eyes of a child (or a pig named Wilbur) can do to your heartstrings.

Charlotte's words made me think. "I will not be going back to the barn, I'm done for. In a day or two, I'll be dead. I haven't the strength enough to climb down into the crate. I doubt if I have enough silk in my spinnerets to lower me to the ground."

I have felt this way...I'm not going back, I'm done for, I haven't the energy to go on. These feelings have been especially poignant throughout the past year. I have been thinking a lot about how fortunate I am to have a loving God to trust in each time I tread a difficult path. What does one do in their grief if they don't sit at the foot of the cross? Poor Wilbur rolled around in manure and tried to take his mind off of his loss by focusing on the pleasant smells of the barn.

Thank you, Lord, for granting me the grace to go on, hope to cling to, and far more generosities that a good smelling barn.