"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echos are endless."...Mother Teresa
This morning, I got a head start on practising one of my Happiness Project's resolutions - practising patience. My son's special needs bus (which I also ride as a travel assistant) was one hour late arriving. My abilities in this area were definitely tested, but my patience was later rewarded by the kindness of my son's teaching assistant. When we finally arrived at school, not only was my son greeted with the warmest, most welcoming smile, but he also said that he had just called our house to offer to come and pick us up with his car, just so he would not miss school! He deserves a medal for going above and beyond what is normally expected from a teaching assistant. He is one of those fortunate individuals who finds his job so meaningful and rewarding that he wouldn't want to miss a single day of it. And we too are very fortunate, as my son is a direct beneficiary of the pride and dedication he applies to his work each day.
There is a definite correlation between happiness and being able to perceive how one makes a living as a vocation or a calling, rather than simply a job or work. When we believe our work to be meaningful, we will reach a heightened sense of gratification and fulfillment, and will not only perform better and be happier ourselves, but that happiness will spread to others we interact with throughout our day.
Last week was parent-teacher interview day in our community. A few years ago, a time when I would consider myself much less positive than I am now, I would arrive at the interview with my son's education plan in hand and several questions (perhaps criticisms or nit-picking may be better words to describe) ready to discuss. In other words, I used to arrive more on the negative side than the positive side. Since I have lightly created a mindset of being positive, I can now arrive at these meetings with an open heart and mind. Because of this change, I notice more, I see clearer and this helps me focus on the "big picture". I am better able to plan ahead and creatively help come up with new ideas about what we might do next. I believe this change to a more positive attitude has also made me trust the school system better and appreciate and value the hard work of the teachers. Our meeting went beautifully because of the positive emotions we both were feeling towards my son, the class, the program and each other.
Something very special that my son's teacher shared with me is that his class is hard at work learning a special song for the annual ASD Showcase of Talent. My son even has a solo part to sing and I'm told he has a beautiful voice!! Now, hearing a comment like that is music to my ears! He has also been putting together a special slide show presentation that will be shared during the solo instrumental part of the song. I cannot wait for the show because it's also one of my all time favourite songs "Lean On Me". Hearing his teacher talk about how well the rehearsals have been going simply melts my heart!
My video today is of course "Lean On Me", the original version by Bill Withers. The lyrics are beautiful, it's about true friendship. Of course I know there will not be a dry eye in the house when their school version is performed next spring. Enjoy!
Have a positively wonderful week everybody!
Cheers!
Linda
