There is a family story that dates back over 40 years. My wife was teaching second grade in a rough and tumble neighborhood in the East Bronx, NY. The principal was a bit rigid. Although English was a second language for most of the students, she insisted that all the children always speak in complete sentences. The teachers were all told to focus on and emphasize that. Obviously, this was before FCATs.
A friend of my wife’s taught kindergarten and would practice each morning with her class to say, “Today is sunny, Today is Monday, Today is warm, etc.” as simple sentences. The teacher was showing a circus filmstrip one day (this was before VCRs or DVDs) when the Principal appeared unexpectedly. She asked the class what the boy in the film was eating? A boy quickly called out “ice cream.” The principal said, “Say it in a sentence.” He stood tall and smiled proudly and proclaimed in a booming voice, “Today is ice cream.” To this day there are times our family says that sentence as a joke.
This morning (4/16/09) I left my house at 8:30 A.M. and took in the brightly shining sun, cloudless blue sky, gentle breeze blowing through the trees and said, “Today is gorgeous. Today is ice cream. I am grateful to be alive.”
Despite whatever physical and /or emotional pains you are experiencing, I hope you can enjoy an “ice cream” day from time to time. Feeling grateful for what we have is a powerful salve to help heal the wounds resulting from what we lost.
Bye For Now,
Bill
www.williampenzerphd.com
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Recently my daughter who is busy nurse administrator in a local hosptial cardiac catheritization unit asked me to pick up my grandson from school. I always enjoy the opportunity to spend some time with my grandson, and usually I take him to Target and let him pick out a special game or toy. "Grandma is on a strict budget" I told him "what can we do other than go to Target" I asked. He said, "I know, we can get ice cream". So we spent our time having ice cream and talking about the book fair at his school.
ReplyDeleteWhen I dropped him off to my daughter, she asked us what did we do for the afternoon. My Grandson commented "we had the best ice cream ever, Mom maybe you need some after your hard day at work, you'll feel better".
Hooray for ice cream days!!!!