Nothing at All About Pregnancy

This has been a hard week.  The tragedy at Sandy Hook elementary school on Friday left me--and our entire country--more shaken than we probably even realized.  It left me contemplating anger and pain and hatred and where it all comes from.

Sometimes I get really overwhelmed by sadness in the world.  Why do bad things happen to innocent people?  Why is it easy to remember people who have hurt us and harder to remember those who've made us smile?  How is it that we can somehow forget each other's humanity and make blanket statements of anger towards an entire group of people?

I work in a junior high and this time of year can be tough.  The students (and teachers) are tired and ready for winter break, and there's something in the air--it happens every year and I'm sure someone could explain exactly what it is but I have no idea--that makes everyone tense.  The students are meaner to one other...apathy is passed around like a cold.  So, in light of all of this, I decided to show my students the documentary "Happy," in hopes of leaving for winter break with an uplifting message about where we can find happiness in the world.

Of course, the problem is that I'm sitting there watching this documentary and there's this scene where these toddlers in Okinawa, Japan are running a race, just for fun.  They round a corner and run towards their families who cheer for them and help the tired ones cross the finish line.  I look at their faces, think of Miles, think of how beautiful and perfect and innocent they are and I can barely stop myself from crying.  I don't want them to experience pain.  I don't want Miles to know how it feels to be nervous that someone will make fun of him.  I don't want him to know what it feels like to hurt another person.  I just want them to be...well, happy.

I know I can't protect Miles, or any child, from the pain that comes in life.  But one really beautiful message from the film is that in searching for our own happiness we all can make a contribution to making the world a better place.  Studies cited in the film demonstrate that a connectedness to the people and community around us, through making time for friends and family, and giving and helping in any way we can, are key factors in our own happiness.  And that if we practice happiness--and what an idea that experiencing happiness can be practiced and strengthened!--we improve not only ourselves but the world around us.

There are hard days...hard weeks...hard times.  So this is my prayer, sent out into the stratosphere: that each of us finds ways to practice and strengthen our own happiness, to connect ourselves to others and the world around us, and to find love in unlikely places, so that we can have the support within and around us to lift us up in those difficult moments.

xo