Gratitude.

I know it's not, like, Thanksgiving or anything....but I wanted to reflect on gratitude. In my (awesome, inspiring, fun, intellectual) Spanish classes, we are reading this (awesome, inspiring, fun, intellectual) novel called Mi Propio Auto. It's about this kid who grows up in California (!) and goes on a trip to El Salvador (!) and learns what a "good life" really is - not material stuff, but family, relationships, a house, food, etc. I have been trying to teach my kids about the dichotomy (is that the right word? well...I used it anyway) of living a life of affluence and yet being thankful for the things we already have. Also - every Wednesday morning I have the privilege of team- teaching a social justice course to 20 high school kids (all of whom will be going to Jackson with me in three-ish weeks!) In our class we talk about oppression, righteousness, justice, and shalom. Today in class we played a simulation game with jelly beans where the kids started with a certain number of beans, played paper-rock-scissors with other members, and if they lost, had to give up a bean. If you lost your last bean, you became a bean holder. You had the choice of reinstating your bean holder if you wanted - but none did. The point was to simulate our economic society and how we are all consumers, and when we run out of money, we often become "slaves" to those that have more money. In the second round of the game students received "badges" indicating where they were on the economic scale - either a star, triangle, or rectangle. My "team teachers" and I came up with it - after we watched The Story of Stuff (google it!) Anyway...tt created for some interesting classroom dynamics, and I am excited to read their reflection papers next week. So...... back to the point - teaching about gratitude - here's my gratitude list for today:

I am grateful for:
1) The Jackson team
2) My small group
3) Chai Tea Lattes
4) Skits in Spanish class
5) Pictures of my niece (is that how you spell niece? neice? who knows this...?)
6) Healthy babies (and moms!)
7) Stories of God's faithfulness to encourage my walk
8) Satisfying work
9) Chocolate-covered espresso beans
10) Samantha - one of my students who works so hard in class and tries to have a conversation in Spanish with me EVERY day. Today she asked how I was, I told her I was good, it was such a beautiful day outside, she agreed, I asked if she was going to the beach after school, she said no, we both agreed we should just ditch school the rest of the day and go to the beach - wait - probably shouldn't do that....

And that is all for now. Maybe you (whoever "you" are) should write your own list - once you get going, you might not stop!