What the World Needs Now…

This week, I’m thinking a lot about love.  First, because it’s February, and Valentine’s Day leads us all to think a little more deeply about love, but also because February has a special meaning to me.  My beloved Grandpa Charlie was born on February 9^th,  my husband and I were married on February 10^th, and my mother was born on February 25^th.  Mom died ten years ago and would have been 102 this year.  Though both my grandfather and mother are no longer with me, their love remains.  Their love keeps me going.  There isn’t a day that goes by in which I don’t think about them; their love comes back to me in so many ways.

My husband and I celebrated our 39^th wedding anniversary this weekend.  As we get older, we both are more reflective about how lucky we were to have find each other. Love is indeed wise. I am so glad to have met a man who is a deep thinker, a kind spirit, and someone who loves to laugh.  It is the everyday laughter and joy that has shined through our marriage, especially in the rough spots.  I am so very grateful to have found a partner who I can trust completely.

I am also very lucky to has chosen a career that I love.  I have been teaching for 45 years. I don’t want to stop!  People ask me when I’m going to retire, and I feel a lump in my throat.  I must retire?  I must stop doing what I love?  Never! I love sharing my days with children.  Their sweet curiosity makes every day a new adventure.  Of course, the children don’t always listen; of course, they are sometimes loud and unreasonable, but that intrigues me too.  I enjoy watching them learn, and grow, and prove to people who doubt them that they can, in fact, do anything they set their minds to.  Recently, a second-grade student was having trouble paying attention, and I helped her to calm her body and listen quietly.  The next day, when I walked into her classroom, she gave me the biggest hug.  That hug stayed with me the entire day.  I read an article recently that concurred with my immediate feeling of well-being from that little hug. Research has shown that hugs can improve your immune system.  Well, that’s enough for me!  Imagine if schools and nursing homes made it a daily habit to give one hug to each child and senior on a daily basis.  Certainly, the world would be a happier and healthier place.

25 Books about LOVE:

• All the Places to Love by Patricia McLachlan
• Bigger than a Bumblebee by Joseph Kuefler
• Consider Love by Sandra Boynton
• Friends are Friends Forever by Dane Liu
• Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
• Help Me Be Me: A Children’s Picture Book About Self-Love and Inclusion by Samantha Reynolds
• How Do You Say I Love You? By Hannah Elliott
• Hug Machine by Scott Campbell
• I am Love: A Book of Compassion by Susan Verde
• I Heart You by Meg Fleming
• Love by Matt De La Pena
• Love Grows Everywhere by Barry Timms and Tisha Lee
• Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
• Love is Powerful by Heather Dean Brewer
• Love is NOT a Valentine by Carter Higgins
• Love From the Crayons by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
• Love, Z by Jessie Sima
• Loved to Bits by Teresa Heapy and Katie Cleminson
• Loving Hands by Tony Johnson
• My Heart by Corinna Luyken
• Robot in Love by T.L. McBeth
• The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers
• The Love Letter by Anika Aldamuy Denise
• What Do You Love About You?  By Karen Lechett
• Wherever You Are My Love Will Find You by Nancy Tillman