Look through the windshield more than the rear view mirror.

When you are driving a car, it’s important to look straight ahead through the windshield at the road. If you spent the entire time looking out the rear view mirror or even the side mirrors, you would have a bigger chance of getting in a wreck. Yes, you do need to look through those mirrors too, so there are no accidents, but your focus is straight ahead on the road.

When teaching, it is important to start each day fresh with each student. That includes the student who is tougher to handle. Don’t stay focused on what the student did wrong in previous days, (the rearview mirror), but work to carve out a new road ahead of you both, one that will bring success.

Have a great day and week-end. You are a difference maker.

Maryln

Why do you do it?

This is a big month for me. I am doing many talks across the U.S. I was doing a keynote in one city recently, and the people who brought me in to speak, asked me, “What made you get into this?” How does one explain the callings of your heart? I remember being a little girl growing up in a high poverty area, and I put together workshops to raise money for children crippled with polio. I got the neighborhood children to each do some kind of entertainment. I was the MC. We got all the parents and others in the neighborhood to come and they had to pay admission. I loved taking the money and putting it in an envelope to send off to help other children. I didn’t even think about the fact that I myself was poor and wore the same clothes to school every day because I had so few clothes.

Helping children has always been a part of my life. You who work with children, and you who are parents to children, you too are doing what you do for a purpose. I believe it is a higher purpose. It goes beyond money and paychecks to the heart. It is truly about making a difference for those children you reach.

Have a great day. You are a difference maker.

Maryln

Sometimes great gifts come in unexpected wrappings.

It was birthday time, and family and friends were gathered around Mrs. McCallah as she opened her presents. The gifts were all wrapped in beautiful wrapping paper, with fancy bows. There were big gifts wrapped up and small ones. One gift was wrapped in a plain brown paper lunch bag. When Mrs. McCallah opened that last gift, she found in it, only a small blank piece of pink paper. Little William, her young nephew, a child with special needs, said, “That’s from me. I hope you like it. I gave the paper “kisses” so anytime you want to feel good, you can just hold the paper to your cheek, and feel my kisses and how much I love you.”

The gift sure was not a fancy one, but when Mrs. McCallah unwrapped it, she found a gift to cherish forever. And it is the same with children. They come in all shapes and sizes and are all different. Some may not be very attractive with their behaviors or appearances on the outside, but each child has inside, some in deeper places than others, a gift to open.

Have a great day. You are a difference maker.

Maryln

Live your “first life” well.

On November 1st, when I went to visit my daughter at the cemetery, her final earth home, I said some prayers for her soul and then had a little talk with her. I told her how her children were doing. I talked about our family and our healing in the year since she went to her Eternal Home. And when I finished, I told her as I was tearfully walking away from her gravestone, “Tobi, your spirit lives on in each of us.”

I read a book recently that talks about two deaths. The first death is when one dies. The second death is when one who has passed away is forgotten. I believe it is important for us to never forget those who have gone before us. Each life has lessons to teach us. Those lessons become the second life of the one whose physical body has passed on. Every time we make ourselves in some way better because of those lessons we learned from our loved ones, that person’s soul lives on through us.

Many of you wrote on my blog about my last article about Tobi. You wanted to know more about what caused her passing. She battled Lupus for 20 years. She took medications that kept her alive but caused her bones to shatter and break. She had many surgeries and took many pain pills. She took so many pain pills that she had to join a support group to learn how to stop. She became an active member of that support group helping others who suffered those same battles to overcome them. Her body wore out, but her spirit did not. She had good days emotionally and she had days that were rougher, but her spirit was strong. The strong-willed child she was as a child became a strong-willed adult in her battle with illness. A friend gave her a small coffee table for her home the last month. She hit her foot on the table and got a staph infection. She was in the hospital for two more weeks, had another surgery, and then was sent home with IV antibiotics and a pump to remove the bacteria from her foot. She was getting better, and then her time had come. One morning, she did not wake up. When her husband found her, she had a smile on her face. She had gone home. She was at peace. Her first life was over. Now it was time for our family to heal so her second life could begin in the memories and hearts of all of us who loved her.

So my message to you today is to live “your first life” to the fullest. Give extra warmth and kindness to others, and never forget to take care of yourself too. Who you are, makes a difference.

With a caring heart to you wonderful difference makers.

Maryln

Learn how to swim.

One of the ironies of both parenting and teaching, is that both teachers and parents often go to others in similar situations to talk and get advice. The truth is that generally those people are “drowning” too. You can’t go to a drowning person to learn how to swim. Instead, turn to those who have the ability to do something you want to be able to do. Knowledge is power, so get great knowledge and info and watch the difference you will make as you “swim” the best you can swim.

Have a great day and week. You are a difference maker.

Maryln