Gratitude journal: The ticking of the clock
/I find myself struggling to find gratitude this evening.
I left the house at 6:30 this morning and returned at 8:00 this evening, thanks to a day of teaching followed by a series of parent-teacher conferences. As a result, I spent about 90 seconds with my daughter today, who was already in her crib and nearly asleep when I finally returned home.
I can’t tell you how upsetting this is to me.
And I get to do it again tomorrow.
And I already did it yesterday.
Nevertheless, there were things to be grateful about today.
- My conferences went very well.
- My students worked very hard throughout the school day.
- One of my colleagues is keenly aware of the number of hours that a classroom teacher works during the week of parent-teacher conferences and has done her very best to ease our burden throughout the week, including today. I can’t tell you how much this means to classroom teachers. For this alone I should be supremely grateful.
- I received great news from my agent regarding sales of my new book in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
- My audiobook publisher sent the audio recording of the first two chapters of my new book, and I loved it.
In truth, there was much to be grateful for today, but the almost complete absence of my daughter looms large over everything else.
So I try to find gratitude for all the good things that have taken place today, but instead, I find myself grateful for every minute that ticks off the clock, for each minute that passes brings me closer to the moment when I can pluck my daughter from her crib and squeeze her again.