LeChaim....To LIFE!

When my children are over I feel such a sense of peace that I easily fall asleep v staying up all night reading and writing. I woke up at 230 this morning as a result giving me extra time to not only read the comments from yesterday's blog, Return to Innocence, but to respond to each one.

With each response I appreciated those who commented even more and felt more and more filled with life.....A SINCERE thank you to each one of you.....And this morning's blog is a result of your inspiration.

When I left business I took a pay cut to teach. Recently I have turned down opportunities to leave teaching and make several times more than I ever had in business, which at one point was @$10,000/month.

Money comes and goes.....But so do children

I have been blessed with an incredibly loving heart....And with each hardship it seems to only grow stronger.......And if I'm good enough now I'll be good enough later. There is nothing wrong with making lots of money........But not at the expense of missing my children's childhoods....I will not shortchange my children for my 15 minutes of fame.

And although I don't get paid a lot for it, I am truly grateful I get paid at all to do something I would do for free......Connecting to the human mind and spirit of each student every day....and working together to help them develop into unstoppable giants in their own lives...making the world richer and fuller, more loving and powerful in the process.

Instead of fame and fortune I have chosen to dedicate my energy and talents to the rise of the human spirit of all those around me. Wherever I go people seem to be happier and smiling when I leave, especially when my children are with me (the synergy of love flowing between us must be visible).

And it's also because I focus on giving to others v taking (i.e. taking away their sense of importance by consciously or unconsciously thinking I am better, richer, smarter, stronger, etc).

Instead of impressing others I want to be impressed by them, and/or impress upon them how much I appreciate what they've done or what they are capable of doing. During Spring Break last year I spent 10 minutes with the school superintendent and then 60 minutes with Santa Dave, listening to both tell me what they thought of the current state of education.

(Santa Dave got his name last Christmas. As I picked up Sofia from her mother's Christmas Day I thought how sad it was that my five-year-old daughter left one parent on Christmas to spend time with the other.

I didn't have any of my kids on Thanksgiving so Shanghai and I spent the holiday with Dave and Paul in the park. I turned a very sad holiday for me into a very pleasant one. To turn Christmas from being sad for her to really happy I thought of us giving a present to Dave and Paul and told Sofia to look out the window for them. She said, "You mean the guy with the beard like Santa Claus? Is he Santa, Daddy?"

It was such a wonderful experience for her that she asked if we could give a present to Ms. Elizabeth, the lady that walks past our home going to and from work. She loves doing word searches so we bought one from the 7-11 and went to her house. What a wonderful way to turn a kinda sad Christmas into a very happy holiday.)

The present can always be made more pleasant....if you have the presence of mind and power of heart to do it.

Dave is VERY bright and observant, spending all day in the library reading and watching how kids and teachers act going in and out of schools. I am not less important than the superintendent because I am only a teacher. And I'm not more important than Dave because I have a home. I am simply me, with my strengths and weaknesses, beauty marks and blemishes, determined to be the best me I can be.

There is always something for us to learn from and give to everyone we meet.....A wonderful synergy between human beings making this world MORE, not less.

With each response to yesterday's blog I kept hearing "To Life!" from Fiddler on the Roof. I'm going to wake up my kids with this clip and the smell of bacon. Thank you my friends for the inspiration.

Be sure to watch Tevye's face at the very end. That is me, and I am so glad that I am this full of life. Even the hardships and experiences that have knocked me down I have let soak into me and fill me with even more conviction, confidence, love and strength as I rise time after time.

Experiences are not bad if you become more by them...I tell my kids it's OK to feel angry, sad, happy and elated. Life is feeling. And the deeper you feel the more powerful you become, when those emotions are guided to greater forms of thinking, dreaming, loving and doing.

The more you feel the more you feel who you really are...and how much you can become......Which is truly unstoppable!

Life is meant to be tasted on your lips, felt all over your body, and experienced with a fully open heart and mind.

So here's to Life.....LeChaim........Drink it Up!