Once I was
known as “Preacher Teacher”. Not so sure
if it applies. I haven’t blogged in a
year. Guess I had nothing to say that
seemed profound. I have been retired for
2 years, and I thought my life would have gone on different path. I imagined so many positive changes that have
not occurred. I have since learned that
we are responsible for our own destiny.
At least we are most of the time by the choices we make. Other times possibilities are given to us and
we have no choice.
I chose to
retire from the teaching profession 2 years ago. My time had come to move on. Sorry for the cliché. I would have stayed for the kids, but not for
some of the parents or the administration.
The administration was starting to look at me as being “out of touch”, a
bit “old fashioned”, and oh yes, overpaid.
I loved my
job of being an AIS Math teacher. That
meant that I got all the students who didn’t score well on the NYS Math
Assessment. I was to be a resource for
them to get back on the straight and narrow path to righteous math. I did my job diligently for 6 years with what
I saw as a great success. Not success
for me as a teacher, but success for my students as they learned to navigate
the math labyrinth. As Oprah would say,
I lived for the “Ah Ha moments” that many of my students had. One young lady, who forever will be etched in
my mind, came running into my room after being with me for about six
months. She announced that it was the
first time she had ever received a 100% on a math test. What an achievement!!!
That’s all
in the past now. I’ve fallen into a new
routine. I exercise in the gym 4 days a
week for 6 hours. Helping out at Green
Chimneys once a week in the Equestrian barn is one of my joys. It’s true when they say the horses know
things. They know when we are upset or
sad and they respond in their own way.
The horses I work with are used for therapy with students who have
severe learning problems that run the spectrum of alphabet soup from ADHD to
PDD to various levels of Autism and onward.
What we all have in common is our love of horses. I think they are therapy for me too.
The horses
are ones that have been rescued from abusive situations or donated by various
individuals. The children learn to
identify with the myriad of personalities displayed by the animals and see that
they are not so different from us. They
learn to care for the needs of the horses and to also care for their own needs
– a symbiotic relationship develops.
What once was looked at as abnormal, now takes on the look of
normalcy. This also extends to the other
farm animals housed on the property and the rescued wild animal as well.
My life has
taken a turn in the road here. Think of
it as the “road not taken”. Thank you to
Robert Frost. In a routine physical it
was discovered that I was anemic. This
discovery has snowballed into a diagnosis of multiple myeloma or bone marrow
cancer. The dreaded “C” word rears its
ugly head. The thought now is, “How does
this fit into my plans.” I‘ve had to
endure several unpleasant procedures,
such as, a bone marrow biopsy and a fat pad biopsy (the most egregious of the
two). Now I await the verdict. How will it change my life?
My wish has
been to travel. We just came back from
an amazing trip to Alaska and the Yukon wilderness. We saw some spectacular scenery and were
privileged to see amazing wildlife. The
people we met on our journey will live in our hearts forever along with lessons
learned. We spent time in Curacao and
the Sea Aquarium (animals again). We’ve
just come back from the Mayan Riviera and Playa del Carmine. The life journey continues however short or
long is of no consequence. We simply go
on – day by day.
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