The Pause
I meet her as she is storming into the office. "I need to rest tomorrow," she tells Gabe. "Is that possible?" He says yes, as we try to always do, in these situations. "Why do you need rest?" I tease, "Spring Break was 2 1/2 weeks ago."
She's firm. "This does happen with humans, Jen." And I know it's serious. Very serious. So, I call later that evening to understand what happened and I hear the story.
She's been giving lessons on The Parts of a Flower and The Song of Flowers (a beautiful story about how flowers attract pollinators). Each time, she uses one of the hundreds of daffodils from the raised beds, just outside their room. She selects ones that are browning a bit or have some imperfection, so the beautiful ones still adorn their outdoor environment. She shows this technique to the children. Look for the blemish. Cut just one. We only cut them for work.
This day, she is ready to show another child the lesson and takes the child to the raised bed, with scissors. What does she find?
Hundreds of stems, but not one flower remaining.
The distress in her voice is evident. The sadness for the loss of life. The stress that comes with the need to maintain belief in the inherent goodness of children, while knowing that one child (at least) has committed this atrocity RIGHT AFTER the lesson about how important the flowers are.
Later, she sees the flowers surrounding a table and two children working very hard to get pollen from one flower, directly into the pistil of another flower. They tell her they are making more flowers.
She was changed.
***
I was changed. This guide was broken when she came into the office, but she wasn't going to let that brokenness affect her work with the children. She reminded me of so much that we need to practice in our work with the children:
Are we allowing a pause for alternatives to our own narratives?
Are we allowing room for goodness, when our vision is blocked with the naughtiness of their behavior?
Are we firm in our certainty that children and adolescents act with the best intentions, given the information they have in the moment?
Are we asking for breaks when we can't do these things?