Dear colleague,
Because I publish blog posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I've had the privilege of writing you this note a time or two before.
I love Thanksgiving because I love the reminder to be thankful for things in life. I've spent some Thanksgivings surrounded by family, and I've spent more than one pretty much all alone. However you're spending the holiday today, my wish for you is that there's a moment or two today where the neon signs of the soul flash before your eyes and let you know that in good times and bad, there is beauty in this world and life.
When I started this blog in 2012, I had no idea just how big and wonderful our profession is. At that time, I was seven or so years into my career, and I was getting comfortable — too comfortable. So I decided to begin the writing journey that has brought me to this moment now.
Looking back, I smile most of all at the many of you I've been blessed to meet. Whether through correspondence or face-to-face, I want you to know that being with you on the journey is one of the greatest rewards of my career.
Teaching has always been a good endeavor. It is beautiful work. It is, day by day, a labor of love, which I mean literally. If we define love as the earnest seeking of our neighbor's good, then surely you and I do the work of love on a daily basis. It may not look like much to the watching world — a math problem, a writing warm-up, a thoughtful series of exercises in Phys Ed — but it is nonetheless something deeply and humanely good.
I wish you all the best this break, and I encourage you to take some quiet moments to just reflect on all the good your work has done, be it hidden or not, be it for decades or for days.
Best to you today, colleague,
DSJR
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