Tag Archives: optimism

FINDING YOUR FOOTING

ON SHAKY GROUND…

“This has been a year of many things, but above all, it has been a year of fear.

And now that flu season has re-entered the scene, COVID case counts are climbing with a vengeance.

Fear.

Last week, I sent dozens and dozens of students home due to contact tracing on positive cases.

Fear.

Then, a fellow teacher and friend tested positive. Someone I had most definitely been within six feet of. And I developed a cough and a sore throat.

Fear.

So what do you do when you’ve been hit from all sides? When your plans can’t possibly keep up with the ever-changing and increasingly-unpleasant circumstances of the day, hour, or even minute?”

Continue reading: https://cainspirations.blog/2020/11/19/finding-your-footing

WINNING THE WAIT

WHEN IT’S FELT LIKE FOREVER…

“Answers just aren’t coming very easily this year.

Whether it’s a COVID test or a national election, no one seems to know what to tell us or what to prepare for.

So when we find ourselves once again in the same waiting game we’ve already been playing for what feels like a few million eternities now, how can we possibly pull out a win?

How can we do anything but pull out what little hair we have left and chalk it up to the year’s ever-unfolding pit of problems?”

Continue reading: https://cainspirations.blog/2020/11/05/winning-the-wait

STEERING YOUR COURSE

IN STORMY SEAS…

“Sometimes it’s just not smooth sailing.

And for many of us, it rarely is.

So how do we know what to do when we hit rough waters? Where to point our sails when they’re already battered and torn?

For many of us, it’s a matter of simply not knowing how to gauge which direction is the right one. And even more terrifying: the wrong one.”

Continue reading: https://cainspirations.blog/2020/10/15/steering-your-course

BREAKING DOWN WALLS

DESPITE THEIR PERSISTENCE…

“This world can make us feel boxed in at times, let alone the giant box of a pandemic time.

But even before the plague of 2020 hit, we have all faced circumstances and trials that made us feel repressed, misunderstood, and even forsaken.

Walls that closed us in no matter how hard we tried to move them.

I recently had the privilege of meeting the Newberry-award-winning author of one of my newest favorite books, Paperboy.

In this courageously honest and inspiring story, Vawter reveals a personal wall through the eyes of his eleven-year-old self: a stutter that was once so severe that for years single letter sounds tripped him up on a regular basis…”

Continue reading: https://cainspirations.blog/2020/10/03/breaking-down-walls

THE POWER OF ONE

WHEN OTHER DOORS CLOSE…

“Has it ever felt like more doors are closing for you than opening? How about a year of the whole world shutting down and shutting you out – or in?

More than ever before for so many of us, this year has made it all too easy to feel like the world is closing in around you.

Leaving you stuck waiting for an answer, an escape – waiting just to breathe.

But as we continue to wade through difficult and uncharted waters, I’ve found that it is incredibly helpful to look back on the straits already crossed and the battles already won…”

Continue reading: https://cainspirations.blog/2020/09/17/the-power-of-one

CONTENDING WITH WOLVES

BUT VICTORY IS POSSIBLE!

“Have you ever had one of those days? Or weeks? Or the year 2020?

I think it is safe to say that more than most years, we have all been finding ourselves in that messy place of struggle…”

Continue reading: https://cainspirations.blog/2020/09/03/contending-with-wolves