Setting Intentions

So this week has been somewhat of a negative one and I have found myself in lots of situations where people (mostly at work) are venting to me and in meetings about stress and how crappy everything is.  Its not that I mind, it is kind of something I am used to because I pride myself on being a good listener and people do tend to come to me to talk.  The hard part of this is not picking up the same negative energy and living in it as well.  I try to set the intention of my day every morning with the idea of "It is going to be a good day and if it is not I am going to try to just make it through and find the bright spots in it."  This seems to work well for me but I have noticed that this week seems particularly dark and when my students and coworkers have been venting to me I can hear the venom in their voice.  It has been startling.  

So I finally made it to Friday and I am going to make sure that today is good. No matter what.  I allowed myself to sleep in an extra 25 minutes because my first class doesn't start till later in the morning, got up, remembered it is "spirit day" at work so I put on my ugly but oh so comfortable "Poudre Soccer" hoodie...yes the school I teach at is called Poudre (Poo-der)...it is French for powder..anyway, made my way to work on a nice fall morning and set my intention for the day and then remembered I have a meeting with a parent about a behavior contract.  Crap.  Oh well, it is part of the job and it went really well.  I treated myself to some more coffee, picked up some grading from one of my classrooms and on my way back to my office the student I had the behavior meeting with stopped me and gave me a giant piece of cheesecake from his cooking class.  It lit me up inside. He is probably just trying to butter me up but a part of me hopes he realizes I am only trying ot help him succeed.  So in all I feel that today is going to be good mostly because I am willing it to be.  I am sure I will have to redirect students who are being off task, I probably will get more fliers in my mailbox about how school funding is being cut for next year and I am sure once this extra coffee wears off I will probably be a little tired but in all it is going to be a good day.

So I hope you have a good day and I hope if you are having a craptastic day I hope you choose to see and recognize even the little itty bitty bright spots that are there.
Plus here is me with an emu... and emu!!!!