Aidan was learning about fragments the other day and read this description out loud, “Fragments are pieces of sentences that have become disconnected from the main clause.” This is how I am feeling about our current state of affairs with families, colleagues and neighbors in such a state of divide...we are so to speak, totally fragmented. We have become so rooted in our own experiences we are having a hard time seeing things from another’s perspective. One thing that connects us all as human beings is the universal desire to want and feel good’...not feel scared, not feel stressed, not feel sick, not feel bad...just to feel good.
What we are doing in our own lives today is having major impact on all of our futures. This energy we are creating now will be felt for future generations. We are all part of this great big, beautiful sentence that needs one another to come together in a cohesive manner to effectively
communicate our ‘main clause’ and right now that is to ‘feel good’, and not bad-no matter what your beliefs are.
So as we stand on the brink of the entire world feeling vulnerable, scared, and stressed, I find myself searching for solutions on what I can do as one individual to help us come together, reconnect and feel good. I will continue to write/post positive, hopeful, and honest content that is rooted in empowering our children and ourselves with positive conflict resolution skills. I will put extra effort into spreading the word about my social and emotional learning programs that help unite children, families and educators with tools and skills to positively identify, communicate and navigate big emotions.
When I am with my family, friends and colleagues I will try my best to ‘respond’ to uncomfortable encounters when they occur instead of ‘reacting’, knowing that the energy I create effects all of those around me. I will be accepting of others opinions even if we see things differently. I will continue to teach my children to be accepting and including of all human beings, no matter what...because the truth is, at the end of the day, if we all use what we learned from today, together we can make tomorrow a brighter place.
~Shanna Truffini