heathercphipps Happiness, Positivity, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized, Work

See the Whole Board

Let me start with a helpful Public Service Announcement. If you have not seen The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, do nothing else until you start it.

There are few things that bring me as much joy as incredibly well done television. The writing, the acting, the gut punches and the heart warming is a great way to spend some time.

While we are at it, if you have not found a way to watch A West Wing Reunion on HBO Max, make it happen.

If you were a West Wing fan.

Which most of you were not.

Something I will never understand. It was the single best piece of television ever created, and while it won every award every year and was critically acclaimed, it never had a huge following.

But I digress.

Both the amazingly successful Netflix show and the perfectly chosen remake on HBO Max focus on chess.

See the whole board.

You can’t win a chess game without seeing the whole board. Your moves. Your opponent’s moves. The best players know what’s coming long before a move is made.

I am not an observant person. More times than I should admit, I have tried to get in to the wrong car.

But I know how critical it is to my work and to my happiness that I can see the whole board. Vision is about seeing a picture beyond what things are now to what they could be.

It is safe to say that people are not living the life they wish they could right now. Travel and gatherings are limited. Thanksgiving was different. School is different. Everything is different.

But see the whole board.

We wear a mask and keep our distance so things can be better tomorrow. We sacrifice a pawn today, so we can find checkmate in 6, 7, 11 moves.

I am not good at chess…yet. But I am learning to see the whole board.

 

heathercphipps Gratitude, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized

Complicated Gratitude

There is never really a question about what to write for Thanksgiving Week. Thanks is in the very name of the holiday. We pause to eat ridiculous amounts of food and to say thank you.

Gratitude matters. We know this. We know that we are more positive and more productive and have less anxiety when we focus on being grateful.

We know that gratitude calms us and centers us.

This year is no different. Gratitude is as important, maybe more important, than in any other year.

And I intend to be grateful this week.

I am grateful I get to enjoy a delicious meal. I don’t need to focus on the fact that it won’t be with all of the people who are normally here.

I am grateful for the work I get to do. It’s a blessing to serve students and schools. I don’t need to focus on the strangeness of this school year.

I am grateful for my friends and my family. Six feet does not change a single bit of the love we share. A mask does not hide the smile in our eyes, and a screen cannot hide the joy in our voices. I don’t need to focus on the mask or the screen. I need to focus on the people.

I’m grateful for vitamin D and cool breezes and orange and rust colored leaves.

I’m grateful for Airhead Extreme Bites and SweeTart Ropes.

I’m grateful for pumpkin pie blizzards.

It’s 2020. Everything is complicated. But maybe not as complicated as I keep making it.

This week there will be turkey and stuffing and King’s Hawaiian Rolls.

It won’t look like any other year, but I learned a long time ago that every day is a gift not granted to everyone. And I am grateful for all of them!

Gobble! Gobble!

heathercphipps Gratitude, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized

Grateful This Week…and Every Week

This week is Thanksgiving. I have no doubt that most of you will take time to pause and reflect and give thanks for the many blessings in your life.  It’s good to do that.

This week our students will surely be reading books and writing essays about thankfulness.  They will trace their hands to make turkeys and sing the same songs we sang as children.  They will have that once a year treat that is the Thanksgiving school lunch.  (No, I am not being sarcastic.  Many of us look forward to that school lunch all year.)

There will be turkey and stuffing and football and time with family and friends.  And there will undoubtedly be moments of gratitude.

But what about next week and the week after and the week after?

Every day we have the opportunity to choose gratitude and to model for others that despite anything that might be happening in our lives or in our world, we can choose to be grateful.  It’s an important lesson that I hope we are passing along to the young people in our lives.  It’s an important lesson that I hope we are sharing with our friends and family.  Gratitude is not something we should embrace in only the happy moments of our lives.  Gratitude is something that actually helps create the happy moments in our lives.  A joyful heart begets a joyful heart.

I am feeling especially grateful this week.  I live in an amazing, supportive community that comes together to do good things for children.  I work with an incredible team of people who focus tirelessly on the right things.  And I have friends and family who nurture me and support me in all that I do.

I have those things every week…not just this week.

My wish for you this Thanksgiving is to truly embrace the week and whatever it has in store for you.  I wish you food and fun and a little time away to relax.  And I wish for you a joyful heart that recognizes we have so much for which to be grateful in every week.