In the midst of being sick, there was still so much joy

So I have been pretty sick since I got home from Chicago on Sunday. It started out as just a sore throat and a cough and has progressed into a fever, migraine, chest congestion and worse sore throat/cough, along with an upset stomach. I have barely eaten anything, which definitely is a sign I am sick! It has been hard to focus at work and after an extremely exhausting Wednesday, my boss called this morning to see how I was, and we both decided that just grabbing my stuff from work and heading back home was the best thing to do. So I worked a little this afternoon, and slept a lot as well. I am feeling a little better but we will see what tomorrow brings. I am supposed to go camping tomorrow-sunday morning and I REALLY want to go, but I can't if I am still sick like this.

Oh a more joyful note...I have some sweet things to share from work. First off here are some reflections on the Mandala's our kids made in art class. Here is some background on Mandala's + some reflections from the kids:)

Mandala simply means a circle. They are ancient symbols representing the whole world or the life cycle and first appeared in Asia. Celtic Spirals also represent the whole world or the life cycle and appeared all over Europe beginning around the 5th century BC. Some believe that both symbols represent the movement of the spirit through different experiences: spinning into the center of the world and then catapulting out again to journey on a different path.

These are some of the things the kids said about the knots:

“The knots represent love, passion, loyalty and tender care.” 11 year old boy

“Think about it – the knotted dragons represent the 2 sides of each of us. We may be tangled up in knots and ugly on the outside, but beautiful on the inside. And every body has a heart.” 14 year old boy.

“We may have things that hold us back, but we are still beautiful” 15 year old girl

When we were working on the paintings one of my students said they were all like the Circle of Courage (our model for our agency, it is adapted from a Native American child rearing practice, you can see more on our website)

This is how she explained it:

Belonging – because we worked on them together.

Mastery – because we finished all of them.

Independence – because we came up with our own ideas.

Generosity – because we are giving them to put up on campus so everyone can see them.

I just love the things they say:) Also our chapel service last night went great, our theme was, "Take a walk in someone else's shoes"...I will write more on that later!