"Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep"

“When I am worried and cannot sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings”

As I lay tossing and turning the other night, unable to sleep, these song lyrics came unbidden (I hadn’t thought of this particular song from the movie White Christmas in years) and
lodged themselves in my.  It’s funny, because the words are oddly perfect. 

The fact of the matter is, I am insanely blessed and have had such an incredible stay at home this holiday season.  So when I lay in bed unable to sleep (who knows why, but this is indeed a problem I’ve been having for the past week or so), I really do find myself counting my blessings.  And there are so many of them.

On this stint home, I’ve been blessed to reconnect with old friends—hours spent sitting over a table or on a couch, saying all the things that didn’t get said via Facebook messenger or Snapchat over the last few months…or years.  I deepened relationships with people, made connections, rekindled friendships. 

A week ago on Christmas Day, I found myself earnestly thinking that I had no desire to go back to Guatemala, that I just wanted to stay here with family and old friends forever.  I confess—that thought worried me.   Since I started my international stint, I have always found myself excited to go home to family each Christmas and summer, but by the end of the visit, equally excited to hop on a plane and return to work.  I feel like if that ever changes—if I either don’t want to come home or don’t want to go back—it will signal that a change needs to be made in my life.  And since I committed to one more year in Guatemala, if I’m feeling more like Wisconsin is where I should be, that’s not really a good thing.  Fortunately though, as my departure date neared and I look at getting on a plane tomorrow, I am ready, if not excited, to go back, see my friends there, and create new adventures this spring. 


So tonight, when my mind is abuzz with the prospect of travel and unable to turn off, I will count my blessings instead of sheep.  I’ll remember this feeling of being encased in a bubble of happiness that I have had for the past two weeks.  I’ll think of the people who are important to me.  There are so many; I’m not likely to run out before morning comes.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cambodia: Reflections and Highlights

Image
I was really excited to visit Cambodia for a few days and hit up Angkor Wat and the other temples in the area.  Cambodia felt like my kind of adventure--and I can’t even really say why.  But I was excited.  I was excited for our hotel there--a full-out boutique hotel (not a hostel), with AC, a swimming pool, breakfast included, and airport pick-up for free--which cost us a scant $20 per night.  And we’d read about a lot of great tours we could take with local guides.  Flying in and flying out, this leg of the trip would be a breeze, and hopefully everything would be as cheap as the hotel.   The Mango Rain Boutique Hotel Our flight to Cambodia was unlike any other I’ve ever been on.  There were only about 20 of us on the flight--which would not have been strange, except it was, because we were on a full-size plane that could have seated 200.  The 20 of us were mostly grouped together towards the back of the plane.  Second impressive t...
Read more

DI Globals 2016: A Tale of Two Teams

Image
For the past 3 years, I have acted as a team manager for Destination Imagination at my school in Guatemala, and each year, my team has earned a trip to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.  This school year, I was blessed to manage the exact same team I had last year—the Aguaguates, the most wonderful group of kids any DI team manager could wish for.  This group, all 7 th graders this year, has everything needed to not only excel at DI, but also make a team manager’s job almost unnecessary.  They have amazing team chemistry, and they understand the importance of teamwork.  They’re crazy creative and hilarious and amazing actors when they get on stage.  They push themselves to improve their performances.  They know what they need to get done for DI, and they create their own practice schedules.  In short, they are a DI dream team, not to mention really, really great people .  This year though, I took one look at the school calendar and deci...
Read more

Yearly Update: The Journey to 30

Image
Over a year has passed since my last “update.”  And the year I was 29, despite the fact that I lived close to home rather than abroad, was anything but boring, so there’s no real reason for the lack of blog posts.   The year I was 29, I survived what may have been my most difficult year of teaching yet.  Many overseas teachers say, “Teaching in the States is so much different than teaching abroad.  You’ll see.  That’s why I went overseas; I’d never go back to teaching in the States.  It’s just...too much.”  Well, they’re not wrong.  I admit, I thought that with five years teaching experience under my belt, my first year in the US, my first year at the high school level, would go rather smoothly.  While in a sense it did (no concerns about the quality of my work from administration or complaints from parents), it was mentally and emotionally very taxing.  Even this year, my 2nd back in the States, I’m still adjusting to and coming t...
Read more