Everyday is a Learning Day: Embracing Life’s Lessons and Joys in June 2024

Setting up this blog has been a learning experience! Maybe it is my age or maybe it is my lack of patience with following directions. I can hear myself telling my students to slow down and read through the directions again. So I finally took my own advice and now I am actually starting my first blog entry. Here we go!

It’s June 11th and the weather is surprisingly lovely. It is 76 degrees at noon and there is a gentle breeze occasionally. I can hear birds, neighbors working in their yards, cars on the busy back road which is on the opposite side of my house from the screened porch where I sit and I can’t forget the sounds of my husband who is working from home today. He is taking a lunch break and is now sitting on the porch with me as he enjoys his freshly prepared pork barbeque sandwich and I must admit that my stomach is now telling me that it is time for me to prepare some lunch as well.

First, let me explain the reason for my blog title. In June of 2023, one year ago, I was in Ireland with my parents and we were on a music tour of Irish guitar manufacturers. Our tour guide, a fine musician named Sean Kearns, was fond of saying at least two things everyday; “We’ll be there in about 5 minutes” and “Everyday is a learning day”. One of those statements was more accurate than the other. The phrase ‘Everyday is a learning day’ is now one of my favorite lines to share during those moments in life when I, or someone around me, experiences something new, like it or not! Here’s a picture of Sean singing and playing for us one evening after supper.

So the reason that I am home enjoying the beauty of this rare June day is because as an elementary public school teacher, I don’t work during the months of June and July.!!! That is, I don’t go into the school building and teach lessons to my students during these months. However, I have ordered several books which I will read and take that knowledge to improve my classroom management. Additionally, I have a 4 day music education conference to attend in the month of July. So, despite not being paid for these two months, I do find ways to keep learning and preparing for the coming school year.

I’m also sad to say that I have started learning about Leiomyosarcoma (Leo-my-oh-sarcoma). While I am not the one dealing with it in my body, it is causing me to suffer as I watch my husband learning to deal with the fact that the searing pain in his hip joint is actually a rare form of cancer. We just got the pathology report yesterday and are still trying to take daily steps in this journey while not getting too far into the future. Knowing with even more certainty that there is a finite number of days and that it just isn’t enough to do many of the things that we were hoping and planning for during our approaching retirement years, I feel a bit dumbfounded and a bit angry all at once. I feel a bit like that Kindergarten student feeling like it is unfair that they didn’t have a turn to play the drum in class. I do my best to remain hopeful that his pain can be reduced so he can get off of the medications that help him survive each day and hopeful that we can find something to be a ‘prize’ for when that day comes. I’m thinking of things like traveling to Germany or Ireland, but I will leave it to him to decide on the prize. I currently have doubts that we will ever be able to say that he is cancer free, but I am asking God for that anyway. In the mean time, I pray for him to be free from this pain.

So there is my first learning day post. I hope you will return and take this journey with me. Feel free to subscribe; though I don’t know why you would find any of this interesting, and feel free to share lovely and constructive comments.

Cheers!!