By Joe Mazzella
I was a young father struggling just to earn enough to feed my family. I had gone back to college to earn a teaching degree hoping that it would help me to land a better paying job. All of the full time teaching positions were filled, however, so I found myself on the substitute list, waiting each day for the phone to ring telling me where I’d be working that day, if at all. I’d teach history one day, high school english the next, and kindergarten the day after that.
Now it was near the end of the school year and I worried how we would get by with not even substitute work for the next three months. I was even starting to question if teaching was the right career for me. I stood sadly outside on the playground while the children ran and played during recess. I wished I could share in their childlike joy but I was weighed down with the pains and problems of adulthood. Just before the bell rang to go back inside a little girl no more than 5 ran up to me and handed me some dandelions that she had picked in the field at the edge of the playground. I looked down at her and thanked her for her gift. Then when the bell rang I took her hand and walked with her back inside. I noticed something too. My heart no longer felt heavy. My worries seemed far away. And my spirit felt light and joyful. Thanks to her loving gift my face was smiling and so was my soul.
I quit working in schools decades ago, but I still teach. That sweet, little girl taught me that day that we are all teachers. We are teachers in everything we say and in everything we do. And the best teacher of all is an act of kindness and a loving heart. I wish I knew where that little girl was right now. I would thank her again for that gift of dandelions. I would thank her for allowing me to feel God’s Love shine through her kindness and joy that day. I would thank her for reminding me that the most important thing in life is the Love we give away.
