There are days that are really difficult to get up and to get excited about being a teacher. When those days come, I try with all my might to remind myself why my job matters and why I need to be present with my students. I first heard this poem while listening to Grace Eventually by Anne Lamott on CD. I was driving to school and she recited this poem as an introduction to one of the chapters and I must have replayed the poem three times before I got to school. I ran in to my room (I had a student teacher at the time) and began searching online for this poem. I found it, read it aloud, and then stabbed it onto the wall next to my desk with a thumbtack.

The bud does indeed stand for all things. I have a lot of students in my classroom everyday who are buds; who haven’t flowered, who don’t know how to flower, or who are terrified to flower, or who do everything possible to make sure that they don’t flower. My job is reteach those little buds their loveliness. To remind them that someone cares – that I care, and that they are worth it – over and over and over again. And hope that someday they’ll believe it too.

“Saint Francis and the Sow”