March's in like a LION! COURAGE!

 March: Courage
Courage is the ability to do something that frightens one/ strength in the face of pain or grief.

Back in January I thought that courage made the most sense for March, because hopefully by this time I'd have integrity and respect down cold and I could then focus on having the courage to take this thing to the next level. . . (oh yes, there's another level to get to). But now that tomorrow is March, I think maybe just focusing on courage alone might be the best thing to do. And could even possibly bring more clarity and ease to the other intentions I've set in motion.

First I want to focus on being courageous for my students in overcoming their testing anxieties this week and next. I feel a lot better this year over last year about the preparedness of my students, mostly because I had foresight this year as to what they were going to be faced with for the CSAP. Now it's just a matter of keeping them calm and empowered the 6 days they have to test. Tomorrow I'm bringing them fruit, tea and some decaf coffee to brighten them up to give them energy and hopefully the COURAGE to do their best at something they have all historically been told that they constantly fail at.

Other courageous acts of March : doing things I've never done before...
- starting with running my first race on Sunday, 5k for International Women's Day.
- co-coaching the girl's soccer team at school, try-outs next week!
- traveling to Puerto Rico at the end of the month.
- any other suggestions?

Thinking about some of the most courageous things I have done so far - getting on a plane, having never been to Denver and starting a new life here!, getting on a plane not knowing anyone or anything about going to London, going to Italy, going to New Mexico, getting dropped off in Minneapolis, starting off all these journeys away from home. Maybe the courageous thing to do this time around is to stay, or to consider the challenges that may present themselves if I don't get on a plane or in a car and leave something behind. Maybe the courage is going to need to be summoned this time around in making a decision that I wasn't comfortable with before. Or making a decision that I hadn't set my mind to before.

Or maybe, I shouldn't decide what I am going to have to find courage for and just let this unfold and watch the courage manifest itself in new forms that may surprise me. Really, this whole commitment takes courage but perhaps I will find smaller scale moments that take more courage than I could have assumed.

- signing off and singing "Little Lion Man" by Mumford & Sons