If You’ve Got a Pulse, You’ve Got a Purpose

As I sit here and watch the pulse beat on the ankle of my left foot, I see that as proof that God is not done with me yet. He has a plan, although I may not see it. The way I see it, if you've got a pulse, you've got a purpose.

I took yesterday off, the second day I took off to write in two weeks, in order to get my second book, Collaborative Writing in the Cloud, to a point where I'm happy with it and ready for it to go to the publisher.

I started writing at 5:15 am and continued until 7pm when I prepared and spent time with our incredible group of Flat Classroom certified teachers in our weekly discussion. Finally, at 9:45 last night, I went to sit on the couch.

Now, I'm quietly typing on my ipad as my family sleeps. With my oldest a senior, we are filling out college applications, prepping for his last SAT, and balancing bank accounts to scrounge up the money to send him to college next year. My daughter is a junior with all of the worries that come with being a cheerleader and one of the tallest young ladies in South Georgia. My youngest is off at Jeckyll Island on a field trip but will come bounding home today at 5:30 with endless energy and an appetite to go with it.

And yet, as I work from eyelids open to eyelids shut, it is easy to let the busy cause me to behave like a human doing instead of a human being.

This is the risk for so many of us teachers – we are so busy doing, that we don't spend enough time being. Isee this as a caution to myself and to those of you out there like me.

Are you so busy doing that you're not being?

Sure, I will look back upon these times and smile at the craziness, surely I will. But yesterday, after my children left for school, I took a moment in the hall looking at the pictures of my oldest son growing up. He was so little. He had no idea what the future would bring (nor did I) and he lived on my hip. He was so full of energy and I remember being exhausted and just wanting sleep (because he so rarely does and still doesn't) – now I want to go back in time and hold his little face in mine because he's seventeen now and hugs are the things I ask for for Christmas and graduation. He doesn't get a choice then but hugs are rare. I just want to be his Mom and love him and yet, things are different now.

There are beautiful moments in every period of life. The tough thing is that some periods of life are so crammed with beautiful moments that we're too worn out to notice.

So, right now I'm noticing. I have a heart that is beating that is causing my pulse to move in my foot. That means I'm alive. What a gift! Life! I have the privilege of writing to you as a fellow teacher about to grab a cup of coffee and roll into homeroom to check roll, take my lunch count, and do a dress code check.

Sure, I've got problems and struggles, but I've got a God bigger than those problems and struggles who guides me daily and gives me joy amidst the jungle of activity.

Just take a minute to breathe in and out.
Listen to the breath in your nostrils. Really listen. Do you know what a gift that is? That invisible wind being moved in and out of your lungs as your body automatically just LIVES. Do you know how many people have sat beside the bodies of loved ones asking for just one more breath and one more moment? And you've got hundreds of these moments happening automatically, right now, without you having to think about them!

You aren't going to get extra breaths past the moment that will be the end of your life. Your job is to enjoy your life now. This moment.

Find the meaning in this moment and your life will have meaning.
Behold the beauty in this day and you're days will come together to make a beautiful life.

Don't waste the chance you have right now to enjoy this moment.

Have a great day. And remember, if you've still got a pulse, you've got a purpose. Get busy and do it.

*** Posted from my iPad.