Welcome to the continuation of Shelter-in-Place or Stay-at-Home Orders. I imagine many of you have been living in overdrive the last few days. At first, I thought - work from home. YAY! What will I ever do to fill all the time? But, as I’ve wrapped up day 4 (Thursday) I find myself longing to sit quietly and just breathe. All by myself. Just breathe. I need to find my Apple watch and turn on the breathing app. I haven't worn it all week!
You may have entered this remote learning season with a little bit of confidence that you were going to be able to continue supporting your students and teachers. Probably after the first hour of telecommuting or remote learning from home you quickly realized there's a whole lot more to this than you first thought and your confidence may have started to waver.
I want to challenge you this weekend to rest, physically and mentally. And after you rest, start to reflect on the difference between confidence and courage. Confidence is believing in your own abilities. Funny enough though, many of us may have discovered this week that the confidence we have in our skills is tied to a physical location - our library, where we have served people day in and day out. But, now that our physical location has changed, we might discover our confidence seems a little less steady.
At this point in our school year, I think it is time for our students and teachers to see us be courageous, not just confident. Courage is the inner spirit you have that enables you to face difficulties and new challenges without fear or maybe through the fear. You have to realize this is a time to take the first step, even when you don’t exactly know where it’s going to land. Courage is the inner spirit you have that allows you to take action despite your fears.
For a while, librarians have had the mantra of “brave before perfect.” We might need to start thinking of the step that comes somewhere in-between. We have to think about courageously taking that first step. I don’t know who the first person to say this was, but the author Ruth Soukup describes action as the antidote to fear.
So, ladies and gentlemen. you are doing hard things every day as you telecommute and support remote learning. You are making a difference every day. I want to challenge you to go ahead and take the first step and do what you believe needs to be done. Growth usually involves a little pain and struggle. And we are all definitely having growing pains right now.
Remember that you are courageous and we stand strong as one. Remember it's OK to look for the hidden gems in all this chaos. Choose to #staypositive. Remember that social distancing really is physical distancing. We can pull together socially like never before!
So, ladies and gentlemen, let your light shine! Lead the way and others will follow. Look around and you will see others who are also letting their light shine. Flock to them. Join them and your light will grow stronger and brighter together.
Together we will all make our way through this time and come out stronger because of it. Take care and lead on!
Send me an email this week and let me know how you're doing.
Dr. Laura
Find a few minutes of quiet time and listen to Hillary M. Marshall talk about: Cultivate Curiosity with Makerspace. She has been a librarian for the past 18 years at all school levels. She’s currently working in the state of Washington at a high school library. She is also the Washington Library Association School Library Division Chair.
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