In My Heart.

I was privileged to witness a most wonderful thing today. It happened in an Our Time class.  We were playing a word game. Games that are about word play and give the kids the opportunity to fill in the blank can be very dangerous- you just never know what is going to come out of a little ones mouth. 

For instance, once in an Imagine That class a student shouted out that his favorite movie was “Hell Boy”.   I’m not even sure now what we were talking about that triggered this bit of sharing, but his mother was horrified- after we all got done laughing, that is.  (By the way, the only bad thing about the movie is the title.)

But that door swings both ways and occasionally something marvelous walks through.  Today was one of those days.

So we’ve been playing the word game with “There’s a Little Wheel a’ Turning In My Heart”.  (I just wrote a blog about this game, so you can do a search and find out how we play it….) We’d played it twice already in this class and had some pretty fabulous things inside our hearts. 

The typical things are dinosaurs roaring, and balls bouncing, but this class was on an unusual roll.  We had a lovey blanket hiding and a horse making that snorting/blowing sound (Now that was funny – 15 grown-ups singing and then vibrating their lips like a horse…) I asked for one more thing so we could finish up and move on to bouncing.

Imi and Allie

But it was taking a long time so I asked one of my older students, she’s three or so, and comes to class with her little sister. “Allie,” I said, “What’s in your heart? What do you love best?” And she answered in a clear strong voice, (such a sweet little voice), “My sister, Imi, is in my heart”.

There was silence for about 3 seconds, which is a long time, really.  Then every grown up in the room spontaneously said “OHHHHHHHH!” I looked up and several moms had tears glistening in their eyes.  I did. I was suddenly reminded of how much I love my own sister, how much I miss her.  Denver is so far away. 

However, we had a task at hand, and I couldn’t leave Ali hanging, waiting to finish her song, even though every heartstring in the room was stretched taut.  So I asked “Allie, what’s she doing in your heart?” She answered quickly without hestitation.  She already knew what she was going to say.  “Imi is playing with me in my heart.”  Their Mom was crying, and everyone else was sniffling, including me, but we all bravely swung our mallets, rang our bars and sang Ali’s beautiful verse….

Imi’s playing with Allie in her heart, in her heart,
Imi’s playing with Allie in her heart.
In her heart, in her heart,
Imi’s playing with Allie in her heart. 

I’ve been thinking about my sister all day- and what a gift she is in my life.  I’ve choked back tears several times just thinking of how blessed I am to have a sister that is also my dear friend.  Thanks Allie, for reminding me that I should tell her more often how wonderful she is.  I sent her an email earlier today.

-posted by Miss Allison, who says that this is one of those days I’ll never forget. It’s one of the days that makes teaching the very best job that could possibly exist.   Thanks again, Allie.