Counselor's Corner

When the dog bites,  When the bee stings,  When I’m feeling sad… I simply remember my favorite things And then I don’t feel so bad. (“My Favorite Things” from  The Sound of Music ) *** After a rough day yesterday, this morning it felt comforting to begin our school day routine. I heard Giovanni open the front door to load his school gear into the car while I gathered my own school gear in another room. I heard him say, “Mom! Come here! You’ve got to see this!” Angel and I joined him outside and he pointed to the sky. “Look, Mom! It’s so beautiful.”   He was right. It was a particularly beautiful, noteworthy sunrise this morning. A beautiful cloud pattern was tinged with oranges and yellows against a slightly gray background. The sun was rising and the yellow rays peaked above the tops of the trees in the distance, teasing us with what awaited. He took a picture with my phone and we stood for a moment, admiring the view.   As we pulled out of our driveway, I thanked him for encouraging

“Angel, Miss Indiah said that you bit one of your friends today at school. Who did you bite?” The boys were two and we were having dinner. This was highly unusual behavior for Angel. If his teachers from infant daycare to (current) fifth-grade were asked to line up students in order of “most likely to bite,” every time Angel would be one of the final kids chosen. He is a conflict resolver, not an instigator, and has demonstrated his current peaceful tendencies since he was a toddler. Giovanni, on the other hand, was written up frequently for biting (AKA “using teeth to bite friends, not food”) and the teacher’s response when I asked was “it’s always the same kid and Giovanni never starts it, but he finishes it.”    “Evan Smith.” Angel nodded his head and grinned. [“Evan Smith” was not the child’s actual name.]   “Evan Smith not nice.” Giovanni said and frowned, shaking his head.    Angel nodded more emphatically. He looked at me and his grin expanded. “Evan Smith not nice. Angel bite E

During the last week of 2020 I read multiple social media posts that could be summarized as “Good riddance, 2020! 2021, you can’t get here soon enough!” 2020 was a rough year and not one that many of us would opt to re-experience. In preparation for writing my first blog of 2021, I reread my blogs from January 2020 and was struck by the optimism and hope as I encouraged us to be intentional about our life direction in the new year. I spoke of replacing brooms and dustpans as we swept out 2019’s dirt, so that we began 2020 with a fresh start. (Deep exhale and a head shake.) I was – we all were – blissfully unaware that we were weeks away from a pandemic that would claim (to date) over 389,000 American lives, close our schools, and wreak havoc on our economy, businesses, and health care institutions. While we may have predicted that the 2020 election would be ugly and divisive, most of us have found ourselves dismayed by what actually transpired.   Year 2020, it’s understandable why we w

My friends, in this week’s Counselor’s Corner, we return to a blog that I wrote in January 2020. As we prepare ourselves for 2021 and identify our goals for the upcoming year, may we return to the wisdom of a beloved childhood cartoon. Ubuntu, Jennifer   Harnessing Our Magic Lassoes and Bat-Tools    I loved Saturday mornings as a kid because the Superfriends came on. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman, Superman, the Wonder Twins (and their pet monkey Gleek), Apache Chief…each had unique skills and they united to fight for justice. Years ago, before I had children, I bought a few seasons of this old school cartoon and started watching it on Saturday morning. It made me happy. It still makes me happy. My boys prefer the current, live action superhero movies. I like those too but I am loyal to the Superfriends and the very dated Hanna-Barbera cartoon from the late 70s/early 80s before we became digitally sophisticated.    There are a lot of life lessons we learned from watching the Superfriend