Left Behind

Early on, I noticed something interesting about my teenagers. They don't hold petty grudges.

I had a good friend in Nashville who was that way too, and I remember the day it occurred to me that knowing him influenced me to be less petty.

Maybe God puts people like that in my life because he knows the effect it will have.

The teens in Copán have been with me for a year and a half now, and I see myself growing from the relationship with them. I got a new insight into myself when I learned that my general attitude in interpersonal conflict is -
I guess if the other person isn't mad, why should I be?

So, whenever a difficult moment comes up between one of my students and me, the fact that neither of us is angry afterwards is definitely a win. And then for me, there is the added benefit of noticing the contrast between the student's tendency to move on and my past tendency to be petty.

"Love prospers when a fault is forgiven,

but dwelling on it separates close friends."

Proverbs 17:9

The ability to let go of little offenses is a quality I respect in the teenagers, and I experience more freedom in life for emulating it.

Homeys

Here's to friendship and all the ways a person's homeboys or homegirls make this crazy world better.

These days, I'm left to mostly daydream about past moments with all my great friends in the U.S. And thankfully, once in a while I also get to connect with them through voice and video apps on Apple products.

Flying Solo...

Retrospection helps me see interesting things about the life I've had since finishing school years ago.

Anyone who knows me knows I have loved exploring southern states and Honduras on my own. 

Crossing off a number of items on my wish list of places to live/goals to pursue of course feels great!

Here lately, though, I appreciate ways my experience even holds benefits for life after bachelorhood.

Every time I think of all I've been given, I know I want to create a life this rich for someone else.

Let's face it - for someone like me, lifting another person is what brings the greatest fulfillment.

Grumpy Old Men

Life is still golden in Honduras...and meanwhile, back in Alabama
my twins dressed as grumpy old men while celebrating their 100th
day at school.

Different

Something I always say about Copán is there's a gentleness and a humility that characterizes the people here.

Maybe it really is true that the way towns were in the U.S. in days gone by...the way that that "world" seemed to a greater degree to have human decency as the norm...
That aspect of America back then lives on today in a place like Copán.

What's got me thinking about all this is something I saw in the school's outdoor cafeteria today:

The picture above shows what was to my right as I was eating. There was a plant close to my table, and someone had placed a metal bar beside the plant. It must have been a bar that came off one of the benches we use for seating at each of our wood lunch tables.

After noticing the bar, I had a little impulse to simply pick it up and remove it. Unfortunately, the reason for the impulse is that as a person who works with students, I have developed over time a reflex for ridding environments of things that might tempt students to make a bad decision. The actual thought I had in the moment today was that the bar should be put away so we never have a situation where an upset student grabs and uses it against another student as a weapon.

Might sound far fetched to think of young people this way, but as far back as high school, I remember a day when a kid got on the school bus with a small metal bar in his hand and then attacked another bus rider with it. Apparently, they had had a prior disagreement, and I guess one of them decided he needed a metal object to compensate for his smaller stature when physically confronting the other guy.

Anyway, in the middle of my thought process in the cafeteria, I realized there was no need to take the bar because fights and violence are something I haven't witnessed at all at our school. In fact, it's kinda hard to imagine a student here attacking another with a weapon.

My conclusion in that moment, as well as what it indicated to me about my view of small town Honduran teens (versus U.S. teens), struck me as interesting.

Could It Be?

Re-embarking on my career in higher education...
A return to the state of Alabama...
Committing to someone special for the rest of my life...
Having a new list of aspirations to pursue since I'm now living out the last of my original dreams...
Embracing the southerners and southern-ness I miss while I'm abroad...

Let's see if any of these possibilities materialize in the next few years.

The Day of Love

Happy V-Day from Mayatan Bilingual School!