Do The Right Thing

I try very hard to always do the right thing. By that I mean never going out of my way to hurt or hinder some one else. I always offer help, even when it is not asked for but may make the difference in someone's difficult day. I try to be patient in those moments when it is truly saintlike to be so. Being a teacher it is not easy. I am not perfect, only human, and often fail in my attempts to be as good as I would like to be.

There are times when I do not want kids in my house; my day was long and there is still much to do, yet I allow them to come because it may be better for them to be here rather than some place else and I try to understand that. My acts of kindness are a direct result of my firsthand experiences of a lack of the same. How often I had wished someone might have been kind to me or noticed my physical and emotional pain.

I know that people knew. I know the nuns at my school knew when I limped to class because my body hurt so, but I was not pretty or blond, and therefore I did not matter. I know the neighbors knew. They turned their backs because it was none of their business. These were the sixties and seventies and everyone was busy with what they were busy with. No one had time to see and I was invisible anyway.

I try to do the right thing because I couldn't live with myself if I didn't. I do right by my daughter because I love her so and she is mine. I heal through my love for her. With her head on my shoulder, her hair falling slightly over one eye I heal. It is a long and difficult process and we know it may take a lifetime. Still and now we remember. But we also remember to do the right thing.