Looking at What we Accomplished

This past week at the Shabbat assembly. I shared with the students the excitement of counting the Omer. Each night my kids ask me what day it is in the counting of the Omer and we count together. We feel very accomplished when we complete it each year. Why is that? What have we really accomplished?

I think there is a big lesson for all of us in the idea of counting.  A few weeks ago I challenged the students to take these weeks of the Omer and be better at greeting people. This is a Middah we should have all year long, but these days of the Omer are times when we redirect ourselves to Bein Adam Lechavro,  relationships between others. Saying good morning to bus drivers, teachers and other people they see during their day is important. Saying good bye and thank you to the kitchen staff who serves lunch and the maintenance men who set up and clean up after every program is important.  It was close to the 30th day of the Omer and I wanted to know how we were doing. I received my answer from the Middle States accreditation team. They visited the school from Monday through Thursday of last week. They reported on many aspects of the school and the one that struck me the most was the following. The head of the Middle states team said, " One of the best things we saw in this school were the children’s faces, their eyes. They said good morning to us and good afternoon, and  looked at us eye to eye with maturity and respect."  WOW! The students did a great job.  We really passed that challenge.   At the same time I reminded the students that we are not perfect and we are always trying to be better.

I shared with the students the story of my Kabbalat Shabbat Blog.This year,  I set out to write a post for each Shabbat assembly. Now that the year is 2/3 over, I look back and think that I did not do it. I failed. I was feeling upset that I did not accomplish what I set out to do. Then a friend asked me to look at it in the following way.

"Last year, how many posts did you have? Zero. This year how many do you have? 11. Well that is great.  Eleven more than last year." Once I looked at it this way, I was excited by how much I had really done. Could I be better? Sure. Was I perfect ? No way. But looking back, I realize that I undertook something new and that I was following through with it.

I connected this idea to the school year. It is 2/3 over and, if the students look only at what they are doing today, they might think they did not accomplish that much. However, if they look at and COUNT how many things they have done and learned since the beginning of the year, they will see that they have acquired many skills, many facts and much knowledge. Are we all perfect ? NO, but we accomplish more each and every day.