“I love you!” “Have a great day!”.  Standing on his front stoop in his happy pants and a sweatshirt holding his coffee, the man waved and yelled at the top of his lungs.  It’s right about 7:45 a.m.  I know this because the school sign is on, telling us to slow down to 25 mph and there’s a reason.  A middle school kid, walking across the busy main street that runs north and south, on his way to the middle school on the other side, head down, hoodie up was trying to ignore the man yelling.  When he finished crossing and reached the other corner, he turned slightly and yelled “love you” and kept walking, head down, his mission to get to school and hope nobody heard his dad.  

I smiled.  Maybe dad was choosing to be a smart aleck, giving his boy a hard time, understanding how much he was embarrassing his kid and getting some enjoyment out of it.  A one time thing.  Not so much.  Today I saw him again, yelling to the boy, with the boy doing a type of call and response back.  “Love you!”  “Love you!”  It was obviously a morning ritual that I had either ignored or was a little too early or late to witness but in the last week I had the opportunity to see it twice.  This kid probably has no idea how lucky he is to have a dad willing to looking silly in his happy pants on the front stoop yelling “I love you!”.  What a wonderful relationship during a crazy time of life.

The last couple of mornings on my way to work, my thoughts have been interrupted by a couple of crazy kids waving at me like crazy from their car.  I didn’t see them at first, but I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye.  There they were, my two grandsons, waving and smiling as their mom was driving them to school.  The second morning, again my mind was wandering, this time on some not so pleasant things.  Those two crazy boys again, in the same place as the day before, were waving and yelling “hi” and “love you”.  They had no idea how much I needed that.  I love our relationship.  

I had the opportunity to sub a day in the district yesterday.  The last time I had subbed was 1993, a couple of years past graduation.  Things have changed quite a bit since then.  I walked into the classroom, feeling pretty confident – I could do this in my sleep, right?  By lunch, I realized that while things weren’t going too badly that it wasn’t anything close to having my own kids.  As I stood out on the cold playground slab watching the 4^thgraders play basketball, another teacher asked me how things were going.  It was my first time teaching at a Title 1 school and quite frankly, I had dealt with several things just that morning I had never dealt with in my 30 year career and I shared that.  She looked at me and said, it just proves that it’s all about building relationships doesn’t it?  

Even in the short amount of time I was there, I got several hugs from a Kinder, had a 4^th grader share his love of soccer and a little girl who came up and whispered “I hope you get to come back”.  It doesn’t take much – all you have to do to begin building relationships is to show some interest.  I could see how someone could get really attached to these kids.  Maybe not me – I had to nap on the couch when I got home.  God bless those teachers who work with kids who struggle, love on them and build relationships.

When all we see of the world is the violence and hate, and polarizing of people and groups, sometimes we miss the great things happening and how everyday people are building positive, loving relationships one person at a time.  During those times when I can’t take any more of the negativity in the world, it’s people like the dad in his happy pants, my silly grandsons and those amazing teachers that bring sunshine to into my life.  I hope somewhere, something I do brings sunshine to someone else.