Only small things with great love.

Sometimes the most basic realizations materialize for me, translated in different ways.

I was reading Susan Dyer's blog "The Moveable Alphabet" and looking at the pictures of children doing work in her room. I recognized the look on her children's faces, and the brilliance was familiar to me. I've seen those looks here and there in my room, those little focused hands, the joy of discovery. I got to thinking about all the Montessori classrooms around the world, where children are working with similar materials, making similar discoveries on their own, growing into the people they will eventually be.

It made me realize that so much of my work, I guess the very core of it, is to be able to recognize those small moments and how marvelous they are. They happen all the time, really. Regardless of the level of normalization in the group, or they type of day we're having, those moments are around us. Small dialogues between children, brief "aha" moments, the wondering of excellent questions, the most generous small kindnesses... sometimes I'm very caught up with what I am doing, with what needs to be changed, or how to best address a certain moment, or what lesson I'm about to give that I miss those little revelations. Observation is all about learning to find them among all the things that are happening in an environment at once, and celebrating them.