Last summer, I got an email from a very passionate, curious educator. Dan Klumper is a 6th grade social studies teacher (the work that he has done with student blogging was featured on freetech4teachers). Dan’s curiosity, persistence and drive to make positive change at his school really stuck out. Last week, I read that his father was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. Dan has kept a moving journal of updates through his father’s Caring Bridge site.
Now I don’t know Dan beyond those several emails, but in reading through all the journal entries this evening I felt the need to write something. The journal entries are such an important reminder to cherish and be mindful of each and every moment. As Dan anxiously await his father’s first blink after a 16+ day coma, he wrote the following:
The blink is a powerful movement, something we need to be careful using. When my daughter Olivia was born, I accidentally blinked and then she was walking and talking around our apartment. Then I blinked again and I was driving her to kindergarten for her first day. I blinked a third time and now she is going to be entering 5th grade this year. Right now we all want to blink and have our dad be up, walking around, giving us hugs. No matter how many times we blink in this waiting room, we still find our father in a coma. However, eventually we will open our eyes from a blink and see our dad at home, telling us what it’s like to be sleeping for 16 days. This gives us strength and motivation. Sometimes life starts going too fast and we begin to blink uncontrollably and miss out of what’s really important in life. Blinking is inevitable, so make sure you take advantage of the time when your eyes are open.
I hope whoever is reading this will take a moment to appreciate their surroundings. Sending positive, healing energy to the Klumper family.
techieMusings 