A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together becomes reality. – John Lennon

So this is going to seem rather round about and convoluted, but just hang in there for a few minutes.  It had been bitterly cold where I live, and at my school, a pipe to the sink in my classroom froze.  We had no school today because of a blizzard, a blizzard that came right after the temperature rose just a bit. Well I got a call this morning from my principal telling me that the pipe burst and my classroom was a mess.  Needless to say I headed into school only to find that my principal was wrong, it wasn’t a mess, it was a disaster area.  And as bad as my room was, the room of the teacher below me was even worse because the water had to go some place, and that place was down. I’ll be 100% honest, my negativity was off the chart, and I forgot everything I ever knew about thinking positive and finding a positive in the what was a very negative situation.  I literally couldn’t think of a single solitary positive thing about this situation.

I lost a lot of stuff in this little disaster, but my friend in the room below me lost everything.  As we sat there, well technically we stood because there wasn’t a dry surface to sit, she looked at me and said, “Well at least there were no kids in school when it happened.”  And just like that things started getting a little better because there was a positive that came from our negative.  From there we went on to realize that as bad as it was (and it is very bad) only 3 classrooms were damaged.  My classroom and her classroom are bad, and the third classroom sustained some damage, but not that much, so that’s another positive.

Now on to the dream portion.  On my ride home, various teacher friends reached out and we talked about what was lost and what we could do to make things better.  The teacher below me has a classroom full of kids with autism, and she teaches the special needs art class, so we need to get her up and running as soon as possible.  I figured I’d put out what had happened on facebook.  Really, I wasn’t expecting too much, I figured a few people may have some books and stuff they would be willing to donate.  Well, boy was I wrong.  My dream of helping my friend out exploded with other people joining in and sharing the post and it made it a reality.  When we put our heads together and work as a team, we can accomplish great things.  So those dreams you have, don’t hoard them.  Share them with others and watch your dreams take wings and become your new reality.