Spirit of Generosity

In addition to our teaching duties at St. Dominic's, teachers are expected to "cover" classes for missing teachers. Last week it was my turn! I covered 1 period for a nursery school teacher who was "out sick". It was a hoot! The children were 3 and 4 years old. Very cute. Wearing miniature Catholic school uniforms. The tables at which they worked and played looked like toys they were so small. There were only 2 native English speaking children so the other teacher (there are 2 classroom teachers in Nursery School - good idea!) was multilingual and could speak Portuguese and Spanish and she could meet any linguistic emergencies that arose. (But, honestly, it was like being in a cage full of guinea pigs - all very cute but darting this way and that. You had to be careful where you stepped because one might be underfoot.) I was sitting next to a tiny Portuguese girl and she was busy cutting bits of paper (with child friendly scissors of course) and she was giving them to me - one by one. You should have seen the expression on her face - she was so focused and proud of the job she was doing. I spoke to her in English but she didn't really understand much. But I understood!!!!!!!! With each bit of paper she gave to me, she was offering me a gift. Her spirit of generosity was amazing. She made my day. She won't remember this moment that we shared, but I will. It's moments (gifts) like this that give hope to mankind. . .