the long week ahead

i am going to have probably the busiest workweek next week, w/ back-to-back parent conferences + minimum days + having to teach well the letter "N" + art projects + making copies (the list goes on ..) with the little time i'll have.  i just hope the upcoming thanksgiving break will be here soooooon!  but other than busyness at work ... (a moment of vulnerability here) ... life feels really tough lately.  i am in need of peace + a lot of letting go.  i know it takes the darkness to see the light and it takes much ugliness to appreciate true beauty, but the lesson i am learning feels too difficult, almost too impossible.  i am realizing that love has to be tested for it to be true, and forgiveness has to be exercised for the heart to grow.  it's all a process, it's messy and raw ... and life shows no partiality to who will learn what lesson.  oh. i am looking forward to the day i come out the other side FREE + NEW.  how exciting.  the possibility of owning a kind of love that have been found true, brings hope (and tears) to my heart.  in the meantime, back to report cards.