In your eyes..

Life is never what you expect it to be, is it?

I have this new job. There are so many things I love about it.

Family, Group, and Individual Therapist.

I never in my life thought I would be a 'therapist'. It's a title I have always held in some reverence and never imagined that it would a title that applied to me.

But here I am.

Today, I decided to let the kids decide on some of the rules for our group, and they said they thought music should be a part of it.

We spent the next hour listening to our favorite songs on the ipod I borrowed from my sister.

It opened doorways of communication that I had been trying to pry open for the last week and a half.

Imagine a group of 6 or 7 "bad kids" all singing along to "Love Story" by Taylor Swift...and then spending 15 minutes talking about it. Or about how the song they chose reminds them of when they lived with their mom, before they went into a foster home. Or how the song they chose was all that kept them from committing suicide a few months ago.

It was both powerful and sad.

Powerful because I know that it was healing for some of the kids, and sad because I want so much to help these kids. I would love to take them all home with me and shower them with praise and encouragement. I would love to go to their concerts and parent teacher conferences. I would love to ground them for bad grades and set a curfew and lecture them about keeping their room clean.

They haven't had any of that.

I guess what I am saying is that it's kind of cool to have a job where you learn more than you teach, and where you get more than you give.
Lori Ann
 

p.s.- I played "in your eyes" as my song. Apparently Peter Gabriel isn't that popular with teens:)