I'm having "one of those days." You know the kind -- Things aren't going right but they're not going wrong, either. I have a pile of work to get done, plus it's Super Bowl weekend; I have errands to run, and it's chilly and a bit icy outside; I still have that cold a little bit, but I'm feeling better when I wake up (it doesn't take ninety minutes to clear my head).
I'm stuck at the kitchen table doing some work, correcting electronic papers against a rubric -- a monotonous but necessary activity -- when a twinkle catches my attention. I follow the sparkling ray of light to the tile floor across the room.
It's the light spectrum. Rainbow-colored shards of light dance across the ceramic, distracting me from the important business of being a teacher. I follow it up to the window in the back door. I have forgotten that this morning I tied up the fabric shade to allow sunlight into the back hall. Actually, I had totally forgotten that I even have a window in the back door.
Sometimes all we need are little signs, small distractions injected into hectic days to remind us that we need to
slow down. You know, a little sign like a window-generated rainbow.
