Go within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out. – Katherine Dunham
I use these quotes every day in school with my students. Today was one of the days when they all just looked at the quote and said, “I don’t get it.” I knew they would, but they just needed a frame of reference for it. I asked them if they knew what it meant to have somebody rain on their parade, and I was greeted with blank looks. Then I asked if they had ever heard the expression, don’t tinkle on my wheaties. Again there were blank looks until one of the kids said, “Do you mean piss on my wheaties?” To much laughter I said that yes, that was what I was talking about. From there, we talked about someone trying to blow your inner candle out being the same as someone trying to pee on their wheaties. They had a choice, they could let someone do that, or they could say “Hey, go ahead and try, but I’m reaching deep inside of me and pulling out my inner umbrella and covering my wheaties right up!” Again there was laughter, but they got it. There are going to be people who try and knock you down and work against you and just genreally rain on your proverbial parade. You can let them, or you can reach deep inside of you and find those hidden reserves of strenght and emotional forititude and stand strong. I’m choosing to stand strong. What are you going to do?
