stop and go

Took the bus to the capitol today.

For those who have been in Santo Domingo know that the traffic is the absolute worst here.

The bus is cold (not used to this air conditioning), I’m wearing the ear muffs that I bought for my Christmas trip back to the states. The seats are comfy and I’m falling asleep but the stop and go traffic keeps me awake. Stop, go, stop, go. To move an inch or two, the bus uses sudden jolts of energy. Taking an hour and 15 minutes to go about a mile truly frustrates me. I started thinking about the engine and how that must be just as frustrating for the engine (I tend to give inanimate objects personalities and emotions) but think of yourself as that engine, probably exhausted from the stop and go, the energy jolts thinking you are getting somewhere only to stop again, wait, feel stuck and blocked in.

Aren’t we all the engine? Moving forward through life holding onto each jolt forward and waiting for the next one until it’s smooth sailing?

We are all in this process. Our girls are in this process. All at different moments, all at different jolts, extending that hope for herself and those around her each time. A girl’s jolt forward even pushes me forward. When I see a victory, I hold onto that victory, I ride that victory for that day or that week. There are so many victories in each day, but there is also a lot of traffic with a lot of waiting for those victories.

Each jolt of the bus, no matter how slow we were moving, I felt progress being made and at least told myself that we are moving forward and that’s all that matters right now. At the beginning of this year, I would not be telling myself that in reference to my everyday, I would be frustrated that there weren’t more victories or academic successes. This taught me to just hold on, stay awhile, learn each girl and watch the small victories happen before my eyes. The energy jolts of a girl apologizing to another or a walk home from school with good behavior. These are the jolts that keep her going and what keep us all going, truly.

Hold tight. We are moving, even in the traffic.