pieces of

Many students where I counsel are Sikh - and believe in reincarnation.  I find this belief so comforting, the way it honours not only humankind, but all living things, as being redeemable and capable of growth.  This morning I was working with a girl who is processing grief over her grandfather's death.  He died several years ago, but she has never been able to talk about him with her family because they do not want to cry, and they do not want to be around her when she cries.  So we cried together a bit, and I learned about why he was so important to her... because he made her feel important to him.  It always feels like an honour when people discuss their dead loved ones with me - because I know this is a sacred space in which we face these losses.  I know it is sacred because I go there so rarely and cautiously myself, with so much respect and trepidation.

This afternoon N apologized to me for disappearing to play basketball with one of his students, and was startled when I told him I thought this was the best kind of counselling he could do, bonding with a kid doing something they both enjoyed together.  Relationship-building.  N is of the mentality that things that are fun cannot be considered work.  I hope our conversation opened this door for him because it is exactly what I want him to do more of.

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