Jeremy is tired.  He stayed up too late last night, but he just couldn’t quit playing that video game.  His folks would have a fit if they knew he went to bed at 3:00.  Oh well.  He’d stop and get something to wake up on his way to school.  Stopping by the corner convenience store, Jeremy grabs a couple of high energy drinks.  The first 20 ounces are gone before he hits campus, the second, disappearing by the end of 1st period.  He notices the fog begin to lift and his headache recede.  By second period Jeremy is fully awake and ready for action, or so he thinks.  Little does he know that the caffeine coursing through his system is playing havoc with his central nervous system.  His breathing is shallow and fast, his heart rate is accelerated.  This class is boring!  Lacking the ability to really concentrate or focus on what the teacher is saying, Jeremy starts visiting with his friends at the back of the class.  He needs something fun to do.  This class is bogus!  Speaking more loudly than he should, Jeremy draws the attention of the teacher and ends up in the office for disrupting class.  After a visit with his guidance counselor, he joins 4th period already in progress.  By the end of this class, Jeremy has begun to feel tired and irritable.  He notices that he is starving.  He can’t wait to grab some chips and a coke at lunch….  When will this stupid class be over?

Our planet is in the midst of an energy crisis.  Having ignored and misused our environmental resources, as well as neglected our physical and energetic selves, we are headed for disaster.  Human beings are energetic organisms.  Much as a car takes in fuel and burns that fuel in order to operate, our physical bodies take in food, water and oxygen.  I can pour various liquids into the tank of my car, but it will only operate properly when fueled by gasoline.  I can ingest foods that are nutritionally inadequate, take in oxygen and water that is tainted by pollution, and my body won’t shut down immediately, but the engine will take a beating, the physical structure will break down and energetically it won’t operate properly.  Our children are literally bundles of energy.  However, unlike the many machines that surround us, our children do not come with “on” or “off” buttons.  They innocently look to us, their parents and teachers, to help teach them.  In order to teach them, however, we must be tuned into our own energetic rhythms and needs.  Are we modeling healthy behaviors?  If we, the adults, neglect our physical and energetic selves, ignoring the signals our bodies keep sending us, we will not be very good teachers.

As I sat at a stop light the other day, I watched  a mother and her “10ish” aged little girl step into the crosswalk.  The little girl was very thin, eyebrow-less and wearing a bright pink turban.  I felt sad, for it immediately became obvious to me that this was a child getting chemotherapy.  A few short hours later, I found myself standing in a store quietly waiting behind two women who were chatting easily with each other.  One was going on and on about making school lunches and how she was done!  She told of getting up in the morning and announcing to the family how they would be making their own school lunches from here on out.  She wasn’t the slave!  She laughed lightly as she recounted the shocked and teary responses of her children.  The other mother began to share her own version of life in a home where she did everything.  I didn’t join in the conversation, for I continued to be haunted by the vision of that little girl in the crosswalk.  It’s easy to lose your perspective in the midst of life’s responsibilities.  It’s easy to begin to believe that getting that homework done or eliminating those all consuming, problem childhood behaviors are all that is important.  It is easy to forget that there really are children wracked with terminal disease, that there are children starving to death in other countries, children being abused in our own and other children whose lives are permanently altered as a result of war.  It’s important to step back every once in awhile and remind ourselves of these facts.  I found it a sad irony that as these women prattled on, just down the road there was a mother who would welcome the opportunity to make just one more school lunch or pick up one more of her daughter’s wet towels and put it in the hamper.  She would do so gladly, without complaint, if she could only have her healthy, vibrant little girl back.  It’s important to keep your perspective, because a lot of what we worry or complain about as parents doesn’t really matter, does it?