![]() ![]() I mean, who wants to express thanks for tragedy, especially one like the pandemic, where sickness, suffering and death, along with glaring societal inequities, are at the forefront? Yet those are the exact things for which we should be thankful. This shift in focus can be a difficult one. Then it moves on and asks you to be grateful for the challenges you have faced and how they have helped you grow. In it, you are asked to think about the things you are most grateful for, and it starts with the usual things, like health and family. Gratitude One of the mindfulness activities I engage in is guided meditation, and one of my favorites is about gratitude. I want to share them with you in the hopes that they will inspire you to see your own moments of tragic optimism. I have also seen things that have shaken my foundation and stirred within me a desire for change. Over the course of this year, there are a few things, big and small, that I have experienced that have helped to sustain my soul. Now more than ever, we need to find ways each and every day for tragic optimism to shine through in our words and our actions. The opportunity presents itself yet again during our current situation: the COVID-19 pandemic. We have seen this time and time again: in the wake of 9/11, after Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in Japan and so many other disasters around the world, both natural and human-made. Recognizing the tragedy and the pain of it all, yet believing that good can come from it. In it, he coined the term “tragic optimism,” the fundamentals of which boil down to taking tragic events, along with the guilt and the pain of it all, and transforming them into an opportunity to better oneself and the world. ![]() Viktor Frankl wrote his inspiring book “Man's Search for Meaning” after enduring the horror of the Holocaust. Liz Honeysett is an art and technology teacher at Portage Central High School, Portage Public Schools.ĭr. MaThis is the seventh in a series of guest blogs by the 2020-21 Michigan Regional Teachers of the Year.
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