4-17-2020

Mary’s Minute

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

                                                                ~ Dwight Eisenhower

I don’t think any of us could have imagined this exact scenario for the spring of 2020.  But we are ready, not because we had a plan, but because we have been planning. 

I think about my own career.  They did not teach us in administrative classes how to support a school community through a pandemic, but I feel I have been planning my entire career by practicing problem solving and communication.

I didn’t plan for my young adult children to be living on their own in our family house, taking care of a house and taking classes full-time, yet they have been preparing by building independence since they were toddlers.

I cannot speak from experience, but I would assume that hospitals and medical professionals prepare for many of the most challenging scenarios, but in the light of a pandemic, it is not the “plan” but their lifetime of planning that has made them heroes.

Teachers are champions of making plans.  It is not their plans but their planning that prepared them to care for their students virtually through this challenging time.

Seniors in high school and college began making plans for graduation.  Those plans went out the window, but their planning allowed them to be ready to deal with disappointment and use their energy to prepare for the next phase of their lives.

We cannot plan for every scenario life will throw at us, but we can spend our lives planning through honing skills of communication, problem solving, and collaboration, and striving to have a positive spirit in all we do.  I think we all are finding that this planning is serving us well.

                                                                         Stay safe and well!

                                                                                              Mary