I'm just so utterly disappointed in the words and actions of a number of people who I used to respect. I try not to blame it on them; after all, the world is filled with deliberately conflicting voices. At a time when nearly all of the knowledge and wisdom of humanity is at our fingertips, the great deceiver's only option is to flood us with a deluge of misinformation. However, ignorance only excuses so much. In many cases, I know that these people have heard the Truth, but have chosen selfishness instead.
And it's wearing me down.
One of the good things about my job is that I have continual doses of antidote to these poisons. While my students are certainly under a great deal of pressure and some are just struggling to make it to the end of the school year, they still leave me with bits of brilliance that lighten my heart and restore some of my optimism. I'm also filled with the determination to do better for their sakes. This world can be better, must be better, for them.
It helps also that I have an amazing partner in life whose very presence can fill me with joy. That we together have such wonderful children is yet another blessing on which I can depend. With friends and family as even more support, I can feel my strength returning. With God as my guide, I know that only good will come in the end.
Perhaps these times are not wearing me down so much as honing my appreciation for the blessings I have.