I am thankful that I am not the center of the universe, that I am not so important that I can be sick for a day or two without my life, classroom, and friends exploding in an oblivion in my absense. It makes me remember that it is absolutely okay for me to focus on me, and my recovery, because without me there to run things, the world does not end.
My students were a shining example of this for me today. I hate missing a day of work, because I'm always afraid of what I'll come back to (yeah, I'm a bit of a control freak in my classroom), and to be out for two days, well, that's just plain torture for me. I really expected to come back today to a classroom with broken desks, gum all over the ceiling, torn posters, and nothing being accomplished for the past two days. After all, I teach all freshmen all day, and my first block is full of kids who are of the maturity level of fifth graders, so what else should I expect?
Much to my surprise, not only was my room in one piece, and all work I assigned while I was out turned in, but the kids had actually even kept up with their warmup activities while I was out. I have a set of transparencies that we work from everyday on the overhead projector, and I didn't even mention these in my notes for the sub... and believe it or not, the kids took it upon themselves to keep up with these as well!
Okay, so I know this doesn't align itself exactly to my ability to detach with love from my sister's recovery from addiction, but it shares some striking similarities. And that doesn't mean that every time I have to have a sub that the kids will do as well for me as they did this week. But, just for today, I have seen evidence of the world turning without me, and this actually brings me much comfort.
What a load off!