Hold onto the Feather of Fate
I once found a little feather in my classroom. From out of nowhere, the feather floated down until it landed upon my desk.
I immediately thought about the movie, “Forest Gump,” and the little feather that floated around him as he sat on the bench. I understood the floating feather to be symbolic of the strange quirks of fate in which he found himself. The joy of the movie is to watch him somehow manage to flourish in the oddest of situations. Viewers marvel at his child-like nature that believes anything is possible.
I think about the little feather whenever a day of teaching troubles me. The feather reminds me that I can have a positive influence on some of the students that seem to enter my classroom by some quirk of fate. Oddly enough, the little feather somehow manages to float around to different areas of my classroom.
In fact, I’ve even found the feather in the computer center where the READ 180 program accelerates students’ reading skills.
Perhaps this is because of the winds that rush through the outside door as students exit.
Recently, I found another little grey feather in my art room. Without much thought, I set the feather next to a jewelry embellishment, a heart enclosed with a silver-colored rose. They seemed to fit together—the odd quirky nature of destiny and what the heart longs for.
Background of photo: K&Company Photo Album ancestry.com
The next morning, I awoke from a dream with the words, “Remember the little grey feather,” floating through my mind. I wrote this post and then set it aside.
A couple of days later, I was in my classroom when I saw the little feather again. From seemingly out of nowhere, it had landed on a report of my students reading increases. My heart quickened. Apparently, my student assistant had decided to tidy up my desk and when he closed the draw, the feather floated up and out of the desk drawer and then landed on the report.
So this morning as I sit and finish this post, I’m thinking about the little feathers of our lives. As much as we might try to figure out our future, the purposeful life is often like a floating feather. If we relax and let the mysterious side of life happen, we, too, will find our path of flight crossing with just the right people, the art forms that caress our souls, and the purposes we were meant to grace the world with.
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