Dandelion leaves and Clover

Today's lesson from God was brought to me in the form of dandelion leaves and clover.  Today's lesson was one of those cool God moments that came out of nowhere.  It has nothing to do with working out my physical body but working on my Faith.

Today I was a Special Ed para - but I was floating between classes/students.  When I returned from lunch, there was a situation at recess with a student and they asked me to please come deal with the student.  As I was walking out there, all I could think was, "This is not what I signed up for - I don't want this job".  When I arrived, I found the student very angry, chasing the boys who were taunting him, spitting at girls he thought were teasing him - he was pretty much out of control.  I tried repeatedly to get him to walk away with me but the other boys kept at the teasing - which angered me too.  It is hard to diffuse the situation when all parties are heated up and you can't get them physically separated.  Finally the student agreed to walk with me - away from the others. 

As we walked away, I told him that this is where we were going to get out our frustration and anger and anything else we needed to.  So he cried, yelled, kicked, pulled up grass - but he wasn't hurting anyone so I let him go.  I have to say it was an eye opening experience for me.  I have never really been that close to a student acting this way.  Knowing that he was not going to hurt anyone or himself gave me the ability to stay with him and try to calm him down.

After a few minutes, he dropped to the ground, took up a handful of grass and asked me if I knew that you could use grass as compost.  That was it - the switch had flipped in him.  The anger was gone, the calm was settling in, things were starting to get better.  So we talked about grass and weeds and dandelions.  "Did you know dandelions are edible?" he asked.  "Yes I know that", I replied.  We both wondered if they tasted as good as spinach - so we both tried some.  Bitter was our taste sensation.  Then we tried younger leaves.  Even more bitter.  "Do you think clover is edible?" he asked me.  So we munched on some clover - which isn't too bad.  And just because we could, we tried a blade of grass for comparison.  We also colored our hands with dandelion flowers and grass - yellow and green.

Never would I have thought that I would bond with a kid over eating dandelion leaves and clover but that is exactly what happened.  We spent a few more minutes talking and then I asked if he was ready to head into class.  He was but we needed to stop and wash our hands.  He was so excited to tell the first teacher we saw about eating dandelions and clover.  I know we got some strange looks but it had made his day. 

This is my cool God moment - as we were walking slowly back to class, I thanked him for chilling out with me in the yard.  He turned to me and THANKED ME FOR HELPING HIM!!!  That is not something I would have expected this student to say.  I was so touched that he recognized that I was there to help him - not to discipline him, or single him out for his behavior.  I wanted him to find that ability in himself to calm himself, to be able to remove himself from situations that anger or frustrate him.  I know he will continue to have struggles - that is part of who he is.  But I am so thankful that God used me the way He did today and I pray that He will continue to use me in this students life - for both our sakes. 

Dandelion leaves and clover - what a cool lesson.