monday mornings.

Almost every Monday morning before I start teaching, I go on a walk to the Starbucks down the street.
The walk is less for the Starbucks and more for mental preparation for the week.
As I walk, sweating - because it's already 85 degrees and humid outside and I have about 15 pounds in my backpack, I say prayers that mostly sound like internal moans:

Lord, how am I going to make it through this day?
How am I going to make it through this week?
And progressively whinier, how am I going to make it through the 27 days (counting off the calendar like I'm serving a prison sentence) of this horrible, torturous employment contract?
Why did I think this was a good idea???

Somehow, I've made it through the last months when I didn't think I would, and maybe this is just the final painful push to the finish line. I'm pretty sure it's a character-building exercise that I'm failing. But I for sure know that there is a reason for a Starbucks in every corner of the world. Because that perfectly made iced caramel macchiato and the walk with God along the way are two of the few things keeping me sane.