I was honored to help plan her baby shower on March 7 at Mohonk Moutain House. Our theme? Cherry blossoms. It’s still a little early for them, even here in Washington, DC, but with the bright blue sky that Sunday morning and a baby girl on her way, it seemed the perfect metaphor.

As I told the 50 ladies who joined us, this is about helping Christine transition into motherhood. There will plenty of time for baby when she arrives. Now is our chance to create a path for Christine to take this new step her life.

As women we have an opportunity to nurture and support one another through our transitions. Motherhood can be a mystery, though it doesn’t have to be. By sharing honestly about our experiences, and offering support to one another, we make all of lives richer. Women, we are in this life together!

In celebration of Christine and her love of literacy, every person was asked to bring a new children’s book to the shower that we would donate in her honor. Specifically they were asked to bring their favorite, either one they read as a child or read to a child in their life.

The response was overwhelming! Just like the response I received to my question posed on this blog – What was your favorite book as a child? – even before the shower people were calling or emailing to tell me their favorite book, and how excited they were to bring it with them.

We collected such an amazing variety, from Dick & Jane to Frog & Toad and of course a bunch of Dr Seuss. At the shower, I had women tell us why they brought the book they did. We heard stories about books read to Christine as a child, to their own children, and books with cherished memories and beloved characters. In fact, going into the bookstore to buy my book for the shower I ended up with one for her, and one for me, my favorite, James & The Giant Peach. (No sooner had I bought it did my father ask to borrow it. The power of children’s literature!)

The books collected are now with The Children’s Home in Poughkeepsie, NY for their new library for young mothers to read to their children.

As we celebrate the newness of spring, of birth and rebirth in our lives, consider how the beauty and simplicity of children’s literature and our connection as women can be equally celebrated and nurtured.

This post is about more than the pregnancy of my friend. It’s about the connection we have to each other, and the role that literature can play in those relationships. As teachers, you offer students a space to learn and grow. What a special gift that you can give yourself and the people in your lives too. A seemingly simple book, and a genuine curiosity about what inspires us as readers, can become a meaningful conversation. Even among people who don’t know each other well.

What support are you wanting in your life? What support can you offer the women around you?

More than the titles of books, I saw in the responses a sincere joy in remembering the sensory feel of the pages, the vivid illustrations, and where they were or who they were with when they first discovered reading. There also were the lingering lessons:

• You can be anything you chose to be
• Make yourself happy
• It’s possible to give yourself completely to another person
• Unabashedly be yourself
• Even in the toughest of situations, you can be brave (and thrive)
• Be kind to others, including animals
• War is useless
• Your challenge can also be your greatest gift
• It’s fun to be silly
• You’re not alone

These lessons have shaped us, and shaped the decisions we’ve made throughout our lives in a way that only our core values can do.

I’ve blogged before about values. They can come from any number of places – your experiences, what was instilled in you by others, or what you were born believing. Once a belief is introduced, we often use what happens around us — more specifically, our viewpoint of what is happening — as a proof point that it must be true.

Take for example, The Wizard of Oz. Reading it one could believe, or find proof, that a magical world is waiting to be discovered out the front door. Or, that there’s no place like home, so stay close to it. Same book, completely different lesson and resulting perspective on opportunities that arise in our lives.

Values, no matter how unquestionable they seem or how long you have held them to be true, are not hard-and-fast rules. You always have a choice about what you believe.

I love talking about choice. As a life coach, I host guided conversations on this topic. It’s amazing what can happen when we step outside ourselves and see how much change we can affect just through our perspective.

Look at any situation in your life right now, from the relationship with your mother to a disagreement in the checkout line. What would it be like if this wasn’t happening to you, if you were watching it unfold in a book instead? Suddenly each person involved (including you) are “characters” with their own needs, motivations, fears and desires. As an objective reader, you can see what led to this point and what might happen to change the outcome.

From this perspective, how might all of the characters get what they really need?

Not only is stepping outside of a situation useful for working with values and perspective in your own life, it brings new meaning to role of parents and teachers. Children’s minds are being shaped, and lasting values are being forged at every moment. Though we can’t control what they take with them or how it’s used later, your contribution is immensely powerful. More, in fact, than you can realize.

Makes me think that my next Facebook question should be – who was your favorite teacher and why? Stay tuned!

As an only child, that is a familiar concept to me. As a matter of fact, I think one of the many reasons that Lauree and I are such good friends is because we are both only children, and we had one another’s back at several points growing up… and today.

Why go it alone when we can all rely on a little help from our friends?

That is the concept behind a 2008 autumn-themed book written and illustrated by Carin Berger entitled Little Yellow Leaf. As I sit here staring at the last of the autumn leaves to fall, I am drawn to this book even more. As most teachers do, I love autumn, and I was getting bored with the same, old autumn books I had been reading for many years. Little Yellow Leaf is a refreshing, modern look at autumn, with sleek, contemporary collaged illustrations and a powerful message. One frightened, lonely, yellow leaf isn’t quite ready yet to let go of the tree yet. Even as Little Yellow Leaf watches all of the other leaves fall, it still can’t quite muster the courage to let go and trust that everything will be okay. That is, until, Little Yellow Leaf finds a leaf companion with whom to take the plunge. They decide to surrender together, and let’s face it– together is a great way to go. We don’t always have to face our fears alone. Every once in a while, the support and trust of loving others can make a tremendous difference in officially facing the fears, and tackling the fears more permanently.

As teachers, I find we are often isolated behind the walls and doors of our classrooms. It is absolutely essential to establish and maintain active, healthy relationships with other teachers to share and ponder life’s difficulties. In fact, I think we construct knowledge within the context of relationships. We need to pay attention to the textures of quality and trust in relationships in order to allow new knowledge to flourish.

Teachers all agree that affective and relational dimensions should be emphasized in the education of young children. Why don’t we consider our emotions and relationships in the education of every individual, regardless of age? Adolescents and adults all deserve this attention to the emotional, relational qualities of their education, too.

To all of you reading out there—how do you foster and utilize relationships to learn and grow in your own teaching practice? Have there ever been times when you just couldn’t go it alone, yet found solace in the relational support of a colleague? In the same ways you honor the emotions and friendships of your students, how do you respect your own feelings and the relationships in your own life, as an adult and educator?