Historically, Saturday has been marked as a day of violence in Northview Heights. But not today. Last week we came off of tangled weeds and multiple fights on the soccer field. There was kicking. Slugging. Hurtful words. And much anger. Today there was peace. There were talks and understanding. There were stern voices but also love. There was organization and respect. 

Soccer this season has been different. Not only do I have a lot of 7 and 8 year old soccer players in my group, but conflicting personalities do not always get along. But they are incredibly vibrant souls. And we do not always know how to manage our anger. So we have been working on complimenting but also setting very stern ground rules. As I always remind myself, I have to earn my trust with all of my awesome kiddos. Trust takes time. It takes time to be heard. Time to be listened to and respected. Time to be understood while wanting to understand. 

The difference between last week's tangled anger on the field and this week's productive peace is just a reminder that peace can exist anywhere. But it takes hard work. And showing up. It takes removing judgements when going into a completely different culture you know is different from your own. It's shedding old perceptions and acknowleging biases and realizing that peace cannot be achieved unless you believe it can be done. You have to believe that any place can achieve peace. You have to believe so hard, that your kids can see it too. 

As we were sitting around after the bible lesson talking about the new bible verse and talking about other things, one of the kiddos said, "I like this week a lot." "Yeah we did better than last week." The third kiddos chimed in and said, "And you're going to be here next week too right, Miss?" 

If you want to create change. You have to show up. And you have to believe it is possible. Because anything is with love.