As I was digging through my boxes of Christmas decorations this weekend, I felt that familiar spark of warmth and anticipation, knowing that once everything was in its place, our home would glow with the kind of beauty that only this season brings. But that warm feeling didn’t last long.
Because then… I met the lights.
Not the neat, well-behaved kind that slip gracefully out of the box like they’re in a commercial. No, these were the other kind. The tangled, knotted, chaotic cluster of wires that look like they’ve been practicing acrobatics for eleven months.
In that moment, I had two choices:
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Put them back in the box, head to the store, and buy new ones.
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Roll up my sleeves and commit to rescuing whatever beauty was hiding beneath the mess.
Option 2 won, reluctantly.
The first 10 or 15 feet gave me false hope. They untangled quickly, and I started to think I was some sort of holiday-lights whisperer. But then the real knot arrived in my hands, an intergalactic cluster of confusion, and my patience evaporated almost instantly. I paused, took a deep breath, and reminded myself: This will be worth it.
As I wrestled with one stubborn bulb, I noticed that freeing it sometimes made three more twist even tighter. Progress in one place stirred problems in another. And that’s when it hit me: this whole experience was a quiet lesson about leadership, and frankly, about our work in schools.
Being a principal, and being an educator, period, often feels like untangling a strand of lights.
We know the final vision is something beautiful.
We know the impact, when the strand finally shines, is absolutely worth the effort.
But the process? Well, sometimes it’s a knot of challenges, surprises, and new problems created by solving old ones.
Yet that’s the work.
We don’t throw the lights back in the box.
We don’t give up because the mess is complicated.
We show patience, persistence, and purpose, untangling one light at a time, understanding that each small act of clarity brings us closer to the brilliance we know is possible.
As we head into the holidays, I encourage all of us to let the world around us speak. Notice how ordinary moments can teach extraordinary things about how we lead, how we support one another, and how we see our work.
We are problem solvers. And sometimes solving one problem does create three more. But living in your vision, anchored in your purpose, gives you the patience and strength to see that vision unfold.
So don’t take the lights back.
Bring them into clarity.
Let them shine with the beauty that was always there.
Wishing you peace, perspective, and a season filled with light.
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