Restored, Repaired, Re-tuned

This summer while visiting my daughter at her home in Queenstown, New Zealand, we were walking along the picturesque waterfront with the snow capped mountains in the background.  There, playing a beat up piano, sat a man totally absorbed in making beautiful music. The piano busker, as he is known, is there most days to share his original compositions and add to the idyllic setting on Lake Waukatipu.

His music drew a good-sized crowd who had stopped to listen.  When the crowd dispersed I saw the sign propped against his stool and felt a lump in my throat.  As I read it, I experienced a flood of emotions.

It stated, "This piano came from the dump.  I have restored, repaired and re-tuned it in an ongoing self-inflicted piano tuning apprenticeship."  

 As I read it I was overcome by the thought, "Isn't that what School Counselors do?"  Like the piano busker we find value, beauty, and dignity in those who may feel broken or discarded.   We help students who feel others may have given up on them or tossed them aside. We "rescue" students from the dumps of their own feelings and thoughts and do all we can to restore them to a place where they can feel their own value again. We attempt to "repair" their hurts by offering hope and our emotional support.  We "re-tune" them by teaching them new skills, new perspectives, or a way to cope with a situation beyond their control. 

As School Counselors we are "re-tuning" our students to find the beauty and value they possess and giving them the skills to make something beautiful out of lives others may dismiss as worthless.

How do you restore, repair and re-tune the students and relationships in your school?  Is there a student in your school who is like the piano rescued by the piano busker?  I would love to hear your thoughts below.