Notes to My Loves

In T minus 3 sleeps I will begin another year of teaching. This year marks number 17. I can't believe that it has been that long since I first stepped into a classroom of my own. I remember how nervous I was being hired on the night before school started. It seems like so long ago,  yet in many regards it is still so fresh and new. I still get those first day of school jitters. I haven't been able to sleep well in the last week and I am sure that it is due to my mind reeling with what I want this year to look like. What I want to accomplish. What I hope to inspire in my students. My room is ready. The physical needs have been met with a few days of prepping and help from my mom and dad who are expert movers when it comes to unpacking boxes. The bulletin boards are color coordinated and the books are neatly on the bookshelf, for now.  The walls are ready for the work of those who will inhabit this space with me. The walls are waiting to be covered in things far more colorf...

    I wonder. I wonder a lot.  I think of my life and wonder what it would look like if I were living it in someone else's skin. I think about all that I have in this world living in this country called America. I wonder if I am doing enough with what I have. Am I truly living a servant's life? If I was gone tomorrow would my life's work be done? Would I have used my time wisely?  Would I have done enough to really make a difference?      I also think about the fact that when we strip away all that anyone has, we are more alike than we will ever be different. I am so much like so many other women across the globe. I have a sacred sisterhood, with these other women. A bond that I share with women I have never met. It is thicker than blood. It can not be measured with man's mathematical equations. It can not be understood unless you have traveled its paths.      It is called motherhood and it cuts to the very heart of our civilization on...

F earless. Free from all fear. Brave. Courageous. Undaunted. When was the last time you felt this way?  What were you doing that gave you this bliss? Was it something new or something sweetly familiar? Did it take you to new exciting places or keep you safe in the warm comfort of what you know?     Today I saw fearlessness. I saw the sparkle in the eye of 9 . I heard the strength in his voice about something he was excited to do, yet had never done before. Something he has been asking to try and conquer yet had no background or parental guidance to do so. Today 9 decided to take on the world of snowboarding!      It amazes me how different children are. From a young age he has been fearless. This has not always been comfortable for a first time mom as I felt he would surely hurt himself at any given moment. I cannot even count how many times I thoroughly thought his face would be bitten off by every neighborhood dog he greeted a bit too close. However, a...