Tomorrow I go back to school and I do not feel the sort of excitement that comes when a baby is about to be born or even when a longed for book is coming in the mail. I do look forward to seeing my classroom again. I like it because it is my little haven at school and the students always seem to appreciate the Pom Pom environment. However, when I look at my class lists online, I get happier. I'll write their names in a notebook many times over the next few weeks. I'll pray for them, mentioning their names to the Creator in the morning and when the day is done. The reason I'm not eager to get back on the job is because I love to stay home. I do. I'm not really a worker bee. I'm not sure what kind of bee I am, but not the busy worker. I'm so glad I teach language arts because it affords itself to dreaminess instead of facts and figures, memorization and red penciled meanness. I'm ever so grateful for THAT! Smile. So today I went on a meandering walk along the streets and paths that surround us. I found some life giving, breathtaking sights and I chose some beefy quotes to go with the photos.
"The main thing is to immerse ourselves in the material, and reach for the intensity." ~Anne Rice
"I'm exaggerating so you'll get to know me faster." ~ Amy Hempel
"Teach yourself to work in uncertainty." ~Bernard Malamud
"The unconscious creates, the ego edits." ~Stanley Kunitz
"A little autobiography and a lot of imagination are best."
~Raymond Carver
"Without pressure, the work doesn't get done at all."
~William Saroyan
"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."
~Agatha Christie
"These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses, and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action."
~T.S. Eliot
So, I am going to let the clothes on the wash line get completely drenched by this "out of the ordinary" afternoon downpour, heat up some leftover meatloaf (I LOVE ketchup!) and a tired ear of corn on the cob. I am going to go to the post office and mail two packages, move on to the grocery store to buy the makings of a tasty family dinner and then I shall be ready to wake up tomorrow and drive to school. There are six weeks of school before my birthday, four weeks after that before we take our fall trip to Aloha Land, three and a half weeks after that will be Thanksgiving, and three weeks after THAT will be Christmas break. It's going to go fast and I will remain the recipient of great GRACE from a God who loves me. Whew.
