time

Two vacations in one month leaves me with August almost gone, so it seems. We've been blessed to spend time with my family in Idaho and time with Andrew's in Hawaii. I now have more memories to carry forward. Pictures to come, perhaps...either here or on our family blog.

School starts tomorrow for the kids around here. My baby brother begins his first day of middle school. Kids in the neighborhood will now fill the shortcuts and paths down to the schools below our hillside homes. I miss it. I miss school. I miss teaching. I miss my students. I hope there will be a season in my life for such teaching once again. Coaching is great, and I love it, but teaching reading, writing, and loving language is something else entirely. And so as this time of year rolls round again and I'm not a student, nor a teacher, a bit of my heart mourns. Parts of my heart also hope, though, because I truly hope to teach again someday. I know I teach as a mother, but there's something magical about introducing a poem to a student and having that student absolutely fall in love with it.

And now I feel I'm blathering. But it's just what this time of year does to me. I remember when September rolled around when I was on my mission. I received emails from home about school preparation and such, and it surprised me how much I missed it. It catches me off guard and makes me take note.

But I guess I can be glad I don't get the Sunday-night-creepies anymore; you know what I'm talking about if you're a student or teacher--the slightly anxious feeling that your glorious weekend (or entire summer) is over and you must return to school once again. See, I don't view school/teaching through rose-colored glasses. But I certainly remember much more of the good than I do of the bad because the good is just so good.

Happy week to all!

amen

As I fed Eamon at close to 3 a.m. this morning, I read these words.

And they strongly struck my soul.

Whenever I'm reminded of the power of words, I'm humbled and awed and inspired. Because of amazing people like Courtney Jane Kendrick and Emma Lou Thayne, I'm more resolved than ever to develop what talent I have in writing, and to fit it better into my life. My soul deserves, craves, and needs it.

I love this paragraph from Kendrick:

"Emma Lou explained that those of us who are called to be writers, the writers of life, have to pay attention in a different way. We have to reserve quiet time to write what we feel. I've always loved Emma Lou's pledge to her children, 'I love you with all my heart, but not all my time' meaning that the solitude time was part of her ability to thrive. This paying attention and seeking for quiet time goes along with two ideas I've had lately, one about balancing the senses (seeing as much as hearing, touching as much as tasting) and another about this quote, 'I hold this be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.' Rainer Maria Bilke. Also, I've come to realize that most of my frustrations can be worked out either by hard work (labor) or solitude. When scrubbing the sticky dishes isn't clearing my mind, a walk by myself usually will."

Here's to making it happen.