Summer's End

" One cannot collect all the beautiful seashells on the beach.

One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few."

- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

There are a good many reasons why I think I am lucky to be a teacher. Most of them are difficult to explain to others who are not educators because until you have actually witnessed a student move from confusion to mastery or from fear to courage or from insecurity to confidence the description of it sounds like a cheesy Lifetime movie. It is real though. Often is buried in months of repetition and patience...but it is real.  As a mom, being a teacher means I am grateful for the summer.  I love the time it allows me to spend with my family, but even before I had kids--- I loved the summer. 

Most people would think it is simply because I get the "time off."  While that is a part of it, it certainly isn't the most legitimate part. I am a worker by nature. I find a lot of joy in working. The thing I love about summer is that it is a part of the cycle. There is a concrete beginning and a concrete end to a school year. The summer comes and goes each year, but the real lesson for me has been in trying to master the cycle. How many people get a "do over" every year? Not just a professional "do over" but a "do over" of how time should be spent. In past years I have filled my summer with projects, classes, garage sales, camps for the kids, intense cleaning and organizing--- I have filled it with  BUSY. This summer I made a conscious decision to do something different.  I wanted to spend time observing instead of doing. It was time well spent.

While I was observing I noticed a lot of things:

* most problems can be solved in the quiet of my project room
* my kids love to be home in their pajamas...even at 2 PM
* life is more fun if you don't wear shoes all day
* laundry never ends... and that is OK
* C.J. still says "lellow" instead of "yellow"...and it melts me every time
* I have missed reading poetry and I am glad I re-discovered it
* my kids appreciate eye contact, in fact they deserve it when they are talking to me
* the best view in town is in my rear view mirror when all three of my kids are singing Jason Aldean's "Dirt Road Anthem"
* Evie likes for me to snuggle her in the morning when she gets up and it is one of the last things that makes her little.
* I would rather listen to music than watch t.v.--- and so would my kids
* it is OK to not have a plan
* Grace is one of my favorite people to talk to and I miss her when she isn't home
* my backyard was a good purchase
* doing a puzzle with C.J. and Evie is more fun than whatever I thought I needed to do
* I spend too much time using the sweeper and not enough time making the messes
* time passes differently when you stop looking at the clock
* happiness is a choice

Seashells are more beautiful if you take the time to collect a few of them and study them. I tried to remember that this summer. Lindbergh preaches about the importance of observation in her book. I tried to collect the days of summer and study them for what they had to offer rather than fill them with all of the things I thought I should be doing. I am less prepared for this school year, but I am more refreshed than I have been in a long time.  I have to believe my students will benefit from that.

Who knows what the school year will bring, or next summer for that matter, but what I do know is that I will always appreciate the "do-over." I can't avoid the BUSY forever, but I gave it a hell of an effort his summer and it was worth every minute.