Moments

Yesterday as we ate snack together we talked about the Quaker values we learned about all year long.

Commmunity
Simplicity and Service
Peace
Stewardship
Honesty and Integrity
Perseverance
Courage

We gathered on the carpet for two last stories: “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” and “The One and Only You”.

Yesterday was a day of celebrations: the Lower School Moving On Day Program, where my littles sang their hearts out, and the big cookout which is called the Strawberry Cowbake. There were kids running around with Sharpie Markers to sign each other’s Last Day of School t shirts, each class a different color of the rainbow.

Teaching, like parenting, is so slow, so incremental. You often shake your head and wonder if you are getting anywhere. And then come the milestone days where you are flabbergasted to discover how quickly the time has passed and how much progress has actually been made. These are the “Can it really be over?” moments. The “My, how you’ve grown!” moments.

And once more we realize the power and the holiness contained in all those little, day-to day moments, each one an opportunity for:

Commmunity
Simplicity and Service
Peace
Stewardship
Honesty and Integrity
Perseverance
Courage


Emily’s speech at the end of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” comes to mind:

Emily: It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another. I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back -- up the hill -- to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Good-bye , Good-bye world. Good-bye, Grover's Corners....Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking....and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths....and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every,every minute?

Stage Manager: No. (pause) The saints and poets, maybe they do some.

Finally the moment comes. We place our hands in the center for one last class cheer. We will walk out of this classroom headed to new adventures and new communities of learning. Maybe we are a little closer to being poets and saints. I can’t know for sure. 

Quakers believe that there is “that of God” in everyone.  Today I am thinking how much there is that of God in every moment, too.