education – BethSings

Unwritten – Outside the Lines

May. Graduations are bountiful.

On the cusp of marking my 25th graduation at St. Aloysius School I find myself more sentimental than usual at these occasions, feeling both lucky and grateful to be included in the lives of so many students and their families over 33 years of teaching. It’s hard to believe that 40 years ago this week I was lining up between classmates Brad and Joy for similar festivities on the evening of my parents 28th wedding anniversary, wistfully gazing toward the future.

To the class of 2017 from a mother, teacher and fellow traveler from the class of ’77:

Some days will seem incredibly long while the years and decades slip past rather quickly.
If you haven’t discovered it, journeys are sometimes better shared with companions…Form them wisely. That includes yourself.
Be kind. Be grateful.
Money isn’t everything.
Respect yourself and others. Don’t confuse respect with entitlement.
Failures are a part of the journey. You can’t change history, only learn from it.
Never loose your sense of humor. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Be humble.
Dream big.
Love bigger.

“I hope your dreams take you…to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known.” Anonymous

Godspeed

Unwritten-Natasha Bedingfield

Witness

How does a moment last forever?
How can a story never die?
It is love we must hold onto
Never easy, but we try
Sometimes our happiness is captured
Somehow, a time and place stand still
Love lives on inside our hearts and always will.

Last week I woke up vividly remembering a dream. It was the kind of dream that seems real and lingers. I was 8 or 9 years old sitting in a circle, singing with other children at the community center my mother once managed. I was leading a song. My mother was there in the distance. I couldn’t see her face but felt her presence, comforting and secure. All of us in that circle were connected through the music. What was happening seemed right and important.

The dream was a memory.

Journey Window – St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Baton Rouge, La.

That recollection has been with me for the last week. I thought of it again today as I witnessed a mother’s sad farewell to her son, a seventeen year old with a sparkling personality who I had the honor to teach. A bittersweet day in a myriad ways. Countless really.

Sometimes our happiness is captured with friends and family, frozen in time with stories that will live on. We’re blessed to have them and remember them. Moments that last as long as we do…..and beyond.

For now I’m content to continue dreaming….teaching…and learning until I find ‘my corner of the sky’…..

Corner of the Sky – Pippin

004-001

Just Singing

Teaching, like all professions has it’s challenges.

While friends were planning last minute trips to the beach three weeks ago we began the journey into this new school year; my thirty-third. What joy, unwrapping the gift of music (and now theater) with young people. A year of new possibilities.

But teaching, like life has had it’s ups and downs.

Sunday night blues. Monday Morning mayhem. TGIFs. Days. Weeks. Months. Years of inquisitive faces. A blessed life.

A poem by Mary Oliver reminded me of those bittersweet early teaching days and the not-so-distant-crazy-hormonal-menopausal early 50’s. They had a lot in common.