Each Day in May

Here we are well into the month of May: the month I wish would end tomorrow and the month I want to go on forever. I would love to flip the calendar so I can enjoy evenings again without lesson planning every night. I would enthusiastically “peace out” one of the most difficult years of teaching my colleagues or I have ever experienced. Between angry, pushy parents at board meetings, legislation that distrusts the professionality of teachers, and kids who seem to have forgotten how to “do school,” I need a break. A much-needed book-by-the-pool kind of break.

But then again, I want May to go on forever. Our German foreign exchange student who has been with us since August, is returning home next month, and I cannot fathom our home without her bright smile and witty sense of humor. My first born starts high school in August– HIGH SCHOOL! My daughter enters her final year of elementary school. I think it was just a minute ago when Holly held both of them up in a church service for their baby dedications.

The days are long, but the years go by in a blur.

One way or another, May will end, as it always does, year after year, decade after decade. June will soon be upon us, and with a new set of challenges and opportunities. Instead of willing the month away, I am going to give thanks for every day in May. I will acknowledge each and every day. The days when 3:00 can’t come soon enough, and the nearly perfect days when I wish the sun would never set.

Each day is a gift. Sometimes that gift is absolutely perfect, and sometimes that gift is putting your head to your pillow as the sun goes down on the day. Either way, give thanks.

Holy One,

Thank you for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Amen.

Kelly is doing all of the things teachers do at the end of the school year – most of which is trying to keep calm and carry on. Even though the days are so full, she is managing to find time to just sit and be.