Pax et Bonum

June 19, 2018

Written by a Mother, with Elementary and Middle School graduates,

I have a hello child and a good-bye child, and one grounded right in the middle to keep us in the present moment.

I wrote a note to the 5th grade teacher, who had my three children in 5th grade. 5th grade of growing, and being the oldest before you are the youngest again, leading school assemblies, and running field day, class events, and parties. 5th grade of class trips and special projects. 5th grade of good-byes.

What do you say to the teacher who encouraged confidence, who saw each child as unique and helped them see and be them, and also saw the similarity woven through all three. How do you say good-bye to elementary school, and all that goes with that. How do you say hello to high school.

I choose to say thank you.

Thank you to the boy who said to my youngest on kindergarten visiting day, feeling nervous and uncertain, having just moved from Connecticut, “will you play with me on the first day of school?” I watched her her soften and open, and shift into something new. Thank you to her mom, who I saw smile and instinctively understood encouraged him, knowing how a smile and friendly face can change everything.

Thank you to the kindergarten teacher who taught about being your own best friend. Your own best friend. Thank you to the teacher who said, “I know it makes you crazy he forgets to hand in his homework. But it’s fine, really. He will be fine”. He just finished 6th grade. He is more than fine. And the teacher who entertained my enthusiastic commentary about a students’ communication strength and how she just needs to grow into her talent! Who was open to me saying, “I know it makes you crazy at times, but it’s an asset that she never stops talking! She needs to mature into it, and she can be a voice for the class, can relay stories, and provide context… and allowed me to frame talents in a new light. Thank you to all the teachers who invited me in to do Strengthfinders coaching over the years with my children’s classes. It will always be one of my most cherished memories of elementary school.

Thank you teachers for sharing your classrooms for parties, celebrations, Colonial Day, Halloween and Valentine parties, to read to the class, for birthdays, and career day. Thank you for seeing my children’s talents, and uniqueness, in a sea of children seeing them, and shining a light. For being second moms at time, teachers and coaches at other times. There are a million words for teacher, they all point to one – love.

Thank you to the office staff who keeps everything in motion, with a genuine smile, and graciousness, never making you feel like you are the 19th parent by 10:00 a.m. (even though you are the 19th parent by 10 a.m.) to sign their child out for the orthodontist, dentist, doctor, to retrieve a sick child, a healthy child, my child.

Thank you to the bus driver who presents each 5th grader a handwritten card and $5 upon their graduation from elementary school. And the drivers who brought my children home in snow storms and blizzards, hazardous roads and conditions, with grace and grit. And the teachers and staff who stayed with the students at school, after the power went out, dependent upon a generator and emergency lights, ensuring every student got home safely well past 6 pm.

Thank you nurses who saw my children come in for a chin that opened up making contact with the gym floor, a divot on a finger from a glass water bottle breaking, for a child who had a collection of plastic corners of gogurts, and shreds of erasure material lodged in my her eyes from rubbing them with seasonal allergies (it’s never anything normal). For calling when there was ever a head being hit, even when nothing, even when something. And for taking my calls when I would ring to say ‘I sent (child) in because there isn’t a fever but it could be the start of something’… And thank you for calling when it was the start of something.

Thank you to the orchestra teacher who would break songs apart during every recital and comment on the artist and genre, why this song was chosen and how to really listen to the song, and not just hear it. Music became new for me again, I could hear it broken into pieces, and compartments and put back together for the glorious whole.

Good-bye playgrounds and swing sets, hopscotch and hand clap games, school yards and gaga pits, good bye class plays. Good bye ‘back to school picnics’, and secret reader, author visits, classroom parties, and morning munchies with your misses. Good-bye ice cream socials and the book fair, Family Fun Night, Cinco Bingo, and Halloween parades. Good-bye elementary school. Good-bye childhood.

And especially I thank my children. For understanding that I am learning too. I am learning how to let go bit by bit, to change and evolve as you grow and evolve. I am learning to take each day and truly hold it and cherish it, for this life is a precious gift, each of you the most precious of all.

Godspeed my darlings. Just keep doing what you are doing, it’s working. Go forth to serve and set this world on fire with your love.

Pax et Bonum, Mom