In addition to the fullness of every ordinary day, we find ourselves in a whirlwind of a season. End of term, end of year, speeches, farewells, gifts, tests, exams, Thanksgiving dinner, holiday plans and lists, big children’s big thoughts for next year, it’s all happening! At times I have felt what my washing load must feel on the spin cycle. “Just go with the flow,” I tell myself when I have just found myself right side up and another whirl begins.
We just had our annual home school swimming gala. There was a mom’s race and since I never grow a year older, I got dressed into my most streamline kit and prepared to annihilate the competition. I mean, twenty-two meters is nothing; I even made a calculated decision that I would just swim the whole way without taking a breath. Anyway, I try to keep these posts to a page or two so I can’t go into detail about this race because one length turned into the never-ending-story. Much flailing through the water and three necessary breaths later, I eventually touched the other side. Not first, mind you, I am going to have to train much harder next time.
We just finished up with all the academics yesterday and one child cried because her amazing maths exam mark wasn’t better and another child punched the air upon hearing his rather low result. School is over for a good, long while but already the children have asked me to please not stop reading aloud to them over the holidays. A large part of our school morning revolves around our basket of books. In one sitting we might cover a biblical proverb and daily prayer, nerve endings, the knob thorn tree, a few pages of Twelfth Night, Shona verbs, a poem and a chapter of The Green Ember or Anne of the Island, depending. I figure their desire to not let go of such a key part of our school day means that we are onto a good thing.
I belong to a community of mothers who encourage one another to keep learning. Just because we have had children it doesn’t mean our education is over. In fact, it is for their sake, largely, that we keep pressing in to learn, grow and get better. We’ve long since packed away our text books and nobody is giving us grades, but we are hungry for more. Our conversation sounds like this: Have you heard of this author? What did you think of that article? Have you made anything with your hands recently? Shall we study this workbook together? Are you journalling all this? Who took notes? It’s as if we are in the holiday of our lives, but we keep pulling out that metaphorical basket of books to discover more.
We are a safe space for those who have a dance or a song, a flood of ideas, an audacious dream or a project to launch. As we live our lives (I’m talking about all of us, not just my amazing group of pals) we tell a story. Like a work of art our lives get read, studied, admired and enjoyed. We are all on our way to eternity, not simply passing time but living with purpose.
Albert Einstein said that “Once you stop learning, you start dying.” Whether we find ourselves at the end of term quite literally, or whether it’s a season in our lives, please join me in having a holiday that’s full of wonder and awe, navigating uncharted waters and learning new tricks. It’s a good time for receptive minds and hearts to discover more about our world, others and exactly who we are and what we should be doing with the one priceless life we have been granted.
Bring on the holidays!
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