Three Days Full

After a two-year hiatus filled with colossal adventures, I began a new academic year this past Wednesday.

Thanks to subbing for a world culture/geography class, I could begin writing about the experience with traveling 6 or 7 times to Brazil with at least 100 kids; or lunch duty where one tub of applesauce went down a front, one tooth came out, one kid Really Wanted breath mints, and another kid saved his chocolate milk to have for dessert; it would also be tempting to mention the eighth graders who were wearing stretchy cloth book covers on their heads while doing homework in the library, or the fifth grader who said "You know, really, I like to read everything."

If I wanted to go in order, I might mention getting up early enough to watch the sky stretch awake and reveal her morning's glory or I'd try to find the words to talk about the way the sun has learned to unravel the threads of its luminous new day greeting and pass each one through a different fraction of stained glass in the library. I'd have to mention too standing outside and spreading my arms in welcome to the humid earth smell of flowers and grass, what it is like to be sipping coffee and have a dragonfly land on your arm, and the long, and roaming conversations with a friend who is at once far away and as near as my heart

I could also throw in getting lost on foot and in the car; leaving the building and not being able to find a door to re-enter; and feeling a sense of civic responsibility accomplished when I registered to vote here, changed my drivers' license, and got a library card.

(Yes, getting a library card makes the list of civic responsibilities in my notebook.)

But wherever I would begin, the end point would be the same. This moment, now...in the middle of a Saturday where I have cleaned the bathroom, changed sheets, sent emails, made plans, done two loads of laundry, swept my room, run errands, spent time ripping out barcodes from books still soaking wet from a flood that happened about two months ago, and watched it rain.

This moment now...with me considering deeply the generosity and wonder of God...and thinking about a nap too.

It is a good place to end, this moment now. And a fine place to begin, as well.