Hello Families
I hope you are faring well. I for one, am saddened that we haven’t had the opportunity to meet in person over a meal. I have not yet had the opportunity to witness our children playing together and laughing while Aileen led them through a craft. Why is it that crafts are more fun when someone else is teaching them to our kids? Maybe that is just me that feels that way. This pandemic time has certainly exposed my weaknesses for teaching my own kids from books. I am so grateful for the teachers who are working so hard to meet us where we are and putting up with our varied strengths and weaknesses as teaching assistants. Their classes of 25 students of varying levels have expanded to include all of us bewildered, tired parents. Bless them! I have with the best of intentions pulled together a science experiment I found online only to find it devolved into bickering between my kids or me missing the moment because I was worried about the impending mess that I would have to clean up. My lack of time management and sometimes short patience seem to have been illuminated by a spotlight called COVID-19. Interestingly enough, that same light has shone through and made small things, like a slow walk around the block, seem impossibly magical.
I have grown impatient with platitudes masquerading as spiritual truths and grow weary of the multiple opinions about the economy. Neither fear nor blind optimism seems to encapsulate my emotional state. What has been true for me is that I am buoyed by beauty and longing for meaning. It is that spirit that I am writing to you and sending the words of a poem that a dear friend sent my way some months ago. It seemed to make sense now more than it did then. I hope you will click on the link and close your eyes to have it read aloud to you because poetry is meant to be heard. It is in the hearing that it finds its life. I hope this poem resonates with you and I hope you will ask yourself what it is in your life you have had to learn on your own. This might be tinged with sadness, but for me, there was also gratitude in having lived long enough to learn those things anyway. Be well. Take care. Feel free to reach out if you wanna talk poetry or otherwise. Aileen is working on some great initiatives that will help the community such as the new Acadia Brown Bag Lunch Program coming soon. The McDougall community is here if you need any additional support. As always, please let us know if you would like to be removed from this mailing list or if you have feedback on the newsletter.
Until next time,
Amy
