Thoughts

Our Meeting is taking a much needed look at how we include children (and thus their families) in the life of the Meeting. What looks like, on the surface, a discussion about First Day school (known as "Sunday School" outside of Friends' meetings) is really about the overarching question: What kind of community do we want to be? (This month's Friends' Journal has a wonderful article by Tom Hoopes addressing this issue.)

Yesterday we held the first meeting in what I hope will grow into an ongoing discussion about our Meeting community -- interspersed with parties, potlucks, etc. (My motto is Fewer meetings, more parties.) Out of the worship that preceded the discussion came this piece of wisdom, which I cherish: The speaker talked about tolerance and what a half-hearted kind of notion that is. We say "tolerance" when perhaps we really want to act out of love, the kind of love that meets people where they are and embraces them as they are.

I held on to the thought when I went to school today. Frequently my best resolutions to "tolerate" the kid who simply drives me crazy fly out the window as soon as the kid enters the room. Today I made a conscious decision to love each one of those children in my care. The funny thing was, I didn't tolerate obnoxious behavior. There were redirections aplenty, a time out or two, and one child even was removed for a time for some particularly outrageous behavior. However, I tried to carry out each and every action in a spirit of loving kindness, and it really was a lovely day.

We are in the final two weeks of school, the clock is ticking, and everyone knows it. The end of a school year is always bittersweet for me, as I suspect that it is for some of my students. It is also extremely stressful, filled with a multitude of tasks that are supposed to have been done yesterday. And me, the great non-planner! I must have been a little tired this afternoon. I came home and went out in the yard to water new plants that I put in the ground yesterday. I was watering away, and it took me several minutes to become aware that I was watering a lawn ornament! Oops. No way that thing is going to grow!