May 25, 2012

Last day of school for this year, everything done and finished, left early to make final copies and take next year's first class's supplies to be stored at school!  Hooray!  Purchase orders all done, grades turned in, surprises for the girls, and final farewells.  That was the most fun class I have ever done, though tons of work and kind of scary to start with.  All the girl's were talking about how much time they would have over the summer to do beading, several were already thinking of things they could make to sell at their churches and in their neighborhoods.  I was glad to see them so excited, and pleased that they enjoyed it enough to continue to do it.

There were all kinds of birds out when I left this morning, mourning doves, and cardinals predominated.  I don't know where all the morning doves are coming from, as I usually don't see so many.  You might hear them but I have certainly seen a bunch this week.  We always have cardinals and blue jays, and little wrens or sparrows, but mourning doves and the big woodpeckers, and the egrets both tall and small are more rare. 

It's Friday of a holiday weekend, and because I was hurrying around yesterday and this morning doing all the final stuff, I thought about how full my head was of bits and pieces of things I need to do and things I want to do and so on.  So here is an end of the week poem if I have ever read one.  Actually, of all the people I send this note to, I am sure Mikayla will laugh the hardest and understand it the most!!

There are Days    
     for Lawrence Sullivan

There are days when
one should be able
to pluck off one's head
like a dented or worn
helmet, straight from
the nape and collarbone
(those crackling branches!)

and place it firmly down
in the bed of a flowing stream.
Clear, clean, chill currents
coursing and spuming through
the sour and stale compartments
of the brain, dimmed eardrums,
bleared eyesockets, filmed tongue.

And then set it back again
on the base of the shoulders:
well tamped down, of course,
the laved skin and mouth,
the marble of the eyes
rinsed and ready
for love; for prophecy?

John Montague

Yes, I think there have been a lot of times in my life when that would have been such a welcome skill to have, just clear everything out to the walls, empty the brain, refresh everything, and see the world with new eyes, and be read for anything that would come from all that scouring and cleaning things out!

So there it is for the end of the week and for me the end of one more year of classes.  I did not realize how long I have been doing this. since 1997 I think, or !996, and how much I look forward to doing it again next year.  Hope you have a lovely Friday and that there were be joys both great and small to brighten the end of your week, and that a long weekend will find you having fun in good company!