I love summer and the long school holidays – beachy days, balmy nights, trips away, time with family and friends, no school lunch boxes to pack and school socks to find, no homework and no after school activities with their relentless schedules.
It’s lovely to be able to take a step back from all the familiar routines and to lose yourself in fun activities you had always planned to do with the kids and never had the time (like crafts, or origami or 100 piece jigsaw puzzles). It’s also wonderful to be able to indulge yourself by sleeping in, having dinner a little later and by finishing that interesting novel you began during the year, but never had enough time to sink your teeth into. You can let your mind wander free, untethered to its usual paths, like a puppy let off a lead in a green wide open space.
So, when all of this unscheduled time (if you too had the luxury of it), comes to an end and you are faced with back to school lists and too many pencils to label you can start to feel a bit wobbly (or at least I do).
I don’t like the beginning or ending of things. Just like eating a sandwich, I much prefer the filling to the bread enclosing it on either side. I guess some of my discomfort comes from a fear of the unknown and wanting the old familiarity of that which has worked well or the things and routines to which I have become accustomed.
If you feel like that, I would like to share with you a Facebook post by David Tensen from LeaderHeart. A friend shared this with me and it has been very comforting as we cross over from the old into the new. It was written as a blessing for the New Year, but it is just as applicable as we transition into the new school year for 2018.