After decades in public education, what would it mean if I stopped teaching? Or if I taught adults instead of teens, or in picnic shelters or coffee shops instead of schools? What might happen if I immerse myself in writing or woodworking — or explore ways they could intertwine? How can I do more to build the beloved community I imagine? What, if any, legacy do I wish to leave?
These are the kinds of questions I’ll contemplate here as I write my way through figuring out what matters most in the chapter after school bells.
As a teacher-librarian, mindfulness instructor, and poet, themes kindred to my work will emerge in these musings, as will myriad others that matter to me like gratitude, listening, memory, maps, belonging, faith, death and dying, generosity, ritual, rivers, and sustainability. Whether you’re pondering your next act or gathering kindling or seeds for your own reflections, I hope you’ll stay a spell.
