Springtime is muddy and messy and even cold, some days. Kind of like homeschooling! So how do we pay attention to the green stems of possibility?
It all depends on what we choose to focus on! And spring teaches us to look more closely, as illustrated in this passage from master teacher, Parker Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach.
In the muddy mess of spring, the conditions for rebirth are being created. The humus, the “mud on my face” humbling events of life create the fertile soil in which new life can grow.
Spring begins slowly and tentatively, growing with tenacity. The smallest and most tender shoots insist on having their way. The ephemeral crocuses and snowdrops are a harbinger of hope and, as the days grow longer, the winds get warmer and the world grows green again.
In my own life, I find it not only hard to cope with the mud but also hard to credit the small harbingers of larger life to come; to have hope until the outcome is secure.
Spring teaches me to look more carefully for the green stems of possibility: for the intuitive hunch that may turn into larger insight, for the glance or touch that may thaw a frozen relationship, for the stranger’s act of kindness that makes the world seem hospitable again.
-Parker Palmer
Teaching (and perhaps especially homeschooling!) can be very muddy and messy at times. And that’s OK.
Amidst the mud, there are also green stems of possibility.
Let’s choose to focus on those. And watch them grow.
