Snow Day

Today is a snow day for me.

But many students today are waking up to yet another virtual school day. Logging on. Doing their work. Missing interaction with friends and mentoring adults.

It’s the opposite of what used to be. What seems so long ago. Sledding, snowman building, hot chocolate, and digging out.

I think back to last year in March when the governor announced that schools would close “for two weeks.”

I was in the grocery store later that day with a large number of my town’s fellow citizens. Shelves of canned and paper goods, nearly cleared. Yet the mood was like a holiday but even lighter. We hadn’t had a snow day that year. Not even a delay. And now we were getting a spring break.

A break from which some have not yet returned.

I talked with a class of high school students last week (our small school is in-person) about human purpose–about our need to engage others and do work.

They agreed that even playing video games gets old without human fellowship.

They understand something perhaps only experience can teach. They have a new appreciation for the everyday routine they had before COVID.

I think, every so often, of Dawid Sierakowiak, a Jewish teen in Lodz, Poland, during the Holocaust. Dawid (pronounced David) kept journals a la Anne Frank. When the Nazi occupation came, Jews were no longer allowed to go to school.

I remember Dawid’s torment at not being permitted to learn. It was the opposite of what I witnessed in the grocery store last year. But Dawid understood that his “school vacation” was not to be just two weeks.

He was right.

Had students understood last year that many of them would be away from their friends for nearly a year, the mood in the store would have been somber.

Humans yearn for fellowship. We need each other. We need something to do besides games.

Many young people understand now that having to go to school–getting to go–is a gift.

It’s a gift I hope our town soon experiences after so long.

Photo Credit: Isaac Ordaz, Unsplash

Nancy E. Head’s Restoring the Shattered is out in paperback! Get your copy here!

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Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Restoring the Shattered is published through Morgan James Publishing with whom I do share a material connection. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Welcome Winter

It’s our first real snow. An unusual storm for November. My husband calculates it’s been 23 years since we had a snow day in November in this part of Pennsylvania.

The day represents an interruption of routine. Plans dashed. Progress shifted from outside errands to inside chores too long overlooked.

Yet the day also provides time to reflect. To enjoy quiet on the cusp of a season full of noise. 

I linger over a book and enjoy a second cup of tea. It will be a while before shovels call us outside.

There is time before the world calls us back into the noise.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Snow Day

There is something to love about every season.
In spring, the work of months culminates in a graduation. A new season awaits. Another year passed. Another pocketful of memories and lessons for all. Including me.
Summer is adventure. Fruit picking, ice cream, fireworks. (One of my sons is licensed to light up the sky. So fireworks are a family adventure.) There is baseball. There is swimming. There are rainstorms to clean the air.
The end of summer brings fall, a new school year. A new set of students getting ready to go or just arriving. These are important days. They are meant to prepare us all for what will come ahead.
Winter brings more work. More of those important days. But it also brings the occasional snow day. It is a small piece of a season.
And there is something to love in that small piece. Continue reading “Snow Day”

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