The packing continues

When I took down Christmas this year, I packed it for the move.  Not a big deal, really.  Just lots of bubble wrap.  And now I'm moving on to the next 'non-essential' packing...my (antiquated) professional file.  I taught Kindergarten for 15 years....that seems somewhat unbelievable to me now.  15 years is a long time.  And along those years, I tutored children in K-5th grades.  I have a LOT of stuff.  Just my activity books for Kindergarten filled a copy paper box.  And as I loaded those books into that box, wonderful, warm memories flooded me of all the children I taught over those years.  The sweet innocence of Kindergarten...elementary school...St. Timothy's.  What a wonderful place for my career to have taken me.  The students...the teachers...the parents... I cannot even begin to tell you how much I miss the little school where I taught.  There is a true ache in my heart...a mourning really...in having left there.  (I left to become a stay at home mom.  And I don't regret that choice, ever.)

The reason all of these things have been unpacked in the first place is because I was always wanting to supplement what my children were learning in public school.  I wanted for them those warm lovely memories.  One of my regrets is not being able to send my children to that school.  But despite raiding my professional file over the last 6 years, I rarely used any of it with my children.  They are so smart.  And they are busy...in a good way.  And I have been fortunate that their teachers work so hard to find ways to challenge them intellectually.

But as I was packing up all of these things for the move, it just magnified the fact that we are moving...all the time.  My children are outgrowing elementary school, that place in time where they are most protected.  That place where, if done right, is magical and full of possibility.  That constant need for me that is, at once, both draining and fulfilling.  Moving.  Growing.  New adventures.  The possibilities are endless.

So, I will continue to fill the boxes with the lovely spirits of the past.  I will store them safely away.  And I will try to remember that there are empty boxes out there just waiting to be filled.