Whew!

I live a life that is blessed.

I am grateful. I am not sure where this huge "Thank You" is directed (God, karma, myself) but it surges through me constantly in deep gratitude and awe. I know that I have worked extremely hard to find the peace that I now enjoy but that does not diminish the desire to ponder the path that has brought me here. I have spent quite a bit of my life happy in one respect while unhappy in other. Lately, I am happy all around.

There's nothing you can do that's more important than being fulfilled.

You become a sign, you become a signal,

transparent to transcendence;

in this way you will find, live,

and become a realization of your own personal myth.

-Joseph Campbell in Pathways to Bliss

This past week has been a time of endings and new beginnings.

I completed my 11th year of teaching on Wednesday. Teaching is true bliss for me. I may sometimes head off to work at 6:00 AM exhausted and wishing I didn't have to go to work, that I could stay in bed for just a little longer but once I see the children with their unbridled enthusiasm running up to greet me, smiling, full of stories I forget everything else but tuning into what they have to tell me. This is where I belong. It was difficult to end this school year, it always is. While others count down the days with anticipation, I count down the days with dread. I do not want to let go of the children I have grown to love.

This school year we really took advantage of NYC; four trips to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, two to the Whitney Museum, six trips to Central Park, three to Madison Square Park for their fantastic summer show series for kids, a water park and exploring the neighborhood around our school.

Student interest led to an in-depth exploration of Greek Mythology that I found SO amazing. On the last day of school the father of one of our students thanked me for all I did and related a story to me. It seems that he has some friends with a young boy the same age as his son. His friends like to brag about the knowledge their son has and how smart he is - to which the father of the boy in my class just listens. He refuses to compete. However, last weekend his son was talking about the show he was going to be in about The Trojan War and that he was playing Odysseus. He rattled off the story of The Odyssey, characters, events, etc. His father told me that he secretly relished their amazement at the fact that his son learned all of this in first grade. For the time being they were speechless. I got a kick out of that story.

On Tuesday I completed my 8th doctoral class, Curriculum Models: Bilingual/ESL Programs. So I am now slightly more than half way to checking off the Dr. box on a standard form. The class really kicked my ass but in the end I kicked right back. The instructor thanked me for taking the class because she learned so much from me! Thankfully I felt the same way, meaning I too learned so much.

Those were endings. A beginning came on Wednesday (directly following my last day of teaching the little ones) when I went to teach the big ones. I started teaching a college course entitled Reading Skills for Children with Learning Disabilities for Cohort 8 of the Hello Friend/Ennis William Cosby Young Readers at Risk program. Saying that I am thrilled to be part of this program and to be teaching such an incredible group of educators is an understatement. It fills me. I have found my bliss and I appreciate the opportunity to share what I know with them. And proud to realize that I know quite a bit.