In the spirit of the busy season coming upon us teachers, homeschoolers, and mothers and fathers of school-aged children - and also kind of continuing the themes of busyness and rest that Laura Dornon’s poem and story expressed, this week we present to you a freeform poem written by me, Sara Oyela. I wrote this piece, in fact, the school year in which Covid hit - the 2019-2020 season. I was teaching 11th and 12th grade classes, and in those classes a few sheltered kids were embedded into my rosters. Sheltered kids, if you don’t know, are students who are transitioning from the strictly safe confines of the ELL / ESOL program, and moving into classrooms with native-English speakers. This presents an extra challenge to a teacher because it gives us more to keep in mind.
Maybe I haven't learned to juggle well yet? I keep dropping balls. Maybe it's that I'm a fool, not a bad juggler. I think it's more likely that I'm a fool. I’ve got two preps, about 200 students, 59 of which are ELLs (59!?!!?), four kids, one husband, my guitar, I’ve not run in awhile like I’d like to, and a myriad of other micro-things going on. Mr. Robinson stands at the corner and juggles almost every day across from his door, and he occasionally, but rarely, drops a ball. But, he doesn't juggle more than three balls. More than three is too much, he says. I wonder if he is wise, humble, and content or just making excuses. I'm inclined to believe him, learn my lesson. And, pastor keeps preaching "too many priorities paralyzes people." Which means, I'm thinking, I really have had enough of this foolishness and - I am - I am just going to go ahead and throw a few balls away.
Just as a reminder, this Mind Stayed series is a series of metaphors, so you are challenged and encouraged to think deeply about the pieces we share here. You are actually allowed to find spiritual, Christian, Biblical metaphors in the pieces. So, with that in mind, please join us in the discussion or chat on Wednesday evening, and feel free to express what came to your mind as you read this piece. Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you in the discussion!
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