I came back from my morning walk with the dog just suffused, surfeited, with gratitude for this place.

Today is the boy’s last day of kindergarten and I am so grateful for the caring community at Atwood Primary. There is physical feeling of love and thoughtful attention there. I just watched a 10 minute video made by his wonderful teacher, Pamela Corson, out of pictures she took of the class throughout the year. I bawled, it was embarrassing. I feel so lucky that the kid who is at the center of my life was so clearly – along with 17 other 6-year-olds – at the center of hers as well.

I’m so grateful to have the experience of doing work that I love in a state that I love.  I’m thankful to Thomas College for bringing me to Central Maine, an intensely beautiful and grounding place. I’m thankful for the warmth of my colleagues and students – my school is a place where everyone is human, everyone is valued and everyone is seen. Where there’s a violation of that value, people work to try to fix it.

There are no people in these pictures, but the images in my mind’s eye are full of them. My sweet husband. My constant amazement that this beautiful, long-limbed, gentle man is my other half. My son and the sharp, breathtaking tang of loving him.

How lucky I am to be near my mother and father and how proud I feel to have the opportunity to develop rich, adult relationships with them. How much I love spending time with my talented sister, capable of all things.

I’m aware that things change – as much as, sometimes, you don’t want them to. I’m in love with this moment and will appreciate it for as long as it will stay with me.