Well…..the school cafeteria with its’ elementary-sized seating, a simple pot-luck and Girl Scout cookies is not exactly Tiffany’s, but it may as well have been in its’ warm and festive ambiance on a chilly but bright and sunny Friday in early March. A teacher workday, and time to catch our collective breath as we continue through the twists, turns and changes of the 2021-2022 school year.
When I was in the 5th grade in 1980, I sold over 200 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I remember delivering them all in a little cart, door to door around my neighborhood and collecting payment. It took several weeks of schlepping my cart around after school, trying to catch my customers at home and thankfully checking another order off my list. I received a patch or a pin.. or something for selling the most boxes of cookies in my troop. I always think about those experiences whenever it’s Girl Scout cookie season and they are happy childhood memories. Somehow, it seemed wildly appropriate for the iconic cookies to make an appearance today.
In my opinion, the breakfast was the closest representation of “normal” again in our lives as a school staff as we gathered together this morning. I watched and listened to everything around me, just taking in the moment with a silent prayer of thanks and gratitude. At one point, there was so much joyful laughter coming from a nearby table, I jokingly turned to another colleague and asked if someone brought mimosas.
The past week has been filled with periodic and sometimes painful reminders, here and there, in the hallways with colleagues as the month of March is upon us once again. Reminders of where we were, nearly two full years ago, as schools were abruptly closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We never dreamed as colleagues, in those chaotic first days and weeks that we would not see each other again as a group in real life for many months, if not a full year or more.
I have written down poignant thoughts in the past about my experiences and perspective of the significant dates in our lives. Sometimes those significant dates like birthdays and anniversaries are a delight to remember and celebrate, and other times annual dates such as the loss of a loved one, a devastating health diagnosis, a natural disaster, 9/11… hit you like a punch to the gut, year after year. There’s no getting around the dates and so you have to travel through them. It’s easier if you don’t have to travel alone.
The gift of traveling through the significant dates of early March this year, around a simple pot-luck breakfast with colleagues in the school cafeteria, is worth writing about and remembering.