It isn’t the Day- it is the moments in a day

As is so often the case with educators, I arrive home from work and begin transitioning from a vibrant, active work day to home life. But the transition never fully happens, as every teacher knows. Your mind wanders to the moments earlier in the day- how did they go- could I have done something differently, better? What does this child need? What curriculum worked and what did not? The list goes on and is simultaneously exhilarating and daunting.

Last night during this transition, I started to think about the upcoming and fast approaching Earth Day. Other people’s posts on social media (organizations, schools, activists) swirled through my head. I found myself thinking “Are we doing enough?” Sure we have a garbage clean up planned in all our programs, as well as a big event on Saturday in partnership with Thompson that we are very excited about- but still, is it enough, given we are an outdoor school after all? Should we have been doing flashier things this whole week? We have a lot of other deep projects going on and it is hard to squeeze it all in.

And then, a little voice inside my head and heart screamed out “Yes, this is more than enough!” And why? Because each and every day our children are investigating bugs with gentle hands; planting seeds in the garden; feeling bark as they climb trees; playing dress up under the cascading branches of cedars; listening to killdeer as they gracefully dash across the field; making up Pokeman stories while scaling boulders along the dyke; or cooking with homegrown veggies. And it is these moments of truth that amount to Earth Day- the experiences that will somehow become part of these little souls, and connect them to this wonderful earth of ours.

I shall sleep well tonight, knowing we are doing the work we need to do- one child, one moment at a time.