The break was laid out before me, pristine and full of possibilities, but time slipped so quickly through the days. A slowed pace, and time to connect, but I still did not get through my list of things to do…
I will never get my mind around the stretchiness of time…
Image Description: B&W photo of 7-year-old H wearing swimming shorts, high on a swing. There is a lake and mountains in the background. Text (a poem) Olden Days of Summer (as listed in post)
Olden days of summer
Olden Days of Summer
Signified in layers of memory
New shoes
Fitted to sticky-slug-feet
Calloused with such pride
Concealed and softened
By required dressings of a new regime
Blackberry fingers
Tree climbing scratches
Endless play-‘til-dark adventures
Reined in by bed-time
Traded in for crisp-spined notebooks
And a new teacher
I still feel the pang
Of that loss of freedom
And I can’t quite get my mind
Around
The stretchiness of time
L. Kelley
As I begin the new school year, and renew my work to support students and families and educators, I need to be mindful that there are often very mixed feelings at the start of something new…
…and that change can feel like loss.
I am excited by new beginnings, and too… I still feel a bit of trepidation.
Holding close this understanding, that this mix is similar for many of my students (and others) will help me extend understanding and empathy, and be more effective in supporting growth and development.
We are more alike than different…
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30 Days of Autism is a project designed to fight stigma, promote civil rights, and increase understanding and acceptance for those who process and experience the world differently.
© Leah Kelley, Thirty Days of Autism, (2013)
Thirty Days of Autism 
Beautiful, Leah. Shared.
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Thank you ❀
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I just love this. So perfectly said. Thank you.
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Aw… thank you, Erin.
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…and that change can feel like loss.
amen. I need to keep this one in mind too. I tend to love new things. On to the next…..bring it!
but, yes, that is not the experience of everyone in my home, thanks for the reminder.
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You are most certainly welcome – I am reminding myself as well…
((Hugs))
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Leah~
It seems to me that deep in the root of all great change and understanding, there is the seed that started out tiny, timid, and not quite sure about any of it. From that discomfort grows beautiful and flowering things that soften people’s hearts and allow them to see. Keep your garden flowering~ you do amazing work.
Andrea
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((Andrea)) Thank you! Your words and beautiful and so encouraging. I appreciate you taking the time… and I may have to print this our and pop in on a little slip of paper in my pocket. That way I can read …and refold …and read …and refold …and literally keep your words with me ❀
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As T gets older, I relate even more. Beautiful, Leah. ❤
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Lori, Thank you…
Sending good thoughts to you and T ❤
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Leah-
I love your blog and found this post particularly poignant. While I think as educators, related service providers, etc. we try to do amazing things, I think we must remember to be kind to ourselves and realize that while we, as you said, look forward, we also miss the freedom of summer where we could do mostly as we pleased without the time constraints of the bell, or the IEP meetings, or this or that.
I know as a related service provider I am looking forward to supporting kids in my own unique way (the only DIRFloortime practitioner in the district) but I also enter the year with trepidation and kind of mourn the loss of summer which seemed so long at the beginning, and is now ending faster and faster! 🙂
Best to you as you enter your new year!
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