Member-only story
My Spirit Lives On
a poem-y letter to my teacher friends from your student’s spirits
The Email
Before I go into work as a substitute teacher at my own kid's high school I always check my email . . . in case something has changed. I wasn’t prepared for this email.
As I read the information everything stopped — my heart, my breath, my thinking — then I felt life begin again only this time in slow motion. A student had left this Earth. The email came with a prayer that I read out loud in my office as my face felt flush, tears streamed, my body filled with heat and a familiar prickly/tingling. I set out for what was the hardest day of my subbing career.
My class for the day, all Seniors, went to the chapel for a prayer service then back to class. Once in the class, with the light dimmed we “rang the bell” as I do for intentions. It was a moving continuation of the prayer service. I asked the kids how I could support them offering a few suggestions and they chose to sit in silence.
Not Your Ordinary Quiet
I have a picture of Jesus at the Garden on a moonlit night it has been in my bedroom for over 50 years and I often wondered what it would be like to sit in silence . . . now I know.
