come as you are

the weather is changing, and although the coming rains have loomed as a threat since I decided to move to Portland, I welcome the clouds, the chill, the jacket I haven't worn since before Ecuador. Three of my students built the Seattle space needle today from sand, drift wood, ceramic plate, and plastic turtle. I still haven't been there and alhtough I never really was a big Nirvana fan, the idea of seattle carries for me the mythology of Kirk Cobain as well as Nate Fisher, both dead but never gone. I feel California scurrying around under my skin. I asked my kids "Do y'all have stellar's jays up here?" Up here, where it rains all the time and the lack of sun breeds sadness. At least that's what I hear, but its been bright and sunny since the day i arrived, almost to a fault.

New Job

For two weeks now, I have been preparing to reenter the public system. This time, however, my leaky trailer us replaced by a large classroom inside a museum with large windows and plenty of light. My boss tells me all spaces carry messages about who is welcome, who is not, who hold the power, who does not, who, in essence, is at home here. For two weeks I have been bumbling through trying to create a classroom that says you are welcome here. You are safe.

We are starting the year with the study of change- specifically signs of change, more specifically signs of seasonal change- and here the seeds are flying, bursting. I am asked in this new job, to reframe found items to help children see their beauty, look closer, find wonder. On my walks with elderly Luna dog which are short and close to home, I see the seed pods, dry and brittle, long and green, round and spiky. I arrive home with my bag full and beg my neighbor to give me her old artichokes gone to seed in the front garden. To me, they are beautiful. And so, I begin this journey of rediscovering my own wonder (please, let this be so. Please let teaching be joyful, not a quagmire of paper and discipline and endless meetings. Please). I have high hopes for working in a charter school that includes the search for beauty as part of their mission.