It is coming...

Do you hear it?  Has it started for you yet?  I heard it for the first time yesterday.  Tick tock, tick tock.  I stopped and cocked my head.  Was I really hearing this sound?  So soon?  I'm not ready!  I have too much left to do, I screamed in my head.

What was this sound?  You know it.  The sound the remaining minutes of summermake as they run away.  In their place, the call of a new school year.  Tick tock, tick tock.  This is the 9th year I've heard the call, the summons really, to return to structure.  To put aside leisure.  To embrace change and challenge.

Am I ready?  NO! Luckily, the sound is fairly quiet so far.  But, every day I know it will become louder...louder....louder until like the narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart, I must accept the sound...but without the madness and murder. :)

Enjoy the quiet, but be ready.  Tick tock, tick tock.  You will hear it before you are ready.

Over

I am used up
exhausted
confused

On the outside
once again
nose pressed
to the glass
wanting, waiting
to be asked in

Excuses flood my ears
Frustration overflows

One day I will
stop
turn around
walk away
to my own
place
where everyone
is invited
in

A True Love

10 Book That Helped Me Grow Up:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (my #1 of all time.  How did Betty Smith create a character that was me?!)
Anne of Green Gables
Stuart Little
Nancy Drew (all of them!)
Cherie Ames, Student Nurse
The Yearling
Leaving Home
Hope of Earth
The Cay
Mrs. Mike

10 YA Books I'm So Glad I Discovered:

Twilight (sadly, not the entire series)
Willow
13 Reasons Why
If I Stay
Because I Am Furniture
Boy At War
Locomotion
The Looking Glass Wars
Looking For Alaska
Purple Heart

I look around my house and everywhere there are books.  Books to be read. Books to be remembered.  Nonfiction.  Fiction.  All books. As unique as my family, as my students.  Each as important to who I am.  I love my books.

Summer

I think about what to write
It feels like nothing has been going on
Nothing out of the ordinary that is
Is that bad?
Is that wrong?

I worry about people thinking I am lazy
All summer off
I don't have much to show
Is that bad?
Is that wrong?

I wonder about the future
How can I heal the hurts
Smooth the path
Is that bad?
Is that wrong?

Then I realize I am in the right place
A place of calm and rest
Time to get my strength back
It is not bad.
It is not wrong.

Lucky

Everyone says
I am
lucky,
and most of the time
I agree.

They are
successful,
happy,
healthy -
all that a mama
could want.

But when I least expect it
I feel the knife in my gut

Doubled over
I search for
the happiness
I know I should feel
as I watch
my babies
all
grow
up.