The Shift

The Shift

I feel the shift of fall.

Many years ago, my friend Carrie, offered me this sensation that resonated immediately and inspired me to write. Carrie says that she can smell the shift. I see it in the colour of fall. The way the evening sunlight bounces orange like over the dinner table and causes me to think that it is time to retire for the evening. Like the character Joe Fox, in the movie You’ve Got Mail, it is the time of year when I am compelled to buy bouquets of yellow HB pencils for friends. It is also that time when I find myself fortunate to be able to walk through institutional steel doorways, effortlessly, like I have been doing it all of my life. I almost have.

I started school forty-four years ago and there have been very few years since then that I haven’t started school. When I finished high school, I was tired of that place called school and had no intention of ever going to school again. Needless to say, my parents were devastated. I began working for a hotel, cleaning rooms, and when I rode the student packed city bus to work that first morning in September when University had begun, I yearned to be one of those rucksack-clad bodies with new clothes and a fresh new outlook. I knew right then, that I wasn’t finished with school.

I am a lifelong learner and although I miss being with those amazing little beings in a classroom that once filled my life with vigor and joy, I am content and satisfied knowing that that part of my life is finished. But not my learning about those little ones or that place called school…

Which brings me to this: School is not just a place but plays one of the most important roles in our lives. My wish this year is that teachers will honour this so that our students will as well. I want to wish each and every learner a transformational year.

Enjoy and envelop the shift...

Ellyn....

Our Virginia Creeper climbs and climbs...