wrapped up in community

the community of CFS   

Carolina Friends is a school,
an institution,
a business,
all wrapped around a community,
a community that only comes to be
if logistics are right,
if parents and staff choose the institution
so that resources can come together
and student meet teacher,

from the fertile affirmations and connections
a community comes into being
within the womb of the institution,


when I first saw this school
I was struck by the smiles near everywhere,





and throughout my decades here
I have witnessed staff and student alike
flare into the sureness of their selves,

students and staff move on,
and I work to ready myself
for the rightness of that change,
every leaving feels like it leaves me lesser,
even when it can feel as a bird leaving the nest to fly,
I am still selfish, though,
and I will miss each piece of the past gone
that allows for the growth of each new future.


by Henry H. Walker
December 1, ’12