how full the glass?

The Middle Schooler

the middle schooler:

an incredible person

fraught with the challenges

of physical, social, and emotional changes,

just getting up and surviving the day

can seem like a victory,

the sureness of being a child

held safe in a parent’s arms,

gone way, at least for awhile,

the sureness of being a child

awake to the wonder within a moment,

within a belief, within a world that is stable,

all shattered by the double-edged sword

that empowers ability and disempowers sureness,

I love the middle schooler,

I see the wholeness of who each is,

despite the doubt and fear and hesitancy

that can plague every moment,

I am in awe of how often they can risk

and find enough faith to leap, despite the fear of falling,

this weekend I was in the mountains with ten middle schoolers,

each of whom is navigating a way through their changes,

each of whom deserves praise for how full each fills the glass,

and sympathy for how hard the glass is to fill.

by Henry H. Walker

April 21, ‘18