Sunday, June 9, 2019

continuing the charge




retirement?

well-meaning friends lovingly suggest retirement to me:
sometimes with a plaintive question of when I’ll take that path,
sometimes a sureness of advice that it works so well for them
that they want me to be open
to the possibilities that fit who they are so well,

right now, I feel a rightness in my work,
a sureness that who I am hears a calling,
and still has the wherewithal to answer it well,
I see my school as a city upon a hill
within which the light that is in us can shine bright,
as long as I can still see the kids, the staff, the mission,
and meet it all with my own light,
my own mirror to gather and help focus the rightness,
I want to continue the charge,
I want to share my salt as long as it still has its savor,

for many, retirement allows travel,
for me, I can already find the way out, mostly in the summer:
Wyoming, Iceland, California, Canada,
even Hawaii and New Zealand once during the school year,
plus vacation time in the Smokies,
where I don’t want to live,
for I don’t want to grow accustomed
to what should reveal every day as wonder,

deep in the night
I worry about how long body and mind will hold,
how long spirit can deny the dying of the light,
for as long as I hear the calling,
and can find true ways to act on that calling,
I plan to continue to help school, student, and staff
find the ways forward into the empowerment
that all of us want for our young.

by Henry H. Walker
June 7, ‘19

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