where am I?

 

forever young?

"May you stay forever young. . ."

a Bob Dylan song that sings to my heart,

I have spent over half a century

being a middle school teacher,

feeling called to the challenge

of being with, seeing, knowing, appreciating young people

who are exuberantly themselves,

even when they misjudge who that self is, at its best,

they have called me to stay young, at its best:

fully present, feeling the next to be even more empowering than the last,

equally attracted to the sublime and to the ridiculous,

to the sacred and to the profane,

to being fully in the moment, and positive,

to being fully in myself,

to be "young" is a challenge,

every moment a new revelation,

the shock of its newness, daunting,

excitement pulls forward, the future an open gift,

the moment enormous in its revelation,

and now I need to no longer be "forever young"

in the way I have been for over 50 years at my Quaker school,

for I am tired, I am stretched,

like too little butter on too much bread,

I am stressed,

body and soul no longer quite so limber and capable,

I need to be ok with being old,

with its gifts, and with its losses,

I hope my heart will still remember the truth

of every moment as a sacred gift.

by Henry H. Walker

February 2, ‘24