Saturday, May 17, 2025

the continuity of quality


 new actors in the play


the French have a saying:

"the more things change, the more they remain the same,"


I have often found that a discouraging idea,

fearing that despite our hopes for progress,

we slip again and again into dysfunction,

today I saw a hopeful take on that continuity,

of true lessons learned again, and practiced,

a relatively new Friends high school teacher

has, on his own, brought kids from his chemistry class

to the early school, where they demonstrate

the "wow" of science to 3-5 year-olds,

a potentially magic time when doors can lead into wonder, or maybe not,

this teacher remembers both being a kid

and the doors that opened for him, or didn't,

the young ones circled on the floor

before his caring students, belying stereotypes of the distant adolescent,

they carefully, sensitively shared the "wow" of the demonstrations,


I loved to see the soft caring within the high school students

who knew how to tend the curiosity and wonder

within the young ones before them,

responding with care to ideas that missed the mark,

and more enthusiastically when a 5 year old knew what a "catalyst" is,


as a school we just published a book of stories from former staff

who used their time with their students, well,

how wonderful to see that same care, that same vision

still alive and well,


things change,

thank God the centrality of love, competence, and joy,

has not changed, just new actors in the play.



by Henry H. Walker

May 15, ‘25

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

where we are within where everything else is

 

Relationship


an atom by itself is as nothing,

only in connection to other atoms, in quantity,

does its self become real,

and able to act substantially upon the world,


our world is of atoms joined with their like

and then joined with their other,

hydrogen joins with oxygen, and we have water,


such thoughts come to me today, 

maybe 2 miles into my hike,

I walk the ridges and watercourses

saved near me by the Triangle Land Conservancy,

I think and seek to understand and plot where I am

by connecting it in my spatial understanding

to where I was and to where I aim to be,

it's relationship,

the relationship of where I am in space

to where all else is,


how much is that like where I find my values?

I feel, and then I think,

and I consider what actions to undertake 

as to how to move within the world

so as to get closer to where I think we should be,


we humans can hate to be alone,

we can feel lost,

undefined, unknown, unappreciated, unconnected,

the bridge is a powerful symbol for us,

for with it, we can access the other,

the other place, the other person,

and we do not feel so lost and alone,


when social position, and thus destiny, was a given,

all knew their place within a larger whole, a chain of being,

we could find comfort in knowing that position within the whole,

yet that comfort was also a prison,

a genius of America, and also its potential tragedy,

is we believe the individual has the freedom 

to redefine self and relationship,

when it works, it's great,

and we find a new path

into new connections, new relationships,

a redefinition of where we are, where others are,

and this new world can feel so right,

and it can also feel so wrong and scary,

and we can feel lost and unsure,

we can be as if drowning

and push down others we fear,

enemies, immigrants, the other tribes,


I hope for better:

love can be a good answer 

to feeling lost and alone,

again, establishing relationship,

with a partner, with the calling of a job,

with the world outside our skin,

maybe nature can spark us 

to build relationship with it:

the mountains, the ocean, birds, flowers, 

the wolf and the bear and the elephant,

the trees around our homes, the gardens we tend,


and, if we're lucky, 

another person enlarges who we are,

such a relationship can ground us,

so that being alone and lost is less and less true,

since we better know where and who we are,

we can know ourselves home,

better than any GPS app can tell us where we are.



by Henry H. Walker

May 5, ‘25

Monday, May 12, 2025

a secret to teaching


 believe in


nothing a teacher can ever do

is as important as 

seeing a student,

knowing a student,

believing in a student,

and helping that student release

who they've always known themselves to be,

at their deepest, within,


though, at the time,

"known" is not as sure as "hoped."



by Henry H. Walker

May 5, ‘25

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Thank you, Mother!

 

Mother's Day


what do we seek to honor during Mother's Day?


maybe to remember that each of us 

was called out of the mist

and nurtured much of a year within the mother,

as primal a work as we can know,

yet, despite how basic and vital 

conception is, and birthing is,

there are long days and years of childhood

which often call the mother to be there, 

and to give fully,

holding the young to her

and also releasing them to become who they need to be,

putting up with what can feel right to the child

and can feel outrageous to the adult,


I have worked hard as a father,

but I still am in awe of what can be

the all-consuming love of the mother,

when no one else seems there,

the mother walks the extra mile,

watch people on the screen, 

caught for a moment,

who do they reach out to with their words?

"Hi, Mom!"


at our best, who we are

should often credit the mother 

who bore us,

who raised us,

who let us fly free,

despite how hard the letting go was.


Thank you, Mother!


by Henry H. Walker

May 7, ‘25