BACK TO SCHOOL -- NOT

The day I have been regretting is Monday. Summer "vacation" is over; summer school has ended; fall sports have done the mandatory practice time and begun their seasons; friends, colleagues, alumni have all prepped their classrooms and started lesson plans; the shopping is complete; the supplies have been purchased.

And so it's "Back to School" time ~ for those still teaching. Monday begins the 2010-2011 HHS school year. Teachers will meet for breakfast in the Great Hall.

Excitement is in the air as everyone catches up on the much-too-short summer. New teachers try to "fit" in; veteran teachers wander in; all wait for the festivities in the theatre. And then it's a faculty meeting before preparation in rooms.

But this year is different for S.A.Mumaugh; I will not be at breakfast;

I will not be at teachers' festivities; I will not be at the theatre;

I will not be at the faculty meeting; I will not be going to Room 1303.

I WILL still be a BRICKIE because "ONCE A BRICKIE, ALWAYS A BRICKIE!"

And now I AM RETIRED!

ONCE UPON A TIME

"ONCE UPON A TIME"

"Nearly every story begins with those words...'once upon a time'...but did you ever think of what, or who they mean?? well..they mean me...I'm Miss On Time...you may know my brother, March Time, or my sister, May Time...I KNOW you know my father...Father Time...he started the whole time business..."

A former student reminded me of these beginning lines from a children's show.

I think I used to define myself by the job that I did, the people that I knew, or the plays that I directed.

Have recently realized that I AM ME!

“I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it -- I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes. Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know -- but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me. However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me. I am me, and I am Okay.”~~Virginia Satir (American Phychologist and Educator, 1916-1988)

I AM AT PEACE!