Moments and Moons

Moments and Moons

I love the Moon. The moon always changes, yet repeats itself enough to offer comfort during trying times. The Moon pulls at us, helps by providing a tide so young beachgoers have waves to jump (yep, that’s the reason for the tides, I’ve decided just today!) and surfers can hang ten, and it reminds us of days gone by, and the possibilities of those yet to come.

Last night was a full Moon eclipse – we had ourselves a blood Moon – and at work, you could definitely tell it’s a full Moon kind of day. The Moon pulls at the Earth’s waters, causing the tides to exist, and in education – especially elementary education – it also pulls at the students. Today there were far More issues involving emotion (something the Moon is said to effect and/or have control over) than anyone expected, and this kind of thing reminds me to appreciate my Moments. 

Yesterday, my internet decided to die, right as I was wrapping up my Blog o’ L. I was a bit frustrated, but decided to go to bed early and read – more of a rare activity than I’d like to admit, at least as of late – since my cable/internet provider was having issues and wouldn’t be able to restore service for a while. As I was relaxing with a couple good books and a couple of even better dogs, wondering if I’d end up staying up to watch the eclipse (nope, I zonked, and it ended up too cloudy to see, anyway), but I got a moment of comfy coziness in during that unexpected Moment of snuggling with book and pup.

The different phases of the Moon represent different things – waxing, or growing bigger, Moon phases represent times to think about what we want to bring into our lives, while waning, or shrinking, Moon phases are times to reflect and act upon what we want to remove from our lives. Dark Moons are times of fresh starts, and full Moons are times for protection…and sometimes perhaps a bit of extra romance, MMM? Just as the phases of the Moon differ and are for different types of reflections, so are the different Moments we have, and I try really hard to appreciate these Moments as often and as Much as possible. Whenever I am blessed to experience one. Example: I’m the testing coordinator at my school, and was helping a student log out of her reading test today. She was holding her breath oddly, so I walked out of the computer lab with her, and asked her if she was okay. As it turns out, even though she was the last one in to test during that session, she was trying really hard to follow the rule of not talking during the testing sessions. That rule was designed to help prevent student A from disturbing student B, or vice versa, but she was so determined to do the right thing, she held her breath as she walked out of the room. When I asked her why she held her breath, she told me she was so excited that the reading test was so much fun! She had been worried she couldn’t do the test, since she’s a lower reader, and told me that she hadn’t really believed me when I told her I knew she can (my Mantra for my students)…and then she said she believed me now, and SHE knew she can do it!  Then she squeezed me in a stomach-level hug, and pranced (I kid you not) off to class. That Moment of a student being so excited about believing in herself that she held her breath to make sure she still followed the rules – wow! It never ceases to impress me how considerate my students truly are when they flip that switch into awareness of others.

What Moments have you experienced recently?  I hope they are wonderful!

JBB