June has been full of transitions. For one, Golden Bridges School graduated our first 8th grade class. For most of these students, the transition into High School will be their first major school transition. A whole slew of "new" is on the horizon - friends, teachers, commutes, expectations, tests! In speaking with them the week they graduated, they articulated a healthy balance of nervousness and excitement. They are ready for this transition. It's has a date and time and they are prepared.
Also this month, two of my best friends lost their mothers to disease. While each died sooner than anyone had hoped and the grief will ripple and surge over time, they had what was described as a "good" death. There was time for sentimental and earnest goodbyes. Family and friends were able to visit and share good wishes. They were prepared. And as happens every year at Golden Bridges, we say goodbye to colleagues and families who are packing up their lives and moving out of San Francisco. One family who moved told me they had known they would move out of the city eventually while another said they thought they would see their children grow up in this city where they were born. But circumstances are drawing them away, their bags are packed and after months of planning and preparation, off they went. Developing awareness and personal practices to move through transitions can bring grounding precisely when the ground is moving. Do you have any physical or spiritual practices that keep you grounded when you are in the midst of a major transition? Do you tend towards routine as a grounding or do you throw yourself fully into the whirlwind? Do you find that you react differently when a transition is sudden versus decided on and planned? Personally, I have a find myself revisiting prior transitions as a new one approaches. I recall the impermanence of the transition itself and remember that there is another side to it. In the present moment, it's often hard to imagine what life was like before that transition. The most obvious example for me was giving birth. That transition to becoming a mother took one day. ONE DAY! January 5, no baby. January 6, baby! Of course, that wasn't a surprise but nevertheless, unimaginable. The past is hard to remember and the future is unimaginable. Standing in between is sometimes so uncomfortable. But it's now. It's where we are. All we can do is take a deep breath and trust that the path we've taken to get to this point has prepared us for what is to come. See you on the other side.
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Summer is around the corner.
While we near the end of the “100 days of May” we sense the approach of the expansiveness of summer. I am referring to the earthly expansiveness of long days, sunshine (as long as you’re not living in the Outer Sunset in San Francisco), and fully blossomed flowers and greenery. The northern hemisphere is leaning back, arms stretched open and hearts are open to the warmth and light of the sun. This is the earthly gesture that exists in stark contrast to the winter with the darkness, cold, and general sense of introspection. We are open, we are energized, and possibilities are endless. Summer also brings disruption to the rhythm of the school year. All of a sudden our children are untethered and as parents, we take on a new task of curating a summer experience for them. For many that means a scramble to find childcare options with camps, extended family, using vacation time from work, and relying on friends and neighbors. There can be a breathlessness to the expanse. For others, summer may offer an opportunity to leave town and gain perspective from travel or simply distance from the day-to-day life. Reaching a point of boredom may be touted as a victory after a packed school year. I have a tip. A simple tip to bring nourishment to your summer. Find nature. That’s it. It can be going to the beach (local’s tip, bring a sweatshirt), going to Golden Gate Park, McLaren Park or the Presidio. Driving a bit further and going to Pescadaro, the Santa Cruz Mountains, or Point Reyes National Park. Or beyond and beyond to any place where there are dense trees, open meadows, a long horizon, a tall peak, and bad cell reception. INHALE the expansiveness of summer. Take a walk or a picnic. Find nature as much as possible, every evening, every weekend. Our bodies are building up a store of expansiveness. At this time of year, we are drunk from spring after the darkness of winter. Notice that you and/or your children are a little wily? That looseness will settle and the next phase is to lean into the cycle of our seasons is to immerse ourselves in beauty and spaciousness, building up those reserves, charging our batteries, to once again cycle back into fall and winter. Wishing you a lovely and nourishing summer. Each year I speak to dozens of prospective families about our school. Over the years I’ve fine-tuned how I talk about our school philosophy, ethos, purpose, and the examples of how our ideals are expressed in the classroom experience. A frequent question I get is about how prepared our students are for the future. While families naturally ask about how well prepared students will be for high school I notice that most lean in when we start discussing the emotional well-being of students. Why?
To live among each other, to live in relationship with each other, while trying to tune into our own well-being - it’s part of the human condition at school and in life. School is an incredible social experiment. Students of all backgrounds are in classrooms led by trained teachers offering an academic, and if they’re lucky, a social-emotional curriculum with consistent assessments of the students' achievement in these various subjects. If we zoom in, we’ll see a classroom of unique individuals who come with talents and gifts alongside challenges and obstacles. And regardless of academic achievements, each student grows up and becomes a person in the world interacting with other people in the world. Let’s not work to remove obstacles but rather teach children how to face them. As caregivers, we hold our own children in the highest light. If there is another student in the class who we observe as disruptive or loud or causing trouble, we might reach out to the teacher to ask that the child be removed from the class so that my child can have a more positive experience. What if we challenge that impulse? Our children must learn to have compassion and understanding for those who are struggling and have curiosity about the differences we notice. As adults, we do not have the luxury of moving people out of the way if they are creating an inconvenience. Do you like every coworker? Have you ever insisted they be removed? If so, that would be consistent with what most of us witnessed and learned from our own schooling. What if we instead learned to not only tolerate them but see them as a gift? What if you challenged the anger or annoyance you felt and thought about what you could learn? Can you hold both? What if our children tuned into their feelings and also the opportunities presented with each obstacle? Understanding this basic social nature of humanity, at Golden Bridges School we choose to center the human experience and create a learning environment that acknowledges and supports a balance of the individual well-being and the well-being of the whole. Building these skills is not only essential to having a successful high school experience but is one that works throughout life. Curious about how this plays out in our community? I’d love to connect with you! - how to ask this in any situation This isn't an easy topic, and it’s just the type of inquiry we love to explore. Thank you for considering this perspective. We invite you to join our exploration within your own daily life and join us for some values-aligned events and offerings below. Until next month! It’s hard not to notice that spring has arrived here in San Francisco. Beneath the grey skies, under the sheets of rain and hail, are the blossoming bulbs of daffodils.
Observing and celebrating the seasons gives all of us, and especially children, a sense of place in the world and an understanding of time as it passes. The rhythm of the earthly seasons mirrors the rhythm of our soul seasons. That rhythm allows us to re-center ourselves. We are stepping out of winter, the darkest season where we have to use our internal will to create the light, into spring where light is racing to shine through in our environment. How do you celebrate the changing seasons in your community? With the vibrant and lively spring festival Holi? Greeting the spring as a new chapter with Persian New Year? Spring is abundant with cultural traditions and celebrations, including the commemoration and celebration of Earth Day. Were there any decorations or visual markers in your home, school, or neighborhood that indicated the new season? One simple way to bring the rhythm of the changing seasons from outside into your home is to carve out a small space for a nature corner. This could be a corner of the kitchen counter, a small side table, a mantel, or even next to the bathroom sink. In the spring the nature corner might include a few fresh flowers, a small bowl of freshly planted seeds that will grow in the coming days, any object that may represent springtime from your religious or cultural traditions, or even something that has a splash of color. The nature corner brings the season inside and creates a bridge for your family between the natural phenomena outside into the home. With spring upon us, we are watching collard greens flourishing at our school farm. We would love to embrace the changing season with you and welcome you to connect with our community. Happy Spring Everyone! |
AuthorJessie Elliot is one of the founding teachers of Golden Bridges School and a mother of a teen and a tween. Archives
April 2024
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