Back to School Inspiration!

It’s all about “Back to School” at the Mason household! We have new backpacks, new tennis shoes, new pencils, pens, and erasers to rival every color of the rainbow, and even new haircuts to boot! But better than anything, we all know around here that “Back to School” means a new, clean slate! Even if you are not hopping on the bright yellow school bus with lunch box in hand, “Back to School” can be an opportunity to set new goals, re-prioritize how we spend our time, energy, and gifts, let go of the things (habits, relationships, attitudes) that haven’t served us well over the past year, do a soul-check on the health of our mind, body, and spirit, and invite new adventures, passions and experiences into our lives.

The night before the first day of school, we had a family caucus around the Mason dinner table where we lifted up our expectations and hopes for our kids in the new school year:

*Acts of kindness

*Discipline when there is work to be done

*The importance of first impressions

*More kindness

*An open heart to new experiences and friends

*Include God in your day

*Courage when things don’t go our way

*Resilience when we hit the inevitable bumps in the road

*Sunday is the sabbath

*Family dinners

*Respect others and yourself

*Gratitude, Gratitude, Gratitude! 

I also did a special blessing on each child before they went to sleep. I call it my “lavender oil anointing!” Not only does it calm the anxious “first day” jitters and encourages a dreamy night’s sleep, but most importantly it invites a little more of the sacred and holy into our lives. I think it is the catholic in me (married to a Catholic!) but I look for any opportunity to bless those I love and remind them that God is with them and will always be…especially on the first day of 1st grade!

The following is a poem by Walt Whitman to inspire:

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not about God, have patience and indulgence toward people…re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your very soul, and your very flesh shall become a great poem.

Live in Hope,

Farrell