Even though I’ve been thinking about it all school year, my current “temporary institutional stretch” has been on my mind quite a bit lately (mostly because the end of the school year means we should be entering a particular time of transition).  This past weekend I settled on the word “destabilizing” as a handle for the experience as I currently feel it.  And while the word is new for my vocabulary (like this), it’s not a new sensation.  I knew that adding something else would shake up priorities and practices.  But now, on this end, I have a better sense of how good or bad particular “foundations” in my life were (and have either crumbled or served me creatively).

To quote the kid and the tiger, “the days are packed.”  The first three days of this work week have been almost non-stop.  If it’s not classes, it assemblies or meetings or necessary conversation.  Last night I had the joy of celebrating the first birthday of a neighbor (whose parents are dear friends of mine).  It was a good, low-key time for me with little-to-no work talk.  Beyond that, there’s been lot of getting to bed early and not waking up as early as I should.

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Here’s this past Sunday’s “classic” Calvin and Hobbes cartoon from gocomics.com.  The strip (in general) and this strip (in particular) get so many little things right about the human experience, particular as we engage life around us.

I’m grateful, of course, that calamity hasn’t been necessary for me to slow down and appreciate the daily, to live in the present.  Living in the present, of course, can be its own challenge.

Maybe we all just need our own little red wagon to ride down Lookout Hill sometimes.