Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Dr.

     Today would be "Read Across America" in our local elementary school.  I have been implored, begged, harassed, and in all manners just about beaten by my children into visiting their classrooms to beguile the class with tales read from a Dr. Seuss book.  I can't recall exactly how many years it has been since this ritual began.  I must admit that each year brings its own special brand of trepidation.  The littlest audiences are usually the most brutally honest with the most acute questions. And so I gather myself and prepare to walk down to the school.
      My little one is not so little anymore and this will be her final year in the elementary grades.  It will be all too soon that she will accompany her sister on her daily walk to the next school.  The clock has once again fooled me and somehow let the time fly by.  Where have all those minutes gone?  This will be my last walk down the block to take up a book and read in front of those little not-so-little faces.  The material will be slightly more mature and meaningful than the good Dr. had written but the pages will be few.  Those classroom minutes will disappear quicker than all those years and minutes before.  I will remember the story that I read because it is the same tale I read a few years prior in the same classroom.  I will remember it for its content and the moral it conveyed.  But most of all I will remember it because of my daughter's beaming smile.
     Today was my final walk down to the little school to read for my daughter and her classmates.  Today was the final day my daughter will wish my presence in her classroom.  Today was bittersweet.  We have all outgrown Dr. Seuss and in doing so have outgrown the elementary school.  The years have disappeared but the memories will linger.  Maybe one day I will get a chance to visit with the Dr. again.

1 comment:

  1. beautifully written...capturing the beginnings of the endings, until a new one, although very different, begins again... slow down time...

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