How to Purposefully Start the School Year for Your Children and Yourself

 

Intentions: Goals... Preparing for Your Children AND yourself as you start the new school year. Take the time to let the dust settle in the first week may make all the difference in the world.

Yesterday I invited several friends to join me for coffee and intention setting for ourselves and our kids for the school year. Women arrived, we chatted, we sipped coffee and tea. It was exceptionally restful and refreshing.

I didn’t call it a coaching group or a mastermind group, but elements of it were there.

Why?

• We had a purpose.

• We each shared a willingness to gather and participate heartfully.

• We felt an instant community of like spirited women.

I learned a few things, too. I learned some women gathered on the first day of school for margaritas or mimosas. That’s fine, too: a celebration is a celebration is a celebration.

I have always been so delighted to get back to work in a quiet home I never took the time to invest in the very important stage of reorientation to life as a more active creator beyond being a mother.

Before the others arrived I wrote in my notebook:

Emma is a senior.

Samuel is an eighth-grader.

Katherine is a graduate student.

I am…..

And there it sat for a while as I wrote around the meanings that could find themselves on my final draft of intentions.

               What do I

-        Hope

-        Intend

-        Pray

-        Wish

For my children and

For me

This school year?

And there it sat for a while longer as I wrote about my surroundings:

"There's a little boy named Phoenix who is sitting on the other side of the glass from me. How long until he matches his name? What will he rise from? For now he is completely focused on his share of the breakfast sandwich carefully (or is consciously a better word choice?) by his caregiver."

Between the blue lines of my notebook I asked questions:

What if I focused on a to-be rather than churning out an endless list of “to-do’s?”

What if I was playfully curious around a “wouldn’t it be wonderful” list rather than a wistful wish list?

 The discovery started and continues as we are now in day two of the school year. I realized I don’t have to get my intentions all settled into written form or even possibility form on the first day. I have relaxed into not having to function like a microwave Mommy.

I know a few things, though.

 

This year my youngest is my tallest! Funny how when we go back to school, we notice all the differences from the past year. An added bonus: we all get a fresh start

I know my desire is to feel at peace even if the situation doesn’t appear peaceful. I practiced this by smiling and doing tonglen meditation this morning when waiting to talk to Emma’s counselor this morning to fix her schedule. There was a lot of hurting and unsureness in that office today and I hoped to be part of bridging to peace for others as well as myself.

 

I know my desire is to express gratitude, daily.

I also hold this intention in my heart: to be transformed in my behavior and attitude in regards to both my children’s education and my life work. I’ve been in a cancer-fear holding pattern… A “WHAT IF?!” space where the wall isn’t made of just bricks, it is made up of consecutive towers of bricks.

This week is a time of fresh starts, new beginnings and literally creating a new foundation to build upon now. My children are growing up and I am continuing to grow up so that I may serve the world as I have been called to do.

On the first day back to school, Samuel jumped onto the bus with a spring in his step

 

I encourage you to take time to ask yourself relevant questions, to write, to ask more questions, to go more deeply and to build this year so that you will feel peace, know gratitude and boldly step into whatever your next thing you are called into now.

What are your intentions as you start the new school year - for YOU as well as for your children?

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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Coming soon - more creativity camps, playgrounds and workshops to grow yourself artistically (and hey, just for fun!)

 

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