My middle aged mirror...

Dear Parents,

My father has said to me, "I look into the mirror and some old guy looks back at me." When I first heard him say this I smiled, thinking of the humor implied, after all he is and always has been "Dad" to me. In my mind he has always been a bit older and a lot wiser than me, but he has also always been full of the energy of a 20 or 30 year old. Sure when I think back on my childhood and picture my dad, he does look a bit younger than now, but that's simply not important, he is the person who I looked up to while he raised me and still look up to now. As in all father and son relationships we have had our ups and downs. I know I wasn't always the best teenager to have around, but that didn't matter to him in the long run. I know that because he stuck it out through my adolescence and has always done his utmost to make life the best he could for our family and for me. As I was looking in the mirror the other day, I saw a little clearer what my dad was saying. I too am starting to see an older guy looking back at me. I don't necessarily feel any older. I still enjoy joking around with my class of 8, 9, and 10 year olds. I still have a few personal goals I want to achieve like hiking the length of the Pacific Crest Trail or taking a ride in a hot air balloon. But when I look at the mirror, I do see some added wrinkles on my face - lines made there from experience as well as those creases that show a person who is quick to smile and does so more often than not. Ruminating on this led me to brew a cup of tea. And there on the side of the Celestial Seasonings True Blueberry Caffeine Free Herbal Tea box was written a short piece that brought a few things into perspective.

The Poetics of Middle Age

My closest friend of forty years informs me that rather than "middle" aged, the French say mûr, which means "ripe." Ready then - at last! - to be savored. And indeed, in those strange and yet familiar lines of her face I recognize not the unfairness of time, but its justice, its generosity, its capacity to fit people together so perfectly. As for the "big questions," they've somehow lost their intrigue. "What are we here for?" now seems less pressing than, "Who are we here for?" After all, we'll never be able to answer the first. But the second...well, we need only to take a look around!

David Jacoby

Okay, maybe it's my grey hair speaking, but it seems to me that once we become parents we are all "mûr," that our own life questions have changed from "Why are we here?" to "Who are we making a difference for?" As parents it is the central guiding question that is answered every day when we help our children wake up, give them a healthy breakfast, send them off to school with a smile, and greet them with open arms when they return home. As Swan School parents you have chosen to answer this question by going a bit further, you have become part of a community of families that value the healthiness and happiness of all our children's lives. We have each made a commitment to invest our time, our money, our skills, our hearts, and our passions into our children, an investment that brings uncounted rewards (and frankly is much more secure than any investment in today's stock market). The foundation that you are building for your children as a part of the Swan School community is something that will not only be solid enough to hold their growth through childhood, but it will also serve them will through their adult lives... as they too become mûr.

When you look in the mirror in the future I am certain that you will see an older and happy self gazing back, with lines of generosity and an expression of contentment - satisfied with the happiness of all the children you have helped raise.

Russ