Hello All, It’s been a while since I got to spend some time in my virtual home here Under the Maple Tree. I have been rather absent this season, just like at this time last year, because I have been out in the real world more often seeing so many of your encouraging faces at homeschooling conferences and other events. It was such a busy time as I worked and spoke at more conferences than ever this year and had the opportunity to travel across the country to meet even more amazing parents who are walking this crazy homeschooling road with me. What a treat it has been.
Throughout this season, one small lesson has resonated with
me. Perhaps it is because it takes so
many repetitions to get through to such a thick head as mine or maybe it is
just something that the Lord wanted me to learn. I think it’s a bit of both.
On our first family weekend camping trip of the year the
weather was beautifully warm though the water at the beach was still quite
chilly. The kids played the days away in
the water while I just tiptoed in and out around the edges of the water when I
got overheated, the water rippling around my shivering knees. It was a peaceful reprieve, watching the
water moving out in tiny waves from the places where my toes displaced it.
You see, midway through the season, conference season (which
used to be called spring in my world), my precious Nana died. It was sad.
It was hard. But at the same
time, we were relieved for her, hoping that she had finally found peace after a
very long battle with Altzheimer’s disease.
She had long since left us and it was only her body left that finally
gave up. It was, of course a time of
tears and of memories and of telling stories of old. I, being the talker in the family, again got
to share a eulogy for a grandparent. I
remembered her in her big moo-moo dresses, rubber boots, winter coat, slacks
and straw hat in her garden growing more food than the whole family could
eat. I remembered family celebrations
with KFC, kielbasa and cabbage rolls because my uncle didn’t like turkey. After the funeral, when we came home that day
it seemed the most fitting tribute to eat KFC and spend the rest of the day in
the garden. Ripples. Her life cascading into my own.
Most recently we have cried many hours with friends as they
have suffered loss, the results of many years of ripples rocking their boat,
influencing them in ways that they weren’t aware of until they capsized.
Ripples. They have
become a focal point even in the smaller events, seeing how our decisions
affect our children’s decisions, their demeanor, their values. I’ve also noticed that so often we are
affected by what is rippling out from someone else’s life, their ideas, their
actions. So often I want to think that
homeschooling my kids will allow them to come only under my influence but that
is so often proven wrong, and often to their benefit. I don’t always make the right decisions, say
the right things.
The lessons I have been learning this spring are of how
powerfully we are influenced and how we also influence others in ways that we
may not even imagine in this lifetime.
It makes me afraid to dive into my roles, scared that I may unknowingly
be the source of someone else’s undoing.
I think, too, how often I suppose to speak with authority about
something and really I am just flapping my gums, sharing an opinion that may or
may not be founded.
As we formally wrap up another year of schooling I, as usual,
am taking some time to look back and see where we have come from. I see that we have learned a lot, but have we
learned the right things? I also look
forward and anticipate. I know that the
unknown future holds many waves that will rock my boat, waves that will ripple
out and threaten the sunny happy days that I desire for my kids to live
under. But rather than praying for a
smooth ride, I am praying for a strong boat, for a firm foundation, and for
waves that will propel them towards their Saviour rather than sink them in a
mire of uncertainty.
Wishing you, Dear Friends, strength and perseverance as you
ride out the waves that shake you in this season.
Blessings,
Cori
www.mapletreepublications.ca
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