This March I will be participating in the month-long Slice of Life Challenge. Each day I am posting a ‘slice’ from my life. I have been using prompts from Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir to explore memories. But today I had to write about a small moment that brought me joy. I haven’t seen students in over 8 days and I’m worrying that it will be months before we get back to teaching. So I volunteered to help distribute lunches to children and families in our town and was able to see dozens of kids as they pulled up to get food. They looked so happy to see teachers and a few even wrote cards for us to give to their teachers. My heart melted. I won’t share a photo of any families out of respect for their privacy, but this is my colleague Cheryl (on right) and a city councilman (on left) and my principal Teresa took the photo. Today I finally felt like I was “doing something”. WIN!
When the cars pulled up
and the windows rolled down
grins burst forth
from all of our faces.
“Hi!! I miss you!”
a simultaneous… ‘jinx’
from both sides of the window.
A desire to rush up
and wrap our arms around them
was shelved for now.
With 6 foot social distancing,
we showered them with smiles.
as they scooped up the food
and talked about life.
“How is your sister?”
“Have you read some good books?”
“Did you play in the snow?”
Before driving off
we tucked in much love
with waving hands.
“See you soon!”
“Be well!”
“Bye!”
for now…
litcoachlady 
There’s nothing like human contact during this time…so glad you could volunteer your time and help those in need!
That desire to run up and hug is so hard to hold. I’m glad you were able to help. I did a zoom with my students yesterday and while not all of them came, I was relieved and blessed to be with them.
I never thought I would miss them all so much! So different from vacations.
I love this! The way you wrote it is so perfect! I am glad you were able to see their faces and emotions something sitting behind a computer screen doesn’t always allow. I am glad you had such a meaningful day!
It was the highlight of my week!
Poetry “the best words in the best order.” (Coleridge) You’ve done that exquisitely here with the entire poem but the verbs “shelved,” “showered,” “tucked in”? Extra-ordinary! (Nothing happens without great verbs!) Thanks for this.
That is beautiful, Paula. I wondered at first how you would distribute the food, but you just got to watch from a distance. What a special “doing something” this was! How nice for the children to get to make connections!
That’s awesome and I’m sure you “tucked in much love.”
“I was finally doing something” is exactly how I want to feel each day. It’s so important to feff EF l as though we’re part of the solution. I took a box of books to a family w/ four kids yesterday. I’m going to call our district office and offer to help w/ meal distribution.
Nothing could be more fulfilling could it than helping out especially at a time like this! What a great day it must have been and how happy the kids must have been to at least ‘see’ other people! I love the way you ‘tucked in much love with waving hands’!!