Aars 5: Blink

Krissy here...

As the start of the school year approaches, I've been having mixed emotions about not teaching this upcoming year. As most of you know, my school district didn't support temporary part-time work this year, so I had to take one full year's leave with the kids in order to get them to a preschool that we both liked and could afford. The kids will head to kindergarten in 2012-13, and I will head back to work full time.

What sealed the decision for me last March, though (besides the logistical issues of preschool), when this dilemma presented itself, was a song that came on KTIS. It brought me to tears in my car as I was driving to work: "It happens in a blink. It happens in a flash. It happens in the time it takes to look back. I try to hold on tight, but there's no stopping time. What is this I've done with my life." It was the voice from above, reminding me what was important. My career might be on hold, our spending might have to be limited, but these precious children of mine are growing so fast. It does feel as if I literally "blink" only to find my little ones replaced by these long-legged, articulate creatures. And as I near the one-year anniversary of the death of a friend my age, who passed due to a car accident and left behind a 5 year old and husband, the idea of time passing in a blink is even more salient.

So, while I will miss the excitement of a fresh school year and the intellectual rigors associated with teaching high school history courses, I will be finding new challenges in teaching the 4-year-old set. We've already tackled planets, deserts, oceans, and bugs this summer. (It's been hard for me to relinquish Pluto's "planet" status, though.) The kids ask me dozens of questions each day, some of which are very thoughtful, even at their young ages: "Do people come back to earth and become babies again after they die?" "Why did God make mosquitoes/sharks/etc.?" "Why does God let people be blind?" "Why don't some people have enough food?" It's a daily challenge to keep up with these questions and to come up with coherent, age-appropriate answers that respectfully tackle each.

The song I mentioned earlier eluded me after that first time I heard it. I started to think Jesus himself had sung it over the radio just for me that day :-) But then I heard it on a tv series promotion and then again on KTIS a week or so ago. I raced to the computer to KTIS' site to find the list of songs "recently played" and finally found it. It's called "Blink" by a band called Revive, and it's my favorite right now and my theme song for this year. You can find it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvuxFdM3S58

Here's how far we've come...in a blink, even.