on slowing down.

Sipping Italian coffee for an hour with a postcard view and birds chirping like they’re straight up from a sleep therapy machine, I wonder what it’s like to be rich.

If I were rich I would travel and have a live-in au-pair and adopt coffee cultures from around the world.  My husband and I would take up sailing and still respect our music and education passions, but only say yes to gigs for the love, not the money.  

Twenty more minutes pass, and my pint-sized daughter is still latched on to a disfigured white peach, gnawing like nobody's watching.  Savoring each bite and clawing her baby finger nails at the fuzzy fruit skin, she’s hoping not to miss the sensation of the varying textures of what appears to be, in her eyes, an edible toy.  

We may not be rich, but we are on vacation.  Well, mostly vacation since my husband’s here on business and we’re toting a toddler, but either way..we are breathing in life and noticing the subtle beauties that might otherwise pass us by.  

Far, far, away from home, the only thing we can do is enjoy ourselves.  Laundry, bills and to-do lists don’t exist.  Pleasure is mandatory.  

Ascona, Switzerland

Yesterday, my family and I literally stopped to smell the roses every few feet for a good fifteen minutes.  Why don’t I take these mindful pauses in my New Orleans life?  It takes less time than eight blind scrolls through Facebook. Definitely less time than a Pinterest search for a quiche recipe I’ll buy ingredients for, but probably never make.  

I began to wonder why I don’t take more mindful pauses in the classroom.  Imagine reading a juicy novel with students, stopping for a five minute tangent when an author punches the reader in the gut with a killer opening line, or asking kids to stare at an art piece for not ten seconds, but sixty!

Encouraging awareness of the five senses beyond kindergarten instruction and making “wait time” more than an observation rubric buzzword...stopping to smell the roses instead of spinning the hamster wheel as we often do...

The shift would mean trading some of the insta-result, pump and dumpness for some long-term, non-measurable learning experiences.

And I’m okay with that.

If I could inspire my students to take the scenic route sometimes, rather than the Google Maps short-cut, who knows where life could take them!  Educationally speaking or otherwise.  

Hey, maybe all of this vacay headspace has me idealizing things, as vacation often does.  I like it though.  The naysayers and hard realities of this teaching life don’t come out to play on summer break and we’re given plenty time to gather our shiny, new ideas to put to the test come fall.  

I hope you’re living la dolce vita teachers!  Power to the teacher.