The frenetic pace of the holidays ended, January school days bring about welcome change. Long, quiet, studious days—no sounds in the classroom, but the scratching of pencils on loose leaf and the gentle perking of the class hot cocoa pot. It’s a nice time of year—freezing cold outside, yet warm in so many ways inside. Learning, growing—the days are passing—January ticking off the days of the New Year like the secondhand of a clock. These days of this first month, quiet and unhurried as they can be, serve to remind us that life itself is composed of silent, soundless days, not unlike these “snowglobe” days of winter. But these days, and so I tell my students, are meant to be treasured. Not to be regarded as the dull winter days, but rather as the passing of something you will never know again, and we will never be the same because of it.
January days remind us that there is much value in the “average day.” Take the time to take a good look at everyone and everything around you one of these bright and chilly mornings and keep those pictures tucked away in your hearts for a day when January is long gone.
