What a great week! I am back to school for a twenty-fourth year of teaching. It was a great week for so many reasons, but I am going to share three BIG IDEAS – eight, hike, and inspirational. It was so good I think I am going to go back on Monday for another week.

A few weeks ago, I read a blog post by Beth at I Didn’t Have My Glasses On. Her post was a clip of an article about a decree by the president of Turkmenistan concerning the cycle of life. According to the decree, life comes in cycles of 12 years and the cycles are:

• Childhood (birth – 13 years)
• Adolescence (13-25 years)
• Youth (25 to 37 years)
• Maturity (37 to 49 years)
• Prophesy (49 to 61 years)
• inspirational (61 to 73 years)
• Wisdom (73 to 85 years)
• Old Age (85 to 97 years)

I find myself on the cusp of prophecy and inspirational. However, when I look in the mirror, I can see all of the cycles, but I can identify with childhood and adolescence. I believe my kiddos see me where I am on the cusp of being prophetic and inspirational. For the next ten months that is where I will spend most of my weekdays working with kids teaching and learning, but mostly learning, bouncing between cycles.

It was a great week for so many reasons, but I am going to share three BIG IDEAS – eight, hike, and inspirational.

EIGHT
Tuesday I was able to squeeze a baseball game into the week and it made eight games and eight ballparks this season and my eleventh baseball team – the Chicago White Sox. They played my favorite team, the Houston Astros. I gathered a group of eight teacher friends for a night at the ballpark. Seven of them were rooting for the White Sox and I was the lone Astro supporter. It was an excellent game and though my Astros came up short 3-4, it was one of the better games I have seen this year. That is how baseball should be played and the game came down to the last pitch when the White Sox pitcher had to close out the game, and he did. The next day, the Astros trounced the White Sox 21-5 in ablow out. Tuesday night was the better game. I have one more baseball trip scheduled before the regular season ends and that will make nine and ten.

HIKE
Wednesday I came home satisfied my room was ready and I was prepared for the first day of school. It was a beautiful evening and I needed to burn off some energy, so Fern and I went for a hike. We started our hike as the sun was setting. Herrick Lake Forest Preserve always seems to be magical at sunset with the colors and light illuminating the trees and grasses perfectly. I enjoy the hike regardless of the time, but sunset is my favorite time and as the sunset seems to be earlier each day, I have to make hay while the sun shines.

INSPIRATIONAL
As I move from prophetic to inspirational this year, I was thankful to have five classrooms of excited children. My kiddos are in the later stages of the childhood cycle as most of them are eleven to begin the year. Many of them will celebrate their twelfth birthdays with me at some point in the year. Friday’s classes were ‘doing science’ for the first time. I had given them a riddle to figure out – we were focusing on science skills – observation, classification, prediction, and communication. They had no idea they were doing science, but they were all in. We are going to hold on to the riddle until later in the week when I bring it back to finish the week.

It is Sunday and as usual, I have a full day ahead of me. Tasks, play, work, and maybe even a bit of restoration. It’s going to be a great day, so I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day a time, sometimes being a child, sometimes being an adult but always striving to be inspirational.

Which of the Turkmenistan cycles do relate to?