I'm thinking about eternity (Bruce Cockburn)

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash

Start of school hyper brain activity has been back to haunt me for the last few nights.

Happens every time - my brain goes into overload territory with the thousand night-time thoughts that come to me as I'm getting prepared for the students rocking up on the first day of the year. 

Flooding in come lists to prepare, messages to deliver, support for staff, values to promote, culture to embed, emails to send...it's like a giant game of chess - thinking ten moves ahead.

At night, of course, everything is magnified ten times and once the jumble of neurons has begun the process I'm semi- awake and thinking, "I need to write this stuff down somewhere".

Fatal. By this time I'm awake and all the other voices in my head start up - Superbowl memories from the previous day, things I've said to people haunt me, stuff I should have said or done but didn't, all that joins the stuff I need to still do. 

AAARRRRGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Then I get up. 

The sun is shining in the sky, there ain't a cloud in sight. It's stopped rainin', everybody's in a play and don't you know - It's a beautiful new day. 

And you know what? Looks okay. The world survives into another day and I'm thinking about eternity. 

Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me.

Paint your palette blue and grey (Don McLean)

Photo by Ryan Hutton on Unsplash

I've been away from home for four days helping my youngest daughter build some gates and fences at her new house. 

She and her partner live 8 hours away by car so a large chunk of two days was spent travelling back and forth.

During that time I had infrequent time to check my emails from my school account. Things are hotting up.

Greetings from various people, students asking questions, staff getting in contact: usual preliminary stuff about two weeks out from school starting again for the academic year.

Nothing drastic or vitally important.

Sometimes it's good to get away. Like looking at the night sky and gazing at the moon or the stars.

Gives a sense of proportion and perspective.