 | "In the beginning lies the essence of all that is to follow" |
As I walk through our garden, the first morning back after a six week holiday break, I think about the new beginnings the school year will bring. I see little oak trees growing out of the acorns that were scattered around our garden. I see pears in our pear tree, growing from the blossoms that were flowering in spring. And I see monarch butterflies emerged from the chrysalises, flittering around our garden, looking for food and a mate. I see many beautiful new things in our garden that have emerged from humble beginnings.
The monarch butterfly begins life as an egg, emerges as a caterpillar, and then undergoes a complete change in body form during development, a dramatic metamorphosis. This all happens in the timeframe of weeks, rather then years. The caterpillar looks nothing like the adult. After hatching from the egg, the young caterpillar undergoes several growths until it enters the pupal stage. From the outside it appears as though the pupa, or chrysalis is resting. In reality, it is undergoing a huge change until it emerges a fully formed adult, a butterfly. The egg is the beginning of the beautiful adult.
The new school year will bring us many new beginnings and just like the eggs of the butterfly, if they are heeded well, they will emerge into beautiful life experiences. It will bring us new skills to learn and new responsibilities to undertake. It will bring us new interests to explore and new relationships to develop. And like the chrysalis undergoing its metamorphosis, it will bring us new challenges and changes to face. New opportunities will emerge to make new choices, to move forward, to grow.
As the butterfly emerges from its chrysalis, it takes flight to pursue its main activities, mating and reproduction. It has no time to waste- butterfly adults live for only a few weeks. For the butterfly, each day is a new beginning, another opportunity to mate and reproduce. For us too, here at preschool, each day in the new year will bring new beginnings, new experiences. The experiences of today will influence our actions of tomorrow. Each day will give us new steps to realise our dreams and beckon us to new heights.
There will be new opportunities to share with each other the enjoyment of learning about our beautiful natural world, and new opportunities to share the awe and wonders of nature with our children.
And as I walk back into our classroom, I think of all the opportunities that will come today, and of the butterfly who counts not months or years, but moments, who has time enough and who seizes each day as the best day. Not the new year, but the new day brings us a new beginning and must be heeded well.
"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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