This week felt very long, and a list of things was hanging over my head – permission slips for two different trips, making up work with absent students, last-minute grading, and grades due at 8:00 AM this morning. The last thing on my list was Stations of the Cross.
Each Friday during Lent a different grade leads the Stations of the Cross devotion for the entire school community. The 7th-grade students had been working on their parts for a week and felt prepared. I, on the other hand, was feeling a bit stressed. Stations of the Cross is very solemn, and I knew they would do a wonderful job, but they are in middle school, and sometimes laughing happens when nerves rear their ugly head. Well, my stress was for naught. The students rose to the occasion and gave the school community a reverent time for reflection.
Deep Breath
Deep Breath
Deep Breath
Leaving school with an empty backpack feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I am going home with plans for comfy clothes, a wonderful dinner prepared by my chef-husband, and curling up with my newest read to help me breathe into my weekend.
Rita DiCarne 
Such an important reminder to breathe and be… and to have faith in seventh graders (!!!) who “rose to the occasion and gave the school community a reverent time for reflection” with the Stations of the Cross devotional. How lovely, as is the idea of that dinner prepared by your chef-husband. So much to be thankful for. Enjoy your weekend!
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Just breath, Rita, and enjoy a well-deserved, carefree weekend. I remember the feeling.
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There is always, always a long to-do list for teachers, isn’t there? I could feel your tension in the first part of your post, and then the release at the end. The Stations of the Cross is an appropriate medium for breathing, reflection, and letting go.
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