Life is but a breath

In one week we will begin Christmas holidays! 

This year has been filled with so much. At times it has gone by so slowly, and at others it seems to have sped by. We are studying the Ancient Greeks in social studies right now. The stoics are my favourite and so we are getting into what they believed and how some of their philosophies can help us today. One theme is the shortness of life and how the things we spend so much energy worrying about and focusing on we absolutely wouldn't spend much time on if we realized how short life is. It always reminds me of the hilarious scene in Bill and Teds most excellent adventure when they go back in time to the Greek philosophers and begin quoting the lyrics to Kansas' "Dust in the Wind". We are here only for a moment and the moment's gone. 

Thinking about how short life is myself has helped my teaching practice. At the beginning of the year I put a huge amount of attention and focus into trying to stamp out cell phone usage. It was really frustrating and difficult and the students were attached to them almost like an umbilical cord. Now I started to just put my focus on the students who are interested in learning and paying attention and the whole environment started to change. The students who were distracted by cell phones from time to time see all the fun that the engaged students are having and join in, they also don't feel as harassed all the time by me and a bit more of a friendship is forming. It seems more like a win win for everyone. I still feel like a failure at times because not everyone is engaged and involved 100% of the time, but there is a lot more authentic engagement now than there was before. 

As we talk to friends with kids we also realize that our time is even shorter while we remain without kids and we won't be able to relax together most evenings and watch tv shows or movies or take lots of time to talk through things. So I think we have started to treasure these things more while we still have them. 

The prayer of Moses in the 90th Psalm is "Teach me to number my days that I may gain a heart of wisdom". I think there are few things as closely related to growing wisdom as learning the value, transience, and preciousness of each moment.