I Bleed

" It seems only yesterday I used to believe

there was nothing under my skin but light.

If you cut me I would shine.

But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,

I skin my knees. I bleed."

Billy Collins "On Turning Ten"

Life has a way of getting more ragged and "real". Somehow we attempt to navigate its crags with determination and creativity. We pick ourselves up and reinvent ourselves and try to find a better way of "doing it". Even when we make a stramache everything, we revel in the exhilaration that comes from at least trying.

For me, this is evident in my teaching and my parenting. I continue to reassess and try something new in order to make it better and to help my children/students grow and learn while I also learn and grow. It means that sometimes I do all that I can to keep them innocent while at other times I reveal the harshness of this world, knowing that this revelation is important, too.