if you can remember

If You Can Remember

If you can remember that it takes three of my steps to equal one of yours;

If you understand that I must view life at an eye level three feet below yours;

If you can touch my life with your faith, without taking away my need for self-determination;

Then I can grow, learn, and become.

~ ~ ~

If you can remember that it takes time for me to gain the experience in living you have already had;

If you can understand that I can only relate to those things which have meaning on my levels of maturity;

If you can let me take a step of independence when I can, instead of thrusting me out or pulling me back;

If you can touch my life with your hope, without destroying my sense of reality;

Then I can grow, learn and become.

~ ~ ~

If you can remember that it takes courage for me to try again after failure, just like you;

If you can let me find my own path when I want, instead of choosing for me the way you think I should go;

If you can touch my life with your love, without taking away the space I need to breathe;

Then I can grow, learn and become.

~ ~ ~

Marti King For The Montessori Foundation

I picked up this beautiful poem at one of my workshops this summer. We go back to work in two weeks, school starts in three. I have so few photos like the one above from this summer, as I write this the rain is coming down (again) outside my window. I've yet to eat a local tomato that was not hydroponically grown, there has not been a single trip to the beach. A strange summer indeed. 

Reading this poem however is so grounding and inspiring. Maybe we all (at least in the northeast) will chalk up 2009 as the summer that wasn't, but these words are encouraging me to just let that be and are pointing me in the direction of a new school year just ahead, new little faces to meet and greet, and endless opportunities for learning and playing waiting to unfold.

I thought maybe you would like to read these words today as well.