Life with Nin

Ebb and Flow

For most of my life I have lived in the northern latitudes of this country, where life was more closely tied to the flow of the seasons.  Spring is the time for expanding one’s horizons, autumn for drawing in.  Up north there is one universal “fact” of home schooling: despite what the calendar tells us, February is definitely the longest month of the year.  The amazing thing is that is still true, here in the land of endless summer, at least for me.

Why is this? I wondered, while trying desperately to come up with something to write about this month.  The weather has been just perfect lately, so why are we once again dragging through February?  At least by the time you read this most of the month will be over and this hurdle will be past for another year.

The only answer that I have come up with is just the acceptance of the natural ebb and flow of life.  Some periods are for prodigious production and others are for day dreaming.  Some days – or weeks – we wake up energized, other times we can barely drag ourselves out of bed.

Home schooling is like that, too, regardless of the style of home schooling your family has found.  Some days – or weeks – fly by when everything seems to be going according to plan.  And then there are the other kind.  We all know them.  Too well, sometimes.  The times we question our sanity for choosing this lifestyle.

But over the years -16 or so – that we have been living this way, I have come to see these cycles as just as natural as winter following spring.  The cycle will come around again and we’ll feel more in equilibrium.  We’ll make it through February once again.

Copyright 1999, Carol E. Burris  Originally published in my local homeschooling group, HELPS, newsletter