November 25, 2015
We are thankful for the beautiful community of educators we have the opportunity to work with each day. This Thanksgiving, may you find space to reflect, rejoice and renew.
Fire
What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water could.
So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.
When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that make fire possible.
We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.
— Judy Brown
From Teaching With Fire: Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Teach
With gratitude,
Kari Thierer, Heidi Vosekas, and Chris Jones
on behalf of the School Reform Initiative
The SRI National Office will be closed November 26th & 27th in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
