9 DFABW – Pause

9 August 2022 TwoWritingTeachers.org

Today’s word is pause, and Charles wrote a pausing limerick. I decided to write a limerick too, which comes from my memories of decades of Augusts past, getting ready for another school year:

There once was a teacher so mired
in work that she always was tired
With no time to pause
She dug in her claws
and waited until she retired

I’m thinking of all you teachers, praying for you as you start a new year! I’m a little sad that school is going on without me, but mostly I’m excited that I am retired and able to take time to pause today…

On my bike ride, I stopped to take a photo of a rainbow.
I enjoyed a cup of chai

 

I spent some time with this endearing novel in verse by Laura Shoven because it is National Book Lover’s Day.
I paused to watch the slowly-moving windmills. You can watch them too:

 

We went to Palm Springs to run some errands and to go out for lunch. Like Charles did in his poem, we took time to thank God for the food, but then we shoveled the food right in. I forgot to take a picture!

We paused our trip home to meet a friend on the road.

During each day in the months of August and September, I am responding to a different word from Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. Today’s word is Pause. A small group of people wanting to make the world a better place are reading and responding together. Join us! Visit Common Threads: Patchwork Prose and Verse by Kim Haynes Johnson for more information. Here is the word list I’ll be following for August and September.

6 thoughts on “9 DFABW – Pause

  1. Denise, it is so inspiring to read your thoughts for Tuesday with an emphasis on pausing. Retirement is a peaceful state when you can have time to pause and be at rest.

  2. As I cradle my cup of coffee at 5 AM, I pause to think about 5 years from now when I will be retired. There is both sadness and joy in that thought.

  3. Denise, your limerick is for every teacher right now at this moment in the back-to-school-tired season. I’m with Margaret – – I so look forward to the mornings of lingering over coffee (I’ll still be an early riser, just not a dressed for the day one) and being able to take a bike ride. One thing I have always loved so much about your blog is that you show photos of the moment. You are a master of the moment – – not staged photos, but the moment. It draws me in and inspires me to do the same. Those wind turbines are relaxing!

  4. Hi, Denise. There are so many teachers who feel as you do, readying themselves to head back to the demands of the schoolyear. Sending fortitude — and gratitude for reading The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary on National Book Lover’s Day!

  5. Oh, your limerick is spot-on, as students haven’t even arrived yet and I’m already exhausted–mostly because of the emotional drain of too many unknowns. Now that I know how the year will begin for the library–and that I’ll be a librarian, not pulled into the classroom per se–I am feeling a bit better. This post gives me something to look forward to in seven years, when I plan to retire!

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