more than marking time

Would you like to know exactly how many days are left in the school term? Because I can tell you. I might even be able to give you hours and minutes if you didn't mind waiting a moment.

It's that time of year when I find myself all tired out. I've given as much as I can and the tanks are running low - I need a break so I can refuel and charge up. I've started dreaming of summer, beaches, books and rest, and the final five weeks and two days (not counting weekends) seem like a marathon in the endurance they demand (although I have never run a marathon so I can't be sure about that).

There's a gigantic white board in the staff room at work, marked out with the weeks of the school term. As each day ends, its date is wiped away and the following morning we all pause and gaze at the board, do the maths, count the days and weeks, and feel that little bit more relieved as the end of the year creeps visibly closer.

This kind of thinking strikes me as a bit of a waste. There's five and a bit weeks until school ends, nearly eight to the end of the year - that's almost two months, yet here I am wishing it gone. I do the same thing every November/December, which means I've wished away several years of my life by now. Crazy.

Time to seize the day, capture the moment and fully inhabit the space that is mine to live in. I want every minute to count with those kids. I want to be fully with them, not in some future holiday dreaming head space.

Of course I can't do that if I'm exhausted, so it's beddy byes for me right now. L'chaim!