2/26/21 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Our Kindergarten Students are looking very old on their 100^th day of school!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family:

We are less than one month away until the official start of spring, folks!! And while it is hard to remember coming out of a February that saw snow on the ground for the entire month, remember what a beautiful fall season we had. Let’s hope that spring cooperates just as grandly!

February is the shortest month in the calendar and the longest month mentally when one lives in Ohio. Now, with March 1 coming on Monday, with our middle school back in business this coming week, with our teachers wrapping up their vaccinations, I declare the month of March the ‘march towards normalcy.”

I know that we will still be socially distancing and wearing masks and eating in the classroom and all that good stuff, but my hope and prayer for the month of March is that the weather begins to drift towards spring, that we have no snow days, no quarantine days, that we who like to bicycle are able to do it without slip sliding on icy roads and frigid conditions, that our students are outside more days than not, that the snow banks lining the boundary to our field melt enough that our students can play on the grass once again, and that our Lenten season gives us hope for an Easter and spring of new beginnings and rebirth!

A lot to hope for? While it seems like forever, it was March 13, 2020 when we told our students to pack up their stuff for an extended spring break that turned into a springtime at home. While national debates rage about how and when to finally open school back up, we at Our Lady of Peace can say that we have fought through a spring and fall and winter of change and challenges and, Lord willing, we are doing okay! Let March bring us if not to the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, then in the very least a good view of the entrance to that tunnel!

As we wrap up this shortest but longest month of the year let us anticipate that by the end of March, which will conclude by the way with Holy Week, April 1 being Holy Thursday, that our lives, our community, our country and our world will be breathing the fresh air of spring and making plans to enjoy a summer that at least by degree compared to last summer is one of enjoying it with friends and family once again.

Now I know that it is known to snow in March in Ohio (even in April sometimes). I know that some springs are like standing under a water fall of rain. I know that there are many, many vaccinations yet to be given and no plans in place for the inoculation of our children. I know that it is way, way too early to start planning for that mask bonfire. But I can’t help feel in my bones that when the anniversary of the start of all this nonsense passes we sill being to see that things are going to get better. 

Let us continue to pray for our doctors and nurses and health care providers and scientists who are continuing to work on the health and safety of all of us. Let us pray for our senior citizens, many of whom have been isolated from their loved ones for all this long year. Let us pray for one another that one of the central tenants of our faith, Hope, is instilled in each of our hearts and that the month of March will bring us closer to an appreciation of life and what is important.

Jim Silcott