8/27/21 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Welcome back, sixth grade!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family:



The annual August heat wave always seems to accompany the start of school and this year proved to be no different. Tomorrow we await the rest of our Kindergarten class which will be the high school graduation class of 2032 if you can believe it, and our middle school students to the campus. And away we go!

This is the start of my 43rd year in education, 10 as a teacher and 33 as an administrator. In all of those years I don’t recall a time when there has been so much turmoil, fear, uncivility towards each other and grave concerns about our country and our world. Working with your children along with being the father of 4 and the grandfather of 9 I worry about it all. It sometimes keeps me up at night. But then I step into our little brick building on Dominion Blvd and see our students, their smiles, the way they greet one another after a summer away and it once again restores some sense of hope in me that carries me through.

My goal for Our Lady of Peace this year is really the same goal that I have every year. I want this to be a place where our students can feel safe and happy. I want them to be able to learn at their pace and be equitable rather than equal in responding to their learning needs. I want them to be comfortable with every adult in the building and I want their parents to feel equally as comfortable reaching out if any of us can be of service.

Not every day, of course, will be a trip to Disney World. Learning can be hard at times for all of us. All of us have days where we feel uncooperative, sad, angry, lonely, apathetic and frustrated. Those are the days when, hopefully, we can pick each other up and carry each other through that valley. All of us will complain at times about each other, failing to see things from each other’s point of view. Those are the days, hopefully, when we can appreciate the fact that God made each of us to be uniquely different and that we can often learn from those who hold a different view.

I have high hopes for this year and for our future. When I look back on those days from March 13, 2020 when we were all told to go home, to the beginning of last year when we had to re-invent everything in order to keep our door open I smile at what we accomplished together as a community during that time.

This year, I hope and pray, will be no different. There will be far more good days than bad. There will be things to learn and friendships to make or to strengthen. And I firmly believe that in June 0f 2022 we will celebrate another good year.

Of course, I would not be in Catholic education all of these years unless I firmly believed in Christ’s reassurance that “Whenever two or more of you are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of you.” Prayer is important. Prayer is real. Prayer doesn’t solve our problems but it helps us to cope with whatever comes our way and to reassure us that, ultimately, our goal is to be re-united with Him through all time.

Enough heavy talk. Let’s enjoy each other this year. Let’s smile through our masks. Let’s laugh when we can, and ask about each other’s families and thank each other frequently for both large kindnesses and small. Let’s keep doing things that make us happy when we can. Give me a good book to read and a good place to ride a bike and I will be as content as a clam. How about you? How about your children? Let’s all make time for those pleasures in life that bring joy.

Join me in making this year the best one ever because it is the one we are experiencing now!

Jim Silcott