8:00- Take attendance- blue sheet on my desk

8:05- Go to workshop, girls will leave science books on the table in the hall

8:30- Science

9:15- Religion downstairs

10:00- Break

10:15- Choir, take Victorian pictures to color....

 

She did her level best to articulate every step without burdening me with a twelve page tome. You would have thought the margin for error was eradicated. 

 

But it wasn't. 

 

There are a dozen nuances even in a simple directive like "Go to Worship". Dow we leave at the first bell or is there a second? Are kids allowed to talk in the hall or is silence the rule? Does the teacher lead the pack and sit in the first seat or let them pass and she slides in last? I think I caused a minor kerfuffle by sitting between two girls. Oh well. Gives them fresh material to gab about at lunch. 

 

But I had another source of information. I watched. Were other classes lined up yet? Were their kids jabbering? As I pondered these minutia another teacher snapped the lights off down the hall and the chatter went with them. 

 

So that's how it works. 

 

People want to find the map for a good marriage. They google it, buy books on Amazon, and read blogs. But there is another dimension to explore. Watch other couples. 

 

Last week at our mentoring meeting people told stories about their sweeter memories. One woman brought in "The Nancy News". Her husband writes an issue a year for her birthday. Another wife described a card her husband gave her years ago when she was feeling especially worthless. Both of them dabbed at tears as she remembered the emotions it conjured up which apparently have not expired. Yet another sentimental gift was a carved box brimming with tea bags, to celebrate their shared delight in a fragrant cup. 

 

I could have read the lesson plan about such exchanges of affection.

 

8:00- Kiss good bye

8:30- Toss up a prayer for your partner's day

9:30- Send a text while you brew a cuppa tea he brought you back from his last trip

10:30-Look at his picture on your phone. Remember where you were when it was taken

12:00- Find a babysitter for Friday night

6:00-Give a full body hug when he walks in the door 

 

But watching other couples in action gives me a better chance of finding my own itinerary. 

 

 

 

Photo by Kat Gatti

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