Yesterday I engaged in some "back to school" shopping with my son. I have to admit the headiness this elicits in me. I love the rows of backpacks, the pencils and pens, markers of a myriad of colors, scissors, compasses, protractors. And then there is the paper….notebooks, college and regular ruled lines for smaller and larger writing, reams of computer paper, and my personal favorite, the Mead Composition notebook, black-speckled cover, sewn seam and bound with a strip of fabric-like tape. It screams"Write something, marvelous, something important in me!"

There is something about the tools of education, particularly in late August and September, that gets my urge to learn going. I feel the rush of possibility as I walk the aisle. I know some children see it as a chore. Purchasing these supplies seems a sentence to drudgery for them. Others, I know, long for the supplies their classmates have that they cannot afford. That knowledge always breaks my heart. I want everyone to have the best tools possible to open the world of education. Sadly,we know from test scores that this is not the case.

The people I have met in my life who have remained vibrant into their senior years are those that have given themselves over to the pursuit of learning. They are the ones, who in their later years, still take classes, read the newest books, stretch their held beliefs, go regularly to the library, attend lectures, see the latest exhibit or play…challenge themselves to continue to grow. For them, the path of life is a never-ending source of evolving knowledge and experience. They are a constant source of inspiration.

These life-long learners have taken seriously their God-given potential…their on-going love of the world and its possibilities drive their desire to know, to learn, to grow. As Marianne Williamson wrote so beautifully: ‘We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."

I am thankful for those whose dedication to life-long learning has given me permission to be revitalized at this time of year….to grow, to learn, to shine….to try once again to fill my Composition book with words and dreams.