Summer break reminds us of the beauty and hope of childhood

It always takes me some time to get used to the rhythm of the summer months as a parent and a teacher. The days are longer, weather is warmer, schedules are different, and the deadline-driven life of a typical school year has been put on pause. Once I get used to the change, however, even during the summers when I have worked or taken courses, the weather and the reprieve from our “normal” routine have given me opportunities to rediscover who God wants me to be.

This summer, I continued to wake up early and do the chores, but my days have largely been filled with my own to-do lists and schedules, not those of others. I have spent my time with tasks such as gardening, organizing closets, and reading the books that have been collecting dust on my night stand. I have found time to listen to podcasts while I work and I have taken breaks with puzzles, visits with friends, holidays, and outings with my children, often wondering what is stopping me from prioritizing such things during the school year.

July is always an adjustment to this time of self-growth and the pursuit of relationships with God and others, and as soon as I become familiar with it, the calendar flips to August and I begin to feel a looming sense of finality on the horizon. I know that the days of choosing my own pace are coming to an end.

My children’s new stages in their careers and educations remind me that time is a thief and that summers with them are limited. The earlier sunsets and the cooling breezes of the evenings tangibly remind me that this is true. My own children are growing up, but how blessed I am to have chosen a career in which children play a key role!

Summer allows me to escape “adulthood” more than usual. Young people encourage me to keep searching for the gifts of childhood, even when there are deadlines to meet and schedules to uphold.

Bishop Robert Barron reminds us that children “are in accord with God’s deepest intentions for them. The challenge of the spiritual life is to realize what God wants us to be.” He adds: “The best moments in life are when we lose ourselves in the world and just are as God wants us to be.” Children remind us of how to just be and the children in my life teach me as much—or more—than I teach them!

I anticipate a fresh school year with new people who will enter my classroom with their own senses of wonder. They, too, may be sentimental about the fact that summer is ending, but they will refresh me with their questions, discoveries, humour, and energy. Together, we will get excited about new routines. I will be granted the opportunity to witness their growth (academically, socially, and spiritually) and in so doing, I hope to grow in these areas as well.

Writer Emily Stimpson Chapman describes the necessity of seeking and appreciating children, even for those who are not parents: “Living a life intentionally apart from children—never welcoming one, never loving one, never building a relationship with one, never praying for one, or simply never seeing children as a blessing, but only as a burden—is a poverty. It’s choosing a life bereft of hope.”

If you do not have young children in your daily life, I suggest taking Chapman’s words to heart and avoid being “child-free.” Make the effort to get to know a child, pray for one (born or unborn), or merely observe a child with wonder and hope, reminding yourself of where you started and how re-connecting with our own childlike qualities prepares us to enter into relationship with our heavenly Father.

For just as summer ends each year, our earthly lives will end one day as well. May we be prepared for this day, remembering these words from the Gospel of Mark: “whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”

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