What Was I Thinking?

I think my body is fighting off a cold. My throat is sore, my nose is running, and my temperature is running higher than usual. My educator's immunity wears off on Friday afternoons. During the closing prayer in chapel today, I sneezed twice. What a day this was. Today, with the help of my colleagues, Nate McFarland and Jen Lynch, and my favorite GGCA sixth grader, Colby Dunbar, I performed the last original Gary skit of the school year. I was a bit concerned that I might get emotional during the performance, but I was able to concentrate on my character and not allow myself to think of the significance of what we were doing. It was a great blessing for me to be in one more skit with my friends and my nephew, who played a new boy who moved into Gary's neighborhood just as Gary was getting ready to move to Korea with his family to be missionaries. Colby's character was named Garrett, and it turns out that he not only looked similar to Gary, but also had some of Gary's ...

Graduation Day 2014 has been memorable one. This was my twenty-fifth graduation ceremony at GGCA and it may be my last - God only knows.  I never know what to expect from a graduation ceremony. Will it be filled with laughter or tears? Will it be be a mutual sigh of relief by both staff and students that the class has (FINALLY) completed its course and is (THANK GOD) moving on? Will the valedictorian and the graduation speaker have anything good to say? My take on this day is that God made this ceremony His own, because every word spoken and sung from the platform was fitly framed to complement the others and speak something on God's heart for all of us. This graduation was a sacred, anointed time which had laughter and tears, some sighs of relief, and many good things said. No one could have scripted such a ceremony. It was like the Bible - many different authors working separately, but from the same Source so that, collectively, one consistent message came across. Many voices...

I awoke this morning to the warbling and chirping of birds and was immediately reminded of the blessing I experienced last evening - this year's GGCA Spring Band Concert. As I told the band director, last night's performance was the one I had dreamed of years ago when I sat down with him and shared my vision for the band program. Allow me to explain.  When I became the principal seven years ago, the school's longtime band/music teacher, the incomparable Mrs. Annette Bednez, had just finished her first tenure with the school. (She has since returned to teach elementary music classes and produce some incredible children's musicals.) She left behind a band program that had participated in local parades and had performed in malls, nursing homes, at conventions, and on the stage in our church. She introduced many students to all sorts of instruments and her students loved her and strove to meet her standards for excellence, and this was evident in their fine playing. Whe...

GGCA's annual high school banquet took place last Thursday evening at the Padonia Park Club in Cockeysville, Maryland. The weather didn't turn rainy until we were all arrived and inside dining and socializing, snapping photos of ourselves and our friends dressed in spiffy suits and ties or chic dresses and heels. My years as a host in a four star restaurant in the Berkshires kept me from sitting too long at my table, because I was concerned that the guests were enjoying themselves and that the evening's festivities would run smoothly despite the inclement weather that confined us to the banquet room, its covered balcony, and the covered entryway. Earlier in the day, I had had a muscle tension headache, and had considered finding someone else to take my place. I have never been a fan of banquets and other large social occasions in a guest capacity. I am more comfortable working such events than attending them. But I had the dessert in the trunk of my car - six cakes - and ...