My Watch Is Definitely Ticking

Steve Boolos

December 4, 2015

Issue:

#385

I watch closely as the seconds pass by heralding midnight . . . and another birthday.

Birthdays are fascinating to me, because we seem to celebrate this once a year, but really—isn't every day a birthday? A chance for new experiences, new wonders, new moments, new changes, new challenges. As of today, I have lived 47 years in this body on this planet in this experience. And like most people, I have had my moments of regrets, of second thoughts, of what-could-have-beens. But it is wonderful to think how all of that pales in comparison with all of the amazing, joyful, transformational, and inspiring, grounding, uplifting, and celebrating that I have had the pleasure to be the cause of and a part of.

And these moments keep happening if we remember to be a part of them. The way your eyes widen when a friend walks into a room. How your mind calms when you hear rain on a rooftop. The way your soul releases when you laugh out loud. The way your lips and tongue tingle when you take that first sip of wine. And how your blood rushes when you kiss passionately. Now, I don't know if I'll be around for another 47 years, or 47 months, or 47 days, or 47 seconds. But I can't wait to experience whatever it is that comes along that brings the possibility of . . . whatever.

After all, it's all just a matter of time.

And my watch is definitely ticking.
—Wally Tablit, director of Supportive Services, Northwest Center, Seattle, WA

The above was written by my husband, a thoughtful, openhearted man. His reminiscence has much to say to us as people and educators.

As I consider what he says about the chances for new things, I think how, every day in classrooms, we have the opportunities to both have and provide for our students new experiences, new wonders, and new challenges that will help them experience moments of learning and change that can carry on throughout their lives.

In our moments of reflective thought around our work and students, don’t we sometimes experience regrets? The lessons that could have been planned better, the missed opportunities to build up a child’s self-esteem, the times we could have spent planning with coworkers—these can become areas of dissatisfaction or remorse.

But those occasions indeed pale when compared with those moments Wally mentions that are amazing, joyful, transformational—when we can celebrate that child who has finally grasped some challenging skill, when we can uplift our colleagues who have struggled with some instruction that didn’t go well, or when we can ground ourselves in learning that helps us become better at our craft. These are the moments that we need to remember, to make them part of us. The child who lights up when finally grasping a concept he struggled with, the colleague who smiles the next day as she tells us how her revamped lesson worked beautifully, the new learning we apply that awakens us to a deeper pedagogy—we need to take note of them, appreciate them, and mindfully recall them with joy and gratitude.

We have only so many hours in a day, so many days in a year, and so many years in a career, and each day, the clock is ticking, proffering great possibilities minute by minute.

We can’t wait to experience them!
—Steve Boolos, instructional coach at Lakeland Elementary, Federal Way, WA

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