Principal’s Office
Want to be a risk taker?
Feel more alive?
Go one foot past scary?
and deep into the dive?
We have a suggestion;
a type of advice.
Report to the principal’s office
not once….but twice!
Once as invited,
the other time sent.
Once in your school years,
with our consent.
It may seem unusual
coming from us.
Report to the office
Nevertheless.
Not for being hurtful,
or involving smoke alarms.
but for playing your edge
and using your charm!
What will it, what will it, what will it be?
Passing notes?
or climbing a tree?
Barefoot in science?
Eating a cake during math?
Dress like a gorilla?
Take a mud bath?
Stand strong in your legs,
Stay balanced and true.
Open your heart.
Hear their point of view.
For principals have principles.
They are wise and they care,
committed and patient
and up for the dare,
Do this now, do this now,
do this now, you see..
When you reach adulthood
you’ll see the forest through the trees.
You won’t be so stuck,
so contracted or narrow.
You’ll understand boundaries,
from your head to your marrow.
Practice this pose
to help with the fright.
Start in down dog.
for the utmost delight
Balance on right hand
and edge of right foot,
Stack left leg on top
squeeze together, stay put!
Bend top leg at the knee;
foot goes behind.
Reach back and clasp,
Stay aligned!
Scoop tailbone to hold,
open heart to the ceiling.
Send throughout the school
thoughts of love and healing.
As Earth Day approaches this year, I am struck by what it means to truly foster Peace on this planet. I remember as a child, learning about anti-nuclear protestors who chained themselves to fences and were forcibly removed and jailed. These brave souls became my heroines and heroes in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. I was moved to tears singing Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” and hearing stories of civil disobedience and the message of non-violent resistance. Later in the 1990’s, when I danced barefoot on my very first Earth Day, a lump would form in my throat when I celebrated each small victory (and the Gigantic Hearts) of environmental protestors who sacrificed so much to save a single tree and worked to preserve open space for our children’s children. Peace.
