The Rose Ceremony was a beautiful beginning to the first day of school and a warm welcoming of our new first grade class. As we came together as a community to share and honor this milestone, excitement was shining from each new face. The first graders were gathered by their teacher as the spectator circle swelled. Parents held their breaths, laughed, shed tears, and smiled as the children of the new first grade class took the first steps of their new journey as grade-schoolers. Our oldest, eight-grade student welcomed each of them with a smile, a handshake and a rose. During Graduation in June this welcome will be reciprocated with a send-off in another Rose Ceremony.
I'm struck by the cycle at work, and the intricate ways in which our paths are interwoven. Each young child is ushered into the school community, and will someday complete the circle - and begin it anew - as they hand out a rose as an eighth grader to begin the next cycle.
“Life is not made up of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years, but of moments.”
― Sarah Ban Breathnach
