I’ve been thinking…
…about beginnings.
Ah! You sense a first-of-the-year message coming on! Though it IS the beginning of a new year (Happy 2023 to All!), my musings are prompted by a big move Jillian and family made recently. After a decade in Ohio, the family has moved to Houston. A big change! For the children, it is a huge change, as they have only ever known their house on Carrington Lane.
We are such a mobile society that my life is the anomaly. I’ve lived in the same place, the same house for…. ever. Going through their move with them, albeit from afar, has me thinking about beginnings — for them and so many little ones who start over in a new place.
It takes courage to make the decision to strike out in a new direction. It takes patience to work through all the details — big and small — with moving a household and family hundreds of miles away. It takes faith in each other, and that precious love that families hold close to have the physical and emotional energy to up and go.
They did it! Sold their house, and found another that they all love. They were settled in for their first Christmas with balmy temperatures and palm trees!
But for Cara, moving has been a huge “beginning.” We tell ourselves that children are so resilient, so adaptable. But they do suffer a sense of real loss — of friends, of the familiar, of “home.” As delighted as she is with the new house and her family’s great adventure, Cara also has had big emotions about “beginning” in a new school.
Her mommy helped her face these big feelings with Cara’s own special story — Today Cara Goes to Kindergarten. Now a big third grader, Cara had forgotten what she felt as a little girl going to kindergarten. Cara and her mommy re-read the book together and remembered the excitement and the panic of beginning kindergarten and rediscovered the valuable lessons that back then helped her face her worries.
Will they like me? Will I find friends? Will this new school feel like home?
Yes! In the words from the book: Remember — be a friend to have a friend.
In the summer of 2021 with the publication of Today Cara Goes to Kindergarten, I wrote in my blog, “This seemed a story worth telling. My hope is it opens conversations about your little one’s first-day jitters — and joys! “
I never anticipated that this little book would help Cara through new beginnings well beyond kindergarten.
With courage, and patience, her deep faith, and the love in her family, Cara has forged ahead, finding friends and her place in her new school.
It is a Happy New Year.
