For many people in our community, today marks the beginning of a new season. Students are going back to school, and littles are making their way there for the first time. Teachers are going back to work, and parents are adjusting to new family schedules.

To navigate any transition like this, we turn to prayer. We commit our anxiety, our stress, and the rhythm of our entire lives to the Giver of life. Wherever you find yourself today, pause for this moment and prayer this blessing.

The year is tilting
toward the start of school again,
but truth be told,
we’re not ready.

We’re still hanging on to summer,
to the promise it held for
long-awaited connections and celebrations,
for refreshment for our bodies and souls
in water and sky and colour and sunlight,
and all those little moments given to us
where we could linger just a little longer.

Now that it’s almost over,
we don’t want to let it go.
The beauty.
The freedom.
All that was life-giving.

God, could you help us stretch it,
extend it,
and maybe even blend it
into this coming school year?

Parents, students, teachers, all,
may your newly-structured days
breathe with creativity,
your new duties be infused with delight.

As you write on those fresh new calendars
may you trust that your plans
are a lot like magic ink.

Much may seem to disappear into obscurity,
but whatever is done in love will remain.

(Kate Bowler)