We truly are blessed at Friends School. Every day we come to work or study in a caring community where we all have what we need to survive and thrive. This is a week where we take time out to give thanks for our blessings and to give back to the larger community in service, sharing our good fortune, and thinking and acting beyond our own self-interest.
The core Quaker principles or “Testimonies” are sometimes referred to as “SPICES” because their first initials make this acronym. They are: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality and Service or Stewardship. Tomorrow we will come together as an entire student body, with our teachers, staff, and a number of parent volunteers, to share a meal of thanks together. Before we gather to eat, our partner or buddy classes will meet together for about ½ hour, with older students reading stories to students in the younger grade. These act of community have become important traditions at Friends School, and ways to celebrate our connections with each other and to reflect on how we care for each other before we head our separate ways for a week.
Besides celebrating community within our own school throughout the week students in different grades have also been engaging in service learning where they reach out to offer service to others. On Wednesday Sixth Graders visited the Regional Day School to work with students with multiple disabilities or medical issues that make their quest for education more complex than for most of us. Seventh Graders went to the ARC the same morning to engage with developmentally disabled adults and adolescents. Besides touching on the chords of community and service, these activities also touch on equality where the core value is our equality in God’s eyes because there is “that of God within each of us.” How can each of us learn to interact with others unlike ourselves, showing clear respect and empathy in ways that allow us to truly connect?
Other service learning this week included eighth graders clearing litter from an area road to benefit our neighbors and cleaning up the campus, despite a rainy day. On Friday fifth graders will pack lunch boxes with donated food for the Box Lunch Project. These boxed meals will be delivered to Food Pantry in Woodbury to be shared with local children who need the nutrition. Finally on Friday, eighth graders will also volunteer in the afternoon to pack away what is left from the Ten Thousand Villages sale where our community has directed some of its holiday shopping to purchase handcrafted products purchased at fair rates from craftsmen in developing countries who are then able to pay for food, education, housing and healthcare.
As I look back over this week, and forward to next, I reflect on my own gratitude at being part of such an amazing community as Friends School, and being grateful for the opportunity to interact with each of you. This is truly a place where the core values expressed in the “SPICES” come alive each day.
No comments:
Post a Comment