Re-Centering

12 very formative years of mine were spent sitting in poorly heated (or extremely humid!) classrooms, waiting on steps and running around in the tiny gym of this little red brick building.
On a recent trip to Holland, Michigan, I chose to return to this little school on Plasman Avenue after many years. I sat on the steps and wandered around the fenced in playground. I allowed a myriad of memories to wash over and flood through me as I remembered year-by-year and classroom-by-classroom. I recalled friends, teachers, coaches and pastors. I remembered choir rehearsals, sports games, chapels and study halls. Laughter, sorrow, fear, accomplishment, anger, gratitude and regret walked with me through these memories.

I had no agenda in this visit. I just sat. I just remembered. I just re-centered. I surveyed my current life and the recent events which brought me to this place. I traced the years backwards to the day I left those school corridors for good, what carried me from there and now what took me back.

It's an incredible story. It's a lovely story. It's a bumpy story. It's my story. I don't want to lose it. I fear moving on too quickly and forgetting each important chapter with each particular character and event. My passions and motivations and dreams are still alive, but easily get lost in the melee of the adult world. But sitting on the steps of this old brick building set in West Michigan, the ghosts of school days passed whispered messages of refreshment and refocus.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This Calvary building is now only an elementary school, though during my years it was kindergarten through 12th grade - lest you think it took me 12 years to get through my first six years of schooling!!!