Children enjoying the excitement of summer travel can sometimes yearn for their school friends. Twin sisters visiting China desperately wanted to celebrate their birthdays with Room 3 classmates. The teachers were happy to hold a party for the girls at Circle Time and sent them a rousing video. After staying a month in France, a boy missed his classmate so much, his mom sent a video of her son talking about all the things he wanted to do with his friend when he returned. The heart wants what...

How do you talk to yourself when you’re going through major life adjustments? A mom told me recently about changing jobs after twenty years at the same firm. The routines are unfamiliar, there are lots of steep learning curves, and she tells herself it’s natural to be tired in the evenings and want to go to bed early. She realizes there will be a period of transition, and that awareness helps her to not criticize herself when she’s not getting everything outside of work done. This...

If our school gardens could talk, they would tell us about one of their important roles: offering the gift of soft focus to everyone who walks over their craggy surfaces. Through the decades, they may have changed form and shape, but our gardens have always been sources of crucial nurturance and restoration. Countless children have soaked up the healing power of our gardens to support the growth of their inner worlds and the belief that they can be caretakers of the earth. They have also...