Categories
Family

The Beauty of Happiness

By Julie Murugen
Lakehill Preparatory School, English Department Chair, K-7

We bought our tickets in June, dreaming for the rest of the year. We would visit Durban, South Africa, my husband’s birthplace and home for forty years. To my surprise, this trip of a lifetime was so much more than sightseeing–it changed the way I see myself.

Durban is a hilly coastal town, where December means summer. The undulant Indian Ocean impresses by day or night, as does the breathtaking Valley of 1,000 Hills on the road to Pietermaritzburg. I especially love the lush tropical vegetation at the Botanic Gardens and elsewhere, especially the red-flowered poinciana, nicknamed the “flamboyant” tree.

But our main purpose was a family visit. We would meet most of them at a big gathering of fifty people or more, aged infant to 84. I expected cordiality, but they opened their arms, hearts, and homes to us with unrestrained enthusiasm and generosity, and I loved them just as instantly and completely. My husband is “marma,” “thatha,” and “nana” while I am “auntie,” “aya,” or “nani” to adult nieces and nephews as well as great and great-great darlings.

In the past, I have avoided having my picture taken, always finding something about my appearance to criticize, but in the many photos the family have shared with us, what I first notice are the big smiles on our faces, especially mine. Where before I saw flaws, now I see only the beauty of happiness.

I can hardly wait to go back again.

Categories
Family

Long and Short

 

By Ray Dent
Lakehill Preparatory School, Director of Development and Alumni Relations

This morning, as I stood at the north door welcoming the Lower School students, I looked through the glass and saw a tall Middle School student transiting the stairwell behind me. I was struck by how mature he looked. Not so long ago he was one of the Lower School “itty-bittys” so excited to be at school giving Mr. Perry a high-five at the door, saying “Good Morning!” then speaking with the lisp that comes from having lost a baby tooth, or two.

It reminded me how quickly our time here at Lakehill passes. Of course, I understand it may not seem that way for the parents and grandparents so involved in the daily whirlwind of activity around here.

For you, the mornings start progressively earlier as your child takes on ever increasing activities and more demanding studies. You multiply the days of multiple trips back-and-forth to study groups, practice sessions, pep rallies, sporting events, and birthday parties. Your late nights seem endless as term projects must be finished, first-dances need to be attended, homework increases exponentially, and you always make sure everyone gets home safely.

However, try to appreciate your passage through this exhausting, all-consuming window of time, because you’ll find it does close quickly. You are at that special season in a parent’s life when you have long days and short years.

Categories
Family

Remembering Mom

By Julie Riggs
English Department Chair K-7, Lakehill Preparatory School

When I was about eleven years old, I was in love with a book.

It belonged to my mother and had an inscription dated 1945, a gift from people I never knew. Somehow I had gotten it into my head that my grandfather had given it to her, and as I knew him only from pictures and stories she had told me, I thought of it as a way to be close to him. Now, so many, many years later, it is a way to be close to her.

No other book on our shelves—and there were not so many as I have now because we could not afford them– looked like it. A slim volume, it was bound in mottled green and brown faux leather, textured with veins and embossed with an art deco design. Inside, each page bore an oval cameo portrait of a poet, creators of One Hundred and One Famous Poems, collected and originally published in 1929.  The page numbers were written out as words at the bottoms of the pages –one hundred and eighty-six in all—and the appendix contained  prose such as The Gettysburg Address and the Declaration of Independence. The final item, “Rules for Choosing Books” instructed parents to censor their children’s reading to avoid reference to anything likely to engender bad habits and to choose those in which all the events were “wholesome, probable, and true to life.”

I am glad that my mother never followed that advice.

Through the ill luck of a late October birthday, I was not allowed to enroll in public school until I was nearly seven. By that time, I had learned to read through the power of persistence. Everywhere I went, I saw words and asked, “What does that say?” then housed my mother’s answers in memory. By the time I could go to school, I was far past my peers in the reading circle, so my first grade teacher allowed me to choose a book to read aloud to my class each Friday.  When I was in second grade, my mother enlisted the local librarian to choose novels for me, and I devoured them. The first time I read a book over two hundred pages long, I felt like a hero. And I wanted more.

When I was in fourth or fifth grade, my little sister had a “pram” style doll carriage about two and a half feet long, which I would wheel empty to the library and fill with books. I remember being scolded on several occasions for reading by a night light far past my bedtime, but my mother never discouraged reading itself. I remember her occasionally reading aloud to us from Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories, but not much else. She didn’t have much time because she was either a single parent going to secretarial school at night or the main breadwinner of the household. She was not a great reader herself, but she gave that treasure to me when we often had so little else.

Anna Jarvis campaigned for a day to honor mothers over a hundred years ago, and she was not thinking of chocolates, flowers, and brunches. In fact, she fought against the commercialization of the holiday because it meant so much more to her than such temporal gifts could ever convey.  On Mother’s Day, I’ll get out that book, now rather shabby from use, and read a poem or two in honor of the woman who patiently answered every time I asked, “What does that say?” and led me to my life’s work as—what else? An English teacher.

Originally submitted to The Dallas Morning News. Reposted with permission.

 

Categories
Family

Summertime

By Roger L. Perry
Headmaster, Lakehill Preparatory School

As we prepare to enter the summer phase of our lives, it is important to remember the opportunities that summer affords us for family memories. A summer pace is very different from the pace during the school year. Deadlines and activities follow a much more fluid schedule during the summer months.

It may seem unusual but my memories of summer, as a youngster, focus on the little things and certainly things that were unplanned. My family took big vacations and enjoyed significant adventures; however, the exploring of the unknown and playing with my brother stand out as highlights. The imagination enhanced by lying in the yard, watching the clouds float lazily past our small town, consumed hours of daydreaming about the past and especially about the future. I think all of us, children and adults alike, could benefit from more time to daydream, to explore our thoughts, and to imagine our world as it could be rather than how it is for most of us.

The older I get the more I have begun to appreciate the concept of time and how valuable it is to each of us. The interesting thing about the value of time is the fact that having some unscheduled time may be very good and our over scheduling may cause us to miss some of what is most important in our lives. So, I encourage you to make room for some unscheduled time this summer. A family walk or a family talk may provide you with an amazing summer memory. Each of us finds our own way to slow the pace. If you can’t think of anything, grab a blanket and lie in the yard and watch those puffy clouds float across the sky. Try it. Who knows, you might find something exciting that you were not even looking for, among the clouds and the stars.

Enjoy your summer holiday!

Categories
Family

A Tribute To Family

By Patti Brooks
Lower School Coordinator, Lakehill Preparatory School 

A TRIBUTE TO MY FAMILY
If there was ever a time of year that brings memories of family into focus, it is the holiday season.  The following acrostic poem, pretty much conveys my summary of feelings:
 
F A M I L Y

F=FUN to be around!  FULL of crazy actions that challenge the patience, but make you love them, anyway!

A=AMAZING  tolerance.  They usually know when I need a hug, a smile, or a “kick in the pants”!  

M=MAKING  the MILESTONES in my life more meaningful.  No one wants to celebrate or cry alone, and my family has always been there.

I=INTERESTING people!  They are each such unique INDIVIDUALS that help me see and experience the world through different eyes.

L=LOVING souls.  They take the time to LISTEN to me……what an important validation of my worth.

Y=YOU are the reason for my existence, and the joy in my life each day!!

Lovingly submitted
Patti Brooks