One of my favorite poems is by John Updike from his A Child’s Calendar. It goes,

The breezes taste

Of apple peel.

The air is full

Of smells to feel––

Ripe fruit, old footballs,

Drying grass,

New books and blackboard

Chalk in class.

The bee, his hive

Well-honeyed, hums

While Mother cuts

Chrysanthemums.

Like plates washed clean

With suds, the days

Are polished with

A morning haze.

Technically this poem, aptly titled “September,” is a bit more autumn feeling than the start of school in August or early September, when it feels as though the summer is still trying to beat up the other seasons. But as I have been readying my classroom for my fresh batch of Kindergarten students, I’ve been thinking about this poem. It feels like the beginning of school to me.

Plates-washed-cleaned is the feeling I have when the school year is starting, but there are many other smells to experience as we get ready: cleaner, fresh crayons, paints being opened, and new books!

Our God has gifted us seasons and renewal. He is a God of new beginnings. Just as the Creation story gives us the new beginnings of God’s grand story, just as Easter brings the new beginnings of the Resurrection, and just as Pentecost gives us the new beginnings of life with the Holy Spirit, the start of school gifts us the liturgy of new formation. Fresh starts, friendships, fond memories to come. The fact that autumn brings us the start of school every year is a visceral picture of Christ’s redemptive work in us, again and again. I pray for your start to school, the excitement, nervous anticipation, the joy and sorrows.

One of my favorite books I am bringing into the classroom this year is Little Prayers for Ordinary Days by Katy Bowser Hutson, Flo Paris Oakes, and Tish Harrison Warren. May this prayer, called For the Start of a School Day, ” and these beginning of school books be an encouragement to you as you start the year!

Dear God,

Bless our school

and our teachers

and all of our helpers.

Give me courage to be a good friend,

especially to those who don’t yet have a friend.

It is a gift to learn new things about your world.

Let me be curious and kind.

And please keep everyone safe

all day long.

—

This post was written by Carey Bustard, one of the co-editors of Wild Things and Castles in the Sky.