Dipper

Last week I spent three days on an overnight field trip with over eighty 7th graders and nine other chaperones. I have done this trip numerous times over the years—previously at a different location, and now at this location for over ten years.

I have helped chaperone many hundreds of students on a two-night excursion with plenty of time outdoors and in a beautiful setting. We aren’t really roughing it, but with that many students, their age, and a different routine, some challenges always surface.

I enjoy the trip and I think the opportunities it offers to our students are a worthwhile experience, including the time away from home and, in recent years, from their phones.

And I also savor the fresh air and scenery, a classroom of a different kind. Far from any metropolitan area, the night/early morning sky is one of my favorites. We had clear skies our first night and the next morning. I gave myself time to myself by getting up early and running.

I could see a multitude of stars that light pollution prevents me from seeing at home. Taking in the splendor of the sky, in light or dark, is a gentle reminder that I am a tiny part of a wide universe. It humbles me and brings me back to a place of calm. It gets me out of my head and back to my heart and soul.

As I packed for the trip, I came across this poem/haiku in a little journal I have been carrying around in my school bag for a year–it seemed like a fitting find. I wrote it early last November.

Look up. Look up at the sky. Look up from our devices. Look up and see each other and this amazing earthly home of ours.