On my run the other day, I watched parents watching kids waiting for the bus on the first day of school.  Standing on the front step a block from the bus stop. Or getting the last photo as the bus comes around the corner.

I remember the anxiousness and the relief and the excitement on the part of parents and children.

I’m heading back to school, too. Not to take classes, but to lead a couple classes, all online. For the first seven weeks starting August 20, I’m teaching a grad course in Spiritual Formation. (I wrote about it years ago and I’ve been teaching it for years.)

For the second seven weeks, starting mid-October, I’m teaching an undergrad course in Pastoral Care. I’m building that course, and still have a lot of work to do.

I’m telling you this so you understand when I include things from those courses in my posts here. I thought about doing a “back to school” series at 300wordsaday, and a “back to school” series at “Finding Words in Hard Times” (my weekly newsletter). And then I realized attempting to think and research and write in so many places creates an unnecessary set of expectations for myself. And for you.

You understand, of course. I’m guessing that you may make commitments like that, “I’m going to do everything!” and then feel overwhelmed. And we feel like we’re failing ourselves and God and others.

Maybe this is the first lesson, for formation, for pastoral care, for you and me: learning involves reflection. And we can’t reflect if we don’t leave space for it. And we can’t have space if we are trying to do everything. So stopping something we don’t need can be a step in learning what we do need.

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That picture is from Fort Popham in Maine.