This morning I changed our Nature Table to reflect the shift in seasons, and the start of a new school year. I found the knight, the dragon, and a few golden swords made out of beeswax, and some blocks for the dragon to have the high ground. I’m sure by the end of the month, the knight and the dragon will be having tea and pleasantly conversing.
One of the kids had a school year that ended on a tumultuous note, middle school can be like that. I’ve been thinking about how to best address how to move forward. This morning’s nature table reset got me thinking about Michaelmas and seasonal changes. Dragons, like children, are not inherently bad. As I pondered in my post on Misunderstood Dragons:
Do good dragons do bad things? Does that make the dragon bad? Are dragons inherently bad, or just misunderstood?
I’m not sure we’re ready to sit down over tacos and work things out, but we do need to take steps to move forward together. It is not as simple as “good vs. evil.” They are middle school children after all.
I’ve written several posts about Michaelmas over the years, the significance, the seasonal shift, the inner darkness.
kind-ism 
This reminds me of a quote from Shakespeare (Hamlet): “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Unfortunately, this quote was used by Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health, a book I think we can agree was terrible. But, it does make one think about how much our own experience and perspective shapes what we see as good or bad.
Yeah, as this season has unfolded I am regularly reminding myself, and the child in question, that this is middle school, not forever, and they are children. It has been challenging.