Last story time

I got a promotion at work. I won’t be driving the bookmobile any more. Instead, I’ll be sitting behind a reference desk and helping people with their resumes and job searches. It’s a promotion, but I am sad to leave the children at the preschools I visited.

I did my last story time today. It was the same as any other; the children yelled, I laughed, we read and sang and danced and listened, or tried to. It was especially sweet because it was the last one.

Maybe that’s why the monk from that old Zen story, stuck between two tigers on the Cliffside, found the strawberry so sweet. He knew it’d be his last.

I might be back. Never say never, I always say. But I have a feeling I’m moving onward and upward. Hopefully it won’t be long before I can read to my own children. Until then, I have the kids at church I can read to. And maybe I can cajole someone in the Children’s department to let me do a story time every now and again.