2.10.23
This week I have been thinking a great deal about healing. My reflection comes from the overwhelming images from Turkey and Syria where the extensive devastation will require healing on a scale that is hard to fathom. It comes from seeing Tyre Nichols’ parents standing at the State of the Union and thinking of their heartbreaking loss. It comes from dear friends who are on their own healing journeys, and from a wound on my arm that I have been trying to heal for several months.
Healing, of our hearts, minds, and bodies happens at its own pace. Though medication, therapy and the love of others can help our wounds get better, it is true that time is essential in healing all wounds.
On Wednesday afternoon our hallways were bustling with the energy of The FoCuS staff as they printed, folded, and distributed the school newspaper. It was a scene that could have been lifted straight out of FCS in February 2020. But we all know it has taken time to return to a place where this joyful, community-fueled, physical kind of activity is once again commonplace. In those intervening years, I have watched your children mourn, struggle, and demonstrate profound resilience.
Tonight the Parent Association has prepared a Valentine Social and again, for the first time since 2020, FCS children and their families will experience a cherished tradition. For almost half of our community, this will be the very first time they get to see what the Valenine Social is all about.
Healing takes time. But these vignettes from our school also remind me that it takes action. We heal by doing the things that make us better. We heal by reaching out to, and working in community with, the people who know how to support us through the hard parts. And by using what we learn along the way to become those people for others.
In Peace,
Angela
Located in College Park, MD, Friends Community School is a progressive Quaker K-8 day school, founded on the belief that every child is a valued member of our community. We offer a challenging curriculum imbued with strong values of equality, integrity, community, environmental stewardship, simplicity and peaceful conflict resolution, rooted in our Quaker heritage.
Friends Community School
5901 Westchester Park Drive
College Park, Maryland 20740
301-441-2100
5901 Westchester Park Drive
College Park, Maryland 20740
301-441-2100
