Moonlight and Roses

Dear Reader:

Easter night I had a ” Lost” dream that seemed to go on eternally! I was a teacher going down a long, winding hall to find my classroom… I could hear young voices… my students I assumed …but I could not find them. Where was my classroom… I quickened my pace… thinking that surely around every corner of the hall I would come to the door. But no door … just distant chatter and laughter.

I was so upset I was in tears and when I finally awoke from the dream … I wasn’t crying ..but I was trying to brush the light off my eyelids.

I glanced at the clock… it was 2:45 in the morning and the bright shiny moon’s rays had come through my window … landing right on my face. I got up and stared out at the moon in all its beauty… then grabbed a robe and scurried to the porch where I took a photo shot! ( title picture)

It wasn’t until I was back in bed that I thought about the dream again …obviously my mind was on something lost or losing… perhaps it was my fear of losing Mandy and the car wreck that prompted the dream.

I will never know but I finally fell back asleep staring at the light filtering through the room… isn’t the sense of isolation ( as in lost) one of the most frightening experiences in our lives? I have always admired people who travel and experience new adventurers on their own.

Not for me… mis-adventures are funny when traveling with a friend or a group… but alone.. scary. The unsettling sensation always reminds me of Dorothy… once she had friends to accompany her… the dark woods weren’t so scary!

By the time I woke up yesterday morning… the sun was pouring in… the dream a distant haze but I knew the remedy… surround myself with beauty… go plant in my garden!

To my delight… my Abraham Lincoln first rose had bloomed! Breathtaking!

As I stared at the rose named for our 16th President- I remembered an essay I wrote on him in one of my Masters’ classes. Abraham Lincoln fought loneliness and ” clinical depression” all his life. If he were alive today his condition would be treated as a ” character issue… a political liability. As biographer Joshua Shenk wrote: ” Lincoln’s condition was indeed a character issue: it gave him the tools and empathy to save the nation.”

Come with me and see how my new blooming friends made me feel connected again to this beautiful world!

**A ” Wild Friend**” –**fun and bright!**

**Pretty Petunias being welcomed by garden friends!**

So until tomorrow…

**The last two lines are my favorite for this old history teacher!** **Time is connected!**

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

**There’s always something new under the sun! Go find it!**

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”

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