Formation

Now that's a word you don't hear very often. Formation. When I was right out of college I got a job teaching at a wonderful Catholic high school in MN. The nuns often spoke of the formation that the girls underwent as they went through their 4 years of high school. During this time so many things happened in their lives and in their development--mentally, physically and spiritually. I was only 21 when I started teaching so my 9th graders were only 7 years younger than me which is pretty funny in retrospect. I didn't know it at the time, but I would only teach there 4 years before leaving to join the Peace Corps. So in some respects I went through a formation too.

My "kids" are now in their late 30s. I've kept in good touch with many of them. They are doctors and lawyers and television producers and everything in between. They have wonderful children who I get to see when I go "home" to see my family in MN. And I'm thinking about them today because I keep thinking about the formation I've been undergoing for the past many months. I feel like it's not just our baby gestating and growing in Susanne's womb...in many respects I feel like I'm changing too. I can't explain it except to say that it's all good. Formation doesn't have to be a painful tug or twist. Sometimes it's just the gentlest of notions. That's all for now. I've got to think a bit more about this. -Monica