September sun...

The rains have quit here in Texas, but the massive clean-up continues in and around Houston, as well as in so many small towns which surround our busy city.  Thankfully, our home is far inland, away from flooding and the destructive aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.  As if Harvey wasn't enough, the southeast coast was hit by Hurricane Irma, and now the state of Florida is cleaning up, along with other states going up that coast.  I haven't heard yet how badly the Florida Keys were hit, but I'm sure those beautiful islands got the brunt of Irma.  I was praying for the city of Savannah, that beautiful and magical place.... I didn't want to see it destroyed by a storm after it has kept its beauty and dignity throughout so much of this country's history.

The summer heat has cooled down a bit here... the high 90s and low 100s are gone, replaced by mid-80s during the day and cool 70s at night. Flowers are still blooming (those that didn't get toppled by Harvey's wind) but I no longer have to water the flowerbeds two and three times a day to keep the flowers from wilting.

I have been busy getting ready to conduct The Magic Wand Book Club for one of the local elementary schools.  The 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-graders will have so many books to choose from... a grand total now of 1,414 books that I have collected since the beginning of the summer.  Posters are hung up in the school hallways, flyers have been sent home with the students, and I have all the supplies I need for the students... they will learn how to keep a Book Journal; they will rate the books they read; and they will (hopefully) realize that reading can not only be fun, but will help them as they go from grade school to middle school, then on to high school and college.  "Make Magic Happen -- READ!"  (as the poster says). The books the students read will be theirs to keep.... my intention being that if they have a private library of their own, they will come to appreciate the significance of book ownership.

As a reward for the books they read, the students will each choose a hand-carved 'magic' wand from a box of wood wands that I ordered from an on-line site based in Connecticut. All the wands are different... not magic at all, but a tactile symbol of the uniqueness of each student, just as all the wands are unique. The motto of the Book Club is "The magic is not in the wand... the magic is in you!"  Borrowing from the 'magic' of Harry Potter, I want these kids to learn that they are all special, they are all one-of-a-kind, they are all filled with their own unique magic.... they just have to learn to believe that.

On the posters and book-club buttons, there is a whimsical drawing of a gray-haired old wizard with flowing blue robes, a pointed wizard hat, and a long gray beard.  Whimsical and magical to the max!  And when I walked into the school library this week to see how the tables and chairs were set up, and to plan how I would arrange them for the book club.... on a high shelf near the windows was a four-foot tall plush wizard, wearing a long blue robe and matching hat, with gray hair and a long gray beard.... I stopped in my tracks and just smiled.  I had not seen that plush wizard before... one of the ladies there told me it had been in the school for 'a very long time,' which explained the faded blue of its robes.

Talk about a serendipitous moment.... 'my' wizard and that plush wizard in the school's library.... I have absolutely no doubt that I picked the correct school for The Magic Wand Book Club.