“Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
Someday I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me”
Last Friday was an important day for us. My child graduated from Kindergarten, and in Waldorf, tn s graduation is a tradition known as the Rainbow Bridge Ceremony.
It was a beautiful ritual to watch, where the children are told a story about a child who had to go around the sun 6 times, and then cross the rainbow bridge to be received by their Grade 1 teacher.
There is just SO much about it that I can write, right from the rhythm of the entire ceremony, the circle that the children performed, every song that had our heart, their pride walk across the bridge, and their warm smiles at their teacher.
But rather than the “what happened”, what stayed with me was what it did.
We witnessed our little boy be a little less ours, and a little more his own. His narration at the circle, his expressions while saying “Goodbye Kindergarten” and his twinkling eyes when his Grade teacher joined him for the circle were enough.
Enough to make me realise how gently this change had been happening all along. There’s been so many changes from around the time he turned 6, but this moment was so tangible!
There was something about the way he held himself. Not different in a way that I can describe, and not older in a way that I can measure. But definitely, something had shifted in him and I knew he was ready.
I don’t know how much of the story or the song he understood(though we are hearing the rainbow song a zillion times off-late!), but something in him understood the moment.
That he was crossing into something new, and this was his to do.
He did come back after, chattering away; the same voice, the same little stories and the same hands reaching for ours, yet not entirely the same.
Maybe this is what growing up is; one fine day we feel they’re all so grown up, but it’s something that’s just been happening all along. And maybe that’s what I got to do- stand where I am, watch him cross, and trust him that he knows the way.
Bittersweet, yet so fulfilling 💙
