Majestic Trees

I was traveling along I-285N to my grandson’s basketball game, when the sign above informed me there were lane closures for the next 10 miles. I decided to detour for lane onto a familiar inner city road to get to my destination without delays. As a native Atlantan, I made several trips along this road as a child. My father would take us to visit relatives and it was also the shortcut to our weekend K-Mart shopping trip after church on Sunday. I was driving.

Maneuvering down the winding road, I observed the majestic trees that lined both sides of the two-lane street. During the sixties and seventies, most residents walked and used public transportation. I reflected on how these trees have a legacy of providing a canopy of coolness and shade. These trees protected the foot travelers loaded down with packages from the southern sun. Alternately, during the fall season the tall oaks and pines shed their leaves to provide nourishment for the soil and helped to retain the Georgia rain to sturdy the shallow roots an. This offered a much needed protection from the ensuing winter freezes so the trees would remain standing as the majestic and spout new leaves in the next spring.

I thought this Adult Learning Advocacy program is much like those majestic trees. We are here to nurture and protect. We are the tall trees. We are here when our followers need someone to listen and offer support for their learning journey. We are that mulch, the leaves that have fallen on the soil. We are here share our wisdom and teach based on what we have learned with our mentees.  We use our experiences to feed their creativity and dreams.

As you are nearing the end of the semester, If you need a sounding board for your career ideas or pondering decisions about what courses to take next semester. That is what this program is for---we are here to listen and we are here to share.