After a yearlong sabbatical I head back to the classroom today.

This year has been a great gift, and I’m very grateful to the Bush Fellowship that allowed me to take classes, buy more books, and travel for research and study.

This week I’ve been doing what I always do before classes begin: tending the campus gardens, giving tours to alumni and emeritus faculty, attending meetings to prepare for the new semester.

And taking time in the silence of empty classrooms to walk around and lay a hand on each desk, pausing to think about students I don’t yet know. Someone will sit in this chair, at this desk. Who knows what that student needs from professors like me? What gifts do they have, what are they eager to learn? What is holding them back from doing wonderful things? How can I help? How can I get out of the way?

And at each desk I pray for that student. A quick prayer of blessing.

To teach them, and to hold them in the light for a moment before the term begins, is a blessing to me.

I don’t know how much longer I will teach here. I’m always thinking of new things I could learn, new paths of discovery and wonder to pursue.

But today, here, now, I am eager to return to the classroom, to learn the names and faces of my students, and to discover how I can help them take the next steps along their paths.