Blackberry Kisses

"As she approached the corner of the barn where the sugar maple stands, she plucked a few blackberries from a stray bush and popped them into her mouth. She looked all around her-back at the house, across the fields, and up into the canopy of branches overhead. She took several quick steps up to the trunk of the maple, threw her arms around it, and kissed that tree soundly."
Walk Two Moons
"Oh I just loved that part." one of my girls gushed. "Me too!" another one giggled. And so when deciding on which kind of treat to bring in to share with them at the end of our book group, I knew I had to bring in blackberries. What I didn't know was how much they truly loved this book. As I laid out the blackberries, the girls began to gush,"Oh, Miss R, Oh, can we kiss a tree with the blackberries." I started to laugh. However, they continued to gush about how they would always remember this, and how every time they came back to visit they would look at the tree and try to find their blackberry stain. Of course, that got me right there, because I am a sucker for memories. And so while the rest of the class was down eating ice cream at a party, my small girl's group took big bites of blackberries, rubbed them on our lips and kissed a tree outside of our classroom soundly. We came back in giggling, and then the girls begged to finish our discussion. We went back to our favorite moments from the book, and of course, as I started to read mine, I began to cry. I do it every time I read this book,(it is one of my favorites) but as I looked around the group, I noticed their eyes were all glistening as well. The next little girl began, "Please excuse me if I cry," which immediately set me off into tears again, and then she began her part, her voice shaky, her eyes wet. We strained to hear her soft, shaky,beautiful words. When she finished, I looked around at these girls who begged to stay longer in our group each week to read together, who asked for their reading group to be moved up so we could discuss earlier, and who giggled, swooned, cried, questioned, and learned throughout this book. I started to tear up again, because it is moments like this that every teacher lives for. Moments when you see this light click on, where they have found a love of reading and learning. And just like that blackberry stain that lingers on the tree, I hope that they will always remember this moment, this book, this experience. Like they say in the book, Huzza, Huzza!