Chaplain Barksdale's Reflections on New Beginnings

Chaplain Barksdale shares her reflections on the start of the school year and this month's Chapel theme of New Beginnings.
One of my favorite events on campus is move-in day for our new students. Seniors are stationed at the front gate, enthusiastically welcoming everyone who enters. A gigantic balloon arch is positioned halfway up the drive, beckoning families to move forward. And along Circle Drive, we await our returning students, joyfully positioned in front of our dorms, prepared to meet, greet, and assist in every possible way. 
 
If you stop to notice, you’ll see faculty, staff, and administration teaming together throughout our entire campus to ensure we become the Chatham Hall community in just a few days. With an intense start-up schedule, we move quickly through the week - with orientation first, then classes, and, next, traditions. Last Friday night, our Seniors reminded us that they are indeed carrying the light of our school with their lanterns held high in the meadow.  And everyone, yes, everyone, is now officially a member of either Purple or Gold. 
 
Every school year opens with the hope, promise, and anticipation of a new beginning. Each of us faces countless opportunities to consider who we want to be with a seasonal invitation to reset, to start over, to be defined by this day, not yesterday, and to shape our lives based on present ambitions. Chatham Hall’s unique agentic and communal values encourage us to ask, “Who do I want to be this year, and how do I want my life to unfold?” 
 
A favorite book of mine has remained on my bedside table for too many years to count, and its title is also a favorite quote of mine, “Always We Begin Again.” As campus life takes shape and we live fully into the mission of Chatham Hall, we are filled with every hope for an amazing year.  In context, Benedict’s words are: “It is for us to train our hearts to live in grace, to find peace without want, and even when we fail, always we begin again.”
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800 Chatham Hall Circle  •  Chatham, VA 24531
+1 434.432.2941  •  admissions@chathamhall.org
Day and boarding school for girls grades 9-12 in the Episcopal tradition.

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