The Simple Blessing

Friday, May 8th 2009

Dear Lily,

You asked me last night if I would write down the talks we’ve had about the art of teaching. You are becoming a teacher and I am becoming a teacher of teachers. I’ve had mentors along the way, but no one to guide me hand in hand in what I’ve found to be the art of the craft. In the inner ways of teaching that I intend to give you, the quiet tools that have made the difference between a job to be done and teaching as a life long passion.

Quiet Tools

The Simple Blessing

Somewhere along the way, I noticed the difference in the quality of a workshop or class day when I asked for higher help, ahead of time, instead of just barging in headlong.

There is already enough wisdom in the world but how is it made accessible to the teacher? Imagine yourself as a circle, a big round colorful circle. While you are awake, walking around and living your life, you comprehend and use only a fraction of your circle, not even a quarter of it, yet the whole vibrant circle is yours. Now imagine everyone as a circle and where we interact, our colors blend and create geometric designs of light and dark, hue and value. In our regular everyday way of doing things we can’t hold what’s going in our own circle let alone what’s going on with a classroom of full circles interacting, yet they are and that’s a reality.

The simple blessing is about acknowledging what’s incomprehensible in us. Teaching is a challenge because there are so many variables that go into the dynamic of the classroom. I must be more than just a little me. That’s why I call upon my full circle or higher self.

I also need our collective human wisdom, imagine this as an enormous sphere housing the circles. This is the collective wisdom of our species. It’s all of our symbols, stories, archetypes and ideas. It’s where I’m drawing from right now to explain this to you.

Finally, I call upon the wisdom of the planet,that holds our human collective as only a small part of its big biology. It contains a totality of the systems, patterns and energies that sustain us.



Why would I call this a ‘simple’ blessing, to call upon the higher personal, collective human and biological wisdom of the planet? If you spend your days with young children, then you’ll understand why!

For all of this complication, I use a shorthand because like everyone else I don’t always have the time for anything else and it works just fine, add in the sacred words for any faith or lack of faith. It just works, oh so well. I’d never enter any more without it. The difference is paliable.

In my head it looks like this:

Dear God,
Please bless my teaching.
Please be with me throughout the day, in my thoughts, words and actions.
Please fill my time here with your wisdom, grace and insight.
Thanks

I try and pay attention to my breath while I feel and create a moment out of ordinary time. Sometimes it’s quick, sometimes more considered but always there.