For the wisdom of the soul,

Such wisdom as they can almost remember.

The song of god still echoes

In their ears,

Their shoulders remember wings.

We who stand in the power

Of half a lifetime’s learning

Need only look with eyes of love

And speak with spirit voices.

Then will we be heard

Then will the children blossom

With the warm rain of our teaching.

Come down to walk among us,

Embodiment of

Eternity and love.

Each child is god

Each holds

The wisdom necessary

To shift the earth.

Each carries light—

Her own light

And the light of all.

All children need from us

Is that we see them

Our eyes both clear and mirrored,

Seeing and reflecting

Sun.

http://patcegan.wordpress.com/in-my-lifetime-8/

You will do what’s right

For the highest good

Of all concerned.

I believe in you.

You will sort it through

Until your own wisdom

Comes clear like water.

I know you.

You are magnificent.

That deep love that holds connection

Without should,

Playing cards with the homeless

In random sheltering doorways.

Today’s lesson could be joy:

Running before the fall wind,

Eyes full of clear air,

Spirits lifting like kites to bright azure amazement.

Today’s lesson could be peace:

Small bodies sunk like trees

Into the earth,

Fear leaving like transpiration

Or misplaced mist

Each breath an incantation.

Today’s lesson could be art:

The joy of spirit

Recorded forever in crayon ink.

Or perhaps it’s growth–

Tiny roots of change

Pressed into fresh earth,

Fed, watered, and watched

For blossoming.

Rather s/he is on a journey beyond

“fixed.”

What s/he will learn has already been chosen,

Your growth is open for negotiation.

How will you be blessed?

With acceptance,

Compassion,

Or the full knowledge of your own existence?

Stop chasing
the test,

Just teach.

Just ask for
your inner wisdom

For the
lesson hanging like ripened fruit and

Ready to
drop.

Just know
when

Your
students are ready to harvest their own imagination,

To make
castles of numbers and paint,

Or spend the
whole day outdoors

Learning the
joy of autumn

As grass and
wind and light.

You have
been chosen as teacher.

You have the
wisdom to teach.

Just teach.

Is teaching a hard job?  Does it require effort, long hours, struggles to balance the needs of the classroom with those of personal life?  It has been so, but the planet is shifting, and the choice is ours.

I believe that life can be grace, and ease, and flow: effortless manifestation. This energy is strong within me when I am at home, when I meditate or walk the woods, or settle in my studio to write.

Effortlessness at work, however, feels like more of a challenge.  What does flow look like from the office of a reading specialist?  How can a classroom teacher balance lightly between herself and those she has agreed to teach?

I know that effortlessness can be achieved, and I am committed to reaching it. As I sit here in meditation, eyes closed or fingers flying across the keyboard, I look at the energy of my job. My to-do list flows into my head: curriculum, materials, ordering, mentoring, training; all these frogs which, apparently, I must devour at one and the same time. Gulp, and gone.  If only it were so easy.

How do I make this job flow as balanced and grounded as the life I want?

The first answer that comes as I look at it is,

Take responsibility only for myself. Carry what is mine to carry; leave others with what is theirs.

This goes against the grain for so many teachers and other helpers.  I know that when I first worked as a reading specialist, I tried to carry the whole school on my back.  But I have learned since then that carrying others merely interferes with their own growth process, and can even send the message that I don’t believe they are capable of succeeding without my support. Therefore, it is for everyone’s highest good that I release what is not mine to do, carry, or fix.

I release:

I release the role of mediator between administration and staff.

I release the need to change how anyone teaches.

I release the need to convince anyone else to balance their life.

I release the need to be liked.

I release the need to be right.

I release the need to make my teachers’ lives easier. (Only they can do that!)

I release the need to control how reading is taught in this school.

I release the need to make it better.

Ahh, that feels lighter already!  And I see that, instead of control and coercion, I may simply hold space for each and every person in this building to step into the power of their own grace. 

I recently changed teaching jobs and moved to a new work location. The suite of rooms I inherited along with the new job description was jam-packed with stuff. Books lined carts and shelves, and filing cabinets held reams and reams of files and papers. Movable shelving was filled with assorted possessions. Every inch of built-in and portable storage was full to overflowing. In short, the rooms looked like that of a teacher.  In my experience, teachers are second only to artists in the density of their belongings.  Old materials, new curricula, found objects, and useful treasures fill the spaces in many classrooms.

But what are the energetic effects of all of those possessions?

They weigh us down.

As I look at the energy of cluttered rooms, I see a heavy soup of energetic sludge. Past times, past emotions, fear, illness, fatigue, fear of death, low-self-esteem, stress, resentment, envy, unconsciousness: the list of emotions found in cluttered rooms is endless. To understand why emotions and heavy energy stay in cluttered rooms, think of energy as dirt. Like dirt, energy can get stuck in corners, and crevices, and old belongings. Which is easier to clean, a table or a bookshelf?

Want to release the energetic sludge in your classroom? Consider trying these things:

• Clear off the surface of your desk. When a desk is free of clutter, holding only a computer and a handful of essential items, it allows the energy of your creativity to flow.
• Reduce the clutter by 20%, starting with the very oldest things. Removing the old makes a space for the new, physically and energetically.
• Clean! Washing, painting, and replacing broken things will lift and lighten any space.
• Bring in plants. Plants clear the air and raise the vibration of a room.
• Increase the beauty of the space. Paintings, personal treasures, and attractive storage containers all bring with them positive energy.
• Leave part of the room empty. Empty walls, clear floor space, surfaces with nothing on them all allow energy to flow through and out of the room.  Think of it like fresh air flowing in through open windows.

Can your classroom really make you fat? I can’t prove it, but I believe that fat is just clutter you carry around in your physical body. What do you think?

            Curriculum, nor

            Tests, nor yet

            Some educrats idea of

Building future success.

Reading is not

            A diorama, or

            Book report, or even

            Group discussions.

If it were,

How many of us would bother to read?

How many of us would

       Travel

Escape

Learn

Practice

Fly

Into and through the books of our imaginations?

Why do you read?

And how is your students’ reading

Any different?