I find I want certainty, but it is impossible to orchestrate. Life is a series of complex, chaotic, messy events and relationships that defy the logic. Life is not unplanned. I need to be awake and attentive for moments outside my plans. What do I do then?
I engineer life,
Manufacture it
Driven–
Overstimulated–
Drown in options
To what end–
I ask.
Try and manage,
Plan,
Organize,
Pursue material wealth–
Seek false power
An ego massage
But no real choices.
One choice–
Live life,
Experience it fully;
Dig deep,
Find what animates
Sow seeds,
Be patient.
Tend barren ground–
Await the richness and bounty–
Trust what emerges
These are the real gifts–
Not easily found,
But always near at hand–
Unmanageable life
But fully liveable.
About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
Be patient.
Tend barren ground–
Await the richness and bounty–
Trust what emerges
These are the real gifts–
Not easily found,
But always near at hand–
Unmanageable life. But fully liveable.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this Ivon. Went deep inside of me!
Thank you Sheri.
Wonderful!
Thank you Mike.
I engineer life, manufacture it, driven- such a truthful statement of what we do in our lives and then as we rush through it there comes a day when we are forced to stop and then we wonder where it went and what was it all for? Beautiful write Ivon!!
Thank you for the comment Len. It is much appreciated.
Very Beautiful.
Thank you Lvsrao.
priceless suggestions Ivon. the quicker we learn it the happier our life becomes.
Thank you Sharmishtha. I agree. Letting go of ego leads us to happiness. I don’t chase quite as much.
Nailed it Ivon. Wonderful.
Thank you David.
I really like this poem and sentiment.
Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed it.