I am often challenged to see life’s challenges as ways to grow; to turn the bitter into wine. It has become easier with age, maturity, and perhaps wisdom. It is easier to embrace change as inevitable and life is a transient journey I am on. Nothing remains constant and static. It becomes easier to reclaim my voice with an attitude of resilience. I stand in ways that allow me to move back and forth into the pain and breathe. Rilke spoke of this so well in this wonderful poem.
Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell.
As you ring, what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night, be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you, say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.
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 
How I needed this post tonight, Ivon! Thank you for the deep wisdom, vivid imagery and abundant inspiration, Peace….
You are welcome. I am glad it found a space. Peace back.
what a gift
Thank you Pam
Yes, thank you. It’s beautiful. Peace.
You are welcome and peace back.
I love this poem, Ivon. Especially the last line. It echoed on long after I read it the first time.
Russ
It is a great poem ad closes so well. Thank you for the comment Russ.
This is lovely Ivon, Rilke is an alchemist with the heart, my favorite! Thank you. ♥
He was and remains a great poet. You are welcome.
Powerful poem – that second line is so simple, yet stunning!
Great poets like Rilke just have or had a way of choosing the right words and made their poems so rich in meaning.
Another good lesson in dealing with life’s difficult situations
It is a beautiful lesson.
I agree with Ray, a good lesson! Thanks, Ivon!
You are welcome Amy.
I had missed this post – it’s very beautiful! I’m trying to see life’s challenges as opportunities to grow, but have observed that I still need to work on this consciously – the natural reaction is more like objection and asking “why” rather than acceptance, moving along and growing on this transient path. The poem really spoke to me, thanks!
You are welcome. It is difficult to be fully present and I slip back into my reactive rather than responsive personality. It is human and I find the hard thing is to be kind when I slip up.
If only we were good. That has ceased to be a goal.
Micheline, I am re-reading The Art of Happiness by The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. In it, The Dalai Lama says the purpose of life is seeking happiness. Happiness is supported by a sense of hope and a belief in the gentleness and goodness of human beings. I find it challenging to train my mind, spirit, and psyche to be mindful of my words and actions. What I do is try keeping this sense of gentleness and goodness at the forefront as best I can. If we each did this, it might make a difference. If only some do it, it can still make a difference, albeit a small one.
We can make a small difference, but however small, that difference is the beginning of a new world.