Today, as I read, I came across this passage from the work of D. H. Lawrence. It is not a poem, but the words have a poetic quality to them and allow me to consider what life is all about. Life is relational and that is not limited to people. I live in relationship to everything I come in contact with. In the busyness of life, this is a gentle reminder to acknowledge the relationships consciously. I witness pure relationships in these acknowledgement, these accomplishments.
The passage has a Zen quality, but it reminded me that until about 300 years ago our souls were inseparable from our physical being even in western culture.
“If we think about it, we find that our life consists in this achieving of a pure relationship between ourselves and the living universe about us. This is how I ‘save my soul’ by accomplishing a pure relationship between me and another person, me and other people, me and a nation, me and a race of men, me and animals, me and the trees or flowers, me and the earth, me and the skies and the sun and stars, me and the moon: an infinity of pure relationships, big and little, like the stars of the sky: that makes our eternity, for each one of us, me and the timber I am sawing, the lines of force I follow; me and the dough I knead for bread, me and the very motion with which I write, me and the bit of gold I have got. This, if we knew it, is our life and our eternity: the subtle, perfected relation between me and my whole circumambient universe.”
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, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning.
Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
This sounds like becoming ‘one with the universe.’ Liked this quote a lot!
I think you are right. Thank you for the observation.
Reminds me of the quote below-
“It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean.”
― Jon J. Muth
That is a beautiful line full of rich paradox.
Bonjour Yvon! 🙂 D. H. Lawrence… j’aime beaucoup cet auteur, merci de lui avoir dédié ce post! Un weekend formidable, selon tes plans et projets… 🙂 amicalement, Mélanie
Mille merci pour tes “haltes” constantes @New Playground! 🙂
Bienvenue,
Merci Melanie et bienvenue.
Enjoyed Lawrence’s passage, thanks so much!
You are welcome.
D.H. Lawrence! I like the passage, and D. H. Lawrence is one my favorite author.
He is a most interesting person with a shift in his writing as he matured.
… big and little, like the stars of the sky– beautifully said about relationship! Thanks for sharing your insights.
You are welcome.
Freundliche Grüße, Wolfgang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azNLTmrs9nY&feature=share&list=UUfFdDzqUqvOJ16iAVxhE4Fg
Danke.