It is the end of a busy week. It might be the busiest since I came home from Spokane. I don’t coach ice hockey any more, but I help in several ways. For example, I am helping a young man who coached with me several years ago get a hockey related business off the ground. I also facilitate coaching clinics which help coaches with their work. In Canada, this is a time of the year when hockey is busy. It is important to take a break, a Sabbath from the busyness and business.
I came across this poem by Hermann Hesse who is better known as an author of fiction such as Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Journey to the East. He was a wonderful writer of prose writing in a poetic and mystic voice.
The poem reminds me to stop and pause, to listen attentively to the world and my self. It is in the mindfulness that I hear the questions being asked by the world and me. It is in those silences that the world and I create together speaking to each other in richness in our silences.
Sometimes, when a bird cries out,
Or the wind sweeps through a tree,
Or a dog howls in a far off farm,
I hold still and listen a long time.
My soul turns and goes back to the place
Where, a thousand forgotten years ago,
The bird and the blowing wind
Were like me, and were my brothers.
My soul turns into a tree,
And an animal, and a cloud bank.
Then changed and odd it comes home
And asks me questions. What should I reply?
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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 
I agree with you it is important to take a break! 😀
heart felt post
Thank you Bonnie.
I love this!
Thank you Emilie.
It is in mindfulness that we really hear and see. Beautiful, beautiful poem.
Thank you for the lovely comment.
Beautiful.
Thank you.
Beautiful poem. And so interesting that you’ve been an ice hockey coach.
We’re you an ice hockey player before that?
Ice hockey is a big sport in Sweden.
I played for a number of years growing up and as an adult. Hockey is a big sport in Canada.
So interesting! Yes I’ve seen Canada play on teve. 🙂
Love the post Ivon…
Thank you David.
This is absolutely beautiful Ivon – Thank you.
I am Hesse fan. I’ve read every single thing he ever wrote.
I have not read all of his books, but I enjoy what I have read so far.
There are 2 possible way we can finally find yourself.
1. Be aware of ourselves.
2. Get fatigue from failure to search ourselves and then rest at home.
This poem made me realised them.
Beautiful post, keep going. : )
Jade the Mystic
Thank you for the lovely comment and points Jade.
Love your choice of poem to take a break with; it’s soulful.
Thank you Genie.
Wonderful reminder through your eloquent writing! Thank you, Ivon!
He is a wonderful writer, and thank you for the introduction to his poetry! 🙂
He is and thank you for dropping by Suzy.