For me, there are poets, like Rumi, whose poetry stand the test of time. After almost a century, the poetic text lives and remains ambiguous searching for meaning.
Now, I don’t play a musical instrument. I sing poorly. I have two left feet, so dancing is out of the question. What Rumi calls on each of us to do, in our particular and unique fashion, is to express ourselves and be creative.
Thich Nhat Hanh said that the extraordinary is found in the ordinary, the ordinary tasks such as doing dishes and enjoying a cup of tea. As we do, we meditate about those who enrich our lives through their efforts. We celebrate people who contribute to our lives in a human and humane manner.
Yes, I do wake up empty, but it is an emptiness that can be filled with each way I celebrate my humanness.
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door of your study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
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 
this is beautiful and so true –
Thank you. We need truth that is not fixed and rigid.
Let the beauty we love be what we do… Love it! Thank you for sharing your insights!
You are welcome Amy.
a gently touching poem
to gratefully begin
the day 🙂
It is. Thank you for the comment. It was a good way to conclude a busy day.
Perhaps I’m not interpreting this correctly. Have to say I don’t wake up empty and frightened. I wake up happy and eager to begin a new day filled with endless possibilities. Life is good.
I think that Rumi was getting at the idea that without care for our self we can end up in this place where we do wake up empty and frightened. Taking the time not to be lost in daily life allows us to, as you do, to wake happy and eager. I spoke to a young teacher recently. She has to drive a fair distance to work each day, but is excited. She is teaching and loves that.
Absolutely! This is a favorite piece of mine…and so I have written it on the bathroom wall in our new home, as well. To remind me. Thank you. p.s. I don’t believe that dancing is out of the question for you, Ivon!
You are welcome. I am glad you enjoyed. I dance occasionally and Kathy watches her feet. She is patient.