Children live in each moment. Their inexperience allows them to be in a world that seems novel. They build sand castles in those moments. As adults we think we lose that ability to build our sand castles.
Being mindful and present to the world and others is a way of building sand castles, perhaps in some metaphoric way. How can I think about this person and that thing differently? How do I bring less suffering and pain to the world in understanding “differences make a difference?” Unlike children, adults often understand differences as threats.
It reminds me of Tolstoy‘s quote: “if you want to be happy, be.”
A child, playing in sand,
Building sand castles,
Absorbed in that moment.
The world is immediate,
Demanding one be present,
To embedded in this very moment.
As a child,
We know nothing different,
Our castles are real and momentous.
To outgrow our castles,
That is a tragedy,
To lose being mind(ful).
Let me return to that world,
To build castles in the sand,
As only a child can.
When I taught, the Grade 7 students built chairs for Science class. A criterion was they had to use recycled materials. They always built terrific chairs with little help from adults.
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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 
Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
Imagine all we could accomplish if we had the faith of a little child in our grown-up sand castles. I’m still building them!
That is how it should be.
Beautiful post! The metaphorical picture of a child building sand castles really illustrates the ability to live in each moment. May we return right there.
Even if it is only once in a while.
So true. These lines really say it perfectly – “differences make a difference” and “Unlike children, adults often understand differences as threats.” Thank you for sharing.
You are welcome. Thank you for the comment.
How creative! And, they are only Grade 7 students. 🙂
It seemed they got better each year.