Teacher as Transformer

All the Hemispheres

Posted on March 18, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Hafez counsels me to look in to discover the hemispheres. I love lines where he calls on me to make a new water-mark on my excitement and love. When I turn in, it is possible to welcome new seasons and bloom in new unexpected ways that are a result of changing the rooms in my mind.

When I greet myself with kindness and the world with humility, I find my way home. An essential element of this journey is I am not alone, but with those who go with me and share with me the journey.

The journey of life is always made in the mindful and attentive of company of others inside and outside me as I let my senses and bodies stretch out in unfamiliar ways. I create the new in those moments and deepening of relationships with those gathered around the fire.

Leave the familiar for a while.
Let your senses and bodies stretch out

Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.
Make a new water-mark on your excitement
And love.

Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.

Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting

While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You.

11 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, teacher as transformer and tagged All the Hemispheres, community, conversational journey, creativity, Hafez, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Mindful

Posted on March 17, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

This poem is my favourite by Mary Oliver. It took on more significance in the last week, as I defended my dissertation and completed my PhD requirements.

Every day I see or hear something that more or less

kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle

in the haystack of light. It was what I was born for – to look, to listen,

to lose myself inside this soft world – to instruct myself over and over

in joy, and acclamation. Nor am I talking about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant – but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations. Oh, good scholar, I say to myself, how can you help

but grow wise with such teachings as these – the untrimmable light

of the world, the ocean’s shine, the prayers that are made out of grass?

I find the idea that the daily life I live, which I often take-for-granted, is essential to my growing wise. The dissertation and research took on that form, as I gathered the lived-experiences of several teachers, including myself and explored how we are becoming teachers.

It is in the daily lives we live, our autobiographies, that we find the richest date, even though it sometimes slips through our fingers in the midst of the busyness we experience. Our stories call us to stop, be mindful of them, and seek meaning in the thoughtful questions we ask.

I find wise teachings in the untrimmable light of the world.

35 Comments

Posted in Education, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged education, eloquent questions, Mary Oliver, Mindful, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Suspended Person

Posted on March 8, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Source: Suspended Person

This an older post from July 2013, but Chief Seattle‘s quote is a beautiful reminder that resonates.

We connect to each other and the world. We are one thread of an intricate tapestry woven throughout time.

When we remember we are connected, we unite with each other through a deep and abiding love for all that exists and all that has traveled down through time. Our mindfulness and presence reflects this love.

8 Comments

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Hands…

Posted on March 7, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Moving away from Nature …

I am presenting something different..

There is no special teaching: The most ordinary things in our daily

Life hide…

Source: Hands…

Siram provides several wonderful pictures of hands and poetry with quotes from Buddha for each. Each one called me to be mindful and present to what happened in that image.

The images and words reminded me, even in the midst of a busy world, it is in silence between words and sounds that I find meaning. I find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Even the most familiar moments take on new meaning, filled with extra and overflowing meaning, when I pause and am present.

9 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged Buddha, Buddhism, community, creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, Siram Janak, spirituality, teacher as transformer, Zen Buddhist. Bookmark the permalink.

Play

Posted on March 4, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

When we enjoy something fully and are present in the moment, it is not work. Alan Watts proposed this is the real secret to life.

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Dr. Seuss

Posted on March 3, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was born this day in 1904. Teachers, librarians, and parents use his books in children’s literacy, but I found children and adults never really out grow Dr. Seuss.

Several years ago, I read an article about Dr. Seuss. He created cartoons as a critical response to Hitler and Mussolini. He deplored racism and his books were a means of introducing children to diversity. Even though we think of his books as essential to children’s literacy, they are as important to social justice and equity.

It was not just his characters, but what they ate or did not eat that were part of the diversity.

Do you like green eggs and ham?

I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
I do not like green eggs and ham!

Would you like them here or there?

I would not like them here or there.
I would not like them anywhere.

I do so like green eggs and ham!
Thank you! Thank you,
Sam-I-am!

23 Comments

Posted in Education, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Social Justice, teacher as transformer and tagged creativity, Dr. Seuss, education, Green Eggs and Ham, literature, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, social justice, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Buthidar Hugs

Posted on March 2, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

The Reasons we should hug. When we hug, we receive an energy feedback. We bring life to our senses and reaffirm the trust in our senses. Sometimes we CANNOT find the right words to express how we f…

Source: The Buthidar Hugs

David at Barsetshirediaries sent me to this blog. I enjoyed reading the list. I thought about how I feel when our grandson hugs me. I feel wanted and loved. Hugging is an expression of love and sharing love with one another. When we hug, we have an opportunity to be present to each other.

10 Comments

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Rumi on pronoun use

Posted on March 1, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

At one time when life was real, your soul was one with my soul:
All we were, open or secret, was part of the same whole.
If “you” and “I” are pronouns I use, they are only terms–
In truth, there can be no separate you or I at all.

Source: Rumi on pronoun use

I came across this Rumi quote at Leonard‘s blog. We do not live separate from one another, but are part of an inseparable collective. Understood this way, language only acts as labels we affix to one another to enable communication.

When we understand we are each part of that larger collective and are attentive to the needs of others, community emerges in unexpected ways. We seek to help one another, living together in worthwhile and healthy ways.

8 Comments

Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Social Justice, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged community, creativity, Leonard Durso, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Rumi, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Thought for Today

Posted on February 28, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

“Where love is, there God is also.” – Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Source: Thought for Today

Gandhi stood for a non-violent way of life. In our lives, we find the extraordinary in the ordinary. When we look around us and inside ourselves, we can find God in many forms.

We discover and journey along a spiritual path through relationships with others, the world we live in, and ourselves. When we are mindful and attentive to what those mean, we find love in the world.

3 Comments

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The Guest House

Posted on February 26, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

I know I have posted this poem before, but it has a beautiful message. Rumi reminds me I cannot accept only the good that comes into my life. When the darker emotions show themselves at the door of my life, I should welcome them and accept them as a guide from beyond.

Like my delightful emotions, the darker ones are fleeting and temporary. While they are with me, the metaphor of a guesthouse allows me to experience them more fully and be mindful to what they mean at that point in my life.

In those moments, those closest to me help me understand what each arrival may mean. We can ask questions without presuming the answers in advance.

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.