This wonderful quote from Alan Watts summarizes life. It is something we move into. The quote reminded me of the Rilke quote where we live into the questions. It is not about answering questions, but about living life and finding the questions. Better yet, letting the questions find us.
Life is not a problem to be solved, nor a question to be answered. Life is a mystery to be experienced.
~ Alan Watts
I missed posting Saturday. I went to Calgary for the weekend and left my laptop at home.It was a busy weekend and trying to post under the conditions that existed would have added to the busyness. In a sense, I had a two-day sabbath with time away from the computer.
In retrospect, this poem is about looking for home during sabbath time. It is a place where I am with my self, people I am close to, and things that are important in life. It is a journey back to my roots looking for my whoness and whatness that makes me who and what I am.
On the weekend, people talked about the why and how of life a lot. I consider the why circular suggesting there is an answer to questions about who and what we are. How is a question about constructing something and does not speak to how we are always being and becoming. It is in quiet moments even when we wander, retreat, and get lost that we tap into our essence which is our isness, our whoness and whatness. William Stafford wrote elsewhere about just standing still and listening which is what we have to do to find ourselves.
Sometimes in the open you look up
where birds go by, or just nothing,
and wait. A dim feeling comes
you were like this once, there was air,
and quiet; it was by a lake, or
maybe a river you were alert
as an otter and were suddenly born
like the evening star into wide
still worlds like this one you have found
again, for a moment, in the open.
Something is being told in the woods: aisles of
shadow lead away; a branch waves;
a pencil of sunlight slowly travels its
path. A withheld presence almost
speaks, but then retreats, rustles
a patch of brush. You can feel
the centuries ripple generations
of wandering, discovering, being lost
and found, eating, dying, being born.
A walk through the forest strokes your fur,
the fur you no longer have. And your gaze
down a forest aisle is a strange, long
plunge, dark eyes looking for home.
For delicious minutes you can feel your whiskers
wider than your mind, away out over everything.
We need disruption in our lives. Many of the great historical voices belonged to disruptors i.e. Jesus, the Buddha, Joan of Arc, Mohammed, etc. They chose to speak in ways that shook up the status quo which is always dangerous. Despite the dangers, when we accept disruption, we can look at ourselves in the mirror in a different way.
Notes for a sermon for Ashton Hayes for June 22nd 2014
Fresco in the “Visoci Decani” in Kosovo
Text: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth: I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34)
Teachers are busy writing school reports. Here’s Jesus’ report from the autumn term:
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Although written from an artist’s perspective, this post has deep meaning for living life. We are each special and unique and cannot be summarized in any way other than who we are as that person.
I am not governed by a foreign power; I am self-governed.
I am as free as I can be from the control of others.
I am influenced by love and beauty, kindness and compassion, yearning and striving.
I am self-reliant – an independent mind that cannot be reigned in, repressed or shape-shifted to please the status quo.
I do not depend on someone else to decide whether or not, I can express my voice in the world.
I am not determined by fashion – not the next J.K. Rowling – not trying to write the next Fifty One Shades Of Lighter Grey.
I am not determined by the outcome of statistics or the result of a study, or the promise of a guaranteed 5,000 advance sales.
I will not be watered down, nor have my chocolate sweetened.
I am cocoa, Marmite, chilli and garlic ~ an Independent Artist, Writer or Publisher who creates…
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Several years ago the school board I worked for locked us out. I have empathy for what teachers in other jurisdictions are going through as we spent a month locked out. We were fine. Kathy worked and we have few bills, but many others were set back by the actions which amounted to non-momentary issues i.e. class size, working conditions, and being treated as professionals. One of the underlying issues is our schools have become too large and resemble factories rather than institutions where teachers and students gather in community. There is a distancing in the very relationship that is vital to children’s education as opposed to their schooling. When I went to school, schools were embedded in the community. Today, sadly they are separate with economic and political agendas that do not meet the needs of local communities.
“Why are teachers even bothering to picket,
when you aren’t getting strike pay any more?”
he asked.
I told him it was because teachers are moralists
who are defending democracy
and fair working & bargaining conditions
against a corrupt government:
A government that ignores the court rulings
spends billions of tax payers’ dollars appealing
judgments by the Supreme Court
and the United Nations saying they
are WRONG to steal from our kids.
It will pay billions for a stadium roof,
but will not pay for educating its children.
I told him that in such a war,
pay is a small thing.
We will fight, because if our government
succeeds in destroying OUR union
then every other working person in this province
is in peril.
If OUR contracts can be shredded with impunity,
so can YOURS!
We are fighting for YOUR rights
and for our students’ right to a funded education
against a government with an…
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I finished reading a book by Jacques Rancière and am reading another by Emmanuel Levinas. Their philosophic writings suggest a preexisting ethical condition exists in when encountering another person. There is an empathic quality calling humans to walk in the other’s shoes as we encounter each other.
In my dissertation, I argue a teacher’s subjectivity forms in placing themselves in relationship with others, students and topics. Rancière argued humans take part in life, and are not merely external observers at a spectacle. Teaching is relational and is one where the relating with students and topics is the matter that matters.
W.S. Merwin’s poem proposes even when separated humans can wait on the other person’s side of things. In mindfulness and attentiveness, humans place themselves in the shoes of the other. Today, as I read, talked to my advisor, and chatted with Kathy a question came to mind. What has happened in the world today that we struggle with the ethical and empathic living that might heal the world we live in?
If we are separated I will
try to wait for you
on your side of things
your side of the wall and the water
and of the light moving at its own speed
even on leaves that we have seen
I will wait on one side
while a side is there
This is a simple message with a lovely image. The image suggests a bridging between where we are in life and a lack of visibility where we are going. What brings us happiness moment to moment will alight in ways we can never anticipate. Being present and aware helps us realize that happiness.
I realize it is Wednesday, but I think this can be any day;s thought. When surrounded by those who believe in us, it is incredible what can be accomplished.
Get Ready For Monday………. You Can Do It!!!!!
When we walk in the world, we take in its beauty in some fashion. We may not notice it in the immediate moment, but taken away from us home, family, and the world are more alive. We find the hidden beauty in the stripping of skin. This beauty is beyond the skin deep of superficial which we often soak in only to find that beauty has its flaws when looked at more closely.
Julia Fehrenbacher reminds us it in disruption, as the sky pours and the sun extinguished, we find our way to deepest beauty. We find beauty and wealth in overlooked nooks and crannies noticed when the light is dimmed and absent, even briefly. The candle of the holy invites us to look more closely recognizing the overlooked uplifting the ordinary, taken-for-granted in our lives.
It seems we must be stripped
of the skin
of all we think beautiful
before we open to the kind of beauty
that can’t go away
it seems sky must pour
and howl like it will never stop
before we notice the smile
of our own forever sun. It seems
we must hunt with starving
hungry eyes before we know
this belly is and has always been
full. It seems this wall
deep in the center must be hammered down
before we let soft, breathing hands
curl in around us. Each drop
of dark carries
with it a candle of holy
light – with each miracle breath
we are invited to turn toward
the nearest whispering spark
and, like momma bird sheltering her baby – like a pebble
in stream’s safe lap
listen
Life is full of many phenomena which we should pay attention to. When we do, poetry is written and others are astonished in our astonishment.
I perch on this threshold
astonished
by my front lawn’s miracle
of birdsong
scenting the carefree breeze,
how each plant dances
gracefully
in nature’s inimitable choreography:
swaying ferns partner
emerald leaves aflutter
branches of blossoms bow grandly
then billow
to sunlit radiance
as the butterfly floats and the dragonfly whirs
resplendently entering
our enchanting soloists
remind that life’s magic
can appear at any moment
for those who will see,
yes, astonished
by my front lawn’s miracle
let me savor the succulence
June’s abundance
and add my grateful heart
to her lovely tune
*When I saw the following quotation of Mary Oliver’s sublime poetry, I was immediately inspired to write my humble offering above. Yes, let’s be astonished! And then share…
“Instructions for
living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.” ~Mary Oliver, “Sometimes”
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 