Tag Archives: teacher as transformer

A Moments Indulgence

Posted on May 20, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Rabindranath Tagore wrote this poem reminding me when we live in the world it is important to take time and encounter that world so we can more clearly hear the sighs and murmurs. Quite often, in the midst of the busyness and noisiness in the world, we need and space to witness the world through all our senses. It almost seems the quietness needed is indulgent, but it is a necessary indulgence.

I ask for a moment’s indulgence to sit by thy side. The works
that I have in hand I will finish afterwards.

Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite,
and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.

Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs; and
the bees are plying their minstrelsy at the court of the flowering grove.

Now it is time to sit quite, face to face with thee, and to sing
dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.

10 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged A Moment's Indulgence, leadership, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Rabindranath Tagore, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Wisdom of Peace

Posted on May 17, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Lao Tzu wrote this poem as part of his work many centuries ago. The hard work of transforming life begins internally and closest to home. Sabbath practice and the mindfulness that comes with it are essential ingredients to living life in a fuller, honest, and moment-to-moment way.

We only bring peace to the world when there is peace in our hearts. From there, we gradually move outwards and the ripple effects are felt gradually first in our home, then our communities, cities, in our nations, and finally in the world. It is not the work of one person and one life time, but the work of many and many life times.

In this rippling, leading is not leading others as much as it is leading my self in the world and touching others with new-found peace.

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.

21 Comments

Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged community, creativity, Lao Tzu, leadership, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, peace, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer, The Wisdom of Peace. Bookmark the permalink.

Practicing the Art of Zen

Posted on May 17, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Susan Auld wrote this informative poem about life’s busyness in the digital age. Time challenges me daily and it is hard to keep pace and leave comments that are deep enough to celebrate the wonderful blogs I follow.

I try living in the moment as the poem suggests. This is a great challenge, but the idea is meditation is the practice we need for life to be lived fully. It is in life that we need to be present. As I rise from the meditation, I hope to do so with a clearer mind and catch a glimpse, now and then, of the rose opening. Even an occasional glimpse rewards me with the universe’s miracles.

how can I be in the present

when I need two hands to twitter and tweet

when world events are everywhere all the time

above below under inside outside

slithering through

ear buds flat screens cell phones

and I miss the exact second the rose

opens its red lips or the dramatic entrance

of the lilac’s perfume as it catches a ride

on the back of a spring breeze

and floats through my open window

how can I listen to my breath

move in move out move in move out

through the rumbles of cement trucks

bells and whistles of garbage trucks

siren songs ring tones doorbells

computer music and twitches

how can I possibly be

in the moment

when the world is so

in my face

in my ears

in my rooms

in my yard

swallowing this

moment and

the next and next and next…

how in this world do I let go

of all the cacophonous chaos

practice practice practice

25 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Susan Auld, teacher as transformer, The Art of Practing Zen. Bookmark the permalink.

Little Rooms

Posted on May 14, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

There are always special places in life. They are places where we can be. William Stafford called those places little rooms. Our little rooms provide views in the world revealing what and who is important. Time drifts and we reach out to what and who is important in life.

The little rooms are mindful places where life beckons coming alive in the each moment’s richness. We are more aware of each moment in encountering them fully.

I rock high in the oak–secure, big branches–
at home while darkness comes. It gets lonely up here
as lights needle forth below, through airy space.
Tinkling dish washing noises drift up, and a faint
smooth gush of air through leaves, cool evening
moving out over the earth. Our town leans farther
away, and I ride through the arch toward midnight,
holding on, listening, hearing deep roots grow.

There are rooms in a life, apart from others, rich
with whatever happens, a glimpse of moon, a breeze.
You who come years from now to this brief spell
of nothing that was mine: the open, slow passing
of time was a gift going by. I have put my hand out
on the mane of the wind, like this, to give it to you.

5 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, Little Rooms, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, teacher as transformer, William Stafford. Bookmark the permalink.

An Observation

Posted on May 13, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

We live in paradox in the world. Parker Palmer uses May Sarton‘s poetry in his writing to bring this point to life. It is hard to be sensitive and being gentle requires a certain toughness.

Since I arrived home, I have read more than I have written. In part, I am exploring the aesthetic qualities that life shares with us. There are qualities that allow us to live in the world in ways that we do not bruise or wound the hidden fruit. Yet, we are left with scars in that work forever making us stronger when we are not wearing gloves. The paradox of life is gives us strength and sureness and, at the same, we are tender and vulnerable.

Teaching, and for that matter any pedagogic work, requires that sensitivity. It is always rough as there is no how-to-manual. We learn this work through the tact and sensitivity of the work itself, reflecting more on what goes well as opposed to what goes well in pedagogic forming. We come to be observant, patient, and see the particular of each situation revealed in the universal.

True gardeners cannot bear a glove
Between the sure touch and the tender root,
Must let their hands grow knotted as they move
With a rough sensitivity about
Under the earth, between the rock and shoot,
Never to bruise or wound the hidden fruit.
And so I watched my mother’s hands grow scarred,
She who could heal the wounded plant or friend
With the same vulnerable yet rigorous love;
I minded once to see her beauty gnarled,
But now her truth is given me to live,
As I learn for myself we must be hard
To move among the tender with an open hand,
And to stay sensitive up to the end
Pay with some toughness for a gentle world.

10 Comments

Posted in Community, Education, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged An Obersvation, community, creativity, education, May Sarton, Mindful Practice, Parker Palmer, poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Psalm

Posted on May 11, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

While I was in Spokane, I created a prayer as part of Sabbath practice. It was not so much a new prayer, but an amalgam of existing prayers including lines from the 23rd Psalm, which I recall imperfectly. The prayer served as a great way to stop, slow down, and catch my breath.

Stuart Kestenbaum memorized the 23rd Psalm, but suggests recalling its exact order was challenging. He captured its essential message, one of goodness and mercy wherever we are in a particular day and life. Sabbath happens when we need it. It is that moment, regardless of beliefs, when we pause and catch our breath. It allows us to catch up to the our self, so to speak, even in simple tasks like opening doors.

The only psalm I had memorized was the 23rd
and now I find myself searching for the order
of the phrases knowing it ends with surely
goodness and mercy will follow me
all the days of my life and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever only I remember
seeing a new translation from the original Hebrew
and forever wasn’t forever but a long time
which is different from forever although
even a long time today would be
good enough for me even a minute entering
the House would be good enough for me,
even a hand on the door or dropping today’s
newspaper on the stoop or looking in the windows
that are reflecting this morning’s clouds in first light.

14 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Psalm, Stuart Kestenbaum, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Way Sunshine Smells

Posted on May 9, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

We picked dandelions and put them on the kitchen table in a mason jar. My mom would take them and put them there not saying they were weeds. Members of Kathy’s family ate dandelion greens as a salad. As our boys grew up, they picked dandelions and we put them in vases for a few days as the dandelions gave up their prime moments and shared the way sunshine smells.

Tamara Madison wrote this poem about daffodils not dandelions. It reminds me of the wonder we live in. Nature is transient. It moves at its pace and sometimes we pay attention to it. In a world filled with busyness, it is hard to realize we have little control over what happens outside our self. We control our personal responses to the world and its phenomena, human and non-human. When I reflect on what is was like to be a child and the many things I did not take for granted, it points out the transience I live with and a way to approach it. Daffodils and dandelions are the way sunshine smells and honoring me with their presence, as I honor them.

Ten daffodils stand in a pasta sauce jar
giving up their moment of prime
to brighten this cluttered kitchen table.

Yellow lovelies, I am honored
to have you here. Outside you’d be
just another bit of the great flowering world,
but in my kitchen, among the papers,
the bottles, the bananas growing tired
in the bowl, you are amazement itself.

Outside amid the orange blossoms,
the roses, the sweet alyssum,
your light scent would be lost.
Here, you turn this morning kitchen
Into a festival of fragrance – you
are the way sunshine smells.

8 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, Tamara Madison, teacher as transformer, The Way Sunshine Smells. Bookmark the permalink.

The Guest House

Posted on May 9, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Several years ago during a difficult time, I read this poem and it spoke to what I was going through. From time to time, I recall the poem and how it helped me meet life differently. I compartmentalized life, including my emotions, in unhealthy ways. Emotions and accompanying experiences are guests coming and going and not staying for life.

I treated life as different buckets containing each part as if I could easily separate them. Rumi reminded me life is holistic and involves life flowing with no clear boundaries between parts. It is all oneness.

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.

16 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Rumi, spirituality, teacher as transformer, The Guest House. Bookmark the permalink.

Rhubarb

Posted on May 8, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

We have rhubarb in our backyard and it yields fruit through the summer. Kathy and I grew up where rhubarb was inexpensive and plentiful. It made great pies, jams, canned fruit, and was edible, with sugar, when eaten raw as it is tart.

It is interesting to note how, as we age, we notice things that seemed less relevant earlier. Larry Schug reminded me about rhubarb. I took this particular plant for granted as I grew up, but they create miracles as do other plants and animals in our world. Rhubarb provided an inexpensive dessert and snack that, as I recall, seemed available year round in some form.

When I reflect on nature, I see miracles and the ordinary is more powerful than when taken for granted. Nature is a great provider and takes care of human needs in ways that are not always readily evident unless I take time to see treasures provided.

By April, sour red stalks
push elephant-ear leaves
into near-earth atmosphere.
Rhubarb plans ahead,
years, decades even,
lives sustainably on the interest
of sunlight stored under ground,
having folded up its solar collectors
in September,
when the days grow too short
to make sugar.
See how simple is a miracle.

14 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, Larry Schug, Mindful Practice, nature, poetry, Rhubarb, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

I Worried

Posted on May 6, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Life has aspects we cannot change about and worrying simply comes to nothing as Mary Oliver suggests. There are many things we do not control even when we think we can. It is important to let go and recognize these phenomena as part of the unfolding of life.

Although Mary Oliver includes phenomena outside our control, she includes advice on how to deal with the lack of control. We can go out and sing or act in ways that are creative and life-giving. We can accept the world as it is and not try to correct it. Nature will do what she naturally learns to do. Our role is to be in the world, live in it lovingly, and attempt to do no harm in our living.

We control certain phenomena in the sense we can avoid what is destructive, but there are things that we learn and taught in living naturally.

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers

flow in the right direction, will the earth turn

as it was taught, and if not how shall

I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,

can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows

can do it and I am, well,

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,

am I going to get rheumatism,

lockjaw, dementia?