Relationships

Relationships allow us to know everything at a deeper level.  Through relationship we learn more about ourselves.  We learn more about each other.  We learn more about our future.  We learn about what we believe.

All relationships start with two separate and distinct lives.  We must first be ourselves before we can be in relationship with anyone.  Our first task in building a strong and healthy relationship is to build a strong and healthy self.  This is the essential healing.  We must honor ourselves before we know how to honor another.

Reflections on Work (from my experience)

- See your work as service to humanity and the world.  Don’t work just for money.  Your work is an ever-changing process of serving the needs of others.

- Be compassionate and empathetic to all you serve.  Seek to understand their needs.

- Use common sense.  Simple language, simple solutions, keep to the basics.  Be a person of character.

- Treat your colleagues and workmates like dear friends and beloved family members.  Don’t just hire people.  Adopt them.  Bring them into your heart and your home.

- Care deeply about your service.  Those we serve offer us a blessing of opportunity.  Our work would not exist without those we serve.

- Be clear on your values.  Make sure your personal and professional values are in alignment with each other.  Openly share your values with all you serve and all who work with you.

- Focus your work on integrity, courage, authenticity, and transparency.  Be vulnerable and generous.

- Encourage the personal and professional growth of everyone you work with and everyone you serve.  As our work grows, we share our growth and we become more productive and purposeful.

- Work on building trust everyday.  If you make a mistake, make a sincere apology.

- The ends DO NOT justify the means.  The process of the work is essential.   The answers to problems are often found in the process.  Trust the process. 

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/09/07/article-2034663-0DBFDF5800000578-463_634x635.jpg

Vulnerability

Being vulnerable is not a weakness.  It is the birthplace of all human greatness.  When we are vulnerable, we share the soft, gentle, pure and authentic in us and take the risk to bring it to the world. 

Vulnerability has the power to take down our defenses and crack the walls of our fear.  Our willingness to be vulnerable allows us to connect with ourselves, others and God.  Humility and transparency lets go of the ego’s need to be in control and creates a space for the light of spirit to shine through.

“The wound is that place where light enters.”

                                                            - Rumi

That place gently invites us to be fully genuine and authentic, we become real.

We must do what we can to nurture our vulnerability.

We can discover a gateway to a new loving life.

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.”

                        - from “Anthem” by Leonard Cohen

Essential Education

I have found myself asking the following 3 questions in every professional development program I have facilitated in schools the past year.

- What is essential to teaching and learning?

- What is your most important task as an educator?

- What is your greatest hope for your students?

The answers that I have received consistently lift my spirit.

http://www.nicie.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Teaching-learning-Schools.jpg

The question of what is essential... receives answers like, respect, responsibility, healthy relationships, passion, compassion, joy of learning, trust, social skills, confidence and creativity.

When I ask educators what they think is their most important task, their responses are overwhelmingly mentioned “My primary task is to keep students socially and emotionally safe.”  “I want to inspire my students to be the best they can be.”

The thousands of educators that I am blessed to speak with report that their greatest hope for their students is to love learning, be kind and compassionate and be of service to our world.

Interestingly, when I ask parents the same questions, their responses are exactly the same.

Based on my unsophisticated research, educators, parents and students all agree.  It is time to recommit schools to teach to the needs of the whole child.  Academics must be integrated with Social Emotional Learning.  We must take back the time we have wasted on standardized tests and return to letting teachers teach and learners learn.