This week’s poem for #Mindfulness Mondays is not actually a poem, it’s an excerpt from Marianne Williamson’s “A Return to Love.” Rachel Willis selected it for her reflection in Teaching with Heart: Poetry that Speaks to the Courage to Teach.
This selection may be “just” a paragraph, but it contains so much. It is both challenging and encouraging – a bit of tough love. In the end, it is heartening. I think it’s the perfect post for Valentine’s Week and the period of time in which we live.
As if that wasn’t enough, Rachel Willis takes Williamson’s words – the challenge and the affirmation – and applies it the teaching profession. Though many teachers may feel overwhelmed and underappreciated, Rachel speaks to the importance of the work and the far-reaching impact – beyond what we can even know.
So teachers read on, embrace how you are “powerful beyond measure,” and have a Happy Valentine’s Week!
Remember that this is a #Mindfulness Monday post; take an extra moment to breathe and let Marianne Williamson’s words wash over you. And let them both challenge and affirm you throughout the week ahead. (See end of the post for more on #Mindfulness Mondays.)
From “A Return to Love”
—Marianne Williamson
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Rachel Willis’ Reflection on “A Return to Love”
In many professions, when you get to the end of the day, you can shut off your mind and seamlessly switch to your personal life. These are professions that do not keep you awake at night strategizing new ways to reach a difficult student or concocting imaginative ways to teach the subject so it’s fresh and new. These professions are more of a career and less of a calling.
Education is not one of those professions.
Nor is education just about the long hours we spend grading papers, crafting lesson plans, making phone calls to parents, speaking at PTA meetings, planning field trips, or tutoring students at the end of the day. Education is so much more than this.
The reason we lie awake at night is that what we do matters. We make readers, writers, mathematicians, and critical thinkers. We show students the ways of the world and inspire them to change it. We teach conflict resolution through playground games and prove that above all else, knowledge is power.
I truly believe that as educators, “we are powerful beyond measure.” Yet sometimes we act as though we’re “inadequate” and “play small”—this does not serve us or the world.
We are powerful beyond measure. In every lesson we teach, every decision we make, we are having an impact on the life outcomes of our students and generations of their families to follow. I love this passage from Marianne Williamson because it “liberates” me to embrace this power and shine as we are all meant to do.
—Rachel Willis
CEO & Founder of Elevating Equity
How to participate in #Mindfulness Mondays
Each Monday, I will post all or part of a poem here on the #TeachingWithHeart blog and on our Facebook page. Why only part of a poem? Well, we don’t have permission to reprint all of the poems online. But we are allowed to post a few lines – so when I can’t post the entire poem, I’ll post a few lines to peak your interest and motivate you to carry out your #Mindfulness Monday poetry practice. (I figure we all can use this kind of help.)
All the poems come from either Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems or Teaching with Heart: Poetry that Speaks to the Courage to Teach. Our hope is that you’ll purchase the two books and get the poems in their entirety. That way, we can all be “on the same page” in our virtual poetry club.
All told, it’s an investment of $41.90 for two books, for over 250 poems – about 17 cents a poem/a week. Click here to purchase a copy of Teaching with Heart. The book is also available through Barnes & Noble, Indie Bound and Amazon.
Special deal! From now to Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14th), purchase Poetry of Presence at this link for free shipping (book rate, U.S. only), a saving of $3 per book. Poetry of Presence is also available through the Grayson Books, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
As you may have noticed, I list Amazon last. While Amazon may save you a few dollars, authors get a much higher percentage of the price when you buy their books directly from them or their publishers. Just saying.
If you miss a week or two – that’s fine. Life has a way of stepping in. I suspect once you and I get into this habit, we’ll look forward to these quiet starts to our week. (If you do miss a week, go to #Mindfulness Mondays for an ongoing list of the posted poems.)
We’d love to hear from you!
Please feel free to post a word, a phrase, a short thought here in the blog’s comment section or on Facebook.
Spread the Mindfulness! Share the poem with a friend or fellow teacher and invite them to join our #Mindfulness Mondays.
For questions or more information, contact us at teachingwithheartfirepoetry@gmail.com
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