Enter here for October Giveaway!
Each month we will be giving away a copy of Teaching with Heart autographed by Parker J. Palmer (Foreword) , Taylor Mali (Introduction) and Sarah Brown Wessling (Afterword).
To be entered to win, post your response to this month’s question in the comment section below.
What poem are you using to inspire you this school year?
Why this one?
Please give the name of the poem, the poet, where you’ve posted the poem and a few lines about why this poem means so much to you.
We will pick the winner through a random number generator. Please be sure to use a valid e-mail address in the “e-mail field” so that we can contact you. As long as you only post your e-mail in the e-mail field, your address will not be published online.
All entries must be posted by October 30th.
On November 3rd, we will announce this month’s winner and post the prompt for the November Giveaway. Check back each month for the new question and a chance to win an autographed copy of Teaching with Heart.
Good luck!
Randi Winters
October 12, 2015 12:37 amThe poem that I read every day this year before I go to work is Rumi’s
“The Guesthouse” which I heard at a Courage to Teach retreat this summer. Starting my 27th year of teaching this year, it’s not my first rodeo and you would think there wouldn’t be anything that could throw me, but this year has! I have had such a difficult start to the school year with many challenges I could not have predicted including the ADHD student who goes into rages and throws furniture, several students who do not know how to read, and a new teacher who refuses to team. Every day I read this poem and I sit quietly to ready myself to receive the guests who will visit my house today and wonder about these “guides from beyond”, what will they teach me today? This poem reminds me to “meet them at the door laughing and to invite them in.”
“The Guesthouse” by Rumi
This being human is a guesthouse,
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’re 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 whoever comes,
Because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Randi
2nd grade teacher
Megan Scribner
October 12, 2015 1:52 amRandi,
Thanks for your post. It’s a wonderful way to kick off our October Giveaway!
Megan
Jennifer
October 16, 2015 5:35 pmWhat a fun post! I’ve been enjoying this poem lately as I transition into a new position. Too often, I find myself saying “I’m going to…” and then find I’m waiting for the right time, or to have researched enough, or planned enough to do whatever that thing may be. This poem serves as a great reminder that I can just do things. Just let go. The time/process doesn’t have to be “perfect” as it never can be. I have this saved on my phone as well as printed at my desk.
She Let Go by Rev. Safire Rose
She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.
She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.
She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go. She didn’t search the scriptures. She just let go. She let go of all of the memories that held her back. She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.
She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope. She just let go.
She didn’t analyze whether she should let go. She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment. She didn’t call the prayer line. She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.
No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing. Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.
There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that.
In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.
Megan Scribner
October 19, 2015 3:47 pmJennifer,
Thanks for sharing such a terrific poem. I think she wrote it for me! I suspect many people will feel the same way.
Best,
Megan
Veronica Miles
November 3, 2015 10:02 pmWow, let it go, let it go…. yes peace above understanding.
Helen Sadler
October 28, 2015 11:00 amThe poem that is guiding me this school year is “Fluent” by John O’ Donohue:
I would love to live
Like a river flows,
Carried by surprise
Of its own unfolding.
This poem is short enough to commit to memory and come back to in my mind whenever I get stressed. The trick is remembering to do so. In my classroom, I want to be the river that flows; the catalyst that allows for time and exploration and surprise. Every time I have a not-so-good day it is because I have forgotten this guiding poem. I fell into a bad habit or I allowed some outside pressure to force me to forget.
Thank you for allowing me to express it here. It will help me remember. We are just starting second quarter, so I have a lot of “flowing” to do.
Megan Scribner
October 28, 2015 3:00 pmHelen,
Thank you for sharing this poem. I love the idea of creating a mantra from these few lovely lines.
In Leading from Within, Carla M. Dahl, a psychotherapist and professor of marriage and family studies, wrote her reflection on this same poem. I thought you and others would appreciate hearing how she also found wisdom and strength in this poem.
Megan
I suppose there’s something in the DNA of institutions that requires strategic planning, marketing analysis, and plotting the future in five-year increments. As a graduate school administrator, I do my share of assessing, prioritizing, reporting. After all, I certainly want to be part of a productive, mission-driven organization.
Or do I? Hmmm. Do I want to be driven by anything, including mission? Or do I want to be fluent, as John O’Donohue describes in this small jewel of a poem?
When I’m tempted to lead by rote, by technique, or, worse, by someone else’s compass, this poem reminds me of the way the river has to trust its own unfolding. No leader can see the end from the beginning, no matter how strategic the plan. Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River, cannot imagine New Orleans.
Leadership by “unfolding” is something I’ve come to relatively late in life. I spent years heeding others with more experience, more credentials, or simply more volume. But with the support and grace of friends and colleagues, I began to trust my vision, my truth, my intuition. I began to see the invitations inherent in leadership, not just the demands. Now, when momentum or deadlines push for making controversial decisions quickly, I request time for reflection. I encourage members of my team to pay attention to their own inner truth, and the gifts of insight they offer add to the river’s unfolding, taking us places the five-year plan could not have imagined.