Hello Rumi Tuesday! A Shout Out to Teachers…

Today is National Teacher Appreciation Day!

I want to give a shout out to some teachers

who made a big difference in my life,

though they likely have no idea.

They certainly did not get a thank you

or any recognition from me or anyone I know.

The real difference was not realized until later in life.

I had always wondered why some people who had tough times

ended up in the gutter,

while others found the strength to

turn their lives around and make it through life

as what the world calls successful.

Of course, it is by the Grace of God,

and often that grace is bestowed upon us

through our teachers.

I was in a spiritual transformation workshop not long ago

with a current teacher, Salima Adelstein of
The University of Spiritual Healing & Sufism.

Salima guided us through a healing exercise,

during which a hardened knot near my heart burst opened – energetically speaking.

It revealed an ah-ha that brought me to tears – sobbing tears –

with immense gratitude for the gifts I had been given by Mrs. Polk,

my math teacher in grades 4 through 6.

I realized it was her recognition of my gifts

and her special attention to make sure I got what I needed in class

that inspired me to pull it together and make something of myself

at a later time, when I certainly could have taken the dive into the gutter.

I certainly got close enough to land there and stay there.

During elementary school, I liked to sit at the front of the class

and answer all the questions.

I wasn’t trying to prove anything. I just loved learning and was very enthusiastic.

Most teachers asked me to sit on the side or in the back

and answer questions only if no one else knew the answers.

I understand. They wanted to give everyone a chance.

When I got to Mrs. Polk’s class, she made the extra effort

to teach me separately. She let me work at my own pace,

and when I finished the work, she made up assignments for me

that were not a part of the standard curriculum.

She allowed me to drink it in as fast as I could.

It fed me deeply in many ways.

Being the youngest of six children,

I was used to being at the end of the line,

the back of the car, the smallest of everything.

To get the same message at school for an opposite reason was challenging.

It was during that same time frame that my mother

was going through severe mental health challenges,

and I was often faced with some harsh interactions

that challenged our relationship and left me believing

it was all my fault.

The years that followed elementary school were plentiful with opportunity

for drugs and alcohol and mischief of many kinds –

and I said yes to those opportunities.

Then a few years later, when things finally crashed with my relationship with my mother,

instead of diving deeper into the ditch, I chose to pull it together.

I decided my intellect and love for learning would be my ticket out.

I always knew there had to be more to life than the small town party scene.

The last three years of high school brought back the love of learning, and hope!

Another teacher, Mrs. Gracey of tenth grade English class,

recognized that hope and gave me guidance and words of encouragement once again.

She loved my writing! She encouraged me to apply for the Honors English program at the University of Texas.

Instead I went into the Honors Mathematics program.

By the way, if you think the world of a mathematician is boring and mundane, think again!

Numbers and the abstract mathematical concepts are a language of The One!

I could trace the will to be more and do more, to strive for the stars,

to the recognition from these two teachers.

Their words, their kindness, their recognition, affirmation, encouragement.

I don’t know where I would have ended up without it.

I was blessed with many wonderful teachers.

For them I am eternally grateful, and I wish for blessings upon them all!

And for all the many teachers like them, may you be showered with blessings of The One –

many times over.

May we all look at the children for what they carry inside, and reflect for them their brightest gifts.

You never know what seed you will plant that they will sow at some time along their journey.

No matter what you have ever been told

or ever believed in your life,

you are a reflection of Divine Beauty,

limitless like the Eternal,

an expression of the Essence of the One.