![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/72\/2012\/03\/Photo-112-150x150.jpg\" "\\"Photo")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhen I look into your eyes
\nI see you
\nI don\u2019t mean I see your GPA
\nOr the work that you do.
\nI mean I see YOU
\nI see how you\u2019re hurting
\nIf you\u2019re lonely or blue
\nBut I see you
\nBeautiful you.
\nI see the trials and tribulations,
\nBut I see the good times too.
\nI see the events that shaped you, changed you,
\nMade you, broke you, maybe took your innocence
\nOr gave it back,
\nI see the cracks,
\nAnd the beautiful ways you weave them back\u2026together.
\nI see the people you\u2019ve loved
\nThe ones here and the ones up above
\nI see the ways you\u2019ve tried
\nTo hide
\nWhat you don\u2019t like
\nAbout you
\nThe things you think are shameful, or blameful
\nOr just not totally perfect
\nLike a defect.<\/p>\n
But when I look at those things you call flaws
\nI still just want more
\nBecause I know that the line between you and me
\nIt\u2019s not thick
\nThere\u2019s no bricks
\nIt\u2019s not a wall
\nOr at least, if it is, it\u2019s small.
\nAnd my job as your teacher
\nIs to reach ya\u2019
\nIs to reach deep inside you
\nSo that I can get past all of that nasty shit,
\nAll the stuff that\u2019s broken
\nAnd with words unspoken
\nTo love what I find
\nTo treasure it
\nNot to measure it
\nBecause you can\u2019t measure nobody\u2019s soul
\nA soul is whole,
\nIt\u2019s perfect.
\nIt\u2019s a manifestation
\nOf all that you are, as well as all that was taken
\nAnd there\u2019s nothing to assess or to grade, see
\nAnd anyone who thinks there is, is just crazy.<\/p>\n
So as the one at the front of this class
\nThe one you see as here to judge you
\nI\u2019m telling you,
\nShe\u2019s really just here to love you
\nExactly as I see it
\nBecause everything I see, and think,
\nI\u2019m gonna be it
\nBecause if I judge you, I really judge me
\nAnd that blinds me to my light,
\nAnd my own capacity.<\/p>\n
So if you don\u2019t mind, I\u2019m going to refrain,
\nGoing to abstain
\nFrom judging you, or pointing out your flaws
\nAs if you need more
\nOf that
\nAnd instead I will show you in me
\nWhat I found when I was finally able to see
\nMyself
\nClearly
\nTo be free
\nWith all my defects, and all my wrongs
\nAnd see a young, beautiful, utterly strong
\nWoman Warrior.<\/p>\n
Yes, I still have those moments when I\u2019m scared
\nWhen I don\u2019t know why I\u2019m here,
\nWhy anyone\u2019s there
\nBut as I reach out to others, to my brothers,
\nThose times of fear recede, shorten, lessen,
\nBecome less pressin\u2019.
\nAnd I can see more beauty, more hope, more joy
\nI can see more in me than whether I went to college, or if I got me a boy.
\nI see Laura
\nAnd she\u2019s unabashedly human
\nBut she\u2019s real
\nAnd she\u2019s sacred too
\nNot like the Madonna, dressed in blue
\nBut sacred like trees and rocks and rainbows
\nAnd you\u2019re the same, though
\nYou\u2019re also different.<\/p>\n
Coz we all hold one piece of the puzzle
\nAnd it doesn\u2019t make sense till we come together, till we nuzzle
\nAnd ask ourselves how we can reflect
\nThe good stuff inside
\nAnd not just project
\nThe shit we tell ourselves we are
\n\u201cOh, we\u2019re aggressive by nature,
\nWe\u2019re competitive, we\u2019re scarred\u201d
\nBecause the most beautiful lily has to grow in mud
\nAnd before she shows her soft beauty
\nShe has to break through,
\nIt\u2019s her duty
\nTo leave the mud behind her, and burst forth
\nWith all her power
\nBut to do that she needs showers
\nAnd sunshine
\nAnd moonshine too
\nAnd so do you.<\/p>\n
So there\u2019s one piece of wisdom I want you to grasp
\nTo take with you, when you\u2019re gone from this class
\nAnd it\u2019s not in no textbook, or lab reports
\nThere are no stats
\nIt\u2019s not a \u2018fact\u2019
\nYou won\u2019t find it in the journals
\nBut it\u2019s the one kernel
\nOf knowledge
\nThat saved my god damn life.
\nWhen I was ready to end it,
\nIt helped me instead to mend it.
\nAnd it\u2019s this:<\/p>\n
You need to reconnect with the world if you left it
\nAnd embrace it tighter if you\u2019re already here
\nAnd start to look for the sacred in others, despite your fear
\nBecause we become who we say we are
\nAnd what we do, what we think
\nSo seek to be around others who don\u2019t judge you,
\nOr say you stink
\nSeek out those who see the sacred in themselves
\nAnd they will see it in you too
\nThey won\u2019t be able to help it
\nThey\u2019ll see \u2018them\u2019 reflected in you.<\/p>\n
And if you can\u2019t find those people
\nThen know that you can be that person who stands up
\nWho is the first
\nTo break the mould, to break this curse
\nAnd says \u201cI see you\u201d, \u201cI see me\u201d
\nAnd no we\u2019re not perfect
\nWe\u2019re human beings
\nBut we have legs, arms and hands designed to create
\nSo before it\u2019s too late
\nLet\u2019s build something our great great grandkids won\u2019t hate
\nSomething that reflects the light inside us,
\nNot the dark, not this circus.<\/p>\n
Because every being on this planet is sacred
\nAnd so is Mother Earth
\nTogether we are the ones who can fix this
\nIt\u2019s time to give birth.<\/p>\n
Dedicated to the students I serve. Thank you for allowing me to find myself in your greatness.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Laura Paskell-Brown is a teacher and PhD student in New York City. She believes that her purpose in the classroom is to remind her students of the power they already have inside of them, and the ways in which they can use that power for good in the world. When I look into your eyes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-happens-when-women-lead"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n