GETTING HELP

(written on October 28, 2005)

This morning I had an old familiar feeling of helplessness. I got to thinking, “Where am I going to get the ideas I need to be a great teacher today?” It was a worried, panicky thought, one I have often had – a thought based on the belief that I am an isolated, separate, limited human being who has to toil to invent ideas to use in the classroom. I struggled with it for a while this morning, fretting about perhaps having a bad day of teaching due to a lack of ideas. Luckily, though, just as I was stepping into the shower, a wonderfully reassuring thought came to me. I remembered a simple truth I have often taken comfort in: I am not separate, not isolated, not limited, and not even material. I am part of an infinite spiritual (mental) universe that moves in unlimited and incomprehensible ways. I don’t have to “get” ideas, for I am always a totally new and fresh idea in this vast mental universe. Then I remembered an analogy I often use. A wave in the ocean doesn’t have to work hard to be a perfect wave. It already is, because it is part of an almost limitless and perfect ocean. The wave simply has to relax and be what it must be – a perfect wave at all times. The same is true for me and my teaching. It’s silly for me to fret about getting new ideas for my classroom, for that’s exactly what I am – a fresh, brand new idea every moment. All I have to do to be a good teacher is simply be whatever idea I am at any moment. It’s so easy. In fact, it’s unavoidable. I must, by law, be a wonderful idea each moment in my classroom. There’s no “getting” involved. And no worrying.