Life long learning

At least two or three times a year I am compelled to post the poem below. Oh yeah, I have had such GREAT teachers, and I am grateful.

One thing I realized this week is that I still have great teachers even though they don't look exactly like the teachers to whom I'm usually referring when I post the poem. These days my teachers look a whole lot like my clients, neighbors, friends and family.

I learned a lot this week by way of smooth and not so smooth interactions with my current roster of teachers. Wow. It will take awhile to integrate the lessons of the past week. Wisdom is hard earned and slow to accumulate, but today what I can say for sure is that I learned a lot about my attention span and stamina this past week. I also learned that in some ways I'm shamanically adept, but with other traditional shamanic practices, I'm clumsy as an ox.

Are oxen clumsy?

Because I had such great teachers, as a teacher I have always been eager to pass on to my students Every Single Thing I know. This week I realized fully this is absolutely unnecessary. I don't have to teach everything I know, not ever, and even though there are things shamans have always done, that does not mean I have to do them. Wow, what a revelation.

In many ways, even though I've had great teachers and learned many things, it's also true that I'm still treading on thin ice. Indeed.

Gratitude to Old Teachers

When we stride or stroll across the frozen lake,
We place our feet where they have never been.
We walk upon the unwalked. But we are uneasy.
Who is down there but our old teachers?

Water that once could take no human weight -
We were students then - holds up our feet,
And goes on ahead of us for a mile.
Beneath us the teachers, and around us the stillness.

~~Robert Bly