I also want to tell of a moment with a student that really touched me. I have never taught her, and we only see each other ocassionally, but we have real conversations. I was walking with her down the stairs yesterday, making small talk, when she said,
"Do you remember the first conversation we ever had? You told me that I had fire in my soul and that I could do anything I wanted".
I answered that I certainly remembered and how was the fire doing?
She answered despondently that she thought the fire had died.
I then remembered a clear cool moment in the early tranquil morning last weekend when the loved one was carefully scratching ash off the fire he had covered the night before. He wanted to get the flames going again for breakfast. He commented that if you cover the fire with ash, it will stay warm; and lo and behold, the little flames started licking at the twigs he laid on the coals in no time at all.
I asked the student to look me straight in the eye and said:
I can promise you emphatically that your fire has not died. You have allowed yourself or someone else to scratch ash on it, and it feels like it is gone. Please go and think about what small comment or criticism or incident has allowed this to happen, and scratch open the fire, so that it may be rekindled again.
I wish you all that you may recognise the things that happen to make you feel as though your fire has gone out, and the clarity to scratch it open again lovingly and rekindle your passion and trust in life.
"Do you remember the first conversation we ever had? You told me that I had fire in my soul and that I could do anything I wanted".
I answered that I certainly remembered and how was the fire doing?
She answered despondently that she thought the fire had died.
I then remembered a clear cool moment in the early tranquil morning last weekend when the loved one was carefully scratching ash off the fire he had covered the night before. He wanted to get the flames going again for breakfast. He commented that if you cover the fire with ash, it will stay warm; and lo and behold, the little flames started licking at the twigs he laid on the coals in no time at all.
I asked the student to look me straight in the eye and said:
I can promise you emphatically that your fire has not died. You have allowed yourself or someone else to scratch ash on it, and it feels like it is gone. Please go and think about what small comment or criticism or incident has allowed this to happen, and scratch open the fire, so that it may be rekindled again.
I wish you all that you may recognise the things that happen to make you feel as though your fire has gone out, and the clarity to scratch it open again lovingly and rekindle your passion and trust in life.
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