Love

Good morning, God!  I thank you for this new day, with all its promise and potential, all the good things that can happen, and yes, even all the not-so-good things that can help me to grow and to learn.  I'm coming off of a sick day, a day spent at home instead of at school, and I do feel a bit refreshed and invigorated.  I do feel more healthy than I felt yesterday, too, and I'm hoping that what I had has passed.

I've been reading a book that I've had for a while that's called "The Courage to Teach," and I'm impressed by much of what I find there.  The author, Parker J. Palmer, actually has the nerve to talk about things like love when he talks about teaching.  And not just in the sense that someone loves teaching, but in the sense that one of our most important elements of being a good and effective teacher, and that's something that I need to be reminded of regularly, because I forget it regularly.  I'm not in a classroom  for the paycheck or for the passing on of information--I'm there because I love the people whom I'm teaching (and who are teaching me important lessons about life, too).

Why is it that love--which should be our primary motivator in anything that we do--is so rarely recognized as such?  Why do we view the word with suspicion?  It's a tremendous gift that we have, this ability to love and to be loved, so why don't we view it as such and put it out there, making it transparent and obvious?  Is it because we fear that our love will be trampled on and disrespected, and that we may not be able to love any more if it is?  Do we fear that others will view our use of the word "love" with suspicion?  I want love to be my primary motivational force, but I almost always relegate it to a secondary role.

Why is that?

A reply:

You've learned well, in many ways.  You do understand already some of the reasons for which people are hesitant to share and spread their love.  And perhaps that's one of the major aims of being alive in the first place--to learn how to share love clearly, fully, and without condition.  You see the results of many people doing so--the Mother Teresas and the Leo Buscaglias, for example--and their examples are beautiful examples of people living up to their potential in life, and living fully and happily (even if their version of happiness doesn't match the versions of others).

One of the things the world needs more than anything else nowadays is to have more people be role models of unconditional love, more people who are willing to risk love and show love and live love.  There aren't enough people out there doing that, and our young people have precious few role models.  And when you do find someone who is living that way, then share their writings or their films or their art so that others can see that it is possible to focus on love and still get by, still make a living--to still thrive and experience abundance on this planet.

Take your love into your classroom.  In your case, you need more reminders in the form of notes or signs, for you forget things very quickly and easily, and you get caught up in the day very quickly, losing you focus on things like love and focusing instead on things like how they're doing, and what they've gotten right and wrong, and who's improving and who isn't.  Love them all, no matter what.  It's the unconditional love that's going to turn a heart, and that's going to allow that young person to grow up and share unconditional love with others.  Eventually.