What Matters

I've been thinking about what matters. Easy to lose sight of.

What matters?  What really matters, from day to day and moment to moment over the long, or short, arc of a life time? What matters beyond that arc?

There is a passage in the TAO TE CHING that says "The master does nothing and leaves nothing undone." I have often struggled with that.  But perhaps the "nothing" is a recognition of what does and does not matter, a sense of perspective about the million and one little nothings that we think we must do, that indeed we do, and the million and one "nothings" that matter, in strange ways we can't even fathom. The things that the world calls "nothing" may be the ones that matter most. The things we fret over and stew about and do may, in the grand scheme, be utterly insignificant.

Let your spiritual eye zoom back. Climb to the top of a great overlook and take in the panoramic view of life. What is the nothing that you do? What nothing can you leave undone? 

What matters? 

Wishing you, as I do for myself, perspective in the New Year
.

The Tao of Teaching Revisited

(From notes I posted on Facebook about 7 years ago whose ideas I return to time and again.)

Lao Tzu says 

be "careful as someone crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy territory.
Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice.
Shapable as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley.
Clear as a glass of water.

Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?"

I want to be careful with my students, since they are young and vulnerable. I want to be alert to all that is happening in my classroom at any moment. I want to be courteous, always using the language of respect. I want to be fluid, prepared to change as the day and needs of my students change - deliberately, not wildly. Shapable as a block of wood ... I want to be willing to change, but not without purpose. Receptive as a valley - I want to create a place where young growth can thrive. Clear as a glass of water, that learning travels through me and I don't muddy it up or get in the way. The patience to wait til the mud settles  - The perfect description of waiting for students to come to attention.

Lao Tzu says
"What is rooted is easy to nourish.
What is recent is easy to correct.
What is brittle is easy to break.
What is small is easy to scatter."

Many students are not rooted, or their roots are weak, grown in harsh soil and rough conditions. It is not easy to nourish their spirits. How can they take in lessons of community and trust, let alone lessons about math and reading, when they are not rooted?

But they are young, and therein lies the hope. The older a child gets, the harder it is to correct their learning and help them find the right path in life. What is recent is easy to correct. What has been their whole lives may be harder to correct.

What makes something brittle? If a child hasn't had what they need, their spirit may well be brittle, their feelings may be brittle. They are vulnerable, more vulnerable than I sometimes remember in the heat of the moment. They break easily, and that is not a good thing.

Children are like tiny plants or seeds. So much potential, but to grow, they need tenderness and careful attention. What is small is easy to scatter. But perhaps scattering is not what they need. 

"The Master views the parts with compassion
because he understands the whole."

The wise teacher views all the parts of a child's personality with compassion, all their quirks and challenging behaviors, because she understands the whole child, the big picture.

"The Master allows things to happen.
She shapes events as they come."

The wise teacher is flexible and allows for teachable moments. She takes advantage of unexpected and organic learning opportunities.

"She steps out of the way
and lets the Tao speak for itself."

There's nothing I can add.

At Ease In Your Life

We live in a world that pushes us to fill every second and want things we don't need, a world that insists on the urgency of its demands on our time. We are saturated with messages about what we should worry over and fear and desire.  It can be hard to step back and find balance.  To be, as the Tao puts it, "at ease in your life."

I recently read an article about some research linking "grit" to success.  There's a short survey you can take that's apparently an effective predictor of later success.  Several of the questions seemed oriented to the kind of over-ambitious, over-driven, achievement-oriented personality that is, to be honest, the antithesis of the Tao. I found myself wondering, "Is it possible to have grit without being consumed by ambition and desire?"

Perhaps the greater question is "How does this research define success?"  Material possessions?  Career accomplishments?  Notoriety? Sufficient laughter and love and a sense of inner fulfillment?  A roof over your head and food to eat?  Making the world a better place?  After all, "success" and "happiness" aren't necessarily synonymous.

When I was a kid, I used to love the board game Careers.  It was the 1970's answer to Monopoly, a game in which each player defined success on his or her own terms.  You collected happiness points, fame points and money.  To win, you had to reach a certain total (I think it was 60), but you could make the total out of any combination of fame, money or happiness.  Different career paths would lead to different kinds of points.  Success was formulaic and achievable, which of course is not always the case in real life, but there was something so wonderful about a game that acknowledged this life truth:  There are many paths to success and many ways to define success.  In the end, it's a question of whether you are "at ease in your life," in the choices you've made, in your definition of success and your progress towards your goals.