One of my earliest memories of school is from pre-primary. I must’ve been about four years old, maybe five.
Sitting in a circle in the small blue accented classroom, the petite teacher with dark hair and a prominent mole near her cheekbone, is sing-teaching us a song out of the ordinary, about what I sense could be the story of a Native American tribal character, leading us into some kind of exotic adventure. When I cast my mind back, the memory of the song is glazed with totem imagery, which seems to suit the teacher’s personality - she is a little different to the other teachers; wearing exotic looking jewellery and a mid-height ponytail. That’s the only scene I remember of her and it’s the one that says, she was your favourite teacher. Most of my other favourite school teachers had similar attributes - I remember all of them having bright eyes and big smiles. The high school version of her had a fabulous sense of humour and an underlying mischief in her laugh. My feeling is that the teachers who were encouraging and warm, with a lightness of being, teaching slight ‘off the curriculum’ type lessons, were the teachers I learnt the most from. When I think back, their classrooms were the ones I looked forward to being in, no matter what the lesson was.
Over the years, in particular the years that I’ve been intentionally seeking a holistic personal growth journey, I’ve come to realise that I’m immediately drawn to certain teachers. Perhaps I see and feel something in them that is also inside of me that wants to be nourished and encouraged. I’ll find myself thinking, I want to be able to guide others like they do. I want to share what they are teaching. They too have been taught and continue to apprentice themselves to various ‘schools of life’. These teachers are kindling for the parts of me that want to be in service to others; the undeniable call from within to contribute a link to the chain of teachers that serve as guiding lights, now and since the beginning of time. The ones who share myths, legends, stories, songs, remedies, anecdotes and messages from divine nature.
I have deep gratitude for the teachers that I purposefully choose to connect with and seek guidance from.
And then there are the teachers that I meet at any and every moment of the day. We are reflections of each other. When we are willing, it is possible to begin to see parts of ourselves in others. Sometimes a part of ourselves that we have left behind and laid to rest. Perhaps we see something we have been unconsciously carrying around for a while, suddenly brought to light through the words or actions of another. Other times future possibilities are presented to us.
To acknowledge the teacher in all things, through the connection between ourselves and those we are living alongside, between the earth and the cosmos, is to begin to ‘see the light’ as they say. The other word for this is Guru. Guru is the bridge from darkness to light. That bridge may take many different forms; it may arrive in the shape of a person, the pattern on a leaf, the spiralling of the spider’s web. Then you see, becoming lit through reflection, that the light is actually coming from within you.
Netflix has just made one of my favourite books into a series: All The Light We Cannot See. Two children, strangers to each other, in the 1920s, tune into a radio frequency hosted by a professor who shares knowledge and insights about the human mind and being. One of the children is blind. One is an orphan. Years later, living in the midst of the war, they both remember the words he spoke into the microphone. In the first episode of the tv series version which I’ve just seen, the girl recites the professor’s words to her dad; the most important light is the light you cannot see.
The light we feel. The light that is passed between us through words, gestures and sometimes simply in pure presence of each other.
Feeling brings us to see. I feel the words land in my heart and I sense what does not always need to be precisely described, and then I see the way. I see the teacher who appears each time I am ready to let more light in. The teachings bring a gentle sense of relief that settles through the body - gratitude.
We are teachers and we are students. May we move through the world in response to this ability; to this potential to grow better, through each other.
There are children watching.