A New Path
I believe in the power of story, so I’d like to share more.
I started @love7rising on a gut feeling…that inner voice that kept talking. It said “something needs to change.”
I was that unhealed teacher trying to teach in a broken system. Unhealed both personally and professionally. I was often ungrounded and therefore showing up ungrounded and carrying that energy with me.
I left the classroom in 2016 and entered into one of the hardest years of my life. I felt a deep sense of disconnection and wondered “what is this all for?” While there are many wonderful pockets of schools and initiatives doing really important work, I was feeling this sense of lack. Lack of creativity, lack of purpose, lack of love. There was a deep divide between the WHAT and the WHY of education AND the soul of the child.
During my years in the classroom, I felt uncomfortable most of the time (my apologies if you’re reading this and I taught you or your child! I did the best I could to shelve these feelings… but as they say, the truth will set you free!)
I wanted to teach IN relationship with my students, not AT them. I felt incredible energy and life in the spaces in between… the spaces where you observed risk, where it wasn’t before or the space where a learner extends a hand for the first time to another in need. THAT”S the magic… that’s the seed we need to grow in order to give life to a planet in dire need of nutrients.
We just weren’t teaching enough heart. It wasn’t found in a textbook or highlighted on a report card. Our system was built to promote success as somewhere outside ourselves and not a place to be discovered inward. The child’s heart, the child’s light, the child’s purpose.
Why? Why? Why? This frustrated me to no end. There were days when I said out loud “I’m driving to Washington D.C and I want to STOP this madness.” Our priorities are mixed and scrambled and it we continue down this road, the chaos will only become louder.
And it did.
The pandemic has exposed a tremendous, larger than life WOUND in our educational system. And even more, our teachers are depleted. I watch them put their best face on in order to make it through, but at the end of the day there is only exhaustion.
The “distance” between us all is tired. The light has faded and the creative static has dimmed. It is time we poke our heads and hearts into this space and start making some changes.
I beg to begin this journey with the educators. Our educators deserve a space and place to dive inward… a place to get out from underneath the weight and responsibility of teaching in a remote, “distanced” system (one they didn’t sign up for!) and check in with their own voice, their own light, their love. My heart screams wellness! How are wellness practices for teachers supported in your school?
Why is this vital? Simple. A grounded teacher is FELT deeply by the learners. The energy vibrates outward.
And NEXT? The emotional well-being of our children. We CANNOT ignore the fact that mental health issues are on the rise. I’m saddened to say, I’ve experienced first hand the absolute devastation this pandemic has had on our youth. My heart breaks almost daily, learning of another child’s struggle. There is too much for them to navigate and I want them to know…WE ARE HERE and we WILL BE HERE for years to come.
If we can ALL, just for a moment, step back from the race and the fear of “falling behind” and pour love and energy into the souls of our learners and educators, I PROMISE we can heal.
I invite you to start the conversation. With enough heart, we can be the lighthouse for our youth and perhaps bring NEW LIFE and PURPOSE to education.
As always, thanks for being here.
