ALWAYS WITH ME

There are times in the classroom when all my get-up-and-go seems to have gone, times when only little ideas are coming and all creativity has long since left. These are times when, try as I might, I can’t make heads or tail of this whole teaching business. It’s like a bright light has been dimmed down to almost darkness, and there I am, thinking the most meager thoughts and hoping for a fast end to the class period. Those are thoroughly discouraging times, but the bright side is that, almost always, the understanding returns to me that what I need – the power to produce refreshing ideas -- is actually always with me. Just as water is always waiting inside a faucet, so are stimulating thoughts standing ready to support and inspire me whenever I ask. My mind may sometimes seem blank as I stand before the students, but that’s like saying the mighty Mississippi has no water, or the sky has lost its air. All I have to do is settle myself down and see, once again, the great gathering of ideas inside me, the crowds of earnest and useful thoughts that only need my acceptance to start their wonderful work.