Is THAT my Teacher?

There is a saying that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. When I was ready to move into a new phase in my life, but I wasn’t sure which direction to go, I wondered where my teacher was. Not long after, I answered an ad for a class and voila’! The change I was seeking also appeared. Sometimes, we don’t know what we need and the teacher we get isn’t what we expected. I see that I must have been seeking oodles of interesting instruction, because I have four children – er, teachers.

Many of you may think that parents teach their children, and that’s a one-way street. I’m here to say that my children have each taught me many things. When they take up that nasty habit of repeating my words back to me (they actually were listening!), I get my self as a teacher in a round-about way. Like when I didn’t want to go to the pool because I thought I didn’t look good in a bathing suit. One of my daughters asked if I was going to let what others think dictate my life. *Groan* I had said the same thing to her not long before, when she wasn’t going to do something that she wanted to do because it wasn’t cool. (Of course, I had to go to the pool in my bathing suite then!)

My children have also taught me deeper, bigger lessons about life and love that I couldn’t have gotten any other way. Seeing the world through their eyes can be enriching and liberating. It often leads to self-examination and change on my part as I see where I’ve been lacking. They’ve helped me shed belief systems that didn’t support my values and embrace an awareness that my life sorely needed.

For example, I grew up in an area of the country known for straight talk and rugged individualism. There, a capable person was taught never to depend upon others. My son taught me otherwise. While intelligence is great, he showed me that life is richer when I leave the illusion of safety I found in emotional independence. When I connect with others, my life is richer. Each of my three daughters has been my teachers, too. There’s not enough space to list it all. I must have had a lot to learn! But none of it would have happened, had I not been willing to open my heart and listen, trusting that they were wonderful beings and a beautiful perspective.