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Today's
Meditation:
I try very
hard to teach my students to love life, to wonder at life
and living, to look at and appreciate all the amazing
things that are all around us, all the time. I'm not
sure how successful I am at it, but I do try. We're
not surrounded by resources that are simply waiting for us
to exploit them and profit from them; rather, we're
surrounded by wonderful things that are simply waiting for
us to grow perceptive enough not just to see them, but to
feel them and appreciate them.
Of
course, I also have to teach my students the material we
need to cover because of the state standards by which
we're bound-- I'm contractually obligated to do so.
But I don't want my students to lose the chance to do
readings that point out the marvelous sides of life; I
don't want them to leave my class without at least being
exposed to some of the more magnificent parts of the lives
we're leading and the world we're living in. I have
a wonderful opportunity to share those concepts, and I'm
not going to squander it.
If
you have any influence at all over any children at all, it
would be very kind of you to help to teach them to wonder
at the world, at the wonderful things that surround us all
the time. If you do that, you're giving them the
gift of awareness. If you can teach them to sense
wonder and awe, you're giving them a hint as to our true
position in this world-- as active participants in a
marvelous dance that can be full of wonderful
things. These wonderful things can help to carry us
through our troubled times, whereas if we see them as dull
and boring and ordinary, they'll more than likely never be
any help to us at all.
We
don't truly know what the "mind behind the
universe" actually is, of course, but we do know that
whatever the creative force is or was, it did an amazing
job. Just the view of the stars each night is a true
miracle in itself, and our lives are much richer when we
recognize it as such instead of not noticing it at
all. Let's teach our children the power of wonder
and awe so that they can have a perspective of their lives
that's rich and wonderful. It's the least we can do
for them.
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