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Today's
Meditation:
As a teacher, I learn over and over just how limited
and limiting our perspective is. I learn that the
student whom other people call lazy is simply frustrated
and unable to find meaning in the work that's
assigned. I find that the students who are called
incapable are simply being asked to work in their areas of
weakness rather than their areas of strength.
Almost anything that we think isn't useful is, indeed,
useful. The people we dislike the most are very
often helping us to see parts of ourselves that we would
like to change. And consider the dandelion, which
among other qualities is "a very safe, valuable and
useful plant with many medicinal uses. It is considered a
tonic (tones the body), reduces water weight gain, a mild
laxative, helps to eliminate toxins from the blood,
promotes healthy digestion and will soothe an irritated
stomach, acts as an anti-rheumatic, helps support the
liver and kidneys, keeps the bowels in a healthy
condition, stabilizes blood sugar, reduces blood pressure,
has shown anti-tumor properties and clears the skin of
impurities" (mysticnaturals.com).
It's difficult sometimes to stop and think of things that
irritate us. After all, we want to just get problems
out of our lives and weeds out of our lawns and
gardens. But just what are we getting rid of when we
never stop to consider the potential positive sides of the
things and people with which we're dealing? Perhaps
we're getting rid of learning experiences, or even
something with just the healing properties that we need
right now.
Sometimes I think of myself, too, as "a plant whose
virtues have not yet been discovered." I know
that I have a lot to give, but the person who most needs
to discover my virtues is me, myself. I hope that
one day I'll stop seeing myself as a weed, and start
seeing myself as a weed with lots to give. I'm
part-way down that road, but still traveling it.
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