There is Life After the Thesis

After chronicling my thoughts, feelings, ideas, and experiences throughout the thesis process on this blog (formerly entitled Rites of a Thesis), it seemed odd to me to simply let the blog go just because I had turned in my thesis and graduated. I don't want to merely "shelve" my thesis nor do I want all that I got from my time at Naropa to lie dormant. I want my thesis to continue to live and breathe and become, and I would like all the teachings and experiences I had during my time at Naropa to do the same. So I am keeping the blog (changing the title), and am commiting to myself to (w)rite on as I journey forward.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Connecting the Dots

Who we are and the environment we create in class are at least as important as the teaching skills we possess. ~ Rachael Kessler

This morning I woke up on time. I wrote my three long-hand written Morning Pages. I made my way out the door with Love and had time for a good walk-about and was able to attend to my Awareness Walk. I did not have to rush to my cushion. I had time to meditate. And I had a whole rush of ideas and a sense within my mind and body that the thing that really tickled me to the core about my thesis subject was the connection of me to my students.

Ritual serves as a conduit for this connection. I feel alive and connected and am constantly learning about me and my relatonship to my self, others, and the world through my personal rituals. I want my students to have similar experiences. To feel alive...to feel connected - even when alone - to simply feel...and to notice - to be aware - and to want to be even more aware...to want to know, to want to seek, to want to imagine, to want to create, to want to simply be.

On the last day of our session at Naropa last summer I wrote the following aspiration:

I aspire to...
Let go.
Let it be.
And welcome whatever is yet to come.

When I actually do this, I find that I get exactly what I need.

Last night I received feedback from my thesis advisor. I received thoughtful, provocative questions. I received encouraging suggestions. I received an objective view that I simply didn't have - a new pair of eyes who could see through some of my murk to a clear path of movement.

This morning with these questions and ideas dropping in, I allowed them to linger in my mind and rest in my body. "You might want to organize this...into two headings...Is your thesis about teachers in general or about you? If it is about you..get even more specific...I think personal is better...What is the difference between practice and ritual?...What is your connection to these rituals in regards to your thesis? Make this connection more clear..."

It is about my connection. It is personal. I rambled into my hand-held tape recorder this morning.

Connections abounded today in my classroom. From small sweet gestures and silly vocal and physical warm-ups, to the greater collective quiet reverence that comes when we ring the mindfulness bell.

A new book I received three days ago from Amazon, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice by Catherine Bell discusses ritual and practice and the distinctions of both. I just read that tonight. Auspicious that I did so right after Mary asked that question.

Sadly, Rachael Kessler passed away last week. However, the news of her passing prompted me to visit the PassageWorks (Kessler founded the organization in mid-1980's) website. There I found three articles that are completely helpful to me in my thesis work.

The Universe, God - the great powers of the world - are conspiring. The dots are being connected.

1 comment:

Joan Griffin said...

Great aspiration... hard to do... essential though... the power of the Universe is so powerful, yet so subtle... only when you're still and open can you hear its explosions!... and then they knock you down!

"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."
~ Paulo Coelho, from The Alchemist