2010-09-19

Free Spirits Rising to the Heavens

Taking a walk with Shanghai around the lake....reflecting on the weekend.Friday night went to the school's family night and read my new book to them, then went to see a student from last year play volleyball. Her little sister said I was awesome for coming just to see her big sis. I told her if I didn't believe her sis was awesome I wouldn't have come.

Went home to bed, making it to the top of the stairs before crashing on the floor.

The next night I was invited to see the butterfly dance once again, and once again felt like I had entered the world that exists between this one and Heaven......it's here on earth, but so rarely do we allow ourselves to freely develop our beauty that we can only imagine it existing in some far away place at hopefully a far away time.....which we prefer to call Heaven.


As I watched the dancers (absolutely mesmerized and blown away by the belly dancers) I added India to the list of places I had to experience....and began writing down my thoughts:

"The how isn't as important as the why. Passion beyond belief becomes belief. Belief is the driving force behind dream creation (going to India).

Our bodies are absolutely beautiful.....not the media-promoted bodies, but the body expressing itself freely and beautifully.


Mia moglie prossimo sarĂ  indiano (Italian for 'My next wife is going to be Indian) - (Again, written while watching the belly dancers).


Burning Passion - for life....for laughter....for love....for living each moment I exist."





Rupesh was singing and instead of spending money on food, I bought his CD to spend on uplifting my soul.

As the butterfly's mom took a photo of her and I on my motorcycle (the Panther & the Butterfly), she said I would be one of those teachers her daughter would remember forever, just as the former student's grandmother from Friday night had said.


I drove away knowing that I wanted these children to remember me as someone who believed in them and thought they were worth giving extra too.....causing them to believe in themselves as adults and continue giving to themselves.........and that I wouldn't be that one teacher who did this.....but one of many!!!!!!


I know this dream HAS to happen, and it's going to take so much spirit that even though I woke up this morning not wanting to move, I went to a Hindu temple service and was absolutely blown away by how much it paralleled the science behind Quantum Physics. It was over much too fast and I can't wait to take my kids next week when they're with me, watching at least one of them play the tambourine their first time there just as I had done today.

Went to look for a bongo/lap drum with my new friend Nana, whom I watched in amazement during the ceremony, prompting me to ask him if he would teach me how to play.

Then I visited a Taoist temple on my way home and am excited to take my children there for a Chinese dinner this week.

I am called a "free spirit". Does this mean the alternative is to be a "trapped spirit"?

But all of this couldn't compare to the simple words from my Grandma before we hung up

"Goodnight Adam. I love you."
(picture taken from one of my favorite meditation spots)

I take her love for me and send it back out into the world

Goodnight world. I love you. Tomorrow we'll wake up and live as the big, giant and free spirits we really are

Behind every god is love,and with love behind you, there is no where to grow but up to the heavens

Tomorrow will be a heavenly day.

2010-09-18

The Best We Can


There is something so amazing inside each one of us. Even five-year-old Nadir whom I a few weeks ago at a Hindu dance competition (behind Sofia in picture above). It's up to us to uncover what that is, and develop it the best we can, and with as much love as we can.

2010-09-14

New Realities to Step Into


 Rise from the dead and kiss the stars


It's time to become who you really are

Pictures of Bella learning about Martin Luther King's courage at his museum in Atlanta, then applying that courage to her own life as she faced her fears on Cedar Point's scariest rides in Ohio.


How we experience the experiences we go through creates the realities we step into.


All I want is for my children (and students) to experience life in a way that allows them to continually create better and brighter realities to step into.........one positive and powerful thought, feeling and action after another.

2010-09-05

Light & Laughter

I'm glad my son is my son. He brings a lot of light and laughter into my life. This video clip he showed me this week is one example:




Thank you Brosden (taken this summer outside the Greek Parthenon replica built in Tennessee for the 1898 World's Fair),

2010-09-02

We Are the Butterfly

I've heard it said that when a butterfly flaps its wings the effect can be felt on the other side of the world. It's a 100+ year-old metaphor used in chaos theory that one small action in a dynamic or changing system can not only have an effect on the whole, but create a long-term change in that system.

One of our small actions can lead to one big change, in our life, in the life of another, or in the world at large, whatever the system is that we're trying to effect.

Saturday night I was the one affected in a big way by the beautiful butterfly dancing up on stage. Her dancing, the amazing vocal talent of Rupesh, my own daughter dancing around after the competition was over......Made me realize that WE are the butterfly

And when we have the courage to even TRY to live our dreams, we flap our wings and affect others in a positive way, be it in the room or clear across the world.

It filled my heart with love and peace.....this is what life is about - freely and fearlessly expressing the truth and beauty inside of us, flapping our wings and changing the world in more beautiful way.

Yesterday I received this picture from a former student


She's loving middle school and loving life, dreaming and doing bigger than ever before. And because of this, she's feeling big in this world and flapping her wings, effecting great change in herself and the world around her.

Last year when she was thinking and doing little I would flap my wings and let her know. Having potential means nothing if you don't use it, and by teaching her as the brilliant, creative individual she was, not only did she go up a level on the state test, but she went up a level in who she was and what she was capable of doing and being.

Yesterday in class a student came up to me complaining that she's only been in the country for two years and it isn't fair for me to expect her to produce as much as the other students because they've been here 8 years longer.

I told her the truly fair thing for me to do was to expect her to work 8 times harder. She began to cry, just as the student in the picture above did last year when I told her she had to flap her wings harder (flashing me back to when Patrice was in my class - The Last of the Mohicans - A Tribute to Patrice)

I wasn't trying to make her cry but get her out of her cocoon and to see herself as I did, a beautiful butterfly capable of much bigger thought and action. Instead of lowering the bar for her I raised it, challenging her to get more points on the online math program than she has ever done before.

Not only did she do that, but this morning I can see she worked harder than all but 2 of her classmates, outworking 18 others.

Today I'm going to stand on the desks and invite her to join me, in celebration for flapping her wings so hard.

Because the truth is, what she does in her life will echo in her world.

And if she does it big enough, brilliantly enough, and beautifully enough......it will echo in eternity as to what we all can do and be........our biggest, most brilliant and beautiful selves.