Create – Teach – Motivate (Week 2)

 

Last week I told you about my mantra for 2017 – create, teach, motivate. Then I shared a couple of older posts about creativity. This week, let’s talk about teaching.

I’m no teacher you might say. I don’t have the patience to teach. That may be true in the traditional sense and bless those who have the perseverance and fortitude to instruct the uninformed. But teaching is more than a person standing up at the front of a classroom, chalk in hand and a lesson plan for Algebra 101.

Like creating, teaching is innate in humans. As parents we teach our children right from wrong as they grow. We teach simple skills to help them excel with living. Things like tying your shoe, telling time, reading, daily self care and life smarts like don’t get in a car with a stranger or look both ways as you cross the street.

As adults, we use our voice to share our opinions in the hopes of teaching a different perspective. We offer advice to impart wisdom that may enlighten or alleviate internal pain. Or we guide by showing that there is another way, a better way. When we give of our selves and share the vast resource of knowledge inside us, this is teaching in it’s purest form.

So this week, as you go about your life, take notice in the day to day opportunities that offer up a little lesson. If you are given pause during an interaction with another to see their point of view, then they have taught you something. If you yourself show someone else a solution to a simple problem, maybe point them in the right direction or suggest an alternative such as telling them about a new restaurant in town to try instead of the one they usually go to, then you too are teaching.

It’s that simple folks. An exchange of information, a opinion shared, even a show of real compassion for another are all opportunities for learning.

You really are a teacher, we all are. What lessons will you share this week?

Enjoy this post below to further continue this weeks theme of “teach”.

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And The Teacher Appears

 

This week I had two encounters with people who taught me an ugly truth about myself but it was exactly what I needed to learn in this moment.

The Yard Guy

I need to get my yard cleaned up and also have some stuff hauled away so I answered an ad in a local publication for a gardener/ general handy man. The inquiry left me feeling like this guy wasn’t very interested in taking on the job. He kept throwing up qualifications before he even heard what I needed like, “I don’t usually go to your area.” “I charge this much.” “If it’s at least four hours of work I might consider it.” “I can’t get out there until next week.”

Now ordinarily statements like these are valid. I would expect that he would inform me of his business policies and his availability. It was his tone over the phone though that left me wondering if he was really even interested in taking on the job or if he would actually show up like he said he would. It was like even though this is his business, he went to the trouble of paying to advertise it after all, he really wasn’t interested in what was being offered to him.

The Yes…But Guy

The second encounter was on a Facebook chat group. The topic of the group is ideas for a better Nanaimo, the city where I live. The discussion was about a downtown public space named the Diana Krall plaza. Yes, the jazz chanteuse grew up in my fair city. Anyway, we were discussing the need for the plaza to be “warmed up” so it could be better utilized by the public. One of the main contributors to the discussion kept coming back with jaded responses like, “Yes that’s a great idea but nothing has been done so far and I doubt the local leaders will follow through on any plans made.”

We engaged with back and forth banter for a while until I admitted defeat, told him I would always have a Pollyanna passion for the downtown and thanked him for sharing his insights with me. There was no use in engaging him further. He was not willing to except what was being offered to him.

 

The Light Bulb Goes On

Lessons can come in many forms and life lessons can come from the most unexpected places. I am reading a book this week called Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss. The book is almost 20 years old and came to me by way of my daughter. It was prescribed reading for a course she is taking and she accidently ordered two copies, so she gave me one. The subject matter, healing and the energy body is not new to me but Caroline Myss goes deeper into spiritual growth and the universal truths taught by most major religion’s. Her insights have captivated me.

Several times throughout the book she talks about how other people’s issues that evoke a emotional reaction in us are really just reflections of our own personal challenges. If you are bothered by someone’s actions perhaps it’s because you see it, consciously or subconsciously, as a flaw or weakness in yourself.

Was the issue of not excepting what was being offered mirroring back at me through these seemingly benign interactions with these two men? Here was a lesson for me. Here was an ugly truth. I am,  both consciously and subconsciously, choosing to not accept the gifts that the universe is offering to me right now.

I bare my soul here because this is a universal lesson. Why do we get stuck in life? Why do we put conditions on our goals and dreams? Why do we not take the opportunity that is being offered to us? Because, then we would have to admit that it might be hard, that we will probably have to face an unknown, that by putting ourselves out there, we would have to give up control of the outcome.

So just as the universe has offered up this lesson to me, and went as far as putting not one but two teachers in my path to reflect this truth and even supplied the cheat sheet for the answer in the form of a book, one that I probably would never have read had a copy not been placed into my hands, I too will reflect this lesson back at you.

What is being offered up in your life right now that you’re choosing to ignore because it might challenge you, or the timing is not perfect, or maybe by saying yes you would then have to admit that you don’t have the slightest idea how to achieve it?

Know this, in that opportunity lies your highest self and the divine path that was meant for only you. The richest treasures in life will never be found by walking the smoothest roads. To find them you will have to blaze the trail for yourself.