Affirmations

I had a one-day transition between family vacation time in Michigan and preparing for two more Orff courses in Beijing and Shanghai. Got a haircut, bought a new case for my glasses, re-packed my suitcases, caught up on e-mails, watered the plants, had dinner with my daughter, ticking off the items on the list. And now in the United Club Lounge at the International Terminal, a miraculous no-line check in and security entry and ready for the next adventure. 

 

At least I hope I’m ready. Tiresome to keep mentioning this dizziness but more tiresome to keep experiencing it. It feels like a big risk to fly halfway around the world and commit to two-five-day courses where I’m teaching some 6 hours a day when I’m feeling like this. Really? Is this a good idea?

 

Why do I do it? Of course, for the money! Ha ha! Not! First and foremost, for my own pleasure in having found a way to be of use to the world. Then come the affirmations from the teachers I’ve trained and the kids I’ve taught, first tucked into a drawer of handwritten postcards and letters and later, copied into a folder on my computer desktop title Affirmations. 

The order is important: first, the inner sense that this work makes sense and the pleasure I feel in teaching affirmed by the happiness in the room. When the written or spoken testimonies come, it is a further affirmation that my intuitions seem to be correct. That the ideas and material and the humanistic sub-text have a direct impact on how people teach, how they think, how they feel. All of which feeds back into an encouragement to keep going. Even if it means flying 15 hours to China feeling less than wonderful.

Peeking back at that folder today, I found this little Facebook comment on one of my birthdays:

 

We are so glad you were born. Happy Birthday, with all our love.

Signed,

Anyone You Have Ever Taught

 

May it continue!