The Next Inch of Progress

Though we sometimes make big leaps, mostly we humans grow by inches. Or less. This is as true of our spiritual, psychological, practical, growth as it is of our physical. The latter occurs without our effort, whereas 99% of the former requires some intention and attention. And time.

 

I’ve long been a fan of longevity and that’s why. When we attend to the right things, we discover that the human mind and heart can only take in so much information at once. It has to grow the proper neural connections over time before the axons and dendrites search out the next possible hook-up. And if we’re alert and open-minded and open-hearted, they often do!

 

If there is anything that accounts for the humanistic achievements of The San Francisco School where I trained in human connection, the sheer longevity of the teaching staff was a huge part of it. There are five of us in the over-40-years club, another ten or us in the 30+ and probably 25 or more in the 20+ group. If you count the years the eight alum teachers attended the school, those number go up. (My daughter Talia, by that reckoning, just completed her 28^th year—11 as a student, 17 as a teacher.)

 

But again, numbers are just numbers without intention. Because we teachers grew up together and were wholly in charge of creating and re-creating the program, we found ourselves time and again making these small little improvements in ongoing customs and traditions that we could only have made once those details were wholly myelinated in our group brain. When the next inspired idea came up, we often wondered, “Why didn’t we think of that before?” The same could be asked of putting wheels on suitcases. When the time is ripe, it happens. 

 

And so here back for our 14^th year of the Orff Levels Courses in the Carmel Valley and many more years of the same course in different places, side-by-side again with my forever colleagues James and Sofia and 25-year Levels colleague Christa Coogan and some ten years with Andrea, Estevao, Eloi and Rachel, we had our first meeting some five hours before the Opening Ceremony. And there it was again. Different folks suggesting little changes for that powerful and joyful welcome that will be more effective and efficient without losing an ounce of innovative Soul and us nodding our heads in agreement— “Sounds great! Let’s do it!” If they work—and I suspect they will— we’ll collectively agree, “That’s a keeper!” Just like the staff did for the school opening and closing ceremony, the Halloween ritual, the Holiday Plays, the camping trips and more. Detail after detail that made the work yet more remarkable. No massive big change because someone from above said so or we felt compelled to copy the school across town or the lawyers weighed in. Just those small, organic shifts that made it all a vibrant, alive, continuously evolving and growing organism. 

 

This happened in other ways before we arrived. For example, the increased costs of our usual hotel next-door to the teaching site ended up splitting the faculty, with a few staying here and the others a mile down the road at a cheaper place. I noticed that so many rooms were vacant here, so I made a pitch to the owner that they would make more money giving us a reduced rate than keeping those rooms empty. And miraculously, the owner agreed! So finally we’re all together again in the same place 24/7. 

 

I also had the inspired idea that since I was driving here from my home, why keep complaining about not enough hangers in the closet? Why not bring seven more? I did and I’m SO HAPPY! It’s these little things that can make a big difference. 

 

Now to plan classes, also with an eye and ear to the kind of micro-adaptations that keep them alive and serving the students at my highest capacity. Looking forward to that next inch of progress.