via: S. who sent me a link to Holons: News From the Integral World and from there, I clicked to Steve Pavlina’s blog and then to his wife Erin’s blog where I found her article on Unconditional Love.

After I read her article on Unconditional Love, I started thinking about the first day of school since it’s coming fast and also back to Jenny’s post on Conversion where she wondered how many academics have a “wilting spiritual life” that we don’t talk so much about. I know that is the case for me. Since I moved to Columbia I haven’t found a spiritual home and I’ve been making do by listening to talks from the church back home (in Dallas).

In the past, I always liked the first day of school. There were new books to read, new notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, etc. and the first day promised a fresh start with lots new I could learn (I’m naturally curious about so many things). Now that I’m teaching, first days aren’t nearly so exciting. I still like them, but they are also more hectic now. There is the getting up early, rushing through breakfast, grabbing a coffee on the way out the door, classrooms to find, syllabi to collect, syllabi to prep and distribute, and new faces to greet.

About those new faces…I wonder if they will be open to learning new things, or if they’ll whine and complain about all there is to do, or even be polite and courteous but not really want to participate, or be excited about learning and what they have the opportunity to do, or try and convince me how good of a student they are but not really want to follow through on the assignments, or even put in a lot of extra work on many of the assignments because they are committed to learning, or committed to finishing as soon as possible. There are just so many possibilities…and if I let myself, let me tell you…I can continually churn for days wondering how the new class will connect with each other and with me. It can make me uneasy about first days and wonder how strict I will need to be from the very beginning. According to Cool Cat Teacher’s mom, “You can never be tougher than you are on the first day, first week, and first month.” (Starting the school year right Part 1: Setting the Pace). This sounds like pretty good advice.

Now, thinking about the unconditional love piece specifically, my new students might look at me a little weird if I projected unconditional love. In the classroom context, I’m more comfortable projecting unconditional acceptance. This reminds me that at Unity Church of Dallas at the end of the service, the children would come in from Sunday School and we would bless them…”we love you, we bless you, we appreciate you…just the way you are.” It’s good for me to remember this blessing now and to read (and re-read) these items this morning and remember that I can look at the new faces from the position of love and faith that we will all be able to learn new things rather than from the position of control and fear that one or more of them will try and take advantage of my good nature. It’s better for me and it’s better for them.

Ok, one small case of nerves is down for the count. And, FYI…posting may be more or less intermitent until I’m home in Columbia.