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Monthly Archives: August 2017

Joining the Circus

Yesterday, this poem by Mark Nepo found me. I was checking some emails and a site I subscribe to had this poem on it.

For the first time in 30 years, I will not teach and/or learn in formal way this fall. It crept up on me. Yes, I want to teach. I prefer that to joining a circus. In a sense, I am joining the circus. The theme of the poem is how to deal with ups and downs in life. I applied at several universities and received one interview, but came up short.

My challenge is what will we I do in lieu of teaching in some conventional way? As Nepo says, I ready to kiss anything as I hover like a mystical molecule between one stage and another. Like the dozen beginners, I am learning how to juggle and have to begin somewhere.

Each day, I focus on reading and writing and hope to publish in academic journals.  A colleague suggested I write and shed a different light on teaching. As well, I may take some of my poetry and bundle it together in a book. Perhaps, my smile will be so magical I will asked to teach something I did not expect.

I just saw a handwritten note from

Galileo. He was under house arrest

for believing we’re not the center of

everything. Now behind me, in the park,

a dozen beginners, of all ages, learning how

to juggle. We have to start somewhere. The

young man who’s so magical at this is asked

to instruct. He smiles, “You have to keep

trying. Just not the same thing.” Earlier,

I leaned over a letter from Lincoln to a

dead soldier’s mother. This, just weeks

after losing Susan’s mother, sweet

Eleanor. I keep saying her name to

strangers. You see, we all have to

juggle joy and sorrow. Not to do it

well—we always drop something—but

when the up and down of life are

leaving one hand and not yet land-

ing in the other, then we glow, like

a mystical molecule hovering between

birth and death, ready to kiss anything.






Posted in Education, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Writing and tagged creativity, education, eloquent questions, Joining the Circus, leadership, learning, Mark Nepo, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

Success Quote – Aug. 16, 2017

When I watch children at play, this Einstein quote pops into my head. Children imagine in ways we, as adults, have forgotten how to imagine. Epictetus and Shenryu Suzuki desribed the child’s mind as the beginner’s mind where anything can be imagined anew. Goal Habits.com 


Enjoy today.
Achieve today.
Tomorrow is promised to no one!

original graphic credit: unknown

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Live your truth

We take in the world as we experience it. When we do so fully, we can live up to Rumi’s inspirational quote in this post. You are not IN the mountains, the mountains are IN you.  – John Muir

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Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor. . . Hayatı herşeyin senin arzun istikametinde oluyormuş gibi yaşa ― Jalaluddin Rumi.

Rumi is a wonderful source of what makes people and the world who and what they are. Faith, love, and friendship are essential elements of being human. It is the duty of the believing human being to love people, to love good for them, and to love to benefit them. This is a sign of faith in the human being.

You will not enter paradise until you have faith. and you will not complete your faith until you love one another.

Birbirinizi sevmedikçe iman etmiş olamazsınız ve iman etmedikçe cennete giremezsiniz.

(Holy Prophet Muhummad – peace be upon him)

Friendship is a living thing that lasts only as long as it is nourished with kindness, empathy and understanding.

May Allah swt bless us with His Love, Mercy and forgiveness. 





The Great Paradox

As a teacher, I wonder how we keep children safe from themselves and, at the same time, not curbing their innate curiosity and imagination.

Pablo Picasso said “Every child is born an artist. The challenge is to remain an artist after you grow up.”

Albert Einstein stated “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”

I am less concise, so I wrote a poem.

Born curious and imaginative,

Children do not have to be taught.

Yes, they can hurt themselves,

Ah, they need guides to walk with them,

Without inflicting greater harm.

The challenge lies in a question:

How do I guide them, without damaging them?

‘Tis a great paradox.





Posted in 21st Century Education, Education, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Writing and tagged Albert Einstein, creativity, curiosity, eloquent questions, imagination, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, Pablo Picasso, poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Pointers to Non-Duality

I am back to post. I am reading and writing. I am working to intersect hermeneutic phenomenology, which I used as my research methodology for my dissertation and the method of currere. The latter is an autobiographical method, in part, based on existential philosophy to explore curriculum through one’s lived-experience. As well, it uses Freudian psychoanalytic theory as part of its foundations. It is this latter aspect I am contrasting with hermeneutic phenomenology as both are interpretive methods.

I moved to radical hermeneutics, linking it with my writing. What I found is there is an overlap with poetry and non-duality.

Bill Pinar developed the method of currere and used Zen philosophy as a third leg for the method. The voice in hermeneutics is poetic, seeking to understand the world in non-dualistic ways and subvert binary thinking.  As I looked for a poem, I found this one by Wu Hsin.

When I am mindful and present to the world in its past, present, and future moments the text I live comes to life with new meaning.

Just as the honey is not sweetness,

The words of Wu Hsin are not

The truth.

However, time spent with these words is like

The aftermath of rain.

In due course, a sprouting of

Understanding will occur and

Will bear fruit at a pace

Outside of one’s control.





Posted in Education, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Writing and tagged conversational journey, creativity, Currere, Existential Philosophy, Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, Radical Hermeneutics, spirituality, teacher as transformer, Wu Hsin. Bookmark the permalink.