"Teaching"

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I was teaching all day yesterday, Bush. I'll be teaching all day today. I put the word in parentheses in the title because inevitably, these days, when I'm invited to "teach", I end up learning more myself that I can possibly teach others. When people ask me what I teach when I'm invited, I have a glib answer: "myself". Too cute, perhaps, but that's essentially what it is. It's what I think all teachers teach. Themselves. Anyway, the class is called "Character & Conflict," and in good part it's about discovering those dark places inside and learning to be free from their insidious domain. After yesterday, I woke in the middle of the night with this poem in my head. I'll call it

Sometimes

Sometimes, Bush,
when I see the pain
and the suffering, when I see
the anguish, the anger, and the fear
that steer the course of our lives
too often without our knowing it;
sometimes I think
that all any one of us needs
is to melt into the arms
of someone much bigger
than ourselves; call him
Jesus, call him
Allah, call him
Jehovah, call him
Buddha; call him
Daddy;
call her
Mother;
just melt
into his/her arms
and give it all up, surrender
the pain and the fear,
the suffering, the anger,
surrender
into the strength and security
of his/her arms; and hear
the words we long to hear,
all of us,
sometimes;
that we are okay
after all
exactly as we are; that we are
loved,
and lovable;
that we are not
the freaks we imagine ourselves
to be, sometimes;
that we can melt
softly into those arms
and do whatever it is
we need to do to heal:
we can weep, or laugh, or sigh;
we can give up everything
we struggle for,
we can surrender
simply, our small selves,
sometimes.