Part of the Greater Whole

Some schools are done! Some teachers are already jumping into summer work, rest or relaxation. Others have a bit to go.

Previously, I said May’s essays were about “wholeness”: our whole selves, surroundings, and need for gifts (opportunities) from others. In Week 38, I reiterate: we are part of a whole. The schools that are still open and the ones that are closed. The teachers who are still winding down and the ones moving to a new challenge. It includes all the parents, other staff, and citizens of our cities and towns. Our wholeness is ALL of us.

When I originally wrote Week 38, I wrote from the direct perspective of our need (teacher and student alike) for nature. Symbolically, however, “nature” is that wholeness of this globe. We all need a break from our routines. Why? Because of what Shakespeare says: we need to remember we’re kin. Our routines focus our attention on us. Vacations- breaks of any kind- help us escape our ego’s emphasis on self and return to seeing that we are tiny parts of “nature” or “the whole”.

We can then see Shakespeare’s point. The whole world is kin.

This emphasis on wholeness and togetherness keeps popping up in my life like a drumbeat. I find myself seeking out these nodes of relationship, to the point where I’ve decided that for my third book, I’d really rather not write it at all and wrote of a dream about that on my main blog. Helping an entire school write and illustrate their own book on their own realities of life and togetherness sounds far more appealing.

As May closes and June begins, wherever you are, I wish you well. I wish you a growing sense of wholeness.

I hope you’ve gained something this school year from Dear Teachers. I’d love to hear from you if you have, and also if there are suggestions you have to improve it, too. We grow by sharing.