Sharing from students Fall 2004 (Collection 2)Response by 608
I really enjoyed Lauren's presentation. It was both moving and relaxing. She has had so much strength and determination in their life. It was very brave of her to share her story with our class. I have no doubt that she is an incredible teacher.
Response by W112
I really enjoyed the presentation that we had last monday. The presenter really transformed the computer lab into place where people wanted to learn and felt comfortable. It is true that classrooms with bad lighting and no windows are not going to stimulate the mind to think and to desire to learn. The photo of the stimulated mind was so interesting. That brain had been listening to music, and as we came into the classroom on monday there was music playing, and spirals on the overhead. Just by having these two elements, visual and auditory, we as students were immediately engaded and interested in finding out what this class was going to offer us on that day. It surprised me how easy it is to turn a boring, non- stimulating classroom into a learning environment.
Sh'ma Starting from the coincidence that the Hebrew word for breath, "neshema", is the same as the word for "soul," I have this to propose... Instead of asking when to pray, or what to pray, or even whom to pray to, acknowledge that every breath is already a prayer. The intersection of your life and your soul. On waking, before your mind grabs your Life and begins to expend it on your current To-Do list, before you lose your Life to the way you live it, pause and wait a moment for the next breath. It will come. It will come soft and alive, like a rope bridge it sways gracefully between the two worlds that are always you. Notice that when you wake up, you are almost surely not in this world or in the other, but suspended between the two, swaying in the breeze which is your own breath. Stay a moment there, connected to both realities. Awaken, each morning, to the totality of who you are. Feel the dark, amorphous land behind you. The one you just spent the whole night at home in. Your other home. The limitless one where nothing is denied and nothing is impossible. The world so unlike this one that we pretend we do not spend nearly half our life there. Feel it touch your waking life. It is like a kiss, this moment. When night and day press together on either side of you. Linger in that moment when you are the bridge between the part of your life that you run like a motorcar, and part of your life that you forget one second into every day. The commandment is to say, "Thank you for returning my soul to me." But I say it this way instead, "My breath blesses this day." These are the first words out of my mouth every morning. And ironically, they bless my breath for the rest of the whole day. Then, anytime, anytime at all during the day when I notice my breathing, the paper-thin world I write my Life on each day suddenly echo-locates itself inside a dome of staggering proportions, and I feel Love coming at me from every direction. Like a fish breathing in an ocean, we have the same question posed to us every breath: "Is it harder to remember the air we breathe with each breath we take, or harder to forget what surrounds us so completely that there is nothing else?" How bad can any day be, when you start it out from the very first breath by touching the deepest mystery of your Life?
Ah november. a short poem light crisp falling crackle a list of autumn needs tea pumpkin squash green beans apples warm blankets scarves hiking socks mittens hot chocolate heat friends hug warmth peace, 20
sorry all maybe I am taking advantage of this forum but I have one more thing to share. This morning I was working on an assignment when I started to hear screaming. I ignored it at first, but wondered what and where it was coming from. After a few minutes, I began to wonder if something was severly wrong. I ran down from my third floor bedroom to find my roommate already outside looking for the source. We found a little boy waiting on his porch and his mother came out of their house and explained, through her toothless mouth, that she didn't want her son to miss the bus and so made him wait outside. He was crying becasue he wanted to wait inside. My roommate and I didn't know if there was more to this story so we waited outside for a few minutes. When the boy began screaming again, we went back but he stopped. I waved at him, wanting to rescue him from his chilly porch and feed him hot cocoa but he didn't wave back. He looked sad and puzzled. MY roommate and I went back around the corner and into our house, deciding we would keep an eye on the little boy and his mother. I felt sick and frightened. Is the little boy afraid? Is he safe? If I had a child I would hold them in from the cold. I looked out my third floor window and I saw the boy sitting on his porch, waiting for his bus. I waved at him again. He couldn't see me, but I imagied him waving back. Response by 337
A few days ago I walked with my dog and saw a school bus with children going to school. I waved them but no one waved back. The little kids were so serious. Why?
Response by O22
The long-awaited Tuesday has arrived. After 4 years of demonstrations, documentaries and protests, the day has come for people to renovate the White House. Emotions are rapidly taking charge of individuals, as people have decided that today is the day to stand up and shout. I feel that everyone is going to be particularly on the edge today, nobody being able to predict the outcome. Even the weather is ambivalent with blue-gray clouds battling pink slivers of light for a share of the sky. I head out to my usual spot at the Free Speech Rock dressed as Bush. Today feels so real... I see people hugging more, and many laughing with nervous smiles, wondering how the next days will play out. I walk by a van of Bush supporters with my “No Bush” sign. I receive unsurprising glum looks and figure that today will be another standoff between Us and Them. Many anxious eyes greet me at the Rock. I feel that our country is about to embark on a civil war, the tensions are so high. Luckily, our group of protesters have some music playing to ease the mood. I dance. Rumsfeld dances. Even some of the professors are clapping along. A small group of people are camped out to watch our “performance.” As the hour goes by, I notice more people becoming excited. I see large groups of people joining the original small one. Suddenly I hear some loud rhythmic tapping done by a Bush supporter. The guy is walking around us shouting “4 More Years,” waving a Bush/Cheney sign. I figure this is going to be the typical stand off of “We’re right, you’re wrong.” But people’s spirits aren’t as hardened as they have been made out to be. To my surprise, Rumsfeld and I dance with the Bush supporter, and try to upstage one another with our dancing skills (or lack thereof). Instead of the typical mudslinging shouting match, we have pictures taken together and share a few laughs. At the end we shake hands and hug. After years of bitterness towards each other, who thought both groups would come together on the most nerve-wracking day, Election Day? When I took my Bush mask off, a few Republicans came over to talk to me and a fellow protester. We both expressed the same desires and hopes. We wanted true communication, not shouting matches. We wanted to have open discussion, and the ability to be open to differing viewpoints. We found ourselves unearthing common ground that had being buried for far too long. In the end, does it matter which side will win? Perhaps we need to stop taking sides, and come together under our own opinions. We are all humans, and we all can find some sort of common ground. Wouldn’t most people prefer peace to a civil war?
Sitting here, swamped in laundry, sorting through the various paper pages of my schoolwork, I'm engrossed in the election coverage. Channell after channell of numbers and polls and percentages and projections. It's almost crazy to think that the future of our country lies in the numbers - but how much do we focus on these numbers? what do they really even mean? 61% 437,000. 270. These numbers are people. These numbers are college students, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, aunts, uncles, best friends, grandmas, grandpas and yes, even your favorite lunch ladies. Our focus is on how much? how little? not enough, just enough. We forget the beauty of this whole process. The beauty that each individual person participates. Each mind is making a decision. Each hand is pulling a lever or touching a screen or scribbling neatly on a paper ballot in the woods of New Hampshire. These numbers aren't just numbers - they are people, with minds and thoughts and wisdom and love. Math may be in charge of this election. But i can only hope that however optimistic it may seem to be to believe that our votes are part of us - I just don't care. I WANT to believe that my soul went into that lever. My conscience. My heart. My hopes. My future. I hope the same was for you.
I could not sleep last night. Election night. I felt the tension and the lack of Peace of the country. It effected me. I could not sleep. I tried to sleep but woke up again and again. Then about 4:30 I decided to go for a long walk. Into the night and through the woods. To pray. To create Joy. To ask us all to be lifted. To ask USA to be lifted. The walk was long and I fell once. It was very painful but I felt gratitude. I felt inner strength and continued the walk into the dawn. Slowly the light came and the outer reality changed. Cars made noise and I returned to the world with warm shower and warm breakfast waiting for me. No resultion outside but Peace in the Heart.
Young people who are capable of making sacrifices are very essential today. We should encourage them to proclaim to the world the Omnipresence of Divinity. It is necessary to have young people who can fight with courage in situations arising from injustice, unkindness and cruelty. They should not only strive for worldly and material benefits, but also for the ethical and spiritual ideals of life. They should be prepared to give up imitation and selfish ideas, and serve the community in a selfless manner. They must, through their experience, proclaim to others that inner Divinity is the most important thing in life.