Show me the way

I have been thinking about the teachers in my life, how every major endeavor has been supported by one.  Some were in my life over many years while others I had only short while.  Each nurtured and supported me towards new ways for growth and discovery.  These teachers for which I am so grateful built up in me a courage and faith to persist with something I had not thought was possible.

 

There was the woman who led the winter hiking trip I went on in high school who inspired a lifelong love of outdoor adventure, independence, and self-reliance.  For years after, she sent me postcards written in the most beautiful handwritten script with quotes from travelers and seekers.  I had never met a woman like Joan before in my family or my community.  Someone who spent long periods of time living outdoors, living by her own wit, ingenuity, and simplicity.  In college and graduate school, I would have never had the ability to take on the challenges of feminist thought, econometrics, economic theory, a dissertation without teachers to hold me accountable to deadlines and high standards of clear thinking.  Iyengar yoga would not have been known to me without the dedicated teachers who after decades of study with the Iyengars could translate these complicated and advanced teachings into something accessible to my body.  They inspired me to commit to a daily asana practice and explore philosophy both a bedrock to my own ongoing spiritual journey.

 

Not all teachers have resonated, and some have done damage.  It is something of an alchemy when the right teacher comes at the right moment offering the right amount of discipline and encouragement.  The one who helps me to find my next steps to a deeper practice and that encouragement to self-reliance.  They do not seek for their students to copy them but to become more fully themselves through the practice. I seek teachers still.  People who have crossed thresholds that I am approaching, ones who have spent the years of work to cultivate wisdom, those with humility and generosity.