Zen Generosity

I feel like if I had a "real" life that after this many days of being away from my blogging, I would have something meaningful to express. Alas, it just isn't the case. So anecdotes must suffice.

Generosity - Wednesday night I met a man with a Tibetan name. Since I was able to pronoun it correctly on the first try, he asked me if I was good with languages. Which I'm not. I butch Spanish, but I try to teach it to my students anyway. I told him I had read a few books about Tibet and was able to draw the correlation from those texts. He asked me what books and I rattled off a few Zen Buddhist titles and an old favorite about the adventure of climbing Mount Everest (Into Thin Air by Kraukauer). So he reaches into his bag and gives me a small book of Dalai Lama quotes and told me he wanted me to have it. I was moved. This is the perfect example of living your religion, no matter what that religion happens to be. I don't care if your Buddhist, Christian, Catholic, Hindu or combination of them all...being able to practice what you preach is the main idea. Don't just say it on Sunday, don't really say it at all. Live it. I'll carry this book around for a long time I speculate.

I am not promoting Buddhism. 
I am promoting human values. 
Dalai Lama, Address to a Buddhist Teachers' Conference in California, July 2000

Love - as the world knows Monday was Valentine's Day. *cough, gag, cough* I can be somewhat of a cynic sometimes and therefore I was. But on Tuesday when the dust had cleared and I began reading the Valentine's cards my students had made me and given to me at school, I got over my bad attitude. My kids love me and I absolutely love them and it shows in the simple things like the way they hug me on their way into the room in the mornings or on their way to the bus. Or the way they ask me a million questions about me, what I like, what I do for fun, where do I live, why don't I have kids... They genuinely want to know me. And I love them. I love joking with them and knowing what books are their favorites and what their favorite video game is (UUUGGGGHHH). I know my students well. I know when they are having off days and when they don't necessarily understand b/c I have paid attention to them. I can read their faces. And I don't often give myself enough credit for my teaching. This is the one thing that I may do better than anything else, I love my kids.

I've recently decided I like shooting musical performances and thus have been practicing it quite a bit. Am having issues with posting photos to my blog, however, as I have ran out of online space! LOL. That didn't take very long! I'll figure it out soon enough. Until then, I am forcing myself to update my website more often.

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