CFS is 50!

how fare they?

as a teacher

I feel myself to be a companion,

for a time,

sometimes a guide,

sometimes as an optimistic mirror

that reflects back the best of the person before me,

another way I feel myself to be

is as a sower of seeds,

and I rarely know whether they fall on fertile ground,

and, even if they do,

I rarely know the fruition,

this evening I spent time 

with some of my earliest students,

and I joyed in the wholeness

of what they have grown with their lives,

I feel just as strongly the absence 

of those who were not here,

those whom I also care about,

I know that my role

should be to make myself dispensable,

and that I have done best

when I am no longer needed,

it still hurts, for I care and love unconditionally,

and I crave to know how fare those old companions.

by Henry H. Walker

April 24, ‘15