to act from fullness

how to stand, to act well

moments, years, thoughts, worries, buffet at us,

as if to tear us from the moorings,

taking us out to where it’s hard to act,

the anchor’s loose,

there’s no firm surface upon which to stand,

a challenge for the teacher

is both to help enable the leap forward

into what the young adult should know,

then figure out how to act,

and also to help enable that same learner

to remember their foundations of belief, 

maybe in the magic of fairy and unicorn and Santa Claus?

certainly in the rightness they can bring to bear

upon their world, their birthright from their faith,

I seek to remember that I should act

from out of the overflowing fullness of my love for the other,

for the student becoming,

and to not be too hard on myself, 

for, if I do, then I can feel adrift,

and forget where and how to stand 

in order to act from out of my vision

of what can be, what should be, what will be.

by Henry H. Walker

May 13, ‘16