the best strains to be released

teachers, at our best

teachers, at our best, 

are supportive companions for a time

for our students, 

who are on a quest to find the holy grail

that is who they are:

on one level we teachers impart information,

and that can be good,

on another level we can work to make sure

skills are addressed, learned,

when we are at our best, though,

we are companions who see the best in our students

and we can help them see the best in themselves,

and to embrace it,

for once students embrace the reality of the best

that calls to them from within and without,

they can then make themselves 

into who will make a positive difference in the world,

today I luxuriate in 

rekindling the fires of connection 

with student after former student,

and I am humbled by how well student after student

has figured out who they are at their best,

and how to manifest that best 

with their children and with their careers,

many in ways that make sense to me as a calling,

with the job as a doorway 

through which the world can pass 

and become better,

the world becomes a better place one person at a time,

and can do so even faster as the ripples from each life

touch and lift other lives,

as the best within strains to be released.

by Henry H. Walker

April 27, ’13