Luminous Lotus~

Last night, just before class started, a student asked me how teaching was going now that the kids were back in school, or something like that. I went on to explain that all was the same because my kids don't go to school and that we homeschool. I must have went into all the reasons why we homeschool because I usually feel the need to explain. Well, as that conversation came to a close, a new student, an older, wiser woman, came over to get her stack of blankets and looked over at me and said, "You don't ever have to apologize for homeschooling your kids." That statement stopped me cold. I had not even realized I had in fact apologized for our choice to homeschool. In that moment, I felt such a sadness, and I really just wanted to bolt out of the room, lock myself in the bathroom and weep. I wanted to weep because on some level it has felt like this choice is not good enough. And let's face it, the majority of the world does not think well of homeschoolin...

I'm sitting on the couch, just home after teaching my Sunday morning class. And here I am trying to regroup and gather my shaky heart. It was hard to get up and show up and teach this morning after hearing about the 2 mass shootings that just occurred in the last 24 hours. It's not like these incidents are surprising anymore because these mass shootings are happening so often. But as I sat in the quiet  with the news of the shootings and the sadness I was feeling, I noticed there was a part of me that did not want to feel anything so that I could focus on getting ready for my class. But not matter what I did to redirect my heart and my mind, I couldn't stop or ignore the sadness. All I could do was just sit with it, acknowledge and feel it. So that's what I did. I sat, my cup of coffee in one hand and the other hand on my heart, and I let the tears and sadness wash over me.  After a few tears, I dried my eyes. I got up and splashed my face with cool water and sat...