Commentary: Just like life, back-to-school time requires heart and soul

BY NANCY KIDD

Step one foot inside most big box stores and there’s no denying it: the summer is almost over, and a new school year will soon be upon us.

The aisles of those businesses are overflowing with school supplies. There are lunch boxes, backpacks, colored markers and pens, notebooks, all types of paper goods, dorm room furnishings, and trendy gadgets galore. Anything you could ever imagine needing to assist you through the next nine months of learning sits at the ready.

The new school year feels, in many ways, much like the first day of January. Many of those involved will begin with goals and high hopes, ready to make this academic year even better than the previous one.

The big players, those most directly affected by this new beginning, are the parents, the students, and school personnel.

Throughout my life I’ve had lots of experience playing each of those roles. I even share stories about education and parenting on my blog, Gather the Good.  One might think that by this point in my journey I’d have profound words of advice to offer at the beginning of the new school year. Perhaps I could provide inspiration or helpful hints based on my years in the parenting/education business.

Perhaps—but no! That just isn’t the case. I’ve got nothing of my own to suggest.

Like most people, I’ve managed through trial and error to survive to this point. I even worked alongside my husband to launch our offspring into adulthood. There have been some successes and joyful events along the way. There have also been pitfalls I wish we could have avoided, sometimes accompanied by heartache aplenty.

Nope, I am the last person to advise another on succeeding in school or anything else.

However, in recent years I’ve been fortunate enough to read a lot more and reflect more deeply on matters of the heart. What I’d like to offer for those beginning the new school year is an insightful tidbit I’ve picked up along the way. It comes from Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the leading spiritual minds in the world.

Nominated in 1967 for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk and peace activist. This year he became the first recipient of the Gandhi Mandela Peace Prize.  Although I myself am not a practicing Buddhist, the words of this gentle soul have only enhanced the best I’ve known from my own lessons in Christianity.

Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Teaching is not done by talking alone. It is done by how you live your life. My life is my message.”

Whoa! Those words stop me in my tracks. What is the message my life is sending right now? Is this the best I have to present others? Is it in alignment with who I claim to be?

These words are great advice for professional educators and for parents, but they are really for every one of us. Yes actually, we are all teachers. How we live each of our days contributes to the messages we are passing on to others. The people around us are observing what we do. They may take their cues on how to be from the examples we provide.

Because we’re all unique, our messages will differ.  One that is important to me personally is that we should support each other and build loving relationships.  I spent years preaching to my sons, “Our jobs as human beings is to nurture one another.  You need to build people up and help them grow, not tear them down.”

I believe deeply that we are all connected, and so I need to live what I want to teach.  To that end, I need to check in regularly and ask myself, “Does my life reflect this message?  Or, is it time once again to refocus and realign with what I want to offer the world?”

Very soon the school year will commence, and many will quickly find themselves caught up in its unavoidable busyness.  What I wish for all them and for each of us is, that amidst all the doing and all the striving, we might take moments to step back. I hope we make the time to release the “trying” and rest more in the “being,” as in being our highest, most authentic selves.  And, I hope we’ll live mindfully enough to check in to approve of the lessons our lives are offering.

Here’s to an amazing school year and to the awesome teacher within each of us!