Do you know what is the greatest need on our campuses? It's a cure
for loneliness, disconnection, and strangerness. It is a treatment for being
unnoticed, unwanted, unappreciated, and unloved. It is a regimen for dealing
with disbelief, sense of unworthiness, lack of confidence, and hopelessness.
It is a remedy for debilitating fear. And yet, the treatment is simple: a
simple, sincere, smile; a simple, soft, kind word; a simple, gentle, warm
touch. These are small things that when done with great love make the earth
shake. They are simple but beautifully courageous acts of caring that turn
heads and lives around. I say "courageously" because courage isn't always
about slaying dragons. It sometimes is that undaunted inner whisper that says
at the beginning of the day I'll give it a another shot today. As I have
often said, miracles will fall into your lap only if you courageously move your
lap to where they are falling. When you help a student change her or his mind
and heart, you've changed a life. The remedy, then, is to care, to love, until
it hurts. If you do, the hurt will be diminished until it is no more. Care,
love, tirelessly and you won't tire from doing it. Trust me, all I can say is
that this past semester I've seen a smile do its work; I've felt love makes its
presence felt; I've listened to how touching a touch was; I've read how an
extended reach reached.
After all, when we don't extend love to ourselves and each student,
when we don't help each student extend love to herself or himself, when we
don't unconditionally believe in, have faith, have hope for each and every
student, everyone is held back. To think otherwise, we won't break free from
our emotional and mental bondage; we won't come together; we'll have no empathy
for each's story; we'll offer no sympathy; we won't honor the pains, anguishes,
confusions; we'll won't make any effort of helping each finds her or his place.
So, take love out of the closet. Please. Nothing--nothing--inspires, nothing
blesses and endows a feeling of being blessed, nothing liberates, like love.
By love I mean feeling deeply and vitally alive. By love I mean having
something to live for, not just living. By love I mean the desire to help. By
love I mean giving your wholeheartedness to serve. By love I mean being
non-judgmental. By love I mean feeling, thinking, and acting as if what you do
makes a difference.
Be your own Magi following your own guiding star and you'll notice how
much bigger your heart gets, how much more open your embrace becomes, how much
broader your smile appears, how much louder your "yes" becomes, how much
happier you are, how much "dancier" are the steps you take, how more filled you
are with a sense of fulfillment, how much more at peace you feel, and, maybe
most important, how much younger you get as you get older.
My angelic Susie and I would like to take this time to wish all you
good people, a happy lighting of your Chanukah candles, a merry burning of your
yule log, and a happy turn of the calendar. May you live the joy, warmth, and
community of this holiday season in each and every day throughout the year.
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier
http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
203 E. Brookwood Pl http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta, Ga 31602
(C) 229-630-0821 /\ /\ /\ /\
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//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/
\_/__\ \
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" - / \_
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