The Movement of Today

This is a picture I took on the island of Bornholm last June. I haven't been photographing lately--if only because I am toying and enjoying the idea that no moment can ever, truly be captured.

Today I awoke at 6am despite the fact that I had very little sleep. After showering and getting dressed, I hopped on my bike and immediately realized that my tired body wanted to take the metro, so I biked towards the station. When I got there I realized left my wallet home. Hmmm...what to do? Go home and get my wallet? Bike to work? Ride the metro without a ticket (yeah right!). I listen to the Universe and bike to work. 

Instead of biking to Vesterbro through Amager, I decide to make my way through Christianshavn. There I bike over Knippelsbro (Knippels bridge). I love biking over this bridge towards  Christianshavn, because once you bike over the initial hump it feels so good to go sailing down the slight slope of the other side, and if the light is green, it could almost feel as though you are flying into Christianshavn.

Once over the bridge, I veer left and bike through the parliament, into the center and then across town, past Rådhusplads, towards Vesterbro. I enjoy the bike ride--I allow myself not to get caught up with the others who are rush, rush, rushing.... I want my heartbeat to remain steady.

It is my first week back at work. I can feel that now, after three years of teaching, I am beginning to feel more comfortable, more at ease with what I am doing. It takes that much time. I still sometimes find it nerve-racking to have to stand up in front of a class--but I bite the bullet and push through, planting my feet in the nowness, knowing that that is the best way through time.  It's definitely a great opportunity to improve my speaking & communication skills!

It is not always pretty. But sometimes it can be magical. Like when Jannik, my 6th grade student, decides to clean up the entire computer cabinet with a perfection and care that was so inspiring, or when I sat around the blanket, alongside my 6th grade students, that we had all made together and are in the process of finishing up. Or when my 5th grade class, tells me only after two lessons, "Lesley, you are the best teacher we have ever had!" To which I can only laugh, and reply, "but it has only been two days!" I know I am not the best teacher, but I know I do my best and am committed to being authentic.   And this year, I will be teaching my son!

I have been working in education for 8 years now. Like publishing, it is a field that I always have had an interest in.  If I am not writing, I tend to gravitate towards places with lots of books.  It must run in the family, because my sister works in a library. Anyway, I always knew when I was a student that I wanted to see what it was like from the other side.

I have had many teachers and professors, some having way more integrity than others. I've had teachers who were there because they wanted to be there and I have been exposed to bitter teachers: people, who end up teaching because they believe they can not really do what they really want to do--those who can't, teach.

I've been at my current school for almost four years now. When I first walked into that place 8-9 years ago, I fell in love with it.  It's a dilapidated building that shines with spirit. If you walk in there and all you see is a run-down building, then it's definitely not the place for you. But if you walk in there, look around, and embrace the energy of the place, you'll be in love.

It's that love that bit me so many years ago and it's that love that made it really easy to grant my son's wish to transfer to my school.  So far we both have been enjoying it and I can tell that he really likes the kids in his class, and they him. It is a super class--last year we put on a production of a play, entitled The Seed. It's about the evil Mr. M who is trying to take over the world by controlling all the food, unless Mr. P finds the magic seed. Mr. P enlists the help of 4 teenagers and they embark on a journey to Hawaii & the 6th dimension where they meet Pele, the volcano goddess (or maybe football player, depending on the actor) who assists them to getting the seed back to earth and so saving it.  The kids came up with most of the script and the direction of the story line. It was one of the most inspiring creative endeavors I had ever embarked on. I was fortunate to have the very talented Siovhan onboard. Siovhan is an actress, an expat--and she came by every Friday and worked on directing them. She did an amazing job.

What I love most about teaching are the individual students. I have never come across a student that I didn't feel I understood or that I didn't like. I think it has something to do with the fact that as a child, I felt the dislike of many adults, and it didn't feel nice. I can't subject a child to that.

What I don't like about teaching is the hypocrisy that you witness some of the children realizing: if we, the adults, really cared about the students, really cared about the world, we wouldn't structure schools, physically or academically, the way in which we do. Period.  I definitely will not be teaching forever, and my days are numbered. I'm not saying that all students experience school this way...I'm just remembering my process as a child, being in a system that attempted to tell me what to think and gave me a story, a historical one, that was supposed to shape my identity.  We need to have a serious dialogue and reckoning with what we truly mean, when we say education.

But teaching is also an experience I will never forget and one that I know I will return to, on and off for as long as I am on this planet.  In some sense, we all are teachers--and I see success in every one embracing that role, among others, and tapping into it every so often as opposed for over long, concentrated periods of time, with a teacher to student ration which usually borders on the insane.

I have met so many fantastic students! First there is Brendan. Brendan was this amazing 3rd grader and one of the cutest boys I have ever seen. He had the roundest face, clearest eyes and one of the purest hearts I had ever met. Brendan was super good at playing the piano, so very often, after we worked together, we would sit in the basement and he would play a rendition of a Yul Anderson song, Beautiful Stranger.

My job was to support Brendan with academics,  because he was considered to possess learning disabilities.  It is true that he did not read as fluently as some of the others, or was perhaps a bit physically awkward,  but no matter what his differences were, he definitely didn't deserve to be made to feel that there was something  wrong with him.  When I saw what was happening to so many children who were standing out, I really became sorry.

I'm not saying this is necessarily Brendan's case, because Brendan was blessed to have a mother who really educated herself not only on what the system was saying, but on what her son was saying.  It makes sense that Brendan has a mother like he does: she is also one of the most amazing people I have ever met. Throughout the years, despite mothering 3, not least of which one was considered to be a special needs child, Mara always, without fail, managed to maintain contact with me and keep me up-to-date with them, particularly Brendan.

Brendan is blessed. He is in a supportive family who has also had the means to address his needs. Not only that, but balance a system that ends up assisting their children's lives, as opposed to dominating it. But what about all the kids who don't have this support?


Like I said, I have met very few beings who shone like this kid. And I got to hang out with him.  One of the aspects of the job, one of the most important actually, was going through a reading programme with him. Brendan's reading skills were not considered to be up to par (whatever that means).

He physically reacted every time we went off on our own to work. He became nervous, anxious. I always did whatever I could to allow him to relax. Sometimes it was the piano, many times it was sweeping (yes, he loved to sweep!)  Brendan is probably about 16 now? Wow. And I heard a black-belt in Judo!

There have been many, other shining stars. What I consider my job to be at this particular juncture in life, is to make them shine brighter, which can be a challenge sometimes, in this world that we live in.

What are some of the things that can reform education? Stop making schools like jails. Stop educating our children to be sheep. Encourage independent thinking. Throw away a lot of the syllabus. Allow kids to learn what they want, from the heart--they will excel at it and then move on to something else. Human beings are incredible creatures who can learn anything once we put our minds to it. There are many things we can do, not just one, the very reason why career and job are words I can not relate to.  But to have an educational reform, you have to have a societal one. But all of these things I mention threaten the very social fabric to which we all, to some extent, cling.

Like I said though, magic happens in life.  Like meeting a woman today, a mother, like myself, also from New York. She not only moved to Copenhagen around the same time as I, but lived in Williamsburgh around the same time as I did, too.

It can be magical in that way where you feel yourself move slowly and deliberately through space, taking your time to absorb all around you: from the speeding sports cars to the tips of tree tops touching, despite their kind.

I am thankful for today and for all that I have. I am thankful for every experience I have ever had in my life: I recognize how necessary every single experience has been to my not only better understanding myself, but through that, better understanding others.

It does, however, get messy sometimes. But if you are patient, and do not run away, you can can always untangle your soul purpose from ego...

Today I bumped into John. John is also from New York.  It's the middle of rush hour and we are standing on an island off the curb, right across the street from Tivoli. The place is thick with tourists. John is wearing all black, and is sporting black sunglasses. He looks a bit 'Nam, I guess.  John is half-Palestinian, half-Irish (I think). He grew up with an African American stepfather who, as far as John is concerned, was his father (he's since passed).

We quickly get into a heated debate about what's going on in the States and I know we are turning heads as we are passionate about our ideas.  Usually Danish people really get confused when they get into a debate with some Americans, because they are not used to shouting and getting all into each other's face, the way some of us can. I do envy the ability to discuss something I feel passionately about calmly. I am working on it.

Soon our energy subsides and I burst out laughing. "John," I say, shaking my head, "You really surprise me every time I meet you. I really go there with you, and in the end, you are just always so cool!" Our politics are indeed very different, but we did agree on some pretty key points, although I must admit that every time I talk about politics I feel as though I get hijacked, like get caught up in a hurricane of energy that takes me away from...

Just then I spot a guy  across the street. He's wearing a t-shirt that says "Brooklyn" on it. I can't help myself-- before I know it,  I hear the loud words, "You from Brooklyn? What you know about Brooklyn?" spilling from my lips. He waves and laughs and both John and I also exchange laughs. I guess that is our New York moment.

I eventually get back on my bike and make my way home. I stop off at a cafe and drink a lemonade. The sun is out and I allow myself to absorb the rays in complete relaxation. I am enjoying being alone, and Copenhagen is a great place for that.

I am also enjoying some other things in my life,  like having the opportunity, always, to create something new--and Copenhagen, I suppose, is also a good place for that.

Lately, I've been picking up herbs from stores that I am not familiar with. Between looking them up on the Internet (which I'm a bit iffy about anyway) and my very limited book collection on that subject, I am finding out some fascinating properties that the world around us, including the universe of our bodies, possess.  Most recently I picked up a pack of black seeds called Nigella.

this is the picture of the flower i found in tobago. is it nigella?

The interesting thing is this: many years ago, when I was in Tobago with my son, I passed these flowers when we were walking though the shortcut to the beach. I fell in love with these flowers and one morning, my aunt picked one for me and brought it back to the house.  I ended up taking a picture of it...so I find this pack of seeds in the shop and it turns out to be from these flowers. Not only that...the healing properties of these seeds are quite fascinating...

I have always wanted to learn more about herbs and healing...and Copenhagen, with its amazing library system, is certainly a great place for that...

take care,
the lab