why the teacher doesn't always eat apples and carry a ruler ...

when the student is ready, the teacher appears - Buddhist Proverb

I love this proverb, but truly always imagined this teacher to have some human form or voice or written word attached to him or her -

like a certain someone would pop into my life just when I needed them to and I would hear just the thing I needed to hear at exactly the right time and this has actually happened to me

(and all of us, I am sure)

a couple times -

and I have to admit that I love to play the teacher at times and offer unsolicited advice that the other person will quickly dispense with by saying "that's easy for you to say" to which I always counter "exactly, that's why I'm saying it", which always makes them rethink whatever genius thing I am saying and gives me a guru-like seriousness, kind of like Forrest when he came to the end of his run -

but more often than not what actually happens when I am "ready" is that this "teacher" appears in the form of a lesson or obstacle or something that doesn't look anything like the solemn faced Mr. Miyagi I am expecting.




(and you don't get life lessons like "wax on, wax off" just anywhere you know)





So, when I am ready to

(ie desperately need to)

learn patience for example - life sends me an opportunity to learn patience by practicing patience - in other words - delays, traffic situations, time spent waiting - you get the picture.

This learning by practicing thing is why I never ask the universe to give me strength or courage or anything like that (unless I am in the middle of a crisis already) because I know the best way for me to learn these things is through something that requires me to be strong and courageous and with my luck who knows what kind of calamity will be sent to me as my 'teacher'.

So anyhoo, I have decided to see if there is a little kink in this universal system that I can use to my advantage - a little way to cheat the system - a little life lessons for dummies cheat sheet.

I have determined that what I really need to learn is to be a little more grateful and now things that I am very grateful for should start to move into my life to teach me about gratitude. Do you think this can work?

Like I am grateful for my little Nook that I am totally addicted to

(who has one and what books can we trade ?? warning I have purchased alot of detective fiction and nonfiction, but if you have a Nook and want to borrow/lend, let's chat- no clue how we do this, but we will figure this out together)

and all the books that have been flowing my way.

(my next lesson may involve my dwindling bank account balance since this little marvel has a very simple "2 quick clicks to purchase" feature that makes books very hard to resist)

I will let you know if this lesson of gratitude allows many things for me to be grateful for to flow into my life and if this works we can all be walking around muttering "damn, I wish I was a more grateful person" and see what kind of teacher appears to us - this could be the real law of attraction and remember you heard it here first folks.

(of course, if we really do get Mr. Miyagi and a jar of turtle wax, well, then, we will be at least be grateful that we have a very shiny car ... and we may also have a very tired arm, but at least with the Nook there are no pesky pages to turn)

*math class photograph by D. Hunting