The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Hero's Journal #10

the Student becomes the Teacher.  A vital part of the cycle of life, this completion, when the seeker steps into the space of mastery, creates the room for another seeker.  While we must all remain students, we must also grow up, becme adults, take our place as holders of wisdom.  As my dear friend Jamie Charles once said to me: "when the alphas of the village refuse to take their position as alphas, the village suffers." 
##
She made me drop a lot of my b.s.  I've sought for many years, and have found a great deal of truth.  It doesn't serve me, or anyone in the world to pretend this isn't true: thus the web page, the blog, the Five Minute Miracle.  And every one of you reading this has reached maturity in multiple aspects of your life.  We desperately need you to share your knowledge, to have the courage to admit you have learned, to suspend the false ego that makes us feel superior if we act humble.  We must shine, all of us!  I remember expressing dissatisfaction with my martial arts skills in class one day.  One of the newer students basically told me I didn't have the right to do that.  "If someone with your skills isn't proud of what  you've accomplished, what is there to inspire us to keep going?"  Uh....well...you don't need to slap me upside the head too many times.  I finally got it. 
We must be teachers.  Every one of us.  I cannot put it more eloquently than the words of one of the greatest men in the world, so here he is:
###
"
Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond
measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most
frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world. There is
nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people
won't feel insecure about you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give
other people permission to do the same. As we are
liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically
liberates others."
-- Nelson Mandela
###
Where in your life can you share with others?  How can you share?  What has your character learned?  How can he share?  Wrestle with these questions.  You now have 1/2 of the complete model of LIFEWRITING.  It is enough to work on for a lifetime, but we have a ways to go yet.  Hold on tight!

Steve

No comments: