Being the Door (Teacher)
November 4, 2022
My favorite roll in my Spirit Play class is that of the door teacher. It’s hard to explain what to do in this role. The teacher takes on a particular presence of hospitality and loving witness. It might not look like the door teacher is doing much during class. They just sit by the door.
But really, they are a living threshold between the known and unknown, between our physical sacred space and the rest of the building, between the Mystery beyond and this tangible eternal present moment. If I imagined peeking through a key hole into the door teacher, this is what I dream her internal process might be like.
“First a breath for myself -to be fully here and ready. I open my lungs, my eyes and my heart. I am ready.
Good morning child. Wait. Stop. You are here. You have arrived. Take a moment to catch up with yourself. There is no rush. Take a moment to stand here and look in my eyes. Your name tag and your coat are not as important as stopping here for just a minute so you can fully experience my joy that you are here. We are here together!
Now that your coat is hung and your name tag on, you can say goodbye to your parents. Tell me friend. Are you ready? Are you ready to walk down that hall and enter a holy space? Are you ready to listen and to work and to play? If you are ready, then you are free to enter. Please go into our room. Sit on our rug. Join the storyteller to prepare for our story. If you are not ready, then please sit here next to me. Sit here in my safety and love; in the still point between being gifted to us for our class and your own choice to enter. You can stay with me as long as you would like.
My children are here. My children are getting ready. I embody the closing of the door, the creation of our sacred circle of safety and delight. Our class has begun.
I sit here by the physical door. If the circle is too much, if you find you cannot get ready, I am waiting to receive you. Here next to me you can hide if you need to. You can grow calm in the presence of my calm. I am serene, beaming my love into our room, witnessing wiggles and miracles and each beautiful being who has joined us today. I witness unexpected kindness. I witness conflict. I witness insight. I witness the whole human drama played out right in this one room. The circle of our community is playing within my beating heart and before my wondering eyes. The children have walked through my open heart door and dwell there for our learning time. This is meditation. This is practice. I am listening with my whole self.
And then the time comes for the children to get centered again on the rug, to end their formal sacred play with us. I bless this room and say a silent gratitude for each of these souls, present and transformed today. I open the door, open the seal of our class and resume my post, ready to send you all out into the world again, changed and loved.
Good morning. Your parent is here. You are ready to be on your way to whatever your day holds. But wait. Stop. You are making a crossing. Take a moment to stop in this doorway, to look in my eyes and receive a blessing. I am so happy that you were here with me today. My love goes with you until we see each other again. Your heart and mine have touched today and neither will be the same again.
The last child is gone. I take another moment, to breathe, to close my eyes and feel my heart. I feel the affect of this love, of all the love that moves between us. I see that we are the same. I see that we are different. I practice seeing you as you are. I practice seeing myself as I am. We are Light and Glory and we are Muddled and Distracted. I practice being love and doing church with all that we are.
I forgive myself my inattention, my slips, my mistakes made today. I dedicate this practice of teaching to the increase of Love and Life everywhere in the Universe.
May it be so. May it be so!
Open your hearts door teachers! Feel what it is to be love and be loved. May the threshold that you are move you deeper into your own integrity, service and joy.