We are all teachers

We pass each other every day,

Nodding and smiling

Then forgetting the face of the one just past.

Like a river people come into our lives,

Some part and flow around us

Others come ashore in one way or another.

Some to bring joy into our lives,

Others sorrow,

Still a few to bring great suffering,

Teaching us how to deal with anger;

Resentment with its unrelenting pain,

Grabbing by the neck and shaking without mercy

Until the lesson learned and the cycle broken.

Each leaves a mark in the others life,

Some for good,

Others for ill,

But each plays a part in choices made after the fact.

In the end we are all teachers,

The most difficult having the most to teach,

Making pain the medicine that wakes up the one suffering

Seeking a way off the ever turning wheel

That none can stop.

The only way off is in,

To the center were all motion ceases,

Where peace and clarity reign

Rooted in the eternal Presence

Ever faithful,

Waiting,

For the seed to take root and grow.