It so happens I received the most honoring text message recently; I shall call the message-sender AR.
AR’s message was in celebration of “Guru Purnima”, in India. On this day, students pay respects to the teacher who “shines like the Moon in one’s life to dispel the ignorance of the darkest of nights”.
On my second tour through India, AR and I briefly met and exchanged ideas in the guise of a flute lesson. We had an intense conversation and connected in a deep way, as seems to happen both in India and, counterintuitively, when under restraints of time and situation. I was returning to Europe the following day.
Whatever wisdom I might have passed along was either distilled from either my own painfully slow learnings, or from work with my own “gurus”. So in the spirit of Guru Purnima, and lamentably a week or more late, I would like to honor some of the many “Gurus” who have passed through my life:
RL, who taught me that anything worth doing was worth doing well. LP who taught me that teaching is fun. KK who taught me attention to detail. GW who taught me what kindness is. AS who taught me to use my imagination. AC who taught me to just be me. PA who showed me endless possibilities. SB who taught me to look for the essence.
These teachers, friends, and colleagues have, over the years, shown me the way forward, what’s important and what’s not. And when I forget (often), they are there to teach me again, no matter how many oceans lie between us.
