smiling thru' the winding cracks

the a-levels begin next week. you see the spiral in some of them. they do not seem as worried as you. some gladly smile through the winding cracks.

i sometimes wonder what goes on in the minds of students as they prepare for their exams. the nerves set in and there were many times when i felt more panic than them. but there also comes a time of quiet detachment as i allow each to take their path, and own their learning in ways they best know how: to be discriminate in using the methods taught, to watch and keep close vigilover the pits that loom ahead. plan well and avoid booby-traps. interpret within easy grasp and push an argument, through... with perfect teenage not kiddy clarity. avoid sweeping statements in the mind. bolster observations with modern evidence and ultimately, to write with focus, empathy and wisdom, knowing the sensitivity we all seek in our lives might shine in the sensible lines you are committed to write.

all the best, dear good students as you set sail on the rough winds ahead. be smooth in your flight. don't crash the rocks! always write with dignity and dogged persistence in the same thorough ways we've trained ourselves to live and to be.

i'll see you again, sometime... on that distant shore ahead...

Thought-Work by john o'donohue

Off course from the frail music sought by the words

And the path that always claims the journey,

In the pursuit of a more oblique rhythm,

Creating mostly its own geography,

The mind is an old crow

Who knows only to gather dead twigs,

Then take them back to its vacancy

Between the branches of a vacant tree

And entwine them around the emptiness

With silence and unfailing patience

Until what was fallen, withered and lost

Is now set to the fill with dreams as a nest.