Belief Makers

In January, the children and I were thrown in to a world of horses and royalty and dressage and Austrian culture by the book, White Stallion of Lipizza.  It is a beautiful story of dreaming, persevering and accomplishing.  It introduced me to this idea of the stallion being the teacher.  Borina, the Lipizzaner stallion teaches Hans, the young austrian boy, the ins and outs of dressage.  There were times when the stallion did all the movements perfectly, independent of input from the young Hans, almost as if to show him how the movement should actually be done. Then, Borina would more accurately respond to Hans' less than correct input (throwing Hans off or dragging his hind quarters in an undignified fashion) helping in the potential riding master's learning process.

The story reminds me of Jaedon's teachings.  Now that I'm clear on the fact that he is teaching and I am positioning myself as his student.  Many of his responses mirror my internal thoughts and feelings, and give me the opportunity to explore them more deeply.  As he reflects my discomfort to me, I see it more clearly.

I'm also his manager, helping other willing students have access to his lessons.  This week, I had the pleasure of adding 5 new students to Jaedon's classroom.  Read about my journey here.  Their first goal learning to let go of any need to 'fix' Jay and to really have fun being a loving, peaceful presence in his life.  Initially, Jaedon seems to interact with them strongly, almost showing them how much fun their time could be. At some point, they will each get to see the powerful reflecting image too.  How will they respond?  I really want to help them, guide them in this process.  Yet, I feel myself go tense at the ensuing thoughts: 5 new volunteers!  How will I manage? Can I teach them all?  I'm realizing that these thoughts add to my confusion (some days yes! some days no!) about having a large team of volunteers working with Jay.

Reframing all that in my head is such a relief.  I live with the master teacher! I'm just a facilitator, a midwife in my volunteer's process.  Every volunteer will go as far and connect as deeply as they each want to.  While I hope they do, and I continue to look for ways to inspire them, I can take myself off the hook.  I'm not making them.

I'm hopeful and excited, anticipating the next few weeks for all of us.   I'm getting to practice this new way of being with Jaedon and they are getting to learn from him more directly.... I keep refining this whole volunteer training thing.  Who knows what it will become next?

Labels: autism, beliefs, faith clarke, volunteers