Yes, I’m a teacher. And proud to be and think teaching matters and changes the world. But do not allow the concept of formal teaching to detract from the larger meaning of the word. We all teach. All the time. Someone is always watching. But that’s only half the equation. The kind of teacher you are depends on the kind of learner you are. Teaching divorced from learning is mere propaganda in the classroom and obliviousness–a barren obliviousness–in everyday life. Let the sparrow teach you whose eye beholds you.

It is love that holds everything together, and it is the everything also. –Rumi

He was called “Bobby.” He walked this earth with gusto and loved well. So well that when he died in 2013, those he left behind wove pink ribbon and silk flowers into a chain link fence around a vacant lot on North Clybourn Ave. in Chicago. Today, wild vines weave in and out among the ribbons, their brown, crinkled winter leaves mingling with tattered and faded silk flowers. Bobby’s likeness printed on a white plastic sign is also faded, but he is laughing out loud with wind blown hair. I encountered Bobby’s memorial on the streets of Chicago because I…

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will probably recall that for several years, I have used my blog to participate in an international phenomenon called “Advent Word,” begun a number of years ago by the Brothers of Saint John the Evangelist. I have been participating since before it became an international phenomenon and before I had a blog with which to create my contributions. AdventWord is now a separate organization with its own website, Facebook page and other social media platforms. Whoever runs it, and I’m not sure what role the Brothers of SSJE currently play,…