I am the teacher. I am the student. I am the lesson being learned*

Only when I am all three simultaneously do I create a space for the emergent. For my own evolution/devolution. 

Only when I am all three do I create a space safe enough for others to participate with the same multifaceted dimensionality of teacher, student and lesson.

So easy is it to fall victim to the hubris of teacher, my righteousness blazing.

So easy is to bow in supplication as a student, feelings of inadequacy keeping me small, failing to recognise my capacity to teach and be the lesson learned.

The pain of being the lesson learned, often partnered with shame, humiliation and heartbreak, can be so great we forget that we, the instrument, become the teacher. Maybe not immediately, but surely as the arc of time moves us.

My life holding these three positions enables the fourth element, the emergent, to appear. Unpredictable. Synergistic. Perfect in imperfection.

*Inspired by Peter Kingsley

Photo taken September 8th 2021