Toward A New Balancing

FRI., AUG. 18, 1995, 2:04 PM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

A new term of education is about to begin for you, and you have a strong sense of a new balancing that is taking place. You still feel an enthusiasm for the classes ahead… and for the students you’ll get to know. There is still excitement in setting up learning experiences that are almost certain to achieve what they have in the past. The department of which you are a part is still strong and viable, and you still are valued… and not just for having lasted the longest.

But then… there is an end in sight. Most of your career is behind you. It is not likely that there will be any further awards or rewards for achievement. You are still working, but there is an increased feeling of coasting. Your colleagues look forward to years more of service, as you look back on yours. Retirement is not a necessity for you, and there is still the possibility that you might not throw it in in 2 years. Yet it does feel like the balance is changing, and you wouldn’t want to continue teaching without the positive feelings you still have about these opportunities.

One of your difficulties now is in telling others about what you look forward to retiring to. You know it to be more time in receiving, reviewing, and pondering these Teachings. There are only a few folk who understand this and, more importantly, appreciate this. Without this understanding, and being in some earlier stage in life, they wonder what you’re going to do… what will occupy your time.

You suspect that there will be calls for your time (and talents?), because some won’t want you to feel unneeded and won’t appreciate that spending time with Me and with what I’ve communicated to and taught you is the best use of time there is. It is clear to you that you are coasting toward a continuing life of much purer spirit… and there are ways to move quite smoothly from this one to the next. You suspect that your old friend, Jim, did not have an easy, smooth transition, and you’re right. You predict that your younger friend and spiritual buddy, Chris, could make the transition with much ease… if she isn’t too influenced by those who would overuse medical means and if she puts too much value on continued “entrapment” in a cancerous body. You may be able to help.

There will be plenty of such opportunities ahead, and you will have the time to take many of these on. Will the Internet be of assistance, and should you become expert in its usefulness? Not yet, anyway. I want you to be essentially a pen and paper correspondent. Personal messages are still most personal if they are handwritten. As long as your handwriting remains legible, stick with it. A different balance could come later.

I’ll reiterate: see your teaching opportunities increasingly as different ways of touching the spirits of learners. This is some combination of who you are, how they perceive you, what you have the class do, how they interact with each other… and … the nature of the content of any lesson. All of these are important, but the content itself, to be learned, is, generally, of least interest to Me.

2:45 PM / 9:46 PM