Thirty five fifth and sixth graders were lined up in as close of a rendition of a formation as possible. My mission was to teach them yoga. One little boy, looked like a surfer’s son. He had that angelic, peaceful, hippie kind of quality. He kept turning around to stare at the girls behind him. I had him trade places with the girl directly in front of me. I figured anyone who lined up directly in front of the teacher was not going to rock the boat, so she’d be fine where he was and him being in front of me meant perhaps he’d listen.
We went through the whole class and it wasn’t bad. Periodically, he’d want to inject a story to a question I would pose to the group for consideration. Overall, he was engaged and doing the practice. We got to the end and during meditation, I had them imagine several things. One of which was a magic mirror that reflected their best qualities. After meditation, I had them draw what they saw. Before dismissing them for their next class, I encouraged them to share what they drew with someone they liked and trusted.
The little boy catches my eyes and asks, “May I show you?”
“Of course!” I said and held out my hand to receive his drawing.
There was a little blonde haired boy surrounded by blue. Nothing else. I knew it was him but I didn’t know what to make of it.
“Tell me about this,” I said.
“It’s me. The best quality of me is being me,” he said, with the deepest sense of knowing I maybe have ever heard.
“What’s you’re name?”
“Seamus.”
“Seamus, this is absolutely brilliant. I don’t know if you can even grasp how brilliant this is now, but never forget this! Oh, and may I tell my tribe about this?”
His face lit up. “Sure!”
In a world where 95% of all advertising and marketing is reminding us how we can be better, where many of our thoughts and beliefs revolved around a scarcity message, I think we can all learn something from Seamus. We are already great.
What would it take for you to re-member that? Leave a comment below.
