beyond labels.

it dawned upon me this morning how liberating it would be if i simply chose to go beyond the labels that bind me to this temporary lifetime. beyond the label of “teacher”, “educator”, “advocate” and “poet”, i’m but an eternal soul on its divine journey to wholeness.

perhaps i’m more interested this moment in moving beyond labels when it comes to my career. sometimes, it is quite limiting to say that i’m a teacher when in truth, i come in many forms to serve those beloved children. i often hear others say “i can’t do that, i’m just a teacher” when confronted by challenges beyond their job description and title. well, perhaps we get paid for specific things, but the mind thrives on those self-imposed structures to create suffering when the heart speaks and calls for action yet stays fastened in some abstract box of roles.

this year, i hope to bring my full humanness and light into what i do and move beyond my job description. upon learning that there is such a thing as unschooling children, i realised that we keep things so concisely limited when it comes to opening our children’s hearts to the magnificence of the world. stifling our inner knowingness and awareness in our jobs also slows down our evolution. those children can learn beyond what we call ourselves “teachers” and what we call “school” and “classroom”.

in truth, our permanency dwells in our infinite light and i feel ready to move beyond certain titles that bind me to a certain path. life is such a pathless path— and i laugh every time something strange happens such as my computer lagging when i try to plan things ahead of time. it is only the universe calling me to rely on real feedback, not some kind of experience that doesn’t always align to what constantly evolves.

and so, it felt right to tell Mariam, a learner of mine, that i’m not her teacher. i honestly told her “i’m just your guide, allowing you to follow your interests”. what if i can take this approach to school and melt the rigidity that reigns my day. and how beautiful it would that my learners can also melt their titles and become teachers, too, or more inclusively, become only human.

i believe that it is such a paradigm shift. it changes everything and nothing all at once. it only moves us to the inextinguishable truth within.