Hey there, dear ones!
Here is a little something I wrote recently that I hope will provide balm for your soul and nourishment for your being. Thank you for reading, and I always appreciate hearing back from you.
LOVE
Elizabeth
Love and a 2-Way Radio
“Elizabeth, can you check the girls bathroom on the second floor?”
“Elizabeth here. On my way.”
After greeting the late-arriving students in the girls bathroom, some of whom needed a bit of encouragement to head to their first period class, I check my Steps App and see that I have already logged over 4000 steps, and it isn’t even 9 AM yet. By the end of today, I will be somewhere past 15,000 steps or 5 miles. And that’s a lighter day.
Slowing my pace and doing my rounds, I enjoy the quiet hallways for a moment. It will probably be halfway through first period until until the halls get crowded again.The walkie-talkies shared by the administrative staff are quiet.
The past few months I’ve been serving as a Campus Monitor for a local high school. My job is to help maintain a safe and healthy school environment for the learning community, working closely with students and teachers and administrative staff. That’s the official tag line. What it looks like is: I get to talk to kids all day long.
On one of my first days on the job, a student came up to me and asked “Hey, are you our new Campus Monitor?”. I told him I was subbing in for awhile.
The student asked “Do you have a gun?”.
(What?!? Do I have a gun?!? Like, a real gun? That shoots bullets? Do I look like I have a gun?)
It hadn’t occurred to be that this might be something kids wondered about, but as I reflect on it, it makes sense.
“No, I don’t have a gun. I have……
Love and a 2-Way Radio.”
So I am not usually one who has quick replies to questions. I am a slow processor — and sensitive to how much I think, feel and sense before responding. I often am struck later in the day or the following week by what I wish I could’ve, would’ve, should’ve said in the moment.
But today! Nailed it.
I have LOVE.
Every day when I wake up, part of my practice is to just lie there and breathe into the new day, even just for a few breaths:
May I be of service.
May I care for myself.
May I be care for those with whom I come in contact.
Alright, let’s go.
Because when it comes down to it, LOVE is one of the only things we have to share with each other. Maybe the only one. It’s a relational field that invites co-creation in our most grounded expression of being. But I am getting ahead of myself.
I am definitely not talking about romantic love, so let’s clear that up right now. (In my other life, working with my clients and in spiritually-oriented communities, the word LOVE may get used a lot, but mostly people don’t mistake it for romance.)
Working in a high school, there’s room for misunderstanding. Why? Well, it’s a high school, with teenagers and plenty of romance going around, or hormones, or a combination. I am talking about Loving-Kindness or metta, a quality of the heart nurtured for the sake of all beings (including ourselves), gentle friendliness, the peace that passes understanding.
I am talking about the very practical instructions in Patanjali’s yoga sutras I.33:
To preserve openness of heart and calmness of mind,
nurture these attitudes:
Kindness to those who are happy.
Compassion for those who are suffering.
Honor for those who embody noble qualities.
Equanimity for those whose actions oppose your values.
And the clear definition in these verses from 1st Corinthians in the King James Version of the Bible:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,
but have not love,
I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
but have not love,
it profits me nothing.
You know: LOVE.
So yeah, balancing that with keeping students moving back to class from a bathroom break; dealing with the well-known frequent fliers (how are they always in the hall??); keeping my calm when I know a student is telling me a made-up name; remembering that all behavior is communication, including behavior that is against the school rules or to which I am personally averse.
I have a 2-Way Radio.
Every day when I arrive at school, the very first thing I do is grab the 2-way radio from the charger and turn it on. The green light blinks. Now, with the press of that little side button, I am connected to the admin team — the principal, assistant principals, office administrators and campus security folks.
I’m part of a team! I don’t have to do it all by myself. I have people who will come if I call them. This thing works!
My guides clearly want me to learn more about having a team, being part of a team, actually calling on a team and letting myself be supported.
And how a 2-way radio works.
It did take a while to learn to use it. I don’t mean mechanically or technologically. It’s pretty simple — channel 1, press the button and speak, then release. (The first time, I didn’t know which button to push to talk. Nobody showed me and I didn’t ask. THAT’S another story, for another time.)
What I mean is, it took awhile for me to be willing to use the 2-way radio. It took me awhile to to understand that it’s actually my job to use it, to call for back-up, to ask for support.
Why is this such a hard lesson for me?
Yes, I have skills and good instincts and I am used to being with people when things are hard..…all that is still true, AND raising kids takes the proverbial village, and being in a (healthy, functioning) village requires (healthy, functioning) communication.
We are better when we work together.
So I am learning to use the 2-way radio. And to relax, because someone always answers my call. I am part of a team, and this team responds, with love. This is extra-ordinary learning for me. In the hallways of a high school.
“Elizabeth, what’s your location?”
“In the Commons.”
“Heading your way.”
And what of the student who asked me that question? What did he have to say about “Love and a 2-Way Radio”?
He said, with a fist bump, “Aaiight, Ms Elizabeth. I gotchu. That’s good.”
