Today marks “World Teacher’s Day,” celebrated across India. I am thinking of so many educators in my life who have impacted my journey over the years. Just last week I recalled a story of Mr. Conwell, my eight grade teacher, in a webinar on leadership development in schools. My mother was a classroom teacher, my sister is a classroom teacher, my brother teaches CCD at his parish, and my other sister – a nurse – works for her local school district, in service to schools…one could say that it’s a “family business” for me.
On this occasion, I am pleased to share this prayer on leadership, for I look at all educators as leaders in our societies. I am also happy to share an inspirational rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from one of my favorite musicians. May God bless all educators and those who inspire us!
Somewhere Over the Rainbow- Yo-Yo Ma
“Prayer For A Leader” by John O’Donohue
May you have the grace and wisdom
To act kindly, learning
To distinguish between what is
Personal and what is not.
May you be hospitable to criticism.
May you never put yourself at the center of things.
May you act not from arrogance but out of service.
May you work on yourself,
Building up and refining the ways of your mind.
May those who work for you know
You see and respect them.
May you learn to cultivate the art of presence
In order to engage with those who meet you.
When someone fails or disappoints you,
May the graciousness with which you engage
Be their stairway to renewal and refinement.
May you treasure the gifts of the mind
Through reading and creative thinking
So that you continue as a servant of the frontier
Where the new will draw its enrichment from the
old,
And may you never become a functionary.
May you know the wisdom of deep listening,
The healing of wholesome words,
The encouragement of the appreciative gaze,
The decorum of held dignity,
The springtime edge of the bleak question.
May you have a mind that loves frontiers
So that you can evoke the bright fields
That lie beyond the view of the regular eye.
May you have good friends
To mirror your blind spots.
May leadership be for you
A true adventure of growth.
Keeping the Faith 