With Teacher Appreciation Week upon us (beginning on May 8), I'd like to first thank all the teachers who have devoted their careers to helping others grow. Teaching is among the noblest of roles in our society. One teacher compared her job to the filling of buckets. She couldn't do it, she said, unless her own bucket was kept filled… because the more she filled herself, the more she had to offer her students.

A teacher imparts so much more than knowledge–they fill hearts and spirits, too. So it is with each of us. We are each here to learn and teach, to teach and to learn in this great classroom of life. The question is, what will we teach, and what will we choose to learn?

How we conduct ourselves in the world speaks volumes about us, and often, that volume is louder than our own ears realize. We teach (knowingly or not) when we're with our families, our colleagues, our communities, and those we meet in daily interactions. We teach by doing… and we teach by not doing. And if we want to know the messages we're conveying, we need only look around us. We know that it's our spirits, not our minds or bodies, that are the true transmitters of energy. Are we seeing smiles on the faces of those in our company? Are we calming tense situations and adding joy to the mundane? Is the energy lighter and brighter when we leave a place than it was when we first arrived? Pay attention, and you'll know where there's work to be done.

So how do we fill our own buckets–not just with more information, but most importantly from a kabbalistic standpoint–with more Light? The key lies in what every teacher by trade knows well: a great teacher needs first to be a great student. That requires cultivating a deep desire to grow our own wisdom so that what we share takes on an illuminated quality.

...Continue reading on my weekly blog at rethinklife.today