I am glad I drew the Ace of Rainbows, Maturity, today. The card is beautifully positive.
"The distinction between the grasses and the blossoms is the same as between you not knowing that you are a Buddha, and the moment you know that you are a Buddha. In fact, there is no other way to be otherwise. Buddha is completely blossomed, fully opened. His or her lotuses and petals have come to completion ..." (159). Interestingly, in the Osho Zen Tarot, the Ace comes at the end of the sequence, not the beginning. When you draw this card you are asked to think of all the completions you have attained at this time in your life and how they have blossomed.
Specifically, for me, I relate the card to my journey in education. In 1996 I earned my PhD in English from UNC-Greensboro and began a career that spanned 11 years and, apparently, concluded in 2007 when I retired from UNC. In the three years since, and actually two years before my retirement (2005), for a total of five years, I have not taught in a university setting. I had considered that my teaching career in that venue was likely finished. However, about six months ago I decided to dust off my Vita and polish it up in an attempt to look for a teaching position. I knew, without a doubt, that it would be a long shot for me to get a position having been out of the classroom for five years and out of the academy for three. Fortunately, several of the local community colleges allow you to put your Vita on file, giving one the opportunity to be contacted in a time of need instead of seeking a standing position. Such was my luck.
About two months ago I got a call from the head of Wake Tech's Division of Continuing Education to teach a GRE Seminar. I was most thankful for the call and very interested in the opportunity. Since retiring and going through all that I have gone through, I felt and currently feel that I have a much more profound understanding of my profession ... a greater Maturity ... if you will. I was 24 when I taught my first college class, Beginning Composition at UNCG in 1992. Looking back, I can hardly believe the university turned me loose on a group of students, several of whom were older than me at the time. In all, and on the whole, I think the experience was positive for everyone, but now, with so much more life under my belt (a marriage and divorce, retirement from a career, the birth and primary care of my daughter) I feel just mature enough to be teaching :-). My GRE course was a great pleasure to teach and now I have two English courses out in front of me for the Spring semester of 2011.
I am glad that teaching is not done with me, and feel, instead, that maybe now I'm mature enough to really do great work in the classroom. It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.
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