Some teachers say that there’s no such thing as 9th graders - there are only 8th graders and 10th graders, and students in the 9th grade fall into one of those categories.
One thing that I like about 9th graders is that most of them come into high school with eyes wide open. For most 9th graders, high school is new physical, social, academic, and athletic territory. The kindling is prepared and they’re ready to be lit on fire by this new experience.
In other words, they’re primed for awe - an emotional mixture of wonder and reverence, maybe a little fear.
Sophomores tend to be different. They seem to carry a bit more arrogance, like they know the ropes. The only thing different for them is that they now have experience, a past to draw on, and gives them permission to feel more settled and comfortable. They seem to know this territory a bit better, so they’re more confident.
And school is less exciting for them because they think they know.
We adults are the same way. With our own lives each stage brings something new to which we open our eyes wide. Then we get used to it and run on autopilot. We do this in our jobs, in our routines, and with our families. We think we know.
And that’s how we diffuse the sacredness out of our lives.
Each of us is a miracle. Your two biological parents: 1 million eggs that the female body produces in a lifetime and 5 billion sperm cells the male body produces in a lifetime - there’s a 0.00000000000002% chance that you are the one who would’ve been born from all those cells.
And here you are.
It is in emotions like awe, love, and joy that our spirit suffuses our experience. And we can actually bring those emotions with us wherever we go. There is no mundane when we bring awe, love, or joy with us. From any one of them, the mundane becomes sacred and we awaken.
For the last couple days since beginning this post, my 1% better has been to see the sacred in the everyday. How could I have forgotten how good this feels? Being in love with the people in my life, with the feeling of the ground and objects against my feet and hands, with the sunlight against the trees...
Thanks so much for reading. ❤️