Our Book

A Thank You to My Teachers

I feel fortunate to have had so many wonderful teachers in my life. My first teachers were my Mother and Father and I give thanks to them. My Mother allowed me the space to feel safe enough to be true to myself. My Father taught me the value of laughter and how, really, everyone and everything comes from the same fabric. My Uncle taught me about what it means to listen and observe as he felt and appreciated the things around him. My Grandmother taught me the importance of reliability and how caring for someone and being reliable to them is really… the same thing… My first crush, who opened my heart by breaking it, gave me the incentive to start accepting myself and… I learned that if I wanted to truly accept myself, I had to accept everyone and everything.

My teachers at Cabrillo in the Early Childhood Education department were all so wonderful and I give a very warm thanks to every one of them. I especially feel gratitude to Magna Gerber, the founder for Resources for Infant Educarers, who opened my mind and heart to a new way of interacting and understanding people.

I give thanks to all my excellent instructors at Five Branches Institute of Chinese medicine. Dr. Jeffery Pang, head of the herb department, for teaching me to be present. Joanna Zhao, academic dean and clinic director, for teaching me what real compassion can do. Dr. Sharon Feng, who often said, “Bu Tong Zu Tong, Tong Zu Bu Tong!” which means, “Not through is pain, through is no pain.” The meaning of these words has many levels and I will probably always continue to learn from them. Dr. James MacDonald and Dr. Alan Wong for teaching me that learning Western Medicine can be fun. And my most influential teacher, Janice Walton-Hadlock, founder of the Parkinson’s Recovery Project, who taught me the ancient art of Chinese Yin Tuina, a basis for this work. Through studying with her, she has helped to teach me perhaps one of the most valuable lessons; to let go of who I thought I was so that I could begin to realize who I really am.

But of all the wonderful teachers I have had… The ones who influenced me the most were the babies…

The Children Teach

At the age of 20 my interest in learning about people and their behavior inspired me to begin working with children. I wanted to work with children because I felt that they would give me a fresher view of the human condition.

So I began working with elementary children. The experiences that I had with them were good but I felt like the children already had walls up to their true selves and that if I could work with younger children, I might experience a more pure example of humans and what they are really about. So I began working with two year olds.

I started working with 6 two year olds at a preschool in Santa Cruz. My first days were horrible. The children would run around biting and hitting each other and I would run around behind them like I was a cop for the little people. “Oh no! Oh no! Don’t hit! Stop Biting! Put that truck down! Quit kicking!” Each day was complete with screaming, shoulders in the ears, head-spinning, heart-hurting, and utter and complete frustration. I would go home crying and think, “There is no way I can work there even one more day.”

But, for some reason, I went back.

One day, after I had experienced an entire frustrating month, something changed. An event happened that changed so much of the way I viewed and interacted with people…

I was out in the yard running around trying to “put out fires” as usual, when the regional director came out. A man that I had only heard of but had never met. He was quiet and meek and had a soft gleam in his eye. He was not someone many would suspect to be the head of the department.

He calmly stepped out onto the grass and then just sat down. After a little while I started to notice some changes with the children. They were behaving differently…Astoundingly different.

The children on his side of the yard were becoming peaceful…

It was so amazing that I stopped doing what I was doing and walked over to where he was so that I could observe him closer.

He wasn’t appearing to “do” anything. So I became more still and watched him more carefully…

He sat there intently observing the children. He was really watching every little thing they did. Every once in a while he would say something softly like, “Oh, I see Johnny going down the slide.” Or, “Oh, there’s Suzy playing with the ball.” Or, “I see you Jason, you’re smiling.”

Each time he spoke, it was if a wave of calm would come over the children. Their bodies softened and they seemed as though they had a contentment I had not seen with them before. They stopped hitting and began to laugh more. It was as if magic had moved across the yard and harmony prevailed.

Amazing, I thought. I wasn’t sure yet what it was that I was seeing, but I knew I was in the presence of a Master and I felt really honored. I asked for advice on what I could do to learn more about being with the children, and he recommended for me to take the courses at Cabrillo.

That night I went home excited and filled with wonder about what had happened. I took every class I could and I enjoyed watching doors open to new understandings and experiences.

I loved the wonderful discipline of working attentively and slowly with the children. I loved the way I got instant feedback from them when I would begin to wander from the principals. If I started to run around and lose my presence, the children would respond immediately and I would begin to have a difficult day again. Magna Gerber, one of the most influential persons in the field taught, “If you think you are going slow, go even slower.”