Mantras Matter

Here was the prompt from The Nantucket Project:
"At TNP, we spend all year seeking the most energetic and curious people on earth. We then ask them the question: What matters? We have found this is an increasingly difficult question to answer in the noisy, messy world in which we live. How would you answer this? What matters to you? "

I grew up with two mantras growing up; one from each parent. As a youth I experienced annoyance or comfort when they were recited to me. As an adult when my youngest daughter was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, the father of my children and I divorced or my teenaged children made poor choices involving both minor and major setbacks, I would recite: “Look for the good and you will find it” and “This too shall pass.” One mantra from dad, one from mom.

I clung to both, desperate to reframe my circumstances in a more positive light. I was able to get up out of bed, parent, and go to work. Some days I got up teary eyed and some days I got up smiling, forming what I like to call my Happy Wrinkled Self. The point is, I got up. I moved forward. Those mantras propelled me forward, with forward-thinking.

I have been a teacher forever. I have taught in elementary, middle and high schools. Today I teach in an alternative public school, grades K-12. Life has been kind to some of my students with mentors, cheerleaders and champions in their lives.  Others have been raped, beaten, bullied and kicked out of their homes. They’ve been happy, driven and self-motivated or they have been sad, anxious or depressed.

What I’ve noticed is this: kids need mantras.

The miraculous part about where I work is the relationship that is fostered with students. And when that relationship evolves, I have the privilege of getting to know what they like, dislike, how they spend their free time and what makes them sparkle. Sometimes I get to catch a glimpse of a smile forming around their mouths and sometimes I pass the tissue box, first grabbing one for my Happily Wrinkled Self as we shed tears together.

I’ve shared my parents’ mantras and I've shared my personal teaching mantra,  “You are safe with me.”

As I get to know each child, I get to see each one slowly form their own mantra or incorporate those of others that ring true for them:

“I am unique.”

“I am different.”

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

So many students. So many mantras. The important thing about mantras, is that kids need one.

If they have don't, I am concerned about their lack of coping skills for a quality life.

Kids need mantras.