I
remember my first interaction with the girls at St Jude's home for delinquent
girls 15 years ago when I was serving as a mentor to one of the girls. Imagine,
a lost and confused 14 year old, trying to be a role model to a fellow 12 year
old, equally lost and confused. Amidst the mayhem of trying to deal with
my teenage life, I did a poor job of being a mentor, but what remained with me
were the words that a friend of my 12 year old "mentee" said to
me..." She stood by that gate waiting for you every Saturday, with
eagerness in her heart to see you again"
Those
words and the ensued guilt for disappointing someone that needed my help,
stayed with me for many years, until finally, through the gracious help of Monk
Rinchen, I returned to St Jude's to make an impact on a bigger scale, and
that's when the meditation classes began.
Meditation
classes were held every Wednesday at the St Jude's home from 3.30 -5.00 pm,
sometimes even finishing at 6 pm. Each class had a different flair each week,
depending on the issue we were discussing in class.
The
general structure of the class started with what issues aroused during the week
that we felt we could have dealt with differently, followed by positive
affirmations depending on the issues discussed, then meditation practice, which
varied from simple breathing techniques, to creative visualization, to the use
of sound to soothe negative feelings.
Whenever
we did creative visualization, the girls were always eager to talk about what
they visualized and how the visualization process made them feel. One
time, I remembered asking the girls to visualize and draw what peace meant to
them, and there was one of the girls that drew a picture of her with a gun
killing someone else!
I am
happy to say, several classes later, that if I were to ask her now, what peace
meant to her, she can visualize something totally different and positive.
The last
2 months in Trinidad, I began allowing each girl to run the class by
themselves, with my presence of course, watching how they utilized each tool
that I taught them. I must say that I was proud of each girl that made the
attempt! My aim, was to get them to a place of doing this on their own without
my presence!
To my
girls that excitedly came to class every Wednesday, thank you for sharing your
life experiences with me, because just as I have made an impact on you, being
in your presence every week, or whenever I could have made it, was certainly
life changing for me.
Some of my wonderful students are missing in this picture, but thank you to the girls that joined me on my last day of meditation class.
Here are
some of the videos that some of my students did for me on the last day of our
meditation class, two days before I left the shores of Trinidad.
That is great Neeta - you did better than I could have done.
ReplyDeleteRinchen