We are all teachers

We pass each other every day,
Nodding and smiling
Then forgetting the face of the one just pasted.
Like a river people come into our lives,
Some part and flow around us
Others come ashore in one way or another.
Some to bring joy into our lives,
Others sorrow,
Still a few to bring great suffering,
Teaching us how to deal with anger;
Resentment with it unrelenting pain,
Grabbing by the neck and shaking without mercy
Until the lesson learned and the cycle broken.

Each leaves a mark in the others life,
Some for good,
Others for ill,
But each plays a part in choices made after the fact.
In the end we are all teachers,
The most difficult having the most to teach,
Making pain the medicine that wakes up the one suffering
Seeking a way off the ever turning wheel
That none can stop.
The only way off is in,
To the center were all motion ceases,
Where peace and clarity reign
Rooted in the eternal Presence
Ever faithful,
Waiting,
For the seed to take root and grow.