When you learn, teach...

"When you get, give. When you learn, teach."

Maya Angelou

That quote from Maya Angelou has just jumped out to me and confiscated my full attention from the very moment I first heard it, which was yesterday.

The first sentence is such a beautiful and simple call to action, to paying it forward. It is such a basic key to understanding the deepest meaning behind the interchange between giving and receiving. It however, is that second sentence that grabbed me by the balls and eyeballs and said, "Listen!" Hallelujah!

When you learn, teach. Oh my God...

The quote doesn't say when the world thinks you have learned or when your friends think you have learned or when your teacher thinks you have learned then teach. It says when you learn, teach. I keep repeating that because I just want to hear those words over and over and I want you to hear them over and over too.

How many of us believe we have not learned enough to teach? I use to believe that. I don't believe that anymore. Hallelujah!  And I am going to teach right now...

You have learned and now you must teach. You have learned and now you must teach. You have learned and now you must teach.

Now, I am so sorry if any of you reading this believe you have nothing to teach or that you don't know enough to teach well or flawlessly or without your teachers permission. I am sorry if you believe you are too wounded or too imperfect or too stupid or too Black or too gay or too female or too riddled by the guilt of being sexually abused or whatever we may tell ourselves invalidates our teaching. I tell you, it is a lie. Who says we have to be perfect to teach? Who says we have to have the elegant and charismatic speaking ability of a Martin Luther king, Jr. or the brilliance of an Albert Einstein to teach? I'll tell you who says that. We do. And we are also parroting the messages and the consciousness of people who are not ready for our own unique brand of brilliance. And they are wrong. And it is a lie. Damn all of that to the lowest, deepest hell realm that any religion on the planet has ever made up for us. You know, I think I just realized the true meaning of all of those hells. It is where we are supposed to put all the bullshit people tell us our whole lives so that we can finally be Free. And all those messages can eternally burn, never to see the light of day again. Yes. Hell is a place of Freedom! Why did the Catholic church have to go screw with a good thing and create purgatory. No. I want hell and only hells. Damn those messages of inadequacy to hell!!!

Arrogant
Conceited
Egoic
Self- aggrandizing
Self- infatuated
Horn tootin'
Ignorant, unlearned, stupid no good BASTARD!

O Lord have Mercy! We have so many ways of telling ourselves and telling each other, that we have nothing or little to teach. So many ways of telling ourselves and others to SHUT THE FUCK UP already!

How does one go through this life without having nothing...nothing...nothing to teach? Its not possible.

We don't need to go to Las Vegas to see a magic show to see something "impossible." We don't have to travel to see the latest bagel with the face of Jesus miraculously etched on it to see something impossible. We have the impossible right here with us everyday, each and every one of us. It is impossible to go any distance in life without learning something that we can in turn teach another.That is our daily impossibility staring us right in the face, smiling like an overweight Cheshire Cat.

Maybe we are a tad premature in our thinking that we have learned enough of certain lessons to be able to teach about them. Ok, that does happen. And you know what? It doesn't matter. It does not matter I tell you. Those who have learned more about that thing will enter our lives and they will teach us more...or they won't or we won't listen when they do show up...and it doesn't matter. In the meantime we teach what we have learned. Someone will benefit. Hallelujah! We're learning every second of every day. We teach what we have learned today--today. We teach what we learn tomorrow--tomorrow. And tomorrow will take care of itself.

Teach. Teach. Teach.

We live in a world that needs all the teaching, all the wisdom, all the conscious awareness it can get. Do not withhold. Do not be intimidated. As we move into a New Year, please God, please Goddess, Please Allah, please Shakyamuni, please Hindu pantheon, please Mother Earth and Sky Father and the chorus of Angels...give us the strength and the confidence and the courage to teach what we have learned to a world that is thirsty...absolutely thirsty I tell you and hungry for those teachings. Hallelujah!Blessed Be!

sage mahosadha
12.31.2010

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© Raven/Sage Mahosadha