Tim, I was truly touched by your honest reflections on the ups and downs of creative energy in your professional journey, which are likely to resonate strongly with other educators who share similar cycles in their own professional journeys.
As an educator, maintaining passion and vigour for teaching can often be a delicate balancing act. Juggling classroom duties with personal lives and self-care needs can be tricky enough without dealing with pandemic-hit education systems - adding another challenge!
Your recognition of creative silence as both symptom and cause illuminate an important issue within our field. It highlights that sometimes engaging with our passions - which includes creativity - should not simply be considered a luxury or "guilty pleasure", but should serve as essential therapy in strengthening both mental health and emotional resilience. Educators who put students' needs before their own should remember this perspective when prioritizing student needs.
I commend your honesty and vulnerability in sharing your journey. By showing us that taking time off for self-reflection and rejuvenation is not only okay but necessary; your paddleboarding adventure, family time, and beautifully unhurried moments of silence all play an integral part in being an educator.
As educators, we emphasize holistic growth and well-being to our students but fail to apply it ourselves. Your experience serves as an excellent reminder that it's vital we create space in our lives for activities which stimulate creative expression and bolster spirit.
I look forward to your continued reflections on this journey, as your insight adds much-needed depth and value to the education community's ongoing conversation about self-care and wellness. Let's continue this dialogue openly and honestly because, as you so rightly pointed out: "we cannot just be our work".
Add depth to your thoughts by remembering that taking on passion projects or recreational activities should not become another task, adding another burdensome task onto our ever-increasing to-do lists. Instead, they should be seen as acts of pure joy and relaxation - ways for us to unplug from work and reconnect deeper with ourselves.
Thank you for providing guidance and reminding us to maintain the flame.
Best, David.
