The Lessons We Learn from Our Students: A Spiritual Journey

As a teacher, you learn as much from the students as they may learn from us. In the Wisdom Tree Collective’s 2024 Spiritual Direction Cohort, this question was asked:

“What are you aware of now that you were not aware of before taking this course?”

One of our first-year students responded as such:

 “I was walking along an asphalt road on a hot summer day. My bare feet were blistering in the heat, and I was in pain. I longed to be able to place my feet once again in the thick wet grass that had so often comforted me, but there was no relief from my misery. As I stood there, lost in my thoughts, and my suffering, something amazing happened. An extraordinary being of mystery and immense power rescued me. I felt myself lifted up. There was great gentleness and compassion to this being. I was unharmed and in a moment's time, I know not how, I was placed gently upon a bed of dewy grass that soothed my aching feet and relieved my suffering. The great being departed. I do not know where it came from or to what strange realms it departed. I was only left with my own memories of this most amazing experience.

This narrative was written from the perspective of a box turtle that I found on a hot asphalt road. I picked it up and gently placed it in a grass ditch along the side of the road, so that it could continue its journey in safety. There are two perspectives in this story, the turtle’s and mine.  Perspective is everything, but the interpretation of perspective can lead down strange and unpredictable paths.  This story of the box turtle really happened, but I confess that I really have no idea of what was streaming through its turtle consciousness. 

What I am now coming to understand, through the lens of stages of faith, and their importance to spiritual direction, is that we all have our own reality.  It is a reality fabricated out of our individual experiences and the perspectives that arise out of those experiences. 

The stages of faith that we may find ourselves in are uniquely ours. Some find them freeing and others confining, but they are ours and each stage is as much a gift from God as any other.  The director/directee relationship is one of a mutual exploration of these memories and perspectives.  Like the story of the turtle and its surprising rescuer, stages do not have to match.  What is of greatest importance is the love that guides and directs each aspect of this encounter.  Love, as compassionate presence and focused listening, is the basis for this transformation.

Like the story of the turtle and its surprising rescuer, the stages of faith do not have to match. What matters most is the love and compassionate presence that guide and direct each aspect of the encounter. Love, as compassionate presence and focused listening, forms the basis for transformation.”

~Chuck Wester, WTC Student

Exploring the depths of spiritual direction and the stages of faith development can enrich our understanding and growth. May we all be blessed with Chuck’s creative expression of spiritual development. ~WTC