Exhilarating

that would describe my recent experiences.

The conference I attended was fabulous beyond words. Really, even coming from a word person. I drove down with two women I'd only met briefly before. We left before sun rise and were all artists of some kind, so that gave us something in common. We were teachers also, so that gave us even more in common. After our two-plus hours' drive, I felt very anxious as we went in to breakfast and to meet the other participants. All together we were about 30 "Teaching Artists," a relatively recent phrase, from many backgrounds and levels of experience. I mean a really wide range of backgrounds: one born in Uganda, another in England, another in Brazil, there were residents of New York, Connecticut, California, one teacher of circus arts, song writers, West African drummers and dancers, a jewelery maker, actors, a playwright, and yours truly, the lone poet. And all this diversity comes without even checking my list of participants.

Anyway, my initial anxiety quickly gave way to joy as we shared our art forms and discussed ways to teach important skills through art. We didn't know each other but communicated clearly, even non-verbally, and thoroughly, and 3 days later I came away wishing I could bring all these people home with me so I could keep dancing and soaring the way we did together.

Yesterday I started a poetry writing residency with a fourth grade and found myself mentally checking off items we discussed a few days ago. So I have brought them with me. And luckily I will see them again in a few weeks to share more art and teaching strategies. And I can't wait to see more of their talents and lose that anxious self in their beats and be part of a human sculpture even if I don't know whose hand I might be holding. Because that's the point of life. Not to worry so much about whose hand, but to jump in and hold the hand nearest you and celebrate being alive together.