Friday, September 2, 2016

13th warrior - Viking prayer


This is for my aunt Sister Roni Veronica Nowakowski, who told me in a card I just opened how much she likes seeing posts about my classes.*

The Norse tattoo I have on my back is a warrior's journey from Valhalla to Earth back to Valhalla again. I memorized this Viking prayer for a student and when he came in late yesterday I stopped what I was doing and yelled out "Viking!"

~ I raised my arm with the tattoo of the sword and "Everything Forever" written around it looked him in the eyes and said this Viking prayer.

He stopped and looked back at me as if the words were bouncing down into his soul and coming back out in the form of fire through his eyes.

And I knew I had him. 

Now every time he wants to give up or just sit there, try to behave, and make it through the day as if it were any other, all I have to do is tell him:

"Viking! Time to Misbehave! These learning goals are not here to decorate a board or put the letter A on a piece of paper.

"They are bidding you to use them to take your place in the Halls of Valhalla!

"Where the mental skills you bravely develop today will live on forever as unstoppable tools in achieving your dreams tomorrow."

I'll give and bet a year's worth of my life that he actually achieves them in his own life. 

A life for a life. That's exactly what teachers are doing with theirs for others.


*This is also for my father and my mother Peg Stuart and my sisters Audrey Cercelle and Christine Benson and my brother Dustin Stuart (and nephews and niece who will probably like this)

....Who through good times and bad, being understood and loved or misunderstood and not so much, living safely 9-5 or dangerously as if my soul were on fire, have always continued to call me son and brother and uncle

The way I have chosen to live hasn't always made me popular with everyone and I know I'm not easy to understand and support all the time

It's caused others to try and hurt me by saying things that aren't true or want and try to kill me for something I've done they don't like, like having a hit put out on me for something I wrote about Dad called "Be More of a Man" that I refused to take down. 

But look what it was for; the ability and strength to hold on until I've figured out a way to reach someone so deeply and completely that it changes their lives for the better forever. 

A life for a life.