Being Our Own Heroes

What started as a meeting of minds quickly became a melting of hearts.
What did I expect at our first gathering, a continuing education class in memoir writing?
I knew, of course, that these students would be seekers, though
not of my own 60s generation. These were people of my parents'
age, who had families and careers and a whole lifetime of friends-
and then somewhere in midlife started over in this community of
meditators in Fairfield, Iowa, to help create world peace.

I didn't anticipate how deeply they would connect to writing.
Each of their stories, so simple, so honest, revealed deep truths of
life. I could never have predicted how stimulating, how rewarding
and how fun it would be to teach them. These students' minds were
settled and alert. Instructing them was like dropping a stone in a
quiet pond-the ripples reached the far ends of the universe and
bounced back with even greater power.

There was something magical about our meetings .....