How often have we heard the expression, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” It’s one of those phrases I tend to grimace a bit at, feeling that “wait and see” is not really the way we make changes in our lives.

And yet, I have come to realize that there is more truth to that expression than I realized. Because the teaching is in the moments, the interactions, the opportunities, the teaching is in recognizing all of the learnings that life offers to us, from both the expected and, more importantly, the unexpected places.

I have found that these moments abound. One of them, for me, happened just this week. A dear friend of mine had gifted me with a meditation experience that she thought we might enjoy sharing. It was a new moon meditation, in a salt cave that was created in our area and I was intrigued by the salt cave concept. I had no real expectations going into this, other than a concern that I might fall asleep during the mediation—not uncommon for me when doing any sort of relaxing practice at the end of the work day!

The salt cave itself was fascinating and a sensory experience. But what held my focus was the new moon practice that the facilitator shared, giving us a “road map” as the new moon approached. She suggested that we take some quiet time to just allow ourselves to think about our desires, what we would like to see happen in our lives and to envision it fully and write it all out. It’s the kind of exercise I would often tuck into the back of my brain as a “nice idea” which would be the end of it.

Not this time, though. This time I decided to devote just a few minutes to letting myself imagine and, while the words I wrote were really only for me, putting them on paper seemed to create life in ideas that had only been fleeting thoughts before. As I was doing it, I realized it was what I needed to do at that moment and I was grateful that the trigger had been there, grateful that this session had taken place at the right moment for me, the moment that it resonated, the moment that it mattered.

When we live with a full heart, when we care with a full heart, when we lead with a full heart, it must also be an open heart. Being opening to growth, to learning and to change is what fills our heart and enriches our being.