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When the student is ready, the teacher will come. We've all heard that before, haven't we? I just heard it again in August from Chungliang Al Huang who talked about it at the College of the Redwoods' symposium on Art and Nature.

I often resist the teachers that come-wishing for a quieter one or gentler lessons, like those from grandchildren, blessed teachers that they are. And yet, when we yield to the teachers we think we don't want, suddenly we have the most shining of insights. Funny how that works.

I attended CR's symposium on Art and Nature, the Heart of the Matter, to discover some new heroes and new teachers. What a rich week!

The sweet liveliness of 62-year-old Al Huang launched in me a deep desire for Tai Ji, to feel myself a part of the earth and God-a great human. "Da!" he said. "Here I am."

I heard new lessons from a favorite teacher of many years-Matthew Fox, silenced for a year and then, he said, "fired" by the Pope. His lessons gave me new language, new questions. "Where," he asked, "are the college courses that teach heart?" And this intriguing thought-three hundred years ago, beauty was kicked out of education when science became the only measure of truth.

I intuit so many lessons and teachers within his work that I'll be busy for years. Which is lucky, because according to another symposium teacher, historian Theodore Roszak, I'll have many many extra years to explore those lessons.

All of us today are part of what Roszak calls the longevity revolution-and I realize that at 56 I'm probably only mid-life! I could easily live another 56 years in good health and fitness and with a lively curiosity for new teachers and lessons.

As I hurl myself into my next five decades, I do so with humility as well. Just as the teacher appears when I am ready to learn something new, I also know that we are all students and teachers to each other. I look around at the things I know and love-and wonder who might be the student waiting for me!

As I hurl myself into my next five decades, I do so with humility as well. Just as the teacher appears when I am ready to learn something new, I also know that we are all students and teachers to each other. I look around at the things I know and love-and wonder who might be the student waiting for me!

One-time article Copyright 1999 by Humboldt Senior Resource Center.