Experience is the worst teacher. It always gives the test
first and the instruction afterward.

Niklaus Wirth

When I taught adult school, I offered a yoga class followed by a stress-management course that I called Easing on Down the Road. The first night of the semester, the yoga class ran a few minutes overtime, and I noticed one of the students from the second class standing outside the door, nervously pacing back and forth. The man kept looking in the window, checking his watch, and making an anxious face. When his class began, he fidgeted and squirmed most of the time. He was one of the most uptight students I have ever encountered. During his class, I found myself inwardly complaining, Why does someone as nervous as he is have to be in my class? Then another internal voice asked me, Whom did you expect to take this class?calm and peaceful people? The voice had a point. I had advertised to teach stress management, and I shouldnt have been surprised to get stressed students. My complaint was as unfounded as a doctor wanting to see only healthy patients.

If you offer a service, welcome challenge from those who come to you to receive it. They are the contingent that will keep you on the cutting edge of your creativity and force you to go deeper into your latent genius. Your difficult clients will motivate you to open to the next level beyond the one that is currently comfortable, and ultimately improve your skills.

You are here to make the world a better place. Staying in the safety zone changes nothing. Stretching into uncharted territory will bring light to places that were dark. Congratulations on signing up to be an angel.



I pray to offer service to those who can be most helped by
my unique talents.



I serve on the cutting edge of my destiny.

A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen