!

Nils I. Palsson! Literacy Across the Curriculum! October 4, 2013! Personal Statement v 1.0!

I am here on this planet to make a difference. It seems to be one of the High Agreements Ive chosen in this lifetime, even before incarnating: Spirit has manifested in this particular form, in this particular time, in order to serve powerfully in the great transformation taking place, humanitys awakening to love and truth and consciousness -- an evolution both necessary for our collective survival and inevitable in our collective coming-of-age. Indeed, in a cosmic sense, this great transformation is already done, victory assured -- and I celebrate and give thanks for the generations of work that has primed our world for this beautiful moment in history. My name, Nils, is a Swedish derivative of Nicholas, which comes from the Greek Nikolaos meaning victory of the people. That is why I am here. And that is also what brought me to teaching. I originally began substitute teaching in 2010 as a side gig to supplement my modest income as a healing facilitator and community organizer. I have been involved in building community and facilitating change for as long as I have been an awakened warrior, and around the same time I began subbing, I was also beginning to facilitate the growth of a local resilience movement, Transition Lake County, in my home community. As for what subsequently got me to decide to be a teacher -- it has more accurately been a dawning realization that I am a teacher, that this path has long been calling me and that I have already been walking in this dharma for quite some tim. The big decision I made most recently was to not only deepen this teaching journey, but also to commit to grounding myself in this practice, this particular form of community service, for as long as it is the greatest means for my affecting positive change in my community. I have come to regard the profession of teaching with much respect -- I see it as a sacred thing to be stood in front of our communitys youth daily -- and I believe I am receiving (and perhaps also still decoding) a new assignment from the Most High: this teaching work seems to be my job for now. And, while I continue to labor away at my rst literary manuscript, and I havent ruled out a 2020 bid for the Presidency of the USA, I am also

open to whatever transformation this new segment of my journey, this teaching journey, will bring.! ! As a man of purpose (and at the original suggestion of some of the great masters Ive studied), I have been been engaged for years in the analysis of my values and beliefs. And while Ive noted a constant and ongoing ow and evolution, there are also certain themes that have emerged for me, true core values and beliefs that feel indigenous to my very heart, and that only seem to be deepening over time. Those anchoring values include: Truth, Love, Service, Integrity, Authenticity, Respect, Consciousness, Awakeness, Responsibility, Understanding, Citizenship, Flow, The Universal, The Present Moment, Holistic Health, Peace, Justice and Sharing. I value Nature and our Planet. I value Life. I value that which contributes to and enriches and promotes Life and Truth and Goodness (i.e. God). I value positive intentions, and the power of all intention and expectation to create outcomes, whether we desire them or not. Thus I value conscious creation and directed focus and intention. I also value the unique contributions of our diverse community of life, the dance of individual and collective. As we go about our work, I value the Heart as the most powerful source of instruction, and I value my Local and Global Community (all of us, and perhaps especially the Youth) for inherently possessing the knowledge and strength to heal and transform our World. I value the wisdom of the elders and the work of previous generations. I value the legacy of enlightened teachers and engaged freedom ghters who have gone before us and laid the foundation for our work, all the res, lit by others, by which we now warm ourselves. I value Joy, and all the other feelings and messages from within, all the guidance we all have access to at any given moment, that inner power that leads our growth, the cultivation of which is an important part of our education, or educe-ation. I value family, and my daughter Satya Rose, and the sacred responsibilities we have to the future generations I see embodied in her. I value the breath of life, and the wealth that is good health. Above all, I value the ONE, the interconnected web of existence that unites us all -- and, within that, I value the unique and fractal note we are each here to hold in this great cosmic symphony.! ! Reading and writing have played a signicant role in my learning in this lifetime.

Not only have they structured the very world I live in; they have also both been integral

factors in my personal educement as well as my personal service to the world. About halfway through High School, reading and writing got me involved in consciously learning (with intention beyond merely getting the A and making my parents happy). I read Catcher in the Rye in my sophomore English class and its ability to speak to my adolescent angst was somehow academically inspirational as well. The next year, my junior-year AP History teacher encouraged the expression of critical thought through expository writing, and I really began nding myself as a reader and writer. The year after that, following a censorship episode with the school administration and an article Id written for the school paper, I had the transformational experience of founding and editing an underground paper, the voice of a campus-wide revolution in consciousness.! That was when I found writing was a way to effect change, to alter the discourse around me. It was a political act. And as I began to get accepted to colleges and make my plans to ship off to NYU, I also came to really see writing (and learning) as tools that would help take me where I want to go. They took me around the world, and brought me knowledge and opportunities through my formal education and as an editor at the university newspaper. Reading and writing have continued to shape my learning into adulthood. Books like Howard Zinns A Peoples History of the United States facilitated an ongoing political awakening around the end of college, as I moved to Harlem and began dening my career as a writer and revolutionary. I moved back to California to care for my ailing father, and ultimately see him through his transition, in 2008. Alongside those visceral teachings with the Angel of Death, I was reading authors like Mohandas Gandhi, Malcolm X, Paul Hawken, Eckhart Tolle and Louise Hay, along with ancient titles like the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhammapada, the Bible and the Tao te Ching. So many great works, informing a continued unfoldment of inner knowing, the growth of spirit alongside an informed body/mind with a great desire to serve. Reading led to much of this. And all the while, pretty much since 2005, ive been nursing an evolving book project, a constant in my life for years and a process undergoing revolution at this very moment. Throughout the process, Ive been connecting with the power of writing not only as as a sacred means of expression and truth-transmission, but also as an act of therapy, an act of healing and integration. Since all external change really must begin within, this is an incredibly helpful practice.!

When students leave my class, they will feel connected, and I dont mean

electronically. My students will feel connected to the world around them, to each other, to the continuum of history, to our planet and people, and to the great spirit of life. However each student personally chooses to relate to these concepts -- including the ongoing movements of civil rights, environmental rights, peace, social and economic justice, and other concepts revealed in thoughtful analysis of our history -- they will at least be conscious of them. My class will give them a great sense of CONTEXT -- Who and where are we, and what are we to do now? -- with great respect for the multitude of answers that will inevitably come from such inquiry in community. My students will be critical thinkers, thoughtful learners. They will be smart readers and writers. Perhaps above all, through connecting meaningfully with content in my class and relating personally to it -- and through all the personal respect and attention I give them and inspire them to give one another -- my students will be more aware of their aliveness, and more connected to their own unique sets of values, beliefs, gifts, intentions and the inner guidance and applied education that will get them there. Through connecting with our living world, my students will be encouraged in waking up to the reality of existence, to the LIGHT, to their own calling, to the truths of their existence, however they choose to dene and embody it.! ! I will achieve this through what Im sure will be a plethora of joyful work, the specics of which are only beginning to emerge. Part of the beauty of the shamanic perspective from which I live is that a full understanding of how is actually not necessary from the outset: far more important are intention and trust. I have powerful intention of being a worker of light in these schools and in these students lives, and I have powerful trust that those intentions will be realized -- perhaps not just as I imagine it, but just as it must be, for the highest good. That said, I do have some emerging how guidelines. Primarily, I will achieve my goals with these students by being there, not just physically, but wholly. There is so much to be said for the concept, the act, of showing up for process, being willing to perform day after day, even if your act has not reached perfection. Practice is essential, but I keep realizing in new ways the on-the-job nature of much of the training we must have as teachers. As with playing music, or any other art or craft, we often practice best by doing it -- and I am encouraged to remember that,

no matter how ready or unready I may feel, this world (including these students) need this service NOW -- and even our imperfect service now is often better than no service at all. I am also coming to realize that a key to fullling my intentions is personally being in a clear, healthy and authentic space, really healing myself and then letting it radiate out from within. I will lead by example, by knowing my material, being organized, being a master -- really modeling that readiness and that personal engagement for my students to learn. As one of the predictable, government-paid adult role models standing before them daily, I will model healthy, responsible, fun, integrated, conscious adulthood. I will relate to my students as individuals and human beings. I will educate by educing, by listening and responding to each situation based on the individual needs presented, trusting in the ow and remembering to consistently think outside the box and honor the intelligence of those around me. My tools include a healthy respect for procedures, and a high regard for the sacred circle of people, looking each other in the eyes as peers and sharing in a healthy classroom discussion of the nuances of our world. Together, we will share in a community exploration of our historical context, relating it to each of our lives and our curiosities, and nding out who we are, and what/how we are to serve, in the process.!

! !