Things do not fall apart. The centre is sufficient to hold. Yeats, though brilliant, was wrong.

My class has been growing - there were 17 students today, with a sprinkling of parents.  It seems like a small number, but this is pretty much a freelance operation.  This was my 5th Saturday evening class. These people all live in the towers nearby.  The kids go to school during the day. Today was Saturday, but there was school because it was a make-up day for the National Holiday.  I'm just the foreign teacher they've seen in the neighbourhood, so attendance in the class is completely dependent on what they think of it.
Nobody here has advanced much in the way of opinions regarding what I should do in the class and there are no guarantees regarding age, level of English or ability.  So I have been pretty much inventing it as I go along.  I do some research on the internet and most, perhaps all of the students are between 11 and 18.  Consequently the classes are adapted to the students that come as seen through the lens of my own experience and imagination.  It works!  Everyone seems happy and they are learning some English.  One surprising aspect comes out of the fact that I'm basically living with some of the students; their dormitory is in the same apartment as my room.  Some of them speak enough English to have attached themselves to me in a charming manner.  They like to look after me and are always trying to help. This help is very real due to the fact that we're in China, they speak Mandarin and I don't. As a teacher I have never felt so immersed in what I'm doing, nor so effective. Beginning teachers ought to have this experience.  It gives you a much more profound and realistic appreciation of the role and its human dimension.
It was a low key afternoon because my plan to get together with Alice fell through.  She is dealing with the recent sad death of her Grandmother so there numerous family gatherings.  I know its important for the family to be together at such a time.  We cannot and should not ignore death when it comes.  Personally I'm reminded of the guiding experience of my life and how easily I forget lessons that I thought I had learned.
It was the death of my father which lead to my commitment in India to the search for spiritual truth.  From that time forward, coming up to 40 years ago, the search has been the central pole star guiding my choices.  I cannot help noticing that whereas my daily companions in Taiwan were university students, in China it has shifted even younger - to high school students!  there is a sense that I'm in exactly the right place, learning exactly what I need to learn. The job of the ego is to get out of the way, because the stars are aligned,  My observations of the traffic intersection suggest that it is the emptiness of the centre that allows the policeman to function.  From the central position he can judge the different flows and how they need to move.  He doesn't judge good or bad.  He doesn't prefer any particular direction or type of vehicle.  He just assists everyone in getting to where they need to go.  When I find the empty centre in my mind its hardly surprising that everything in my life starts to fall into place.
Call me crazy or deluded if you like, but really you should try it and see for yourself.