ABSTRACT
After teaching ten years at Sidwell Friends, I was granted a sabbatical for the 1983–84 school year. I enrolled in Buffalo State’s Creative Studies graduate program for the fall semester, then spent the winter and spring terms at Pendle Hill, a Quaker center for study and contemplation outside of Philadelphia. The whole community there participated in one day-of-silence during the spring term. Over dinner, a student read aloud a passage in which the author taught a friend how to eat a tangerine. The friend
popped a section of tangerine in his mouth and, before he had begun chewing it, had another slice ready to pop into his mouth again. He was hardly aware he was eating a tangerine. All I had to say was, “You ought to eat the tangerine section you’ve already taken.” 9
I was intrigued. The reading came from The Miracle of Mindfulness by Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. I found a copy in the Pendle Hill bookstore and took it home where it lay unopened on the bookshelf. Three years later, Elisabeth, sick in bed, asked me to read to her. I took Thich Nhat Hanh’s book from the shelf and began reading. Immediately, I was captured by his lesson on having unlimited time for oneself by seeing everything one does as for oneself. My students could benefit from hearing this too! I took the book to school and began reading it aloud for five minutes at the beginning of each math class. The students got it. When I finished the book, they asked for another and eagerly listened to its sequel, The Sun My Heart. 10