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Weekly Message from Head of School 2023/1/28-2024/1/31

2024-01-31

Dear Keystone community,   

 

I am wishing you all a very happy year of the dragon! May you enter this new year free of the burdens of the past, and full of hopes for the future. I wish you and your families peace in your hearts that radiates out and connects us with every other human being on the planet, multiplying and augmenting peace across our world. I wish you challenges that stretch and grow you, and enough disappointment to ensure that the success you achieve remains forever sweet as you remain humble and grateful.   

 

I wish you moments of togetherness and moments of quiet introspection, the balance of which leads to a feeling of calm connection, and true belonging, to yourself, to this community and to the world.   

 

Mostly, I thank you. Thank you for all that you are, and all that you do. Please remember that who you are and what you do are two very different things. The further along we get in this life, the more alignment there is between our values, our inner self, and our actions. A young child may thoughtlessly hit another person on the playground, we scold and remind them of this misalignment, but as educators we know, they are just calibrating, learning how to be in their body, learning what their values look like in the world—the Keystone Way.  We calm them and remind them to stay in alignment.    

 

As humans grow, they don't hit on the playground as much, but we sometimes convince ourselves that small actions that are just short of our values are justified. They are not.  We are defined by the alchemy of our inner person, our core values, and the actions we take in alignment with ren yi li zhi xin. That blend of values and actions create the alchemy of our humanity, of our collective humanity, and the strength of our community. We are all learning every day, and that is the joy of this amazing place.    

 

Until we meet again, to do this world-changing work together,   

Xin nian kuai le!   

Yours truly,   

Emily