Today Mr Brookhart shared with me how all our students returned home to clapping, cheering and tears from proud and happy parents, sibblings and friends. That pride you parents all feel is well placed. Your young people were exemplary! I feel so honoured to have been asked by Mr Brookhart and his staff at Denver Academy to help out with this amazing tour - which in fact is such a momentous step forward for all your chidren.
Each young person had their own mountain to climb, and they did it well. Each came to higher ground of self understanding and respect for others; of understanding for cultures and people who live so differently from ourselves. In that sense your children were and remain Ambassadors for you at home. And oh! how proud they were to share with me all their photos of you whom they love at home. They were not found wanting in the least.
Every day I renewed my esteem for their individual journeys and how they overcame challenging circumstances here and there to embrace each moment with all the inner resources they had at their command. Humanity is not measured by what it is; only by what it is trying to become. Your children are remarkable; they have been changed by the challenges of the journey; now they have seen a glimpse of what lies ahead and beyond view - horizons to which they can now aspire with the courage with which you have equipped them by all you have given them long before you gave them your permission to embark upon such an adventure. God bless you all for your faith in your youngsters. It is well-shared by Mr Brookhart, Ms Zurfluh and Ms Souser, as well as by myself, though, of course, more remotely.
Let me say that should any of the families represented in our camaraderie this June, come anywhere close to us Down Under, then please consider yourselves invited and welcome to drop in and have a cup of tea, or stay a while. To your young people who have become my friends, I say with the writer, Carlos Castenada:
Each young person had their own mountain to climb, and they did it well. Each came to higher ground of self understanding and respect for others; of understanding for cultures and people who live so differently from ourselves. In that sense your children were and remain Ambassadors for you at home. And oh! how proud they were to share with me all their photos of you whom they love at home. They were not found wanting in the least.
Every day I renewed my esteem for their individual journeys and how they overcame challenging circumstances here and there to embrace each moment with all the inner resources they had at their command. Humanity is not measured by what it is; only by what it is trying to become. Your children are remarkable; they have been changed by the challenges of the journey; now they have seen a glimpse of what lies ahead and beyond view - horizons to which they can now aspire with the courage with which you have equipped them by all you have given them long before you gave them your permission to embark upon such an adventure. God bless you all for your faith in your youngsters. It is well-shared by Mr Brookhart, Ms Zurfluh and Ms Souser, as well as by myself, though, of course, more remotely.
Let me say that should any of the families represented in our camaraderie this June, come anywhere close to us Down Under, then please consider yourselves invited and welcome to drop in and have a cup of tea, or stay a while. To your young people who have become my friends, I say with the writer, Carlos Castenada:
Keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any condition. This is not an affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. Try as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question. Does this path have heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. If it does have a heart, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths, lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse life. One makes you strong; the other weak.
To all of you families whom I came to know through your youthful Ambassador-representatives, I say may your hearts carry your feet!
With deepest respect and kindly good wishes to all,
Meath Conlan
