When I began writing this article I jokingly gave it a subtitle, “what the heck has happened to my life!?” I realize that it’s really true in the sense that since starting down the road to learning to teach BMTH my life has been, and never will be the same. As I look back at the process, I see how BMTH and I have “grown up” together in the seven years that I’ve been an instructor.

I had just finished my internship and had begun volunteering at the Honolulu Center when Paul Bucky and I began talking about teaching BMTH. To be honest I can’t remember what we talked about (We didn’t have the very nice Instructor Packet that we have now). We just talked about the fact that the only time you “learn” anything is when you try to teach it to someone.

As with most of the decisions that I’ve made regarding BMTH, I can’t remember what was said, but I remember what I felt. I felt that I had to pursue teaching, even though I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Back in those days the Instructor Program consisted of coming to as many Practitioner Trainings (they were called Introductory Classes) as you could to just listen and watch. At one of my first classes another Instructor Program Candidate was doing his best to teach the points, and it was evident that we really needed a better system for explaining how to find them. This lead to re-writing the entire manual. I recall when we came up with describing Point 1 of the Metabolism set as “in the hollow above the collar bone on both sides of the notch at the top of the breast bone,” the computer grammar check said “too many prepositional phrases!”

As I took my first few steps in the Program, getting up to teach the points on Ethel, (our stalwart, donated, fashion mannequin) I felt awful. I would watch Paul and Cheryl Bucky teach the sets and berate myself that I would never be that clear, I would never be able to do this, and I said “uh” and “um” and “you know” too much.

But I kept at it and eventually gave my first talk at one of our very first “outreach” classes (there was no Outreach Program at that time, either) in Makakilo, about an hour away from the Center in Honolulu. I did my best to cut down on my “ums” and “you knows.” The class went great, but it wasn’t until after the class was over that I really learned my “lesson.” When I began the long drive home I was overcome by a sense of real, unshakable and unfaltering peace. That peace of mind stayed with me all the way home.

I’ve taught quite a few classes since that day in Makakilo. In exotic places such as Horsham, England; San Francisco, Yuba City, and Los Gatos, CA; and Atlanta, GA. And I’ve learned that peace never leaves. It is only a touch away.