Dear Ones,

We completed a week that I found particularly eventful in the challenging context—global as well as personal—Earth inhabitants are experiencing.

I realize that most of what I will be sharing is highly personal and constitutes my “own pebbles” on the path, yet this made me understand, when I put these few pieces together, that something of sheer magnitude is truly ‘pregnating!’

Last weekend, my last student of French—a teacher of French in a high school in Virginia—announced that he would be sitting for the French praxis exam. In order to become a certified teacher, a student needs to pass the praxis before being eligible for further courses.

Last November, I received a message from Archangel Michael via a friend of mine in Spain. He clearly admonished me to ‘let go of any distractions and follow my mission.’

The only distraction I could think of was my teaching of French, in the evening and on the weekend. By Christmas time, I had done a bit of cleaning yet still had two students at the beginning of the year. One mystically disappeared three weeks ago after a brief exchange with his mother. I know there was something irrational or unexplainable in her decision after she praised me for being “such an amazing coach.”

When this last student succeeds in his French praxis exam, I will be out of a job!

On Thursday and Friday, I returned to the elementary school where I worked last year as a literacy tutor. I was let go at the end of the school year and, honestly, I didn’t see it coming. I thought the school’s decision was due to a budget cut yet I realized on Thursday that someone had replaced me. Obviously, my ‘performance’ wasn’t up to par, for whatever reason.

What dawned on me on Friday, as I taught for another second-grade teacher, is that I was let go on the same day the year prior for another substitute job in a middle school when I wasn’t performing according to school standards; perhaps giving too many answers to students during their earth science tests. And screwing up the testing!

That same day, in 2023 and 2024, was May 31^st. I was let go in similar circumstances; not being told anything and assuming that I would come back. This is a mirroring coincidence that is just too beautiful to pass by.

Finally, on Friday evening, I received news that I wasn’t selected for the ‘Teach Forward’ program our school district had offered to one hundred would-be teachers. It offered to subsidize the tuition fees for the courses necessary to eventually obtain a teaching license. I am sitting pretty, as the expression goes, on their waiting list. Still not really knowing why I wasn’t selected.

Three substantial pebbles in a week is a lot when they converge! All leading to a point which is not known to me, yet which starts to become clearer as clouds that are moving away in the sky.

Personally, I haven’t asked consciously for the sesame to open; yet it seems something is moving and there is significant progress at a level which may not be palpable to many.

Let’s stay tuned within as we continue putting the pieces of the divine puzzle together; perhaps a few of them will suddenly come together, in a way where we will finally see the big picture forming.

To reiterate my Ali Baba’s message, it is my deepest feeling that something of sheer magnitude is in the making.

“Open sesame” is a magical phrase in the story of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” in Antoine Galland’s version of One Thousand and One Nights. It opens the mouth of a cave in which forty thieves have hidden a treasure.

Why does Ali Baba say open sesame?

The Babylonians considered the sesame seed to have magical properties and some say that this is the reason why Ali Baba used the phrase “Open, sesame” to open the cave. Others say that the phrase mimics the way the sesame seed pod opens.