Inspirational Moments in an Educator´s Life: It is All About Responsible Relationships, Important Learning, Philosophic

The Irish poet and philosopher John O¿Donohue writes in his book Anam Cara: `Autumn is one of my favourite times of the year; seeds sown in the spring, nurtured by the summer, now yield their fruit in autumn. It is harvest, the homecoming of the seeds¿ long and lonely journey through darkness and silence under the earth¿s surface... The fertility of the earth yielded its fruitfulness. Correspondingly, when it is autumn in your life, the things that happened in the past, or the experiences that were sown in the clay of your heart, almost unknown to you, now yield their fruit. Autumntime in a person¿s life can be a time of great gathering. It is a time for harvesting the fruits of your experiences¿ (p. 207). Anyone who has accumulated wide ranging experiences in teaching faces a creative choice in putting that legacy to paper. The author in this case chose to use a series of photos with text to illustrate formative and inspirational moments from his several decades as a dedicated teacher, and father. His account begins with university studies in special and gifted education, followed by years of teaching school while living a rich family life with his wife and two boys, and it ends with his pedagogical and research activities in the field of higher education coupled, in part, with retrospective reflections during these later years. The author closes the volume with a description of an intergenerational learning project that served to put him in touch once more with his own roots. `Kampen-Sylt, where the idea for this book originated, and Hartland Quay-Devon, where I finished this work, during my walks on the South West Coast Path, in the years 2014 and 2015,¿ J.B.