On Friday at the Benefit for Mindful Schools, Jon Kabat-Zinn asked this question: “How many of you remember the name of a teacher in elementary school who had a big impact on you? Someone who you know changed the course of your life?”

Zellerbach Hall is big. It was a full house. I was sitting toward the front the of the auditorium and I looked back to see a sea of hands go up. Almost every person in the room raised their hand.

It was a profoundly moving experience for me. Maybe it was the lighting, or maybe it was the energy in the room, or maybe it was a combination of my physical and emotional state. Or maybe it was the fact that I’ve been experiencing flirtations with depletion and burnout these past few weeks…. probably all of the above. But when I looked back and saw hundreds of hands go up, and not in a timid way, but in a there’s-no-doubt-about-it way, it really made me pause and reflect on the work I’m doing. And it reminded me that it matters. In the grand scheme of things, the work I do matters a lot. The sea of faces I see everyday, coming in and out of auditoriums and multipurpose rooms, and classrooms; the multitude of kids I work with every week might one day raise their hands when asked: “Do you remember a teacher who had a big impact on your life?”

I felt part and parcel of an important and meaningful cycle that night: a cycle that I understand intellectually when I teach but don’t always really feel. It was nice to be reminded, nice to really really feel it.