The teachers

It seems completely plausible that our souls make promises or contracts to one another before we incarnate, whereby we make agreements to support the souls evolution toward the highest power: love. One of the most obvious contracts is that of the teacher, and in my mind, this whole beautiful planet is a classroom with playground attached, so a most obvious way to support each other is through the teacher archetype. 
For instance, my third grade teacher, Mrs. Stark,  was under contract to teach me the multiplication table.  While I was learning it,  I had  no sense of how the information was going to impact my life, but indeed, as an adult, I realize that the rest of my education could not have continued effectively without the lesson Mrs. Stark taught me.    She was a lovely teacher, full of love and nurturing energy; never harsh and always with a vile of smelling salts to keep herself from fainting. We parted with a fond farewell, her contract to teach me a specific task accomplished and the eight year old me in love with 8 x 9 = 72.

Once we are no longer in the academic environment, the teachers are not so obvious. But isn't it possible that we are all teachers? And the best way to figure out who YOUR teachers are is to reflect on those people in your life for whom you have felt the most emotion for, those people who have infuriated you, or broken your heart, or killed your father or healed your wound. Those are your teachers and even though you may not like or even recognize the lesson, I always ask myself when my emotions are fully on board with someone, "What is the lesson here?".