Yesterday was the last day of school in our district. As I sat having my morning coffee, I watched, as I have most mornings this year, the kindergartner that lives across the street get onto the bus for the last day of school. Next year he will be in first grade…..very different from kindergarten….as any six year old will tell you. As any parent will tell you. I have watched him grow over this year from tentative to bold as he crossed in front of the bus, climbing on now to sit with friends he didn’t know nine months ago.
All over the cities, all across this country, high school seniors are graduating, celebrating twelve years of education, friendships, hardships, goals accomplished and others missed. Still others I know are graduating from college, their lives seeming to narrow-in a positive way- into a more defined pattern and understanding of who they are, what they will do, how they will evolve, what life is asking of them, what they are willing to contribute, sacrifice.
This cycle, I believe, does not stop with those ‘commencements’. Each day is an opportunity to step onto the bus for the first time, to move your mortarboard tassel from right to left, to dream once again of the answer to the question ‘now what?’ This cycle is not confined in the years we have walked the Earth….it is the gift that comes with the rising of each new day and our commitment to our own unfolding at whatever age we find ourselves.
It is written in The Talmud: "Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow." Whether that blade is newly sprung from the seed, has been tromped on countless times, or has withstood the winds of time, the urging is still the same.
As people of faith, we are called daily to bring the message of hope,abundant living and growing into the world….to those who need to hear, for those who long to hear, for those who have never heard. Every day is a Commencement……………now what?
"I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." John 10:10
Blessings on your weekend…………..