“Every long journey is made
of small steps

Is made of the courage, the
feeling you get

When you know it’s been
waiting for you

The journey’s the only thing
you want to do.”

~Ann Reed

 I have the blessing these
days to be surrounded by young people who are living the journey of their
senior year in high school. They are all involved in searching for colleges,
assessing their skills, developing their dreams of their future. They also seem
to be keenly aware of all the ‘lasts’ they are living. The last time for this
sports season. The last homecoming dance. The last MEA weekend get-away to a
friend’s cabin.

It is a bittersweet thing to
observe. Here are the friendships that have sustained them for nearly twelve
years. These are the systems, the institutions they have come to know well and
in which they are comfortable. Soon that will all change. At least those that
flow in and out of our house seem to be living both the excitement and the
narrowing grief of moving from what they have known and what is yet to be. This is a lesson they will learn over and over throughout their lives.

 Right now these young people
are mired in the details of filling out college applications, taking tests,
weighing each test and paper for how it will affect their GPA. Senior pictures
have been taken and turned in to the yearbook staff. Another last. Soon most will hit send on their online college applications and the journey will unfold on the other side of their preparation.

 As the adults in their lives,
we can only try to provide a non-anxious presence. We can offer our thoughts,
our ideas, our hope, but it is their life to dream, theirs to shape, theirs to
live…step by step. In the midst of it, my prayer is that I can remember to
savor it all and to be a witness to this amazing unfolding journey.

“We cannot know what you go
through or see through your eyes

But we will surround you the
pride undisguised

In every direction whatever
you view

You’re taking our love there
with you.”

Have a lovely weekend………………………