Golly Gee, isn't it
a great time to be in Wisconsin?
Who doesn’t love waking up in the morning wondering if you’ll
be able to feel your toes or not…and we get to enjoy those amazing winter
sunsets…right after lunch.
And if you like clothes, you’re especially in luck…you get to
wear all of your different outfits on the same day…because you need six layers
just to make it to class.
We all know that
January and February are not easy months to reside in a climate like ours. They are a time that Mr. Lennertz once
called, accurately I think, the "long slog."
There are the cold,
the early nights and the long weekends indoors, which lead to a palpable a sense of lethargy and claustrophobia.
Like many of you, I
grew upper Midwest, and as a kid I would often think that the only way to get
through our winters would be for all of us to throw in the towel and embrace
hibernation.
But, since we can’t
do that, most of us just try to get through the days. We wake, we study, we
endure, and we patiently mark each day off of our calendars as we inch closer
to Spring Break...that blessed time when we can begin to put away our stocking
caps and mittens. Indeed, it’s
hard to deny that we often find ourselves surviving winter, rather than
thriving, during these winter months.
But the truth is
that a Wisconsin winter is not the sole cause of this sort of malaise…
even if we were to pick up our school and move it to a tropical climate, we
would not be precluded from enduring difficult times.
We have all had
other kinds of struggle...in our friendships, with our families, in the
classroom, and elsewhere. Like a cold,
Wisconsin winter, they are inevitable…
And just as we do with a cold winter’s
day....when we’re having a rough go of it, most of
us do our best to endure and get through.
But what if enduring
is not what we ought to do? What if we are
called to do more than just “get through?”
What if there is a higher purpose to the inevitable valleys of life?
There is a myth,
which originally comes to us from the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Scripture,
of Jacob. Jacob is revered as a
patriarch of three of the world's great religions: Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam. His story is of great spiritual
significance to believers of those three faiths....but I also think that there
is a lesson here for all of us which transcends any one tradition and perhaps
even religion itself.
As the story goes,
Jacob was in the midst of a long and treacherous journey, and one evening he
sent his family and servants ahead so that he could be alone in prayer. As he
was alone in the wilderness, a man appeared to him, and in a turn of events
that could only really happen in a myth, the two began to wrestle, and
continued to do so throughout the night.
As dawn broke, the
man said to Jacob "Let me go, for it is daybreak." To which Jacob responded "No, I will not
let you go until you bless me." And
the man, who reveals himself to be God, obliged…He
blessed Jacob, changed his name to Israel, which means “to
wrestle with God,” and Jacob’s
twelve sons became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel, and Israel became
a great nation. Jacob’s
good fortune is remarkable, but not for the reasons that we might expect. What is profoundly important in this story is
not that Jacob was blessed, but that his blessing was born out of his struggle.
I was reminded of
this story a few years ago when I had the opportunity to hear an Interfaith
Discussion of Religious Leaders, one of whom was Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who is
the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, the
largest Synagogue body in the United Kingdom. Shortly before the talk, Rabbi
Sacks had finished sitting Shiva, which is a Jewish mourning rite, for his
mother. As he mourned his loss, Rabbi
Sachs took not only comfort, but also inspiration, from the story of
Jacob.
He said." And
this I feel about suffering: When something bad happens, I will not let go of
that bad thing until I have discovered the blessing that lies within
it...sometimes all the pain and the tears lift you to a much higher and deeper
joy when you say to the bad times, "I will not let you go until you bless
me."
I have not lost an
immediate family member, but I can relate to Rabbi Sach’s
story on some level. As many of you
know, I did not come to teaching as my first career. I spent several years working in business. Superficially, it was a great experience. The work was, at times, quite interesting,
and I was fortunate to work with some remarkable individuals.
But internally, I
was deeply unhappy. While my job seemed
important, I took no personal satisfaction from the work that I did. I was
young, new to the workplace, and was already deeply cynical about my career,
and even my place in the world.
As I look back upon
this experience, it is easy for me to look at this period of time in my life as
nothing more than a waste of time, and to write it as a great mistake. But the truth is, that if I hadn’t
been there….I would never have ended up HERE.
If I had not known
such deep dissatisfaction, I would not have left my job, and found my way to
teaching. And if I were not a teacher, I
would have not gotten to be a part of this remarkable community, and anything
that helped me to get to Wayland Academy is a blessing indeed.
So, this is what I wish to offer today...not an
easy solution for how to make the winter, or any hardship for that matter,
easier, but instead a different prism through which to life's inevitable
difficulties. I propose to you that we
should see our struggles, seasonal or otherwise, not as trials to be endured,
but as rare opportunities for personal growth and discovery.
What that growth or
discovery ends up becoming is going to be different for each of us; we are all
at different places in our lives.
Perhaps, for you, winter is a time for introspection; for an honest
examination of yourself, your goals, and your place within this community. Maybe the hours we spend seemingly “cooped
up”
in our rooms is an opportunity to spend more reaching out to our distant families
and friends. Or, now could be the time to seek out someone in the community
with whom you have not yet connected.
Just as Jacob
refused to let go of his opponent until he was blessed, we should not just
endure our own hardships, but instead learn to embrace them. And as we embrace them, to seek, with open
minds and with willing hearts, the blessings that they bring.
I leave you with
this quote from his Holiness the Dalai Lama.” “It
is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for
doing good, both for oneself and others.”
