Life is hard… there’s no escaping it… Sometimes I wish we could take the wisdom of the elders and apply it earlier on our journey to avoid so many of the inevitable mistakes that make up this adventure we call life…
I recall in my late teens/early twenties, 6 inch heals were ‘the thing,’ and I was all about it. My gramma would speak to me, warning of the damage “those shoes” could do to my body. I would politely ‘hear her,’ but knew in my heart I was not about to take that advice because I knew I needed height and style to achieve the necessary power and influence in my life which that image could give me.
40 years later, as I assume my desired position in flat shoes, I think of Gram often and wish I had simply realized the gift of wisdom she was sharing with me.
I connect with her every time I want to offer advice to a niece or nephew, or one of my graduate students.
It seems that nature should have done a better job of
combining the zest and energy of youth
with the wisdom and grounded-ness of the senior years…
Today, when I revisiited that wish for the hundredth time…
it flipped over in my brain:
Don’t miss the lesson!
I was listening to Leonard Cohen’s recording of Anthem.
Ring the bell that still can ring…
Forget your perfect offering~
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in…
Dare I say “finally” (?!) I am embracing the reality that KNOWing is not the answer… but LISTENing is. I DID listen to my Gramma; otherwise, how would I have remembered her words all these years later?
Each of us receives lessons, and words, and ‘cracks of light’ throughout our life. And as we are ready, we open our eyes and our hearts just a little bit wider to let a ‘tich’ more wisdom in.
My cracks have become more and more my friends, for indeed they are the most real means to my conversion. My mistakes, my stumbling blocks, my poor judgment… even my simple naivete, are the stepping-stones to my fullest and most authentic living…
Not easy, but rich…. Or as my Gramma would say:
“It’s a great life… if you don’t weaken…”