Personally, I'm finding the past few weeks to feel unbelievably heavy. I want to hurry up with my work so I can not work. I want the sun to stay out and the cold wind to go away. I want to run away from all things winter, to explode into summer with some new sense of determination and excitement. I get annoyed easily that my life isn't suddenly flower-filled. I want the grass to be greener and the tulips in my front yard to hurry up and bloom already. I am tired of waiting for summer.
As I logged on to my computer this morning to begin grading yet another batch in the unending pile of final student essays, I found myself bumming around online instead - no surprise there. I hope some of you have heard/read David Foster Wallace's 2005 graduation speech at Kenyon College. (If you haven't, you can read the whole thing here.) What emerged from my seeming-procrastination was this: A company called The Glossary has condensed Wallace's graduation speech and made it into a 10 minute video. Watching it, I found the message to align with much of what we have been studying in our Ayruvedic group. Watching it, I found the message to be a needed reminder. This time of year, this time of transition, this time of not-yet-summer-but-almost, is the time I need these kinds of reminders the most. My work matters. My students (most of them, anyway) are learning. This life is a shared experience, and when I widen my perspective, I find compassion more easily -- for myself, for the small tulip buds, for the wild wind and clouds, for all the waiting we must do. I share it with hopes that it resonates for you, too.
