Benediction delivered at the Smith College Convocation
September 3, 2003, John M. Greene Hall
In her book, The Black Prince, the philosopher and novelist, Iris Murdoch, wrote that the creative struggle, the search for wisdom and truth, is a love story.
If this is true, then a love that would inspire you to devote years of your precious life to parse, observe, dissect, inspect, count, analyze, ponder over, agonize, dream about or be utterly changed by it, is truly an extraordinary love.
If Murdoch is right, then a kind of love has brought here to this moment -- on the threshold of an academic year.
During the days and months ahead,
May this love consume us;
May this love change and transform us;
May it make of us a community, in which each of us is both student and teacher,
Lover and beloved,
Transformational and transformed.
May peace guide your path;
May respect guide your words and guard your actions;
May you have true companions on your search for wisdom and truth
And may wisdom be with you all the days of your life
as you write your own love story.
May it be so.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Monday, March 14, 2005
Prayers for a College Year
A Series of Teachings and Blessings I've written for College Events
Smith College Convocation - September 2004
Thank you for your kind attention on this college version of Mardi Gras – the undomesticated threshold of a new season:
Annie Dillard has written, “How we spend our days is, after all, how we spend our lives.”
We are, I think, in-between creatures. We spend much of our lives inhabiting the space between what we want and what we have.
The space between a problem and a solution.
The space between the poem we dream of and the one before us on the page;
Between what we can do and what needs to be done.
The space between what we are and what we are becoming.
Few of us are able to live fully gratefully conscious of the present moment – and those who are able, do it because they are committed to it.
They practice.
This “being in-between” can more or less shape how we view our lives – indeed ourselves -- as successes or failures.
Tonight I want to invite you discard your notions of success and failure – as defined by results – and imagine that there is only learning and practice.
No success.
No failure.
Only learning. Learning and practice.
As you contemplate your future on this liminal night of excitement and a little fear -- remember that a universe of possibility through learning and practice awaits you.
I will leave you with this short blessing for your days ahead:
As we begin this year together,
may you be blessed
in your sleep, with rest;
in your dreams, with vision,
in your waking, with a calm mind,
in your soul, with the friendship of Sophia – of the Spirit of Wisdom –
this day and every day,
this night and every night. (Adapted from A Wee Worship Book, Iona)
Go well. Go in peace. Let us begin.
c 2004 Jennifer L. Walters
Smith College Convocation - September 2002
I’d like you all to try something with me tonight.
If you have any expectations for this year,
For your time at Smith,
For your scholarly work,
For your careers,
For your future,
If you have any expectations at all. Let them all go.
Do you expect to get or give As or Bs or Cs? Do you expect relationships to be difficult? Do you expect to love it here? Do you expect to be successful?
What would it mean to get a grade you do not expect? To be unhappy here? For relationships to be easier than you expect? To fail at something?
What are you afraid of?
If you are aware of any cherished outcomes -- any "have-tos" or "musts," any "can't live-withouts" --
it might be your fear talking.
The Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu says “Life comes without warning.” It is the unexpected that gets our attention.
I invite you tonight, to let go of expectations and make room for surprises;
For buried treasure,
For wisdom as well as learning,
For awe and wonder and play.
For hope not wedded to expectation.
You are already blessed with someone who loves you,
You are already blessed with an inquiring mind, a discerning heart, and an able-enough body.
Let your mind find the path and allow your heart to guide you.
Who knows where you will go? Who knows where we will go?
Perhaps it will be somewhere we did not expect.
Welcome the unexpected as an angel with a message,
Just for you.
May peace enfold you,
May wisdom fill your heart and mind,
May you and everyone around you be free from harm,
May the goodness of life itself infuse every cell of your body.
Every moment of your awareness.
May it be so. Let us begin.
c 2004 Jennifer Walters (drawn from Rumi and conversations with Celeste Whiting and Art Stevens)
Smith College Convocation - September 2004
Thank you for your kind attention on this college version of Mardi Gras – the undomesticated threshold of a new season:
Annie Dillard has written, “How we spend our days is, after all, how we spend our lives.”
We are, I think, in-between creatures. We spend much of our lives inhabiting the space between what we want and what we have.
The space between a problem and a solution.
The space between the poem we dream of and the one before us on the page;
Between what we can do and what needs to be done.
The space between what we are and what we are becoming.
Few of us are able to live fully gratefully conscious of the present moment – and those who are able, do it because they are committed to it.
They practice.
This “being in-between” can more or less shape how we view our lives – indeed ourselves -- as successes or failures.
Tonight I want to invite you discard your notions of success and failure – as defined by results – and imagine that there is only learning and practice.
No success.
No failure.
Only learning. Learning and practice.
As you contemplate your future on this liminal night of excitement and a little fear -- remember that a universe of possibility through learning and practice awaits you.
I will leave you with this short blessing for your days ahead:
As we begin this year together,
may you be blessed
in your sleep, with rest;
in your dreams, with vision,
in your waking, with a calm mind,
in your soul, with the friendship of Sophia – of the Spirit of Wisdom –
this day and every day,
this night and every night. (Adapted from A Wee Worship Book, Iona)
Go well. Go in peace. Let us begin.
c 2004 Jennifer L. Walters
Smith College Convocation - September 2002
I’d like you all to try something with me tonight.
If you have any expectations for this year,
For your time at Smith,
For your scholarly work,
For your careers,
For your future,
If you have any expectations at all. Let them all go.
Do you expect to get or give As or Bs or Cs? Do you expect relationships to be difficult? Do you expect to love it here? Do you expect to be successful?
What would it mean to get a grade you do not expect? To be unhappy here? For relationships to be easier than you expect? To fail at something?
What are you afraid of?
If you are aware of any cherished outcomes -- any "have-tos" or "musts," any "can't live-withouts" --
it might be your fear talking.
The Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu says “Life comes without warning.” It is the unexpected that gets our attention.
I invite you tonight, to let go of expectations and make room for surprises;
For buried treasure,
For wisdom as well as learning,
For awe and wonder and play.
For hope not wedded to expectation.
You are already blessed with someone who loves you,
You are already blessed with an inquiring mind, a discerning heart, and an able-enough body.
Let your mind find the path and allow your heart to guide you.
Who knows where you will go? Who knows where we will go?
Perhaps it will be somewhere we did not expect.
Welcome the unexpected as an angel with a message,
Just for you.
May peace enfold you,
May wisdom fill your heart and mind,
May you and everyone around you be free from harm,
May the goodness of life itself infuse every cell of your body.
Every moment of your awareness.
May it be so. Let us begin.
c 2004 Jennifer Walters (drawn from Rumi and conversations with Celeste Whiting and Art Stevens)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
My StumbleUpon Page