Rites of Passage

The end of the school year. Perhaps it's the passing from one grade into another. Perhaps it's graduation from kindergarten, from eighth grade, from high school, from college, from grad school. The moving from one educational experience into another or into the work world or into summer vacation is a rite of passage, at least of sorts. 

The handing out of your final grades for the year, the shelving of your school supplies for the summer are all signs that you're moving from one chapter into another.

Report cards served as my final reminder that the school year was over and summer vacation was here.

I can recall the mixed emotions of ending a school year, for I loved school and I loved learning. To say goodbye to my beloved teachers and professors and to close another chapter in my life book was bittersweet, but the anticipation of a new time in my life, especially summer vacation during my elementary school years, was even more exciting.

Back in that day, summer was a seemingly endless experience. Each day brought relaxation and creative play. There were good books to read and some chores to do, such as helping my mom with housework or learning how to ride the tractor lawn mower. Our meals were prepared more often on the charcoal grill. The evenings were spent at The Panoramic Resort with a soft drink or swimming in the welcoming, cool waters of nearby Devil's Lake.

It was during the summer when I was introduced to Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie mysteries. It was during the summer when I learned about the Euphrates River in Vacation Bible School. It was during the summer when I took swimming lessons from lifeguards Mary Anne and Ginger. It was during the summer when we'd picnic with friends Vi and Glenn at their campsite. Glorious, endless, magnificent summer!

The end of the school year meant saying goodbye to my favorite books in the classroom's library
in exchange for new reading adventures of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie mysteries.

Perhaps it's not the end of a school year anymore for you, but the changes of season and those rites of passage will continue to enter your life. You just need to be open to receiving them and considering thoughtfully what you want to do with them. 

I read a lovely book a few months ago called Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman (Just the title drew me in.) (2012, Viking, ISBN #1-4104-5693-5). In the book, the main character identifies that we may each be "offered a rite of passage many times throughout our lives, if only we are awake to see it." 

Are you awake? Are you aware and ready for those rites of passage to enter your life?  How will you know when those rites of passage are there and that they are real?

Smiles and kisses around. My mom and me at my high school graduation.

At the same time that I was reading Looking for Me, I received my weekly email of wonderful words of wisdom from Maria Shriver, called Sunday Paper. In that weekly post, she wrote about the necessity for spiritual breaks, those times of our own design or that are thrust upon us when we can ponder the deeper, bigger questions about our purpose, our bliss. She writes of the wisdom of the mystic Rumi, a favorite of mine as well: "What you are looking for is looking for you."

Think about that for a moment. "What you are looking for is looking for you." How wonderful is that?! 

Be awake. Be aware. Identify with those passions and pursuits that keep tugging at you. Examine those epic moments in your life when your foundation shakes and you are called to see things with new eyes because the old no longer exists as you once thought it did. Think of the smaller nudges that call you to a new insight or direction.

The end of the school year is a wonderful reminder that rites of passage are brought into your life for good reason. They're doors opening for you. You can walk through those doors into a new time in your life.

What doors are opening for you right now?

What is your rite of passage right now? Are you being called to a new place, a new experience? Are you fulfilling what you believe to be your purpose? Are your passions pulling you to a new way? Look, and you might find that it's looking for you, too.