Wisdom

I spent time today chatting with a colleague. It's funny--everyone seems surprised that he and I chat and even went to lunch; he's not the social kind. But he and I share the same students, and it's an incredible thing to be able to be validated that I'm not the only one "bugged" by a particular, well, smarty-pants. ;-) Anyway, so the chat today left me refreshed and ready for more.

This colleague has been teaching for years and thus has a lot of wisdom to share, so his encouragement helped tremendously. But even more, he encouraged me regarding another difficult issue I'm facing--the challenging of my scholarship. I've been on edge regarding this "challenge" for a couple of weeks, but after today, I'm finally at peace.

As for the particular issue, I can now (today, for the first time) see the positive: I've been seriously challenged by an overly educated professor from the west coast who disagrees with everything I say. Gulp. Breathe. And re-group. See, here's the up side: I'm so much more prepared now for any questions I get next week during my interviews. And that, people, is indeed priceless.

I got there through that chat this afternoon, but even more so, in the middle of my funk, I received this in my "Daily Insight" email inbox from Yoga Journal:

Life has its ups and downs. While it may be tempting to wallow in our misery during the downs, or quickly move past the source of our despair, that isn't always the healthiest way to deal with a crisis.

It's human nature to avoid the emotional roadblocks that pepper the path to spiritual maturity, to seek instead the slow and steady pace of the ordinary traveler. Yet reaching higher spiritual ground requires an extraordinary traveler. It demands the kind of change that comes from facing challenges—emotional, spiritual, or physical—and growing as a result.

A spiritual initiation—an exceptionally difficult life passage that shakes your foundations and makes you question your purpose—is just this sort of change. Disguised as a loss, it's actually an opportunity to strengthen the thread of awareness that connects your outer inner selves, a chance to travel deeper into the soul.

Wow. This was exactly what I needed--at exactly the right time. My foundations in my scholarship were indeed shaken. But the above passage and another nugget of insight I got today have both lifted me up back where I need to be. Yes, I'm still stressed. I'm still worried. But the extra wisdom helps so very much---as do the warm, fuzzy thoughts. :-)

This other nugget---yes, there's a little more to this story, but I want to be up early, so I'll simply promise to share the other amazing wisdom that was given to me today in a later post.