This past weekend our niece graduated from high school. We took the long drive from the desert to the central coast of California to hear her Salutatorian speech and see her receive her diploma. Not only are we proud of how well she has performed on the academic stage but, even more impressively, how she has grown and evolved into a young adult.
Over the past several summers she would come and spend a week or so with us, without her parents and often accompanied by a sibling. We have seen her transform from a shy young girl into a still reserved, yet more confident, young adult. We have all experienced the turbulent times of adolescence and puberty…braces, pimples, bad hair cuts and the feeling of not belonging. And there is something completely hopeful and refreshing when you see the emergence of a young adult despite all those rocky and potential disruptive pitfalls.
I was amazed to hear the complexity of thought, the full circle and youthful wisdom as my niece bravely took the microphone in front of peers, family, and hundreds of strangers. I caught myself thinking, “Wow…I never knew the depths of her insight as she is so quiet on the surface. When did that happen?”.
As a symbol of new beginnings and transitions, we gave her a necklace with a lotus flower etched in silver. I see her wearing it as a totem as she stands in the doorway of her first semester at The University of Notre Dame, to remind her that sometimes what transforms us is often the most terrifying. To step into this new phase knowing that it will hold the potential for incredible learning and opportunity, and yet it might just be like wading through muddy waters to reach a point of clarity.
The lotus is symbolic of this journey as it begins its transformation by taking root in the murky and stirred up waters, only to make its way to the surface finding clarity through persistence to realize its full and magnificent beauty.
As my teacher Judith Lasater says, “May we live like the lotus, at peace in muddied waters”. My wish for all of us is that we find our own clarity through turbulent times and emerge in the full expression of who we are.
