Hello friends ~ I’m so happy you’re here!
I hope your’e having a wonderful June so far. My 72nd birthday was June 6th, which was a fun-filled weekend. Age is just the number of years that I’ve been alive, after all, and I want these years to be as fulfilling as possible. It feels like these advanced years have been more than pretty ok, and I’m truly amazed and so grateful.
Weddings, graduations – transitions to next phases in life that bring joy, as well as the the unknown, and a sense of the hourglass sand …
One of the challenges of parenting I think, is seeing our kids grow up and experiencing transitions with them – celebratory, and a bit heart-aching at the same time.
Over the years there have been so many celebrations with 6 kids, and their kids – they evoke tears and smiles, how time has passed, as well as anticipation of what comes next.
One of the more challenging things I’ve ever done popped into my head today: giving the Parent Baccalaureate speech at Dartmouth College graduation in 2010.
I’m not naturally comfortable in front of a mic, and it took about 6 months to craft this 3-minute speech, editing and editing, reciting it to anyone who was patient enough to listen. My son invited me to do it, so of course I agreed. Even after all that practice, when you watch the video you can see I was still so shaky.
Besides being really nervous about the prospect of speaking at a venerated school before a large, impressive audience, I was slightly overcome with all of those conflicting emotions in this transition for my 4th child. Sharing all the feels with strangers on that podium on that morning was HARD.
What would you say at your child’s graduation? I pulled up my speech on an old external hard drive and had to resist the urge to edit it. It wouldn’t be the same coming from me now – from the perspective of a woman/mom/grandma 15 years down the road of life.
The quote in my speech from Terry Tempest Williams resonates for me still:
“This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek.”
Like all of us, I’m navigating continual transitions, always a work in progress, open to changes, and I’m ok with me at that time too.
I’d love to know what you think about the speech, what you might say to your child graduate, or how you’re navigating through your personal transitions in life.
Onward~
Polli’s Baccalaureate Speech at Dartmouth College Graduation 2010
x
Polli
