Last weekend I took my girls to the Ice Age Festival in Martinsville at the Virginia Museum of Natural History.\u00a0It\u2019s a fun museum, not large, and the University of Lynchburg partners with them for archaeology digs in Wyoming.\u00a0We went with friends, and the other mom of the group bought each girl a rock to remember the day. The rocks looked like ice, clear with bubbles and fissures and polished smooth.\u00a0(For the geologists among us I think they are smoky quartz.) The rocks are \u201cspecial rocks.\u201d It turns out each rock out has a rainbow in it. If you move the rock around and get it just right, you can see a rainbow.\u00a0The rainbows appear at the fissures, in the cracks. Without the fault lines it would just be a pretty rock, but without the hidden complexity and colors.<\/p>\n
Like so many of us, the rainbows in our lives appear because of the cracks.\u00a0The surface scars may add character, and they may make us look more interesting; but those deep cracks where our woundedness never quite heals are the moments in our lives where hope appears.<\/p>\n
In a community this size few weeks go by without someone in our community experiencing a death. Most weeks someone has a surgery. Most months someone in our community is hospitalized for a mental health crisis.\u00a0Many of our students do not have health insurance and go without medical care…at least until they cannot wait. There are the car accidents and the utilities that get shut off.\u00a0There are those who fall behind on rent and mortgages. Marriages and relationships end. Sexual assault victims seek resources and rise up to tell their stories.\u00a0 Students return from the semester break to the safest home they have known…a college residence hall.\u00a0In a community this size and this diverse there is so much going on that it is often hard to pause and take a breath.<\/p>\n
Institutions and communities are made up of imperfect people, each trying to do their best.\u00a0We are at our best when we trust that others are trying to do their best and when we have empathy for what is going on in their lives.\u00a0And just when you think that you can extend that much grace, you sit down to watch the news and Senate trial. This is real life.<\/p>\n
Real life is also those small joys of seeing a child run across the Dell.\u00a0Seeing a student understand a concept. Listening to students practice for a concert and seeing our athletes excel. We balance out with weddings and babies and grandbabies, and commencement is truly a great few days. There are breakthroughs and personal victories. A former student worker came by the office to share her new baby. Real life is taking time to notice the beauty of the mountains and the crisp breeze. I\u2019m even ready for a few pristine snowflakes.<\/p>\n
Some weeks my heart is heavy with all that goes on in our community.\u00a0This has been one of those weeks, and so I have been rereading Henri Nouwen, but I\u2019ve also been thinking about the rainbows in the cracks of the rock.\u00a0Without the woundedness and the cracks, there are not the hidden rainbows.<\/p>\n
“Every time there are losses, there are choices to be made. You choose to live your losses as passages to anger, blame, hatred, depression and resentment, or you choose to let these losses be passages to something new, something wider, and deeper.” ~ Henri Nouwen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last weekend I took my girls to the Ice Age Festival in Martinsville at the Virginia Museum of Natural History.\u00a0It\u2019s a fun museum, not large, and the University of Lynchburg partners with them for archaeology digs in Wyoming.\u00a0We went with …<\/p>\n