At 40, the different seasons of life have led me to embrace the wisdom of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. It serves as a steady reminder that if we are alive, there will be a time and place for every part of the human experience.
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
It has taken some time and work for me to grasp this concept in my life, and if I’m honest, I still struggle with it at times. Yet, it is a lesson that my teaching career has forced me to learn on a deeply personal level. As I enter my twentieth year in the classroom, the notion put forth in just eight verses is one of the major themes explored in my self-published book:Embrace It All.
In a single day of teaching, you can experience beautiful moments of learning immediately followed by sorrowful moments of tragedy. One moment brings soul-healing laughter; the next, rage-inducing anger. The stillness of a monastery can give way to the chaos of a sports arena, and a smile of joy can quickly turn into tears of disappointment. As a teacher, all you can do is embrace it all.
My book is a collection of some of the moments I have had to embrace during my career as a teacher. The experiences have taken place in multiple educational settings and they cover a wide range of situations, emotions, and events. Just when I think I’ve seen it all, something happens that reminds me—there’s always more to embrace.
The writing of this book forced me to continue to embrace this philosophy. The project has truly been a process and I dealt with excitement, doubt, joy, fear, hope, frustration, laughter, sadness, and everything in between. I attempted to embrace every season.
Through the chapters, I hope you’ll laugh, cry, reflect, question—and experience so many parts of the human experience. Hopefully, the book serves as a reminder that the only constant is change and that, whatever season you find yourself in, you can choose to embrace it all.
PeaceofAB 