The End of the Chapter and the Beginning of the Next

During the past 40 hours, I have seen a great many events. I watched 2 graduations; more than 500 students walk past the podium. Each completing a nine year educational adventure. Each stepping forward into a new realm, a new challenge, and a new beginning. I watched a young man stand before a rabbi and choose a new religion after work, contemplation, and deliberation. I saw four young students, each pupils of mine, stand before a congregation and begin the ceremonies of B'nai Mitzvah, signifying a step into young adulthood within our faith. And, I saw a young couple prepare begin the first steps in their journey to become bride and groom.

Life is a book. Its days pages, its months and years chapters. The regularity in which the pages turn is predictable. The chapters create a flow. The contents are unpredictable. For each of the 500 children that walked past the podium. Their book, their chapters, were different. While they had the same start at kindergarten round up and the same end at middle school promotion. The chapters and pages, while predictable in time were each unique, each filled with different twists, turns, and adventures.

As I look at the 4 students preparing for their chance to lead the congregation today, I think of each of them as individuals, as learners, and as people. While close in age, they are not all the same year in school. While each child is smart in their own right, none of them have the same strengths. Some of them thrive sharing in the large group. Some of them most comfortable talking with a close friend. Some are artists, creative in nature. Some athletic, nimble and quick. Some prefer to navigate the lanes of the digital net, aptly moving through the mosaic of code and graphics. Their adventures to here, each challenging with obstacles, trials, and tribulations. With twists and turns that at times made the goal feel impossible to achieve. Each walking before the congregation ready to turn the page to the next chapter and to begin a new adventure.

I look at the young baby girl, standing before the congregation. A toddler discovering the world, embracing it, and openly saying "Hi!" A child for whom the each day the pages provide new obstacles, new discoveries, and new moments. The parents, embracing the moments, loving the discoveries, and subtly waiting for each chapter to pass so that the challenges of this stage and chapter go away and the new ones come forward.

The future bride and groom stood before the congregation with bright smiles beaming. I remember seeing the bride before. Six years earlier, the smile was the same. The hair pulled back in a pony tail. My son grabbing her had, as she, his counselor, walked him to the car. Now a teacher, a bride, a member of the community. In six years, the pages had turned, each chapter filled with ups and downs,  unexpected challenge, and plot twists. There she was, hand in hand with her future life partner ready to begin the next chapter.

Tonight, my son will stand with another student before the congregation and lead us in prayer. Each becoming a Bar Mitzvah. Each turning the page of a book. Ending one chapter and beginning another. Their ceremonies while together in time will be slightly different. Products of their own stories, their own adventures, and their own challenges. Like so many of us. June is a time in which we end one chapter and begin the next. How we choose to begin that chapter is the journey. For the graduates, the young mom and dad, the baby, the bride and groom, and the four b'nai mitzvah students each of you begin these chapters surrounded by family, friends, relatives, and mentors who love you and will support you through your choices on this journey.

King's Cross Station