Life often engulfs us

Dear ETK Family, 

It was good to see so many of you at the etiquette dinner this past week. You might remember that at the end of our meal I mentioned that it is easy to get overwhelmed with all the information Colleen shared with us; and should you wonder, I was talking about me! So on the way home it occurred to me that it might be beneficial for us all to con-sider that very real experience of being overwhelmed with life in general. This can be especially true in April and May with the end of the term when final papers are due and final exams are approaching. 

Life often engulfs us. It is easy to feel sucked under by the constant undercurrents in our daily existence, to be overpowered by those forces that seem so unrelenting. Thus, one of the skills that is best mastered early on is that of developing a personal philosophy about how to survive. The greatest amongst us offer lessons: “we shall over-come” (Martin Luther King), “a light from the shadows shall spring” (JRR Tolkien), and one of my personal favor-ites, “develop the courage to be imperfect” (Dr. Alfred Adler). 

The truth is, each one of you is already an expert in this regard. Your being chosen as part of the ETK family is, in large part, because you have already exhibited, over and over, the strength of endurance in the face of overwhelm-ing odds. So when you feel inundated with life, I would invite you to remember what you already know. And as Max Ehrmann observed, “be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.”