Seasons

Last night our team had our final book discussion. We were finishing Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer. In his final chapter, he uses a metaphor of the seasons to make his point.

In essence, as interns we are in the autumn of this experience. Palmer explains that autumn is a time of paradox. Everywhere we look, we see life dying off, but hidden beneath the death are actually the seeds of new life.

And I can see that. I see the ways we as a team are saying our goodbyes … through the flood of dinners we’ve been meaning to schedule but never set a date for, in passing off our responsibilities or looking for replacements, in answering the question of “how much longer do we have you for?” with “two weeks.”

But I can also see the tiny glint of seeds of new life. I see it in the way that we, as a team, can genuinely sit and have a fun conversation without the awkward silences. And in a way it makes me sad that it took this long for us to be able to appreciate each other.

But I suppose that is the way these things work. My mentor was celebrating her birthday last week when she picked me up from the airport and let me in on her newly found insight that the further she progresses in life, the more she feels like she understands it and gets it right. She was also slightly frustrated that she couldn’t have figured it out earlier.

That in mind, I guess the best thing to do is just appreciate the company of my team and the progress we’ve made over the last seven months for these next few weeks and hope that this year leads to continued friendships with them as we each move our separate ways and move yet again into the metaphorical springs and summers and embark on new experiences.