I just helped my stepdaughter set up her new apartment as she prepares to start graduate school. So much opportunity for her, so many choices, the options and possibilities seem endless and perhaps a bit daunting. I look with some envy and then look within to see how the choices I made when I was in that place have guided so much of what has happened along my journey.
How do I share the ambivalence with her? Does the knowledge of my journey have bearing or insight for her or is it my ego projecting upon her my values and choices. Even in my most reflective of moments, I am still sharing events that are now memories and therefore filtered through my personal understanding of the world, not hers.
This is where the power of Peer Conversations from Conversations for Life and Legacy™ would be invaluable. What if I could share with her in an unfiltered way how I felt when I was in her place? How interesting would it be for her to see that I was precisely where she stands? If she heard my hopes and dreams, my fears and trepidations how much closer might we become and how much better might we share our respective visions of our world?
We affixed the mezuzah to her doorpost as I shared the story of compromise that created the leaning position of each mezuzah we hang. May she have the strength to know when to compromise, may she have the wisdom to know when not to compromise. May she be daring to take risks but smart enough to not be reckless. May this be a new chapter in an unfolding that brings her a life of fulfillment.
