Dr John Schuler @johnlschuler

I was so sure – until challenged, I asked myself; have I fully examined the magnetic north of my directional compass? As I once again raise my sail into the wind of a new day, I pray my rudder is steady against the challenging currents, and in the firm grip of my hand alone.

The day will come when your name is spoken for the last time, and all that is left is the silent, gently expanding ripple of the advancement of someone you touched, who touched someone else, who as a result made the critical difference in a time beyond your imagination.

Could this be the time to believe? There will be backlash, as power never willingly gives up power. But did not David, with a single stone of belief, defeat the tyranny of mighty Goliath? The forces of change have gathered. The day of believing is upon us.

When comes the time when truth has no price, when justice requires no sacrifice - when seeing a wrong, by grace we're awakened, before some innocent life has been taken. That time will be blessed, with reforms as inspired, and the blood of the lamb, no longer required.

We must not linger in the wake of what fear does. Vulnerability and intolerance shuts out the light of what we might become. We are embracing of humanities differences only when the fear of our smallness has been turned away, and we become warriors for one world, and one people.

A free culture produces conflict. If we can endure the messy imperfections of our fragile democratic experiment, we will be rewarded, not with a perfect society, but with one that holds the differences and messy imperfections of it's fragile and precious citizens in balance.

If we would only inflate ourselves with the heat of passion-to-service, we would rise effortlessly above strivings and breathe the clean air of humble-purpose. This, the mysterious law of spiritual physics. The more we lift the burden of others, the higher we soar above our own.

What injustice does not hunger to be heard and remedied when rebelling against inequity is built into the fabric of human nature. The next great advancement in human evolution will come when power and privilege learns to listen when called out and responsibly amends its failures.

The higher we climb the ladder of potentially, the clearer the call to an even more distant and ever-receding horizon. Expansion of spirit is indivisible, eternal, and without boundaries. We need only reach, grasp, and with ‘a faith of the size of a mustard seed,’ ascend.

Held in balance, they complete a circle. The yang of science, giving meaning to the workings of what it can measure, the yen of poetry, to the depths of what science cannot measure. From the wild dance of these unlikely allies, the world becomes whole, and we are saved.

In the cocoon-like space between the chapters of our lives, we are washed in the alchemic juices of what we have learned. Emerging from this quiet darkness we may not recognize how much we have grown. These are the gifts of readiness, given to us for our next calling.

I knew my father as a hard working farmer, but found out one day he had a secrete life. A man stopped by and told me my dad had been a celebrated soldier, had been wounded saveing his life, had met an Army nurse in Paris and fell in love. Thank you Mom and Dad for your service.

Gratitude for what we have is too often lost to the tyrrany of longing, for what we've lost. There is no profit reaching back to a past we cannot return to. When so much has been taken from so many, we need to take note of what we still have share it with others and be thankful.

We adapt, as did our ancestors. Conquering change, one generation lives to produce another. Entering the unknown, instincts awaken, pathways appear, we adjust. Already we touch with our eyes our voice, as we once did with our arms our hands. We are survivors, we will find a way.

Graduates - moment in history, you may not walk across a small stage to receive a diploma, but you will step onto a large stage, asking of you everything you have learned to earn that diploma. From the ashes, you must rise like the Phoenix, and build a new world - a better world.

Remember that person you watched with youthful eyes, who stood steadfast against the shadows of uncertainty - becoming ever after, the face of strength you summoned to walk with you through the dark nights of your own journey to adulthood? We are now that person, being watched.

One day, in the muddle of life's doubts, debts, and daily drudgery, an invisible sun will warm some long-forgotten seed of today’s sacrifice or service. The seedling of grace arising from darkness to make a difference, will be another testament, that your life did truly matter.

If our thoughts participate intimately in the selection of stabilizing quantum patterns, at the emergent edge of now - becoming then, our lived reality, would it not then stand to reason, that the quality of what we think about every moment matters – profoundly? #poem

In the sixties, many of us believed we could quickly change the world. We let suffering and injustice matter. We got involved. We were beaten, stumbled and fell. Then we got back up, and became a generation committed to the long game, and to never giving up - ever.

When all was taken away, he went to find the mountain. Surrendering to a calling, his path wound ever upward into ancient majesty, and unchanging authority - of “mountain.” In the crisp, clear vision at the peak, he remembered something he had forgotten, and was restored.