Breaking to Grow

Breaking to grow; one of life's hard truths.I just spent a long night in the ER with my 23 year old son. He ended up on the wrong end of a wrestling match with a friend and his collar bone took the brunt of it. I don’t get too many 4 hour stretches of time with him anymore so our conversation covered the gamut; sports, summer plans, college life, and finally ended up in the realm of global warming. That part of the conversation is where I mentioned that even global warming may have its natural place in evolution according to quantum theories that support the necessity of decay. You see, if things never break down, they can never grow.  Although he thought we were still talking about the planet…. my mind had already transferred the theory to another world that is very important to me -  my son’s world.Even though I am of course, not pleased to see my first born suffer with a broken clavicle; there are always lessons to be taken away from any situation. A break is a chance for growth and transformation- not that he is going to be growing a new clavicle… he’s not, but there will be a transformation that takes place.

• He is in a lot of pain- empathy will likely increase.
• He is compromised physically- his  patience will be put to the test.
• His body fell down and a piece of it is now broken- the realization that these flesh and bone vehicles we all maneuver around in are fragile at best is likely to leave a lasting impression on his sense of mortality.

Of course I am not mentioning any of this to him…. In fact we are sitting next to each other right now as I type… and I am agreeing with him that hockey is a thrilling sport to watch, and that ‘oldies’ music is still pretty cool. Transformation is sometimes best when it happens without commentary- especially from mom.  How about those Chicago Black Hawks? :)