Been there, Done that

The seminary can become a distinctly unpleasant place this time of year. People are under a tremendous amount of stress to complete projects, write papers, prepare for exams, and submit paperwork at the eleventh hour. As a result, we become just a bit high strung, and by extension, quick to snap. We end up remarking about some small annoying behavior that two weeks ago we would have ignored. Community life becomes unattractive; we prefer to disappear to our rooms and make public appearances only when necessary.

I don't suppose that this is unusual in any way. I suspect it happens in homes and offices during stressful times, and I know that the same phenomenon can take place in the parish during the most tense days of the year. Why, then, am I almost relishing these days, this year?

While I am also under the gun, quickly vexed, and equally unenthused about community life, I have eight years worth of seminary experience now, and with age comes wisdom, or at least that is what I am told. Thus, even though I am going through the same old experiences, fighting the same old desires to scream, and biting my toungue just a moment too late, I also acknowledge a certain freedom in realizing that this too shall pass. Somehow it always does. The papers get written, the projects completed, and everything seems to work out. As steady as a clock, these things mark the passing of the days. One need just have a little patience. It seems very appropriate that these days fall during the season of Advent.