TUTOR

He or she who seeks the services of a tutor have usually found themselves in a place of insufficient knowledge or “know how” in doing something that is important for their job, schoolwork, passion, or hobby. It is the expectation of the seeker, that the tutor will know and have had more experience in the area that the seeker. It may be the tutor’s expectation that the seeker is a willing participant or that the person paying for the tutor’s services expects a willing “can do” attitude from the participant. But tutors can be people, animals, and all kinds of other living things.

I have had great tutors. For the last four or five years, nature has been my best, most consistent, and most profound one. Each season of the year teaches me something new each year.

Let me press my claim. I lived more than one third of my life around the Great Lakes. Snow would often fall before the leaves completed their autumn cycle. No matter how deep the snow, at the appropriate time the crocus would push through and burst forth in purple splendor – its bloom barely above the ground with stems remaining underground. They become dormant after blooming. They close at night or when it is overcast. The little flower is the source of saffron, one of the most expensive spices in the world.

Just when snow, slush, and hallowing winds would have pushed me to the brink of despair, I would spot the beautiful flower. The same is true where I live now. The winters aren’t as harsh but winter, nonetheless. A crocus or tree laden with buds reminds me to keep moving forward. The flower or the bud is a sign of hope. The memory of the crocus tutors me as I lay dormant in my figurative winter that something beautiful will come out of it.

Just as the crocus can’t push through the first snow that falls in October in Ohio or the first hard freeze in Tennessee, I can’t make my difficult seasons go any faster than they are supposed to go. There is “no quick fix” for winters. Winters tutors me about patience. I need the winter to gain wisdom. Winter tutors on the art of receiving stimuli and response and how to make space between the two.

Spring tutors me on how to plant and cultivate the seeds, like patience, that winter produced. Summer tutors me about the value of nurturing and enjoying the fruits of my labor and autumn tutors me about preparation for the dormancy of winter. The seasons change as they should and so does the subjects that they tutor me in.

Proverbs 24:3-4

PONDER THIS THOUGHT---“Patience is the companion of wisdom.” St. Augustine