Share a story. Impart some wisdom. Ask questions. Encourage thought. Bring awareness. Teach. All of these actions are acts of giving. The gift is not something tangible but rather a takeaway, an idea to be remembered, to enrich the recipient’s life.
Most days at the all-boys school where I work there is a chapel service. At each service there is what we call a chapel talk. All members of the community, students and adults, have the opportunity, either through their own interest or because they are asked, to give a talk.
Chapel also involves announcements, a hymn, a scripture and a prayer. Each person sitting in the pews has their own beliefs and views on religion and faith, and that diversity is celebrated by the school community.
Chapel provides an opportunity for the members of the school community to be in a sacred place for an allotted period of time to reflect, listen, sing, or, let’s be truthful, zone out.
School days are full and demanding and, for some, attending chapel (a requirement for students) is just one more commitment on their already long list of responsibilities. Yet I can say as someone who has given a chapel talk, the hope is that whatever message is shared, it will touch at least one member of the community.
Perhaps it is because I am an adult and not a teenager that I find some respite in being in that sacred place. It is a bit of a forced slowdown for me. I sit amongst my colleagues and look out at a sea of young men in their blue blazers, each with his own set of successes and challenges.
He may be thinking about the academic demands of his day. The play he will be performing in that evening. A fierce athletic matchup that coming weekend. A frustrating conversation he had with a parent the night before.
Or he might simply be wishing he had worn socks because it was only five degrees out. Whatever his thought process is, each person has an opportunity to take something from the chapel talk.
This morning a teacher spoke to the students about stress, acknowledging the full plate each boy carries. He told a very personal story about his own high school years and a situation that brought him a level of stress that manifested itself physically.
He learned to seek help, to talk to an adult in his community who provided a safe, unbiased, genuine place for him to open up about his thoughts and feelings and reflections. The teacher wanted to share with the boys the value of reaching out, of knowing that there are people who care, who want to support each and every one of them. He gave the boys a gift this morning, a gift of sharing of himself and of empathy.
A chapel talk might take less than 10 minutes, but the benefit, the growth it brings, can last much longer, even a lifetime. And not just for someone listening. The speaker also benefits by giving of him or herself.
