Holli Emore Executive Director

Last Veterans Day some of you may have seen that our own Carol Kirk (Lark) was the speaker at a ceremony held at the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington, DC.  Only recently has a video recording of her speech been posted online. This morning I was moved to tears as I watched Lark tell her painful, beautiful story.

A whole generation of us were left dazed and blinking by that awful unresolved conflict.  Most of us had no idea what was really going on, and almost no one understood why.  The term "ptsd" for post-traumatic stress disorder had not yet entered the common parlance, and soldiers were expected to return home and pick up their lives.  As we all know now, a great many were never able to heal.  The wars in the Middle East have at last made us aware and concerned for the "wounded warriors" among us. 

Lark is working on her thesis for a Master of Divinity in Pastoral Counseling & Chaplaincy at CHS.  Retired from a military nursing career, and after long years of service to her spiritual communities, she is now taking up the many-colored threads of her life to make something of beauty to share with the world.  Her thesis will explore ways to guide veterans to a place of healing and, ultimately, back to full integration with home, family, work and spirituality.  To do this, Lark has faced her own past, braving the audience in November to reveal her life's pain and confusion.

This is the true work of a seminary, the real nature of education.  Anyone can read a book.  But the CHS experience really is the proverbial journey of spirit, leading, guiding, at times tumbling us along the way of self-discovery, awareness of others, and growth into a new kind of maturity.  This is the preparation for fuller living, for deeper service, that Cherry Hill Seminary offers.

We hear the word "hero" tossed around these days about anyone who puts on a uniform.  But, to me, the Larks of the world are the true heroes, the ones who face their dark nights of the soul and emerge in the morning with a song for the world.