One for the Box of Broken Dreams

"אבן מאסו הבונים היתה לראש פנה"
"The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone"

At a memorial service for my teacher, one of her friends recalled that she had kept a box with the above pasuk on it. In the box she put all the disappointing or bad things that happened to her. The box--a box of broken dreams--intrigued me.

As I see it, it wasn't about finding the good in a bad experience or a disappointment. It wasn't just the "gam zu l'tovah" brush-off. It was about knowing that there was some good that eventually would come of it. Knowing that no matter how acute a disappointment it is, it becomes part of who you are in a way that has to be good because it forces you to rethink, to change, to grow, to strengthen your resolve.

"Listen to the seasons passing
Listen to the wind blow
Listen to the children laughing
Where do broken dreams go?"