A new year presents itself, unaware and unconcerned about our willingness to dance with it. Perhaps we wanted more time away from it. Perhaps we are happy that it is here. We engage in this vocational dance with regular partners: department members and administrators, old friends and the new faces.

But sometimes the Spirit brings you a Passing Partner. That is, someone who will join you on a project for a moment, a minute, a month, or the time it takes to complete a monument.

A Passing Partner enters our vocational orbit for a specific amount of time and then continues on his or her way. Often a Passing Partner is not someone we would have sought out and invited to join us on our vocational journey. This is a partner picked for us.

Passing Partners have angelic functions. The Spirit often brings them to us when we need a little balm for the soul. A Passing Partner has a way of picking us up, shaking us up, or slowing us down. Whether fitting nicely or going against our grain, the newness of this partnership has a way of sustaining us. Dancing with a Passing Partner causes us to improve our performance, evaluate assumptions, articulate a vision, and recognize how we step on toes. Sometimes we aren’t aware of the effect our Passing Partner is having on us—until it’s over. Most of the time, the Passing Partner has no idea of his or her impact on us, either.

Sometimes the Passing Partner isn’t human. When teachers reflect on a Passing Partner, they sometimes point to an author whose book(s) helped Sustain The Spirit for a season. Teachers have even pointed out singers and musicians and the CD that played in the car driving to and from school for an entire semester. A newly discovered slogan can serve as a Passing Partner. So can a TV show. We often recognize, and laugh about, how a once popular educational movement or theory or fad actually Sustained us once, like a Passing Partner.

Passing Partners change from time to time. This is part of the vocational mystery. Try not to hold onto them after the partnership has run its course, even if you can still see them in the hall every day.

We do best to give deep thanks and to stay open to the possibility of serving as a Passing Partner to someone else.

• When has your experience of a Passing Partner helped Sustain The Spirit?