Monday, April 25, 2016

Life, Happening


For the past month, since three days after my last post, I have been making a list of things that really matter to me in life.

My faith.

My family.

My friends. 

My health. 

I started with these, the bedrock, and they would have been enough. Losing any of these would have been so much more painful. But the list kept growing itself.

The House on the Corner. 

Words. 

The way the trees on Small Town's main thoroughfare reach their branches across the street during spring and lock fingers to make a leafy London-Bridge-Is-Falling-Down car canopy. 

The values of the Small College where I have worked for 27 years. 

Blogging, and the wonderful readers who support this self-indulgence.

And in spite of many, many tears during the past month, in spite of a sense of standing outside myself and watching life happening in a way that baffled me, the list insisted on being longer.

Four tiny tomato plants, two basil plants, and a banana pepper promising caprese salad in a few months. 

The Cynthia Heald study "Becoming A Woman For Whom God Is Enough" that was exactly, exactly what I needed and which my Wednesday night group had started weeks before. (How did God know?)

Husband's reminder that my final few months in the job will determine my legacy--"Be a pro," he told me, and those words have become my mantra. 

Today my boss sent a notice to campus, a notice I have known was coming since three days after my last post. It said that my job would be absorbed into a different job, and that he would be looking for someone else to fill that new position. He was very complimentary about my past work, and has encouraged my next steps.

It has helped me remember these things that truly matter to me in life. These, and dozens more that clamor to be on my list every day, are irreplaceable. A job, this or any other job, is not on that list.

I'll be fine.

4 comments:

  1. Your positive attitude will get you through this change as well as anyone could, but I still send sympathies. Change is hard!

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  2. Change is indeed hard. I find that sometimes growth opportunities arrive when we aren't really looking for growth opportunities. When in fact maybe you didn't really want any growth opportunities at all, thank you very much. You've got your gratitude and your priorities in order. Sending you my best as you embark on your newest adventure.

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  3. Oh, that feels quite sad. In fact, sadness is heading toward indignation as I think about it (TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS and they're "ABSORBING" your job??), but that is not productive and I will not pursue it. Instead I will say some things from my list:

    * Tulips coming up in spring (last year the voles got them, and I was surprised by how "but I only have a limited number of springs on this earth, and now this one is gone" I felt about it)

    * Summer tomatoes and spinach, from the garden Paul takes care of and I don't have to do anything for

    * Taco night

    * Our cats, who want sunshine and naps and gentle treatment and food and to flex their paws

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  4. How did I miss this post? I love your perspective and will enjoy hearing about your next steps. Whatever those steps are, I think we'll see your joy and grace in them.

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