"Nothing is work, unless you'd rather be doing something else."For the month of April, the Happiness Project focuses on work. I know I'm a little late in posting this since April is halfway over, but I figured better late than never. When I thought about my work life I considered it best to divide it into three categories: my paying job as a Personal Care Aide for Arcadia Health Care, my volunteer job as Kindergarten teacher at St. Mary's Academy and my God-given job as caretaker of my home.
As I read the book (The Happiness Project), much of the focus was on working at what you are passionate about. I dug up old photos of myself working at a job where I was completely passionate about what I was doing. When I worked for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources I can honestly say I was in love with my job. I was passionate about being in the great outdoors, in the wide open spaces, given a job to do but being essentially my own boss. I thrived on the thrill of the unknown. What was going to happen today? Where was I going to be sent now? What beautiful essence of nature was I destined to stumble upon tomorrow?
Although, I loved my job, there was always the unspoken knowledge that it wasn't permanent. In the back of my mind I knew one day I would have a family and this job wouldn't be practical anymore.
Therefore, when I had my first child (actually 8 months previous to that marvelous event) my exciting career as a wild land firefighter ended. My new "career" began. I was a mom. This, I thought, was my life's work. I, as much as my husband, desired for me to stay at home to raise our children. To the outsider, it may have appeared that I had given up my dreams...but to me, they had just begun. I thought I would be a stay-at-home mother until my last child was graduated from high school (because I intended on home-schooling), then I would see the world and retire as the fun grandmother who took her grandchildren on nature hikes and then out to ice cream. Those were my plans. God, however, had other ideas.
When God's plans brought me to a point where I had to look for a job, I had been out of the work place for 8 years. I had an Associates Degree, but no direction. The only thing I looked for in a job was something that had flexible hours, allowed me the most time with my children as possible and didn't require dressing up, selling stuff, driving in rush hour traffic, talking on the phone or cooking greasy food (Lord knows I have a history of burning my own food). That's all! I didn't even begin to know where to look. So I went to school to become a paralegal. Besides, I could have used all the legal help I could get at that point. After three quarters, I realized the future of this job would require long office hours and being a virtual slave to lawyers. No thanks. So what did I do? I found a job doing what I did best....cleaning house, feeding others, running errands etc, etc. I felt comfortable as a home-caregiver. I was earning an income and didn't have to step out of my comfort zone. But am I passionate about it?
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