Monday, November 10, 2014

Yesterday -- Now my troubles seem so far away

Yesterday, I was feeling sorry for myself. As my friend, Dawn Davis, said – I didn’t think it fair to have to focus on work when my mind and body needed a rest. Today, I have applied all of the techniques I’ve learned and developed over the years to turn this feeling of desperation into a feeling of anticipation.

Here is what I came up with:

Rested | Tired
Joyful | Sad
Carefree | Burdened

This represents the way I turn my focus. The items on the right are the words that I described myself as - tired, sad, burdened. The items on the right are on what my friend, Tom Whiteman, gave me a name for - the "God Side."

Here is how you would read the words - 

Rested | Tired
Instead of feeling tired because of the state of sleep-deprivation I’m in due to a health issue, I’m choosing to focus on how well-rested I will feel once I’m able to begin using a resource that will enable me to sleep.

Joyful | Sad
Instead of feeling sad because I lost a member of my church family, I am focusing on the joy I feel when I remember the impact he had on my family and on others inside and outside of the congregation.

Carefree | Burdened
Instead of feeling burdened, I’m focusing on the fact that in a few months, I will feel carefree, as I finish my graduate school work and eliminate some of the other outside stresses I have at the moment.

Today, I woke up and went to work – the sun was shining. There was a light breeze blowing against my face. I spent the day with educators who are passionate about doing what is best for our students. I came home to my family, who I love, and who I love to spend time with. Through that whole time, my body worked – I breathed, my eyes blinked, thousands of metabolic processes happened without a hitch, mutations happened and were repaired.

And I enjoyed another day.

It’s all good.