Life, Work, Life's Work
Today I am grateful for my current gratitude journal and the daily discipline of writing in it. There is peace in the practice and in the pause taken to do the writing.
Those fractions and percents I wrote about yesterday are still on my mind, as is my sister Mary Jo, her family, my siblings, as the anniversary of her death approaches. A year ago, June 15, was her last full day of earthly existence. I wonder . . . I am almost 55 years old. What percent of my life have I lived already? That question doesn't have an answer. This question is easier . . . am I living fully today? My own attitudes and actions determine that.
I have worked in education 32 years now. I just completed my 20th year as a middle school counselor at the only school I have worked at since moving to Minnesota. I have spent 10/16 of my career in one place, after brief stints at five other schools. I taught high school social studies for ten years and was an elementary counselor for two. That equates to 5/16 and 1/16 of my work years respectively.
Each year, each school, the many colleagues, students, and parents I have worked with have all shaped my work life. There are many good memories, much professional growth, some stagnation, other challenges. How many more years will I work before I retire from this field? That remains to be seen, and hinges on financial and economic factors, only some of which are in my/our control.
There's life. There's work. And then there's my life's work of writing. Without it, I believe my days would have been cut shorter by active alcoholism. Since saving my life, I can't put into any sort of numbers the ways that writing has helped me. I am 100% grateful for it. Simple as that.
Those fractions and percents I wrote about yesterday are still on my mind, as is my sister Mary Jo, her family, my siblings, as the anniversary of her death approaches. A year ago, June 15, was her last full day of earthly existence. I wonder . . . I am almost 55 years old. What percent of my life have I lived already? That question doesn't have an answer. This question is easier . . . am I living fully today? My own attitudes and actions determine that.
I have worked in education 32 years now. I just completed my 20th year as a middle school counselor at the only school I have worked at since moving to Minnesota. I have spent 10/16 of my career in one place, after brief stints at five other schools. I taught high school social studies for ten years and was an elementary counselor for two. That equates to 5/16 and 1/16 of my work years respectively.
Each year, each school, the many colleagues, students, and parents I have worked with have all shaped my work life. There are many good memories, much professional growth, some stagnation, other challenges. How many more years will I work before I retire from this field? That remains to be seen, and hinges on financial and economic factors, only some of which are in my/our control.
There's life. There's work. And then there's my life's work of writing. Without it, I believe my days would have been cut shorter by active alcoholism. Since saving my life, I can't put into any sort of numbers the ways that writing has helped me. I am 100% grateful for it. Simple as that.
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