Today has been a good day. Nothing monumental happened, it was simply a good, regular kind of day. I am in some ways grateful for its normal-ness (yes I know the word is normalcy, but that doesn’t sound quite right.) What I am saying is that this has been a pretty regular, uneventful kind of day, and other than the challenge of trying to adjust to “springing forward” on Saturday night, there was no drama in any part of the day. In talking with a friend the other day, she described the past year of my life as “tumultuous,” a description that I found quite accurate. So over the course of a tumultuous year, when you can have some days that are downright awful, it is very nice when to have regular old nondescript days.
These days I begin each day with a period of writing, usually for an hour, though I’m trying to get that down to 30 minutes if I can. Because it’s first thing in the morning (starting anywhere between 5:30 to 6:30 a.m.), my brain is still pretty foggy and tends toward wandering. It’s a nice time of unstructured writing; unlike this blog which has the gratitude theme, my morning writing has no such restriction. However I have written on the cover of the journals that contain my morning meanderings, “Writing My Way To Clarity,” as an indication of what I hope the outcome of some of the writing will be: clarity in purpose, vocation, location, and a number of other things in my life that currently remain fuzzy. Tomorrow I will start into my third journal, having handwritten nearly 250 6″ x 9″ pages. Writing, for as long as I can remember, has been my favorite form of expression. As a somewhat introverted person, I find I do my best thinking when I’m alone and have time to write out my thoughts and ideas. While I can often respond on the spur of the moment with good and well-articulated ideas, everything is richer and deeper and more “seasoned” when I’ve had time to think and write. I am grateful, as I have often expressed, for the gift of writing–the capacity to put ideas and thoughts into words and communicate that out to the broader world is such an important part of my life and always will be so.
I want to offer one more bit of simple gratitude: I’m grateful for the examples around me of people who are pursuing their dreams. My nephew Wes has been an athlete from the time he was a toddler. A stand out in many sports (baseball, football, track and field), the focus of his high school and college careers was primarily in football. Throughout much of his time on the field, Wes has been beating the odds, considered too small by many standards. Nevertheless this small young man was a leader and standout on the football field, and has overcome many odds–including a devastating knee injury in fall 2010–to become an outstanding player. On Tuesday, March 13 Wes will be participating in “Pro Day,” an opportunity for him to showcase his talents in front of representatives from the National Football League. It will be an opportunity for this “too small” athlete to pursue a dream of playing professional football. I’ll be there in spirit cheering for him. It’s a great story.
My daughter Michal is taking the next step toward pursuing her passion for working with college students by planning to attend graduate school this fall working toward a masters degree in student affairs/higher education. During her college years she discovered that she loves working with and on behalf of students. Even as a student herself, she works as a peer mentor, course instructor, and role model for younger students. She’s on her way toward being a wonderful resource and advocate for students. Even as I am writing this she’s attending a conference of student affairs professionals where she can meet people from across the country who are doing the work she’ll be engaged more deeply with in the months and years to come. Thoreau said, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. It’s wonderful to see Wes, Michal, and so many others–many of whom are the younger members of my family–pursuing their interests. It gives me a lot of hope as one of the elders and inspiration to continue to pursue some of mine. John Dewey said, “To find out what one is fitted to do and to secure the opportunity to do it is the key to happiness.” May we each discover what we were put on this planet to do and find the means and opportunity to go do it. May it be so!
