Welcome relief and new beginnings

Be grateful for good friends and answered prayers. Last year, rumors and then substantiated rumors of layoffs amid budget cuts swirled throughout the university. My job has been incredibly stressful and I've been overloaded for a while. As concern grew, I realized that if layoffs did take place, I wanted it to be me. Not just because I wanted other people to keep their jobs, but I was already doing the work of about two and a half people, and if someone else left, I couldn't handle more being placed on me. A good friend at the time started praying and fasting that I would get laid off. Now I know that sounds weird, but I felt it would be the best thing if budget cuts came to that point.

Yesterday, that prayer was answered. And strangely enough, I am very grateful. It reminds me of a quote from You've Got Mail. "You are daring to imagine that you could have a different life. Oh, I know it doesn't feel like that. You feel like a big fat failure now. But you're not. You are marching into the unknown armed with...nothing. Have a sandwich." In January I get to enter the world of student teaching. In the meantime, I get a chance to decide what it is I really want to be doing. I am so grateful for such a gift.

To all those who make the world a better place

There are a lot of amazing people out there. People who remind you what it means to be a friend. People who are kind in the face of criticism, loving in the face of intolerance, patient in the face of unrelenting demands.

To the friends who are there when you need them, to the teachers who strive to make a difference, and to all those who make the world better by being in it...

On a day I need to remember

When I started this blog, it was on a day when I really needed to remember that what I did made a difference.  Today is another one of those days.  Sometimes it can feel like we work so hard, reach out so often, and rarely if ever see the purpose behind it.  We feel like we have to change the world, and in a world of instant gratification, forget how long it can take sometimes.  And sometimes, we get those small moments where miracles happen.  We get to be in the right place at the right time.  We say the right words. We show sincere love.  And we get to see the change begin.  The rest of the time, we have to remember why we do it.

So today, the thing that I am going to do right is to let what I give change me.