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Monday, January 02, 2012

Perspective

As is customary at this time in my life, with the New Year now upon us, I have been thinking -- about a lot of different things. While I enjoyed the Christmas season and all the festivities that went along with our family celebration, I am glad that time has marched on and I can now get back into my regular routine of doing nothing special. It feels good to be sitting in my favorite spot in my reclining sofa with my laptop on my lab and a sleeping dog at my feet. Brillo Man and I just watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Olivia is in her bedroom singing along to some silly song in her head and I'm trying to blog.

Aha. And then Olivia appears. "Mom, will you please log onto PowerSchool and check my grades?" All A's and B's. Good for her! I'm so proud of her. And then my heart starts to beat a little faster as I begin to think about what awaits me in just two short weeks... I'll be concerned about my own grades. I'll be starting work on my Masters Degree in Professional Counseling. It's been years since I've been in school. I have moments when I think... "what were you thinking?!...signing up to take classes?...and GRADUATE classes no less??!!" I'll have to do a tremendous amount of writing. And I'm told that my writing will have to follow APA Format (whatever that is!) Oh. Help. My nice quiet evening of sitting on the couch with my laptop in front of the TV with an old Alfred Hitchcock episode suddenly turned into a nightmare.

Did I ever tell you that I don't like to write? Seriously. There was the one time in college when I was required to write a paper for extra credit and my friend offered to write the paper for me (because she was student teaching and had no finals for which to study and she was bored!) And I jokingly told her "sure! write my paper for me!" - and then she actually DID write the paper! It was an ethnography on the Yanomamo Tribe - for my Introduction to Anthropology class. Why in the world I took an intro to anthro class is beyond me. I needed an elective. I was told it would be a fun course. And it was - caused me to actually consider becoming an anthropologist for a second or two. But I digress. My friend did such an awesome job on the paper which I turned in with my name on it...that I received an "A" grade. An "A" grade on a paper which I never wrote. (Don't think that this hasn't bothered me for years - decades even! - for it has!)

So now, in just a few short days, I will be embarking upon a graduate studies career. And I will have to write papers. A LOT of papers. ...I'm wondering if my friend would consider writing my papers. I know where she lives. I could ask... ugh.

And then I started to think that perhaps I need to change my perspective. You see, the Lord has called me to do this Masters thing. It's not anything I came up with on my own. So...He equips those whom He calls. Right? Right. So writing all these papers will not be such a big deal. When I take a few steps back and look at it from God's perspective...it's a small thing.

Sorta like the wind turbines we saw while visiting Brillo Man's family in New York. Small? No. HUGE! They tower approximately 533 feet in the air!! But when one steps back...they don't seem all that menacing.


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This is a small thing in the eyes of the LORD...
-2 Kings 3:18
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3 comments:

Pat said...

You have been gifted with the ability to write, and write very well. I'm so glad you have written this post.
My word for the new year is "change", and to be willing to change myself in ways that would help me to grow. That's just what you are doing by going back to school. I'm so proud of you and now I have to get busy and think of a graduation gift for my friend with the Masters Degree!
Go Sherpa!

Mrs. Mac said...

Ha! I think we sisters need to step away from facebook and renew our love for writing blogs. Seems to me that our little thoughts on FB could end up as a good post at least once a week on our blogs. Good for you, Deb, going back to school .. :)

Anonymous said...

nice post! Very excited for you going back to school! yeahyy.
you are in my dashboard blog follows. read you soon!
becky