Saturday, March 31, 2012

Recalculating



While driving home from the tax office late one afternoon, I happened to catch Krista Tippett’s American Public Media show Being (formerly Speaking of Faith).  Her guest was  Sylvia Boorstein, a teacher and psychotherapist.  The program was entitled What We Nurture.  Here’s a link to the 51-minute podcast (I hope):  http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2012/what-we-nurture.  The show was originally broadcast on March 29, 2012.

When the student is willing the teacher will appear.

As many of you know, my temp job as an administrative law judge ended on March 30, 2012.  I will be working more than full time at my seasonal job as a tax advisor through April 17, 2012.  But my “work” future beyond that point is uncertain.  I’m planning to focus on Etsy and family for a couple of months while I sort out options.

The week the job ended, I discovered (or was led two) two inspiring images, both relating to roads. (Hmm.  Metaphor.  Road of Life.)  One was posted on Facebook by my quilting buddy Linda, a strong and courageous cancer survivor.  That visual message was a photo with this caption: 

Someone once asked me, “Why do you always insist on taking the hard road?”
I replied, “Why do you assume I see two roads?”

The second, an audio message, came to me through the Sylvia Boorstein interview on NPR.  Boorstein suggested that as we travel down life’s road, we should have an inner GPS that tells us, in a calm and reassuring voice, “Recalculating.”   It may also tell us to take the first available left turn.  But no matter how many times we miss our turn, that calm, reassuring voice will continue to say “Recalculating” as we attempt to adapt and carry on.

The road of life has a several potholes, some blind intersections, some detours, some construction zones, and some dead ends.  Sometimes we miss our turn and head down the wrong path.  Sometimes we are at a fork in the road, but we may not see that in fact, there are two roads.

During these difficult times, may we summon the inner calm and courage to adapt and carry on as we calmly urge ourselves to “recalculate” with God’s help.

TTFN
LeAnn aka pasqueflower


5 comments:

  1. You certainly described the road of life well. And I love your title. I can hear our GPS say "RECALULATING" right now. LOL

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  2. This is so true. My inner calm was definitely challenged this week... time to recalculate now:)

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  3. I often find myself recalculating. Great post, LeAnn.

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  4. The "road" metaphor is one I've been using most of my adult life to describe life's journey, and I discovered pretty early on that the distal horizon never remains the same for long, and that "recalculating" is always going to be required, despite our efforts to stay to what we think is our "chosen" path. Accept it, and go with it until it changes again :).

    So, yes, I can certainly relate to your post!

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  5. LeAnn, this resonated with me! GPS is the perfect analogy for trust and faith. We make our choices using flawed human thinking, and God takes us as we are, working all things together for the good of those who love Him.

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