Thursday, November 19, 2009

Blog Chain: Like a good neighbor...

It's blog chain time again.

For this round, Mandy asked:

How do you prioritize? How do you balance paying attention to your writing, critiquing for friends, spending time with your family and earning a living?

This is a kind of a funny question for someone who flies by the seat of her pants. (That would be me.)

I know my answer may not be comfortable for some people to read. Not everyone believes in the same things I do.

That's okay. We all have our own journey.

But since Mandy asked. . .


About 13 years ago, I worked as a pharmacy technician. I hated it. The hours were long. The pay sucked. And, to be quite honest, people are cranky when they're sick. (Not to mention the fact that I picked up every little bug that came along.)

To top all of that off, my situation at home wasn't so great. My husband and I were dirt poor and way too immature to care for an infant properly. It always seemed like I was shoveling to fill one hole only to create another.

I was miserable. There were mornings when, on my way to work, I considered dropping my daughter off at daycare and driving away from my life.

Seriously.

It was that bad.

And then one day, I lost it. As my little girl napped, I sat on the floor of my single-wide trailer and broke my long silence with God. In a nutshell, I told Him I couldn't stand the imbalance in my life anymore. Something needed to change. I didn't know what it was, but I knew I couldn't do it alone.

Of course, as God often does when I speak out loud with Him (as noted here and here), He spoke back.

He told me I should only have two priorities in my life: 1.) Him and 2.) Everything else.

I scoffed. "Geez, God. That's a little self-centered, even for someone who is omnipotent."

His only response was: "Trust me."

That's when I started going with the flow of my life instead of trying to swim against the current. I started listening to that voice inside that told me when to write, when to read, when to crit, when to work, when to push it all aside for the sake of family, and most importantly, when to ask for help.

Oddly enough, less than a month after my conversation with God, I received a job offer from a place where I had applied more than five months earlier. It was a temporary position in the library of a Catholic high school. When that job ended in the spring, my boss -- the principal of the school -- gave a glowing recommendation to the daily newspaper where I now work as a business editor.

Don't get me wrong, I still hit snags. There are times when I get impatient with the speed of my life and push God out of the driver's seat. But the nice thing about crashing now is knowing my assurance provider always has me covered.

Check out what the ever-charming Eric had to say before me. Check out what the colossally creative Christine has to say tomorrow.

13 comments:

B.J. Anderson said...

Great answer to this topic! And I'm glad things are going better for you.

Unknown said...

Glad that works for you.

Sandra Ulbrich Almazan said...

It's funny, but when you mentioned going with the flow of life, I was immediately reminded of Taoist philosophy. Then I remembered the line from the Bible about "to everything there is a season." I guess some types of wisdom are universal.

Glad to hear you found something that works for you.

P.S. My word verification is "crope." Sounds to me like coping at the end of your rope!

Christine Fonseca said...

I love your answer...nicely done as always

Rosslyn Elliott said...

Thanks, Kat. I'm refreshed by this post.

Eric said...

Great response to this question, Kat. I'm a firm believer in letting things happen the way they are supposed to rather than fighting against the stream. Don't get me wrong; We should of course seek to improve ourselves and our lives, but you can't try to swim upstream faster than the current pushing you back down. It just doesn't work. Nice job.

LynnRush said...

You have a great story, Kat. Love how you write it. God's timing. God's planning, right? It's just the time in between that's difficult sometimes.

Anonymous said...

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Unknown said...

It's hard letting go of control, giving life over to God, but it's amazing how it seems to lead to a clearer path. Great post!

Cole Gibsen said...

Wow! That was so inspirational. Beautiful post!

Shaun Hutchinson said...

Great post. I'm not a spiritual person, but every time something really terrible happens or I regret not doing something, I remind myself that every thing in my life has led to here, and here is pretty awesome.

Amanda Bonilla said...

What a great post, Kat!

I'm a fly by the seat of my pants person too. I admit that I go with the flow, and listen to the urgings of the universe as well. It's hard to trust that you're doing what's right. But as long as you have faith, everything works out on its own.

Michelle McLean said...

going with the flow instead of fighting against the current = awesome :) Wonderful post, Kat :)