Tag: stress

A first for the first day of school

For the first time in my life, I slept well the night before the first day of school. I went to school today rested and ready for the day, and I was, at one point, amazed when I realized just how rested and easy-feeling I was. I had a peaceful, easy feeling, and it was mostly due to a good night of sleep last night.

What a great first to experience.

Dear God, thank you for my sleep last night. Please, help me always to sleep well, that sounds have the full and easy energy to pursue and fulfill your will always. Thank you for this life and this work – they are both blessed. In your name, I pray in gratitude. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Day one

Tomorrow is the first day of school. I am simultaneously not really worried at all and somewhat freaking out (mostly because I am so ‘no big deal’ about it all). Sure, I want to make a good impression and do a good job and all that jazz. But I also… it’s not that I don’t care about it all. Perhaps it is that the first day, in my mind, is just a day now. It didn’t used to be. But it seems to be for me now, anyway. I can’t get much done in terms of lesson-planning until I start meeting with students. So, I’d like to go ahead and meet with them in order to find out where they all are with everything. Language courses are kind of like that. Yes, we have specific goals for the year, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be able to start right away with new material. Most of them are new learners of the language, and most only have exposure during the school year and in the classroom. So, two months of no class means massive recession of their abilities in the language. And I didn’t teach these particular students last year, so I don’t even know what they truly covered, nor how well they mastered what they did cover. So, my first unit of the year, except for French I, is always a review unit to get everyone on the same page.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to it, I guess. I think it has the potential to be a really great year.

Thank you, God. Please, give me your perfect words this year. Help me to be your servant in my teaching especially. Help me always to pursue and fulfill your will. In your name, I pray in gratitude. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

So much stress

I had several errands to run today, and several strategic purchase to make during the tax-free weekend for clothing and backpacks. And the first of my errands kind of very much pissed me off – I was extremely frustrated. It was a simple matter of $14.06. I had been told by the store workers that they did returns without one week, and then exchanges or store credit only after that. However, they at this store seem utterly unaware of the fact that “return” includes returning the money to the purchaser, not merely giving store credit. I had even confirmed when purchasing the thing that it would be, “for a full refund.” But “refund” must mean to them “store credit”.

So, that was extremely annoying for me. And it was worsened by the fact that I’m at a financial place where $14 really does matter. But, when I looked at the receipt after the frustrating discovery that I was given store credit, and I saw that the sales tax I had paid was not refunded to me, the tables turned gently in my favor. The computer system was programmed to function fully without tax for the weekend, and they had no way to override it. So, they refunded another item on my original receipt to compensate. It was more than double the tax I had paid, but the store manager had approved it, as there was no way to reverse the initial return transaction, anyway, plus no way to add the sales tax. So, instead of just the dollar seven of tax I had paid, they refunded me another $2.25… refund being as store credit, of course; gotta use their lingo here…

Anyway, that was really hard for me on multiple levels, but I am grateful it turned out a little more positively than it had seemed like it would end. And the day turned out to be a hassle but worth the errands, so I am glad I went and handled it all today.

And then, I missed Mass, so ended up attending a 7pm Spanish Mass, and it was actually quite good. It was a church that usually is sparsely filled with folks for any English Mass I’ve ever attended, but was full tonight for the Spanish Mass. I stood out, to be sure, but I was able easily to participate and understand everything. And the homily was actually nice and got me thinking in a good way. Plus, the music was very Mexican yet also fun. I even went after Mass to ask for the names of two of the songs from the head music guy. He asked what everyone else was clearly thinking, and learned that Spanish was not my native language and, no, I didn’t learn it in school. But he commended some for it and didn’t hide his surprise at my speaking so easily with him in Spanish. It was silly, but fun, and it was great to have God bring together such different people so easily. I was very grateful tonight that my religion allows for participation in worship across cultures and languages so well.

Thank you, God, for the help today and for the blessings of your love today. Stay noticeably with me, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Sleepy

I need to sleep hard tonight, as I have a sort of long day tomorrow that starts early. But there is a chance it might be a very interesting time, as well as educational. So, that gives it a chance of being great, despite my likely being tired and kind of generally wiped from this week’s work stuff.

I didn’t get any lesson stuff done today, though I’d hoped to have at least my framework for making lessons set up today. But it didn’t happen either. Technology changed, so I couldn’t connect my external hard drive to the new laptop that only had USB-C ports on it. But IT said I can easily come pick up an adapter on Monday, so I’ll do that then, and get down to some business. Some very important business called, “What on Earth I am doing in classes for the start of school.”

Dear God, help me to be a great teacher this year especially. I look forward to fulfilling your will and to being your servant in this fulfilling role. Guide me always, please, and help me always to have the right words. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Progress

I wasn’t as stressed today as yesterday. I was clearly still stressed, though, because I actually started to cry a little bit when I discovered that my “office” is a former storage room and is the only office that has no window at all. And it has no built-in shelving or storage like everyone else has… because it was a storage room.

Nonetheless, I went to the bathroom, and came back with the perspective of figuring out something workable. I turned the heavy (and dirty) desk to face the common area (that wall is glass, so it acts like a secondary window, you could say, getting natural light from the windows that lead into the rest of the office suite), and it fit just perfectly there. I then cleaned the desk.m and left it opened up to dry, so I could reevaluate if more cleaning would be needed tomorrow.

I then sat at the center table in the common area (which is filled with natural light), right outside my door, to handle the bit of computer work I had to do – well, wanted to have done – today before I went home. While there, I ended up meeting the rest of the residents of the office suite as they trickled in, and it was almost magical. This was truly the place for me to be this year. It is downstairs and the next building over from where all my classes will be (versus down the hall from the classroom on the same floor).

I was initially okay with the idea, though, because it would mean my own space instead of four cubicles in a single room, and my own locking door for keeping things safe at my own discretion. The lack of window, as I mentioned, put me over an edge of stress, though, and made me cry a bit. But I shared a photo with my brother, who is very high up in his company and recently ran into the problem of having no office at all to himself, due to a hiring surge. He had said repeatedly that he didn’t care if he only got a closet – he just needed his own space to work privately. He laughed at my photo and offer for him to take my storage shed office, and sent me a photo of his recently-found closet. He said I had him beat on space, and that he didn’t even have one of the adjustable standing desks he usually has. His photo cracked me up. Sure, the one wall was painted like the outdoors beautifully, but his office truly was like a closet. He said he can barely wheel out his chair to sit down in it, and he definitely cannot do any advanced yoga poses (his words, not mine). So, we both have former storage closets for offices now. But we are both glad to have them to ourselves, especially since I turned the desk and it made all the difference(!).

Now, to dive right into the real work tomorrow: preparing for actual teaching.

God, guide me to do a wonderful job at school and always to do your will. Thank you for this job and this call. In your name, I pray. Amen.

P.S. I totally forgot to mention that, when I went to leave for the day, and I locked the office door, it didn’t actually lock…. That is to say that the lock is broken… the irony. Haha. But, we submitted a repair request and it likely will be fixed before school starts next week. So, yay! Haha

Post-a-day 2023

Day one (post)

Well, it happened. And it went well. It was odd, to be sure. But it was still good. I truly believe and see that God has put me here on purpose, to fulfill His will in service. It is still, however, very easy for me to forget that I am trusting in God wholly, and not to freak out about the sense of instability and financial crisis in my life right now. Someone commented today that I seemed very stressed. I told her clearly that she was right and that I am very stressed. I am finally starting to have periods throughout the day in which I do trust God wholly. But I still have much time during which I only trust Him partly – unintentionally so – and end up worrying about what to do to take care of myself and my family. So, I most definitely cried on my first day. And that’s okay and perfect. It built bonds I hadn’t known I had longer to have built. So, that also was really cool, in addition to odd. 😛

God, take us into Your hands, please, and care for us as You love us. Help us to love one another with more and more of Your love each day and night. Help us to be strong. Help us do and fulfill Your will in all that we do and in all that we are. Help us to find through that fulfillment of our own dreams that You have granted to us. Thank you for this life. Free me to let go and give it all up to you, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

P.S. It is very weird to me when I am taking to you, God, and I use the capitalized letters to reference you. Talking about you? Works perfectly. Talking to you? Feels super odd, and I have to keep reminding myself to do it. Thank you for understanding me, and especially all of my silliness. I love you. Amen again. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Day one

Tomorrow is the first day on which I will be part of the faculty/staff body at this school, sort of for real this time, my third time joining them. I am only teaching part-time, officially, and as a long-term sub, technically. However, I am the hired teacher of four French classes for the entire school year. And my name will be on the classes this time, and my name alone.

I am curious to see how they relate to me, the administration. Will they see me as someone helping out or as a teacher? In a way, this year will be a massive test for my fit at this school. It also will be a massive test for me for myself, regarding my effectiveness at teaching. I know I can do very well in the short-term. But how do my methods and plans and organization translate to the longer-term? We certainly shall see, shan’t we? (I do hope so, anyway!)

God, guide me to do my best and to share your love. Help me always to pursue and fulfill your will. Grant me the gift of words that make the positive difference for all. In your name, I pray. And thank you. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Trust like children

I shared with my aunt today about the kakizome and the idea of these dreams God has given me being like the center of a labyrinth – they were recently just within sight and reach, but have suddenly swooped far away, like I have gone to the outer edges of the labyrinth… yet a labyrinth only has one path, and it eventually will turn all the way to the center goal… we just have to walk the whole thing, which weaves inward and outward many a times. She commented that the labyrinth comparison was a very good one to remember for all of life, that, yes, God is with us and guiding us and there is truly the one pathway on which He is guiding us, even though it seems to wander near to and far from our goals again and again…, but it still will reach there eventually. We just have to trust in God and follow His guidance.

On that note, she also commented that, when we trust in God, everything is easy. ‘That’s why He says to trust Him as children trust,’ she said. Because children trust wholly. As they grow up, they experience betrayal and they learn to be distrustful of others and of the world. But, when children are children, they trust wholly, and it is easy for them to be happy and free. Even when something bad happens, they are sad for a bit, and then bounce right back to being happy and free. They are trusting that they are cared for, that they are safe, that all is well.. even if they aren’t aware of it, they are trusting. And life is easy for them then.

What if we could trust God as children trust life? How free and easy we could be…

So, that is my goal: To keep an eye on my trust. If I am not free and easy, I can look to see where I am not trusting God in that moment. And then I can let it go and give it up to God, and trust in Him there, too. Just from our conversation this morning, I was able to see so much of how I was resisting trusting God, which was why I was so stressed still. As soon as I let it all go and gave it up to God, I suddenly was lighter physically, and was ready to go run errands I had dreaded so much, I had anticipated avoiding them entirely and skipping them. I went and shopped for – and found! – tops for work that fit me at two separate shops. And I had a great time. I wasn’t even stressed about it, though I had been the other day. I noticed the marked difference in how easy it was to find things and also to be okay when things didn’t fit, and just to move on without getting upset. It didn’t even occur to me to get upset when things didn’t fit, be they too big or too small, though that had not been the case the last two trips I’d made to look for work clothes. I’m not saying life was happy-go-lucky today. But it was significantly easier than it had been. And I actually had a great time today doing all of it.

I even had the first shop accidentally not give me the shoes I’d purchased, and I didn’t find out until after dinner tonight. I was loaded with adrenaline when I realized the error, and I was hoping they hadn’t re-sold the shoes to someone else, but I didn’t have this heavy sense of panic I typically might have gotten (or would have gotten recently, anyway). I just took action, found out the shop still had them for me, and got back dressed instead of showering and going to bed, and went to pick them up. I’m getting to bed an hour later than planned. And yet I had a good time even going to pick up the shoes. I’m still in a good mood now, and hour and a half past when I’d hoped to be in bed tonight. And it’s okay. I’m taking steps to improve, and I am trusting in God on a whole new level now… and it is amazing. And it is growing. And I love it all.

And I even had horrible diarrhea today, and I’m still in a great mood. It’s ridiculous and wonderful.

Thank you, God. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

God’s plans

A few years ago, I started participating in a Japanese practice called Kakizome. On January second, one creates one’s kakizome, “first writing”, of the year. This first writing is a single word or phrase that is one’s goal and intention for the year as a whole. It is intended that we put our kakizome somewhere visible, so we see it regularly and consistently throughout the year. Since participating in this practice, I have found that my own kakizome has, unintentionally, and without my even noticing, been the challenge I end up facing consistently through ought that year. And, by facing that challenge again and again, I have overcome some big hurdle in my life and have become powerfully more the person I long to be and am called to be by God. Put differently, I have become a better version of myself in a significant way each year, after facing trial after trial of my kakizome for that year. And it was never on purpose – it just came up over and over again. One year was confidence in myself and heart (when I healed a lot of emotional and psychological wounds from some rather terrible abuse, and started writing wonderful songs and sharing myself with the world in a beautiful and loving and confident self-expression). Another was embodiment (that’s when I physically hit all my goals of fitness, felt the most beautiful I ever have been, met the man of my life, and became the person who prays whom I had longed to be). This year’s… well, we’ll get to that.

Now, sometimes, it is really hard to see and to understand God’s plans for us. Perhaps that is how He wants it to be. Perhaps that is how He needs it to be. Perhaps that is how we need it to be in order for everything to work out as God has planned so beautifully.

Whatever the case, it often is not very easy to be calm and easygoing when things seem impossible. When God has granted me these longings, these wishes, these dreams towards which to strive, and everything seems finally so close to fulfilling on those dreams, yet starts to pull away from that pathway… it can be extremely difficult to trust in God and His oh-so-unclear plans… When the labyrinth of God’s love and plans takes the route closest to the inside, and then swerves to the outermost path… faith gets tested, to be sure.

And that is, basically, my every day right now… and that kind of really sucks…

What is ironic – and, possibly, perfect and relieving – about it all, though, is that my kakizome for this year is “faith in God”, in the sense of trusting in Him, having confidence in Him – ‘Jesus, I trust in you.’ Like that.

So, I guess, it really is no wonder that I am having such massive experiences of having to trust in God this year, and on a whole ‘nother level from the usual trust I have to put in Him. Usually, it is for much smaller things and not all too often. This year, however, it has been for massive thing after massive thing. I have been hit with so many impossible-feeling situations, that the only consistency I have felt this year is a sense of everything being up on the air and unknown. I have handed thing after things up to God – here, God, I entrust this fully to you, has been a norm for me this year. I have even given Him some intense stuff that I would like to let go from my life entirely, demons that I have asked Him to take away from me fully… there is not much this year where I haven’t given it all up to God and entrusted it to Him and His judgement. But it seems there is plenty more to go still…

I’m genuinely laughing and crying right now. It is comical in its irony.

Okay, God, have it all. I am so scared, and I am trusting you, anyway, even with my fear – have that, too. I am hear to love you and to be your love in the world. You know best how to make that happen. So, though it terrifies you, I hand myself and my whole life you to. Please, take good care of us. We love you. I love you, Abba. I give up fighting you. I give up not trusting you wholly. Please, help me to find peace, even in my unknowing. Help my man to find peace in it all, too, please. And, if it be your will, please, grant us both these spectacular wishes and desires for the future that you have given to us both, with you at their center. Thank you for this life. In your name, I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah.

Saint Jude, pray for us.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.

Amen.

Post-a-day 2023