Things always get kind of stressful for me around the end of the semester. I have papers to grade and papers to write. Then there is also "normal" life including investing in the important relationships in my life, and to top it all off, at the end of the fall semester is Christmas! It's easy to get bogged down and to feel overwhelmed at times like this. I haven't started my papers. I have lots of ideas floating around in my brain, but I have to find the time to sit down and work those ideas out. Then there are the 30-something papers I have to grade by Friday... and the baby's room to get ready, and the gifts to prepare... craziness!
So I was thinking about all of this today after I visited the library with a stack of books to make my free copies, and the free copy machine was broken. What am I to do at a time like this? I remembered that gratitude is a practice. Sometimes we need to step out in faith, and the gratitude will come.
Today I am grateful for school. I am grateful for the chance to do something that I love and get paid for it (not much, but still!). I am grateful for the chance to live into my calling in this area of my life. I am grateful for the opportunity to stand in front of two classes of college freshmen--46 total--and hopefully invest in them a little bit. I'm not just talking about semicolons here! I am grateful for the chance to study and learn and grow as a scholar and as a teacher. I am also grateful for the number of things that I must keep in balance with school--most importantly my fabulous husband and son. They help me maintain perspective when life is stressful.
The truth is that I am infinitely blessed-- "immeasurably more than [I could] ask or imagine," in fact.
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