Silly Conversations

How does tragedy shape us? How do bad things grow us? Physical pain, sucks. As I approach the big 3-0, my body is doing weird things. I used to get injured being active and dancing. Now I sneeze too hard, or sleep slightly wrong and I’m in pain for 5 whole days. However, emotional pain has nothing on physical pain. And this is coming from someone who was in labor for like 3 days. Emotional pain is something we have tried to describe. Writers everywhere have tried to come up with metaphors for emotional pain since Biblical times. Although some come close, no one can truly describe how it feels to have tragedy strike and feel the emotional pain. It’s a lesson we as believers have always heard and want to reconcile. We try to encourage those going through hard times with lessons of perseverance, lessons of endurance, of “running the good race” and “fighting the good fight.” We teach on Job, and how he lost everything and still praised God. None of this is new, but it helps. ...

This title is a little misleading. This blog will actually be about work. You know, that thing we all look forward to having a day off from. It’s still weird to think that I have an actual “career.” I mean, not as weird as being a parent, but still a strange concept for a person who still doesn’t feel like she’s made it into the adult world. This is my 5th year as a full time classroom teacher. It’s definitely not been easy. I’ve been through anxiety, depression, coming in early, staying super late, grading on any free time I have, crying on my lunch breaks, quitting mid year, parent complaints, thousands of hours of professional development, long term sub problems, breaking up fights, de-escalating situations, sassy teenagers, hormonal teenagers, emotional teenagers, hard situations, mandatory reporting, and of course getting BARELY above the minimum wage for all of this. I don’t go through that list to get pity or sympathy or encouragement. I go through this to let ...