Jobs come and go – but beauty and grace continue

There are two bluebird families making nests outside my window this morning.  A group of robins are getting their morning drink from our feeder.  The chickadees are moving into a newly hung birdhouse as well.  A brave groundhog just ambled from our barn to the wooded area along the fence.

Yes, work needs to be done, plans need to be made, but I don’t want to miss the beauty around me today?  In 1988, I experienced a major business failure.  Our business was sold at auction, leaving us hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.  The IRS demanded the immediate sale of our house and cars and seized that money.  I recognized that I was a sitting duck for negativism and “victim” thinking to fill my mind and day.  I began a routine of spending at least two hours a day reading and listening to positive, uplifting material.  Add to that a loving wife, supportive friends, a strong spiritual faith, and my own motivation, and I was able to begin the long road back to increased success in all areas of my life.

Job, career or business failures often precipitate a spiraling down in areas beyond just money.  Job loss creates immediate financial pressure, leading to relationship strain.  This lowers self-esteem, reduces motivation for physical and personal development.  Faith is often questioned — If there is a God who cares, why did this happen to me?

Make daily success deposits in those areas you can control.  If the rent is due and you just got turned down once more in a job interview, you can still decide to love your kids and go for an invigorating walk.  One night last week, I turned the lights off in our living room, called Joanne in to join me, and we sat at our kitchen windows and just watched the moon travel across the sky.

Don’t miss the richest pleasures available to you whether or not you have a job you love.  Enjoying the simple things will add to your clarity about what work fits you well.  “Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will sense them.  The least we can do is try to be there……..so that creation need not play to an empty house.”  (Annie Dillard from “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”)