THE INVISIBLE JOURNEY 12

 

Staying committed to your destiny in the face of tragedies or adversity is quite a challenge. However, it can be accomplished with diligence and our Creator.  The Creator has a way of shielding when you ask Him to.  Like going into a cave or shell and staying there until He says, go forth. 

 

This is what I was thinking about after learning about the Navy Yard tragedy, too.  It was time to go inside my shell and just hang out with my Creator.  But He would not let me.  Daggonit!  He said, “Get right back out there and get cracking, young lady!”  (Smile).  This is the attitude we must take when we recognize that the current news event is causing us to become discouraged and our dreams become negatively affected.  We can imagine all sorts of bad things when this happens (panic, anxiety, fear) to cause us to give up!

 

Ok, I love revealing parts of my life to help others so check this out:  about 20 – 25 years again after becoming diagnosed with a mental illness, I decided to go back to work.  I was assisting my boss with a workshop on poor self-esteem.  At the workshop, everything somebody shared about his/her life, I interpreted as an attack on me.  By lunch time, I told my boss something about being sick, etc. and left.  I was fuming mad at everybody for picking on me (not violent).  Later that evening my boss called to see what happened to me.  I explained that folks were picking on me at the workshop.  He asked, “Who?”  I told him everybody who attended.  He said, “They don’t even know you from adam or eve.  Are you taking your medications?  It was a self-esteem workshop.  They weren’t thinking about you.  They got issues of their own and were asking for help to be like you (get where you are, etc.).  I apologized and promised it would not happen again.  When I got off the phone, I was embarrassed and began sinking even deeper into depression.  Long story short, I had to quit the job (or be fired).  Truth be told, it was not time for me to work and not in that type of setting until I became stronger through mental health treatment to discern separating issues of others as not being attacks against me.  It took about three years to get there.

 

Remember the school kids?  Well, that was my next big job.  When they called me Bipolar and then I ran into another teacher in the restroom while I was balling my eyes out?  Well, after that day, I learned to tell the kids "Everybody is Bipolar so get over it and sit down and do your work before I write you up!"  That was growth in comparison and a whole heap of love! [I didn’t quit and the name-calling stopped].

 

See ya soon,