Lessons

So you may be wondering why I chose this pic as my "pic of the day", as I was writing this I remembered a photo I took of a friend and his little girl several years ago. She was practicing writing her name and she looked up at her father for approval. Of course you would have to know the father to understand the humor behind the face he is making. Nonetheless, when undertaking life lessons I think of us looking up at our heavenly Father in a similar child-like way for approval, insight, wisdom and comfort much like this little girl. Almost as if to ask, "Did I do it right, did I understand the point of the lesson?"

Today at work we had a reception for one of our colleagues. Shortly before the reception, I realized that the two people who were supposed to help me with set up had left work without notifying me which left me with my own self-taught lesson today regarding teamwork. I tried to focus on the reason for the reception instead of my own anger and pity party. This particular colleague had worked for our academic unit for nine years before becoming so ill that she could no longer work and has to undergo daily kidney dialysis while hoping for a kidney transplant. So the least I could do is help organize and set up for her reception.

I ran across the following excerpt from a daily devotional that I thought was fitting in light of my colleague's and personal ordeals (from the past two yrs): "Real trials in life are not ifs - they are whens. In fact, life's most profound lessons cannot simply be observed, they must be experienced. It is there, in actual seasons of heartache and loss, that we gain greater insights into life, faith and our need of God. To that end, James wrote, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience" (James 1:2-3). http://www.rbc.org

I started the morning making a "Do Not Disturb" in an effort to minimize the amount of interruptions I receive during a peak volume time for our office (a lesson I learned from last semester). We are in anticipation of the rush that will start next week for early registration when students get advice and enroll in summer and fall classes. We'll be in back-to-back appts. pretty much all day for the next 5-8 weeks, ugh! I worked on the sign on and off all day and had an appt. with a student first thing this morning who needed help choosing classes at another college that would transfer back to MU. This morning I also attended an advisor session with Logan Chiropractic College to help us understand the pre-requisites and admission requirements for applying to the Doctor of Chiropractic and Masters in Sports Science & Rehab programs so we can help advise our students on appropriate courses and co-curricular activities. In addition, we all met a wonderful recruiter and learned a lot about their programs (a nice life lesson!)

I tried to organize all the info about Logan and jot down relevant info so I wouldn't forget it before my weekly noontime yoga class. After that I scrambled to answer emails before it was time for the aforementioned reception. I spent the latter part of my day trying to get a handle on my email box and prep for PEK's (professional health professions fraternity) initiation tomorrow afternoon before leaving work at 6:30 pm. I was leaving as the custodian was coming in and he reminded me that most people leave by 5 on a Friday;) I told him that I also had to be back for the PEK initiation tomorrow.

My boss had a good idea the other day, she said we need to learn (another lesson again) "how to work smarter instead of harder". Something I'm aspiring to do. When I got home we looked at Paul's start on the new website template package we bought and then we ate, and now I have the Olympics on in the background while I write this and Paul continues work on the website.