Vocation
Since closing my counseling business in West Virginia, moving to Florida and retaining only a small caseload of clients for life coaching, I have been thinking anew about vocation for this stage of my life journey.
I am clear that I do not want to have a large private practice although Florida Department of Health has been helpful with my staying firm with that decision. They do not want to accept my West Virginia counseling license. This leaves me certified in Florida to work with those dealing with addiction and with life issues not involving serious mental illness.
I am also, for the first time, exploring doing a blog. Initially I did one blog every week or every three-week or whenever time presented itself or the muse decided to pay a visit.
Recently I decided I would do a blog a day. I am not sure how erudite my daily blogs have been or whether the content warrants a blog a day, but the discipline of forcing myself to sit down and write has been interesting and, I think, helpful. More often than not when I sit down to write I feel as if I have nothing important to share and nothing “just appears” on the page. On the other hand usually when I am writing letters the words often seem to just appear on the paper.
I have decided that my relationship with writing is similar in many respects to all other relationships in my life. For example:
· For a relationship to work I have to regularly show up emotionally and spiritually as well as physically.
· I have to show up on a consistent basis and not just when I have nothing else on my to do list.
· I don’t always feel good about any particular relationship. At times, being present is uncomfortable.
· The discomfort could be because I do not want to address or admit to some emotion or issue. It could be because I am feeling weak and vulnerable and am fearful of exposing too much of my own humanness. The discomfort could be for a myriad of other reasons.
· If I expect a positive outcome I need to put in something positive.
· For me to be at my best in this relationship I must take care of myself emotionally, physically, spiritually and intellectually.
At nearly 75 I am still learning about relationships. Although I have always been a letter writer and have often been the one in a relationship to initiate contact, at times, particularly when I was younger, I neglected relationships and expected others to just be waiting in open arms. There were times when I thought that the relationship would be better if the other person would just love me unconditionally. At some point I figured out that I needed to give what I wanted – unconditional love.
For me, vocation is about my relationship with self, higher power/God, and Mother Nature. When I attend to those relationships I can bring a loving, open presence to others. I do not ask what the other person can give me, but what I can bring to the other.
No matter what I am doing for a living, it seems to me that relationship is primary. In that sense it does not matter which of many jobs I have had during my life journey I am currently performing. If am working with cows in a diary I want to show up with love and respect to the cows as well as to my co-workers. If I show up in an angry or whiney mood even the cows will pick up on my mood. My co-workers will also pick up on my negativity. If I am working as a counselor first and foremost I must remind myself that this human is meeting with another, equal human. The primary goal is to treat that person with love and respect and, incidentally, explore how I can be helpful. If I am working at a bank or other business I want to keep the relationship with my co-workers and the customers as primary.
On might say then that my vocation is to show up with love. I can practice that vocation no matter when I am doing for a living. Depending on the job I might have to ask myself if I am part of a company or corporate system that depend on others being treated as less then in order to make a profit. For examples, it was discovered a few years ago that a major corporation whose products I regularly use was using a factory setting where employees were forced to work for very little money and in an unsafe setting to make it products in another country. Even though I, as a consumer, might treat the store clerk where I purchased these products with love and respect, I was participating in a larger system, which involved the mistreatment of others. I was, in this way, violating, the ethics of my vocation and, thus, not practicing my vocation. This would cause me to become “dis eased”.
Thus, in our complicated world, it is not always easy to practice vocation or to determine what that might mean on a day-to-day basis. First, however, I have to be willing to ask to lovingly, non-judgmentally ask the difficult questions.
I have found that other people such as Parker Palmer can be helpful in my pursuit of vocation. For example, his book, Let Your Life Speak Listening for the Voice of Vocation has been very helpful. Teachers such as Eckhart Tolle, Pema Chodron and others are also very helpful.
Since closing my counseling business in West Virginia, moving to Florida and retaining only a small caseload of clients for life coaching, I have been thinking anew about vocation for this stage of my life journey.
I am clear that I do not want to have a large private practice although Florida Department of Health has been helpful with my staying firm with that decision. They do not want to accept my West Virginia counseling license. This leaves me certified in Florida to work with those dealing with addiction and with life issues not involving serious mental illness.
I am also, for the first time, exploring doing a blog. Initially I did one blog every week or every three-week or whenever time presented itself or the muse decided to pay a visit.
Recently I decided I would do a blog a day. I am not sure how erudite my daily blogs have been or whether the content warrants a blog a day, but the discipline of forcing myself to sit down and write has been interesting and, I think, helpful. More often than not when I sit down to write I feel as if I have nothing important to share and nothing “just appears” on the page. On the other hand usually when I am writing letters the words often seem to just appear on the paper.
I have decided that my relationship with writing is similar in many respects to all other relationships in my life. For example:
· For a relationship to work I have to regularly show up emotionally and spiritually as well as physically.
· I have to show up on a consistent basis and not just when I have nothing else on my to do list.
· I don’t always feel good about any particular relationship. At times, being present is uncomfortable.
· The discomfort could be because I do not want to address or admit to some emotion or issue. It could be because I am feeling weak and vulnerable and am fearful of exposing too much of my own humanness. The discomfort could be for a myriad of other reasons.
· If I expect a positive outcome I need to put in something positive.
· For me to be at my best in this relationship I must take care of myself emotionally, physically, spiritually and intellectually.
At nearly 75 I am still learning about relationships. Although I have always been a letter writer and have often been the one in a relationship to initiate contact, at times, particularly when I was younger, I neglected relationships and expected others to just be waiting in open arms. There were times when I thought that the relationship would be better if the other person would just love me unconditionally. At some point I figured out that I needed to give what I wanted – unconditional love.
For me, vocation is about my relationship with self, higher power/God, and Mother Nature. When I attend to those relationships I can bring a loving, open presence to others. I do not ask what the other person can give me, but what I can bring to the other.
No matter what I am doing for a living, it seems to me that relationship is primary. In that sense it does not matter which of many jobs I have had during my life journey I am currently performing. If am working with cows in a diary I want to show up with love and respect to the cows as well as to my co-workers. If I show up in an angry or whiney mood even the cows will pick up on my mood. My co-workers will also pick up on my negativity. If I am working as a counselor first and foremost I must remind myself that this human is meeting with another, equal human. The primary goal is to treat that person with love and respect and, incidentally, explore how I can be helpful. If I am working at a bank or other business I want to keep the relationship with my co-workers and the customers as primary.
On might say then that my vocation is to show up with love. I can practice that vocation no matter when I am doing for a living. Depending on the job I might have to ask myself if I am part of a company or corporate system that depend on others being treated as less then in order to make a profit. For examples, it was discovered a few years ago that a major corporation whose products I regularly use was using a factory setting where employees were forced to work for very little money and in an unsafe setting to make it products in another country. Even though I, as a consumer, might treat the store clerk where I purchased these products with love and respect, I was participating in a larger system, which involved the mistreatment of others. I was, in this way, violating, the ethics of my vocation and, thus, not practicing my vocation. This would cause me to become “dis eased”.
Thus, in our complicated world, it is not always easy to practice vocation or to determine what that might mean on a day-to-day basis. First, however, I have to be willing to ask to lovingly, non-judgmentally ask the difficult questions.
I have found that other people such as Parker Palmer can be helpful in my pursuit of vocation. For example, his book, Let Your Life Speak Listening for the Voice of Vocation has been very helpful. Teachers such as Eckhart Tolle, Pema Chodron and others are also very helpful.
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