This is a HUGE success for me. There have been many obstacles that have been thrown in my path. My daughter's marriage fell apart and she and my grandson had to move in with us two weeks ago. The weather here was extreme (even for Ohio) this winter. I had surgery to remove my thyroid just three days before the semester started and didn't even get to start with the rest of my class, beginning a week late and having a few little speed bumps along the way with medication regulation, allergic reactions and just plain, old exhaustion.
Frankly, I have been scrambling all semester to keep up.
But the thing that almost always characterizes the ends of my major projects and the week of finals is that I can always feel the hand of God on my shoulder. It's when I shake that hand off and try to do things on my own that I begin to sink, and sink fast. When I trust in God's plan for me and allow Him to guide my words and my study, everything turns out just right.
Trust is a big issue for me - I am not good at trusting other people I can see, let alone a God that I cannot see or touch. But, Faith is a funny thing: I find that the more I trust, the more I can see God's presence and work in the world around me. The more I respond to Grace with Faith, the stronger that Faith becomes.
So here are my small (REALLY HUGE) successes for this week:
1. Following my surgery in January, I am currently cancer-free.
2. Last Friday, I won the top presenter prize for my podium presentation, "Finding a Voice: It Sounds Like a Personal Problem to Me" (A Jungian literary critique of the novel Possession by A.S. Byatt). I didn't know there were prizes. It was a nice surprise to be rated so highly, but the prize was a really great cap to my semester.
3. I am getting my grades back, now, but it looks like I had another 3.9 - 4.0 semester.
So this weekend, my husband and I are celebrating! We're going to the Symphony concert this weekend and having a nice, quiet dinner.
What small successes (or big ones) are you celebrating this week? Head on over to CatholicMom.com to share them.
Katie, your post brought tears to my eyes. You have been through an incredible amount of stress and adversity, but for you to come up with a Jungian interpretation of a literary piece of work!? That is a masterpiece of creative genius for someone who does NOT have thyroid surgery, is finally cancer-free, has a daughter who recently moved in with her, etc. Amazing. You totally deserve the nice, quiet weekend and dinner! God bless you and congrats on your achievements!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jeannie! This truly is a triumph, but it is also truly God working in my life. I am so scatterbrained at the moment that I am amazed I can string a sentence together. ;-) It truly is in our weakness that God is glorified. When I am at my weakest, that's when I see God so clearly working. I just have to open my eyes and see. Have a great weekend!
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