Danny always brings home some pretty interesting stories about school. Medical terminology is like another language. I'm sure he dumbs it way down when he explains the things he's learning about. I am ok with that. It used to bother me a little, that I couldn't carry on an intelligent conversation with him about chemical & physiological effects of the blah blah blah while he was taking Gross Anatomy. I come home talking about how happy I am with the big turnout in my spin class, the compliments I get on my music or the workout, or how I felt seeing the spark and enthusiasm from the college girl with a lifelong battle with obesity giving it her all to keep her New Year's Resolution to get healthy, and how I got to help her understand the equipment and the program I put her on. I wouldn't trade that for anything!
We live completely different lives outside of our home during the day. You can't compare my job to his, because they are so completely different. My feeling on the subject is that if you like what you are doing, and you are getting paid for it, more power to you!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations, you are successful in your work. Even better, I have a husband who feels the same way! We may have different purposes in life, but regardless we are both on Team Harris and what a gift: we act like it!
Do you find yourself comparing your status to others? So often women (and I'm sure men do this too) compare themselves to others. When stripped down to the core...is anyone really better than you? Are you any better than the person next door? NO! We are all on the same team. All of us are making our way through life heading towards the same ending. How you get there is between you and God.
One of my very favorite authors, Kristin Armstrong, makes a wonderful point. This excerpt from one of her books is something that happens everyday in our society and helped me realize that we should do a little less comparing and a little more sharing about the joys and trials of life.
"There is something about women that permits us to vie for a better impression of and for ourselves by belittling someone else. It rages through the gossip and social strata of adolescence and should by all means end when we "grow up," but somehow it does not end, it only mutates. Think about it.
Some women might excel in the workplace and someone else is quick to call her a witch or worse. Someone is pretty and someone is not; they are both equally cursed. Someone who's skinny is obsessive; someone who's curvy has let herself go. Someone has a baby and we make judgements about her choice between natural childbirth and using an epidural. Someone breastfeeds and someone gives formula, and somehow it is everybody's place to comment. Someone stays at home to take care of her kids and she is second-rate intellectually, or she get the 'it must be nice' routine. Someone else works outside the home and she is second-rate maternally or a slave to materialism. Even if we have no idea what motivates either choice or what makes it possible.
We judge if someone has a nanny. We judge the poor person who never gets out much. We judge other people's relationships, even if our own are crumbling. We judge other people's parenting, even when we are all hanging on by a thread and we are all far from expert. Someone who speaks her mind is grating; someone who doesn't is a wimp. Someone with a successful husband is a kept woman; someone who struggles is a poor thing. Someone who never exercises is lazy; someone who does take time for herself is decadent. Someone who hides her feelings is cold; someone who is authentic gets picked apart. We judge who has what job, who is busier, who has more stress, who has it "rougher." The funny thing is no one ever wins-because we are all on the same team."
How things could change if only we acted like it! I challenge you to lead by example...and leave the judging up to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment