Storms are meant to toss your ship to and fro. Weather the rolling waves — wait and watch the rainbow shine over the horizon. This too shall pass.
Quoted from: http://sheritasearcy.com/2008/07/09/fight-through-the-storm/
Hi Everyone,
Today I have another team member contributing to the blog. Please welcome Joanne Richer, another one of our fantastic Speech-Language Pathologists.
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It is a time of economic uncertainty, a time when nothing is what it was and it is difficult to foresee what will be. I, along with many of you, am entrenched in this and am well aware of the challenges many of us are facing: layoffs, hiring freezes, salary cuts, foreclosures, the ending of cornerstone projects…and the list goes on. It is so difficult not to be discouraged and fearful. It seems as though many of us are in a “holding pattern” waiting to see what will come of all of this.
I have written this entry to shed a different perspective on the economic situation we are in and to perhaps free you from this “holding pattern”. I hope that you will draw strength from this and that you might be able to use it to help you weather your own “personal storm”.
My mother loved storms and was always excited when one was on the horizon. As a child I would sit with her in our veranda and watch the storm. My mother rejoiced in the sound of thunder and saw beauty in a strike of lightening. I asked her why she wasn’t afraid of storms and her response was always the same “I cannot be afraid of something so powerful, something that brings change and a sense of wonderment at what might happen next!” One day, I finally asked her what she meant by this. “Change? What do you mean, the lightening knocks down trees and the hail damages your garden!”
She agreed, “Yes it may feel like a storm is damaging and it is hard not to wish it would never come, but storms do come and they always will. And with a storm comes change! Change is good because it brings you new perspective and new opportunity. I choose to see wonderment in a storm. I choose to believe that the knocked down tree had a better place to go and that in its absence a younger tree will have the opportunity to set its roots in this earth. The damage in the garden is never so devastating that the garden does not heal, for after a storm I will tend to it and nurse it back to health. I choose to think that the storm is a subtle reminder for me to tend more to my garden, to be careful with it and to rejoice in its beauty”.
As an adult looking back I can see how my mother was coaching me to weather the storm of life. She was telling me to draw strength from it, to embrace the changes it brings and simply to choose to see wonderment in it. This small lesson has impacted my life deeply. An “economic storm” of sorts is affecting change all around me and it is impossible to guess what will happen next! There are times that I cower and feel the storm pulling me into its whirlwind of frustration and fear. I can see that others too are being pulled in and they are afraid, uncertain and feeling out of control. But as I whirl and twirl about my mother’s voice echoes in my mind:
“I choose to see wonderment in this storm. Change is good because it brings new perspective and new opportunity”.
And so I resist the pull of the storm and choose to weather it. If it should knock a tree, I choose to believe in the wonder of a younger and stronger tree that will replace it! If it should do some damage to the garden of my life then I will choose to remind myself to tend to it, to be careful with it and to rejoice in every moment of it. I will choose to take comfort in the thought that good things come from change.
While my mother is no longer with us, I hear her voice loud and clear and she is cheering us all on! Choose, choose, CHOOSE! Do not cower in this storm, it will soon pass. Life is yours to make of it what you want, so choose to weather the storm, embrace the changes and seek wonderment within and beyond it.
I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship
~ Louisa May Alcott ~
If a school district in your area needs Speech-Language Pathologists, please let me know by email as we at TinyEYE can help!
Joanne Richer,
TinyEYE Speech-Language Pathologist
http://www.TinyEYE.com-Online Speech Therapy Telepractice
School Districts: Recruiting Speech-Language Pathologists? Job Boards not working? Click this link!
