TRYING TO BE IT ALL
A recent meeting has me ruminating about things, which means you get deep, meaningful crap that will now flow from my fingers and that someone will inevitably take the wrong way, make about themselves, or just feel the need to comment on, "Ohhh, that's too harsh..." , blah, blah, blah, blah ... just because they suddenly feel they must censor something, anything. Listen, these are my thoughts rolling around in my head. It's not directed at any one person ... PLEASE DON'T MAKE IT ABOUT YOU!
So, getting on with it, a recent meeting made me realize that a lot of people expect me to be a lot of things.
As a teacher, I am now expected not only to teach child, but counsel them. Oh, lest we forget the parents, I'm expected to counsel them too ... on a menagerie of life topics, as well ... things like parenting, marriage, nutrition, and so on and so forth. I'm also expected to be nose wiper, medical diagnosis maker, head checker, divorce counselor and mediator, United Nations ambassador, and peacemaker.
Now, I'm not complaining, because I signed up for this gig, but I'm wondering where the paradigm shift happened. It was relatively recent considering I'm pretty sure my parents didn't expect one of those things from any of my teachers, other than the whole "teaching" thing.
A friend of mine asked me recently, "Hey ... whatever happened to so-and-so? You used to hang out all the time. What happened?"
That led to a huge conversation about the fact that the person my friend was referring to was a great individual, but for some reason, they were dealing with some major "hole in the soul" issues, and they were attempting to fill it with me, it felt like, and when I didn't always deliver, cuz, well, I'm human and imperfect and occasionally, I'm not always a bowl full of fun to be around, well, I failed miserably at the person's attempt to fill the gap. So, they moved on to someone else ... many someone else's. It's fine. People enter and leave your life at various times for various reasons, and I'm totally cool with that.
I just can't be everything to everyone. It's draining ... it leaves nothing for me.
And I'm just wondering when the shift took place ... when was it someone else's job to make a lost soul happy. As I see it, there's only one person that can fill the "hole in the soul," and He's just waiting for you to ask Him to fill the hole.
Anyway ... just the big thoughts rolling around in my head this morning ...
So, getting on with it, a recent meeting made me realize that a lot of people expect me to be a lot of things.
As a teacher, I am now expected not only to teach child, but counsel them. Oh, lest we forget the parents, I'm expected to counsel them too ... on a menagerie of life topics, as well ... things like parenting, marriage, nutrition, and so on and so forth. I'm also expected to be nose wiper, medical diagnosis maker, head checker, divorce counselor and mediator, United Nations ambassador, and peacemaker.
Now, I'm not complaining, because I signed up for this gig, but I'm wondering where the paradigm shift happened. It was relatively recent considering I'm pretty sure my parents didn't expect one of those things from any of my teachers, other than the whole "teaching" thing.
A friend of mine asked me recently, "Hey ... whatever happened to so-and-so? You used to hang out all the time. What happened?"
That led to a huge conversation about the fact that the person my friend was referring to was a great individual, but for some reason, they were dealing with some major "hole in the soul" issues, and they were attempting to fill it with me, it felt like, and when I didn't always deliver, cuz, well, I'm human and imperfect and occasionally, I'm not always a bowl full of fun to be around, well, I failed miserably at the person's attempt to fill the gap. So, they moved on to someone else ... many someone else's. It's fine. People enter and leave your life at various times for various reasons, and I'm totally cool with that.
I just can't be everything to everyone. It's draining ... it leaves nothing for me.
And I'm just wondering when the shift took place ... when was it someone else's job to make a lost soul happy. As I see it, there's only one person that can fill the "hole in the soul," and He's just waiting for you to ask Him to fill the hole.
Anyway ... just the big thoughts rolling around in my head this morning ...
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