Giving thanks…

Going with the theme of this past week, I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I am thankful for and why. Honestly, I am thankful for so many aspects of my life, but I am especially happy that I can say I am thankful for my work. I know too many people who don’t like their jobs, who spend hours every week doing something they don’t enjoy. In 2004, I spent three months teaching preschool children in a small town in the Eastern Cape of South Africa called Nieu Bethesda. I loved my time there. I fell in love with the kids; I fell in love with the adults I met; I fell in love with the town. While there, I wrote a letter (yes! a real handwritten letter with a stamp and everything!) to a good friend, expressing how much I enjoyed the work I was doing. I told her that I never wanted to go back to a job that I didn’t like, to employment that I found monotonous or pointless or a waste of my time. Between then and now, I have gone back on that decision and spent time working in places that meant very little to me. (Thankfully, I did meet some lovely people on the way so I can’t say it was all for naught!) Now I can honestly say I have found work that I thoroughly enjoy and that I find meaningful in so many ways. I love this quote of Michel de Montaigne’s: “The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.” Somehow being a doula and teaching childbirth classes suits me. When I am working, I feel at home, comfortable, even excited. When I am working, I feel like I am giving of myself in an appropriate and fitting manner. I am thankful that I love my work. And I am thankful for my son’s birth – the experience that opened my eyes and brought me into the professional world of birth.

Along the same lines, I am grateful for each of my clients and for the ways they have all taught me and encouraged me to do my best. I learn from every woman, every couple that I work with, and I am so thankful that I have had the opportunity to play a role in these families. I learn something new at every birth I attend and through every class I teach. It is amazing how much information is out there…so much I will never stop learning…but the greatest education comes from my interaction with other people. I really love that. That is definitely one of the reasons I have fallen in love with this work. Human interaction works wonders for both the mind and the soul.

I’m liking this thankful business. I’ll have to make a practice of being thankful for the little things and the big things year round.