On resilient, inspiring people

All things considered, I believe most people do an incredible job living their lives and meeting their responsibilities.  People are capable, dedicated, creative, and devoted.  I love hearing the stories of real people who do amazing things.  I think most people would fall into this category if we spent the time to get to know them.

I love my work (minus the paperwork part)!  It is so inspiring and hopeful, and even when I am tired, I feel rejuvenated and uplifted at work.  I get to work with the most incredible people.  I am continually awed by the trust people place in me and consider it an honor to be invited into the more intimate parts of their lives.

My clients are amazing, and so are my coworkers.  I work with people who, for next to no pay at this point, pour their hearts and souls into the people they work with.  We meet regularly in small supervision groups to discuss cases.  I love going to supervision!  We sit around a table and talk about how we can help people, how well people are doing, and the amazing strengths they have.

Despite the challenges people face, which are what bring them to therapy in the first place, they do so well and accomplish so much.  They care enough about their families and relationships to ask for help, to pay for help, and to keep coming back.  For some of the people I see, I honestly don't know how they do it.

I get to see people fight to save marriages.  I see parents' concern for their children and their willingness to do whatever it takes to help their children, even when that means making serious changes in their own lives.  I see individuals who do so much already just wanting to make themselves better.

My job is to help people reach their goals, to help them be a little better off, a little happier than they were when they came in.  How could I not love it?

Last week I heard the details of a grizzly death of a child, a family member, that some of my clients witnessed.  It was incredibly difficult to listen to.  After the client left, I sat in our staff area and cried for about 30 minutes.  I've never heard first-hand a story quite that bad and never had a client affect me in that way.  I thought about them all weekend.  I feel so sad for what they have been through and am completely amazed at their resilience.  Knowing the details, I am in awe that they do as well as they do now.  The family has pulled together and stepped up to the plate for one another in truly inspiring ways.  I think these people are absolute angels on earth.  My life is better because I know them.

Because I don't have and can't share pictures of the people I work with, throughout this post I've included pictures of just a few of the people I know who are completely amazing and inspiring.

On baby radar

This post is not about a baby version of the character Radar from MASH.

It's about how I have developed what I'm calling Baby Radar.  I notice babies everywhere now.  Most of the time, okay, all of the time, I think they are completely adorable.  Blake just laughs at me when I point them out everywhere we go: the mall, church, a restaurant, the grocery store, anywhere.

I watched a National Geographic special a few weeks ago about buffalos.  It was pretty good, except . . . I didn't like the part where the baby buffalo got stuck on the river bank and was having a hard time getting up to its mom.  I really didn't like the part where the other baby buffalo got eaten by wolves.  My Baby Radar is active even with baby buffalos.

I am getting increasingly excited about our baby's upcoming birth.  We've only got about 10 weeks to go, give or take a few.  I'm gathering supplies for the birth and doing some cleaning while I'm on break from school to get ready for Baby.  My plan is to be a really good, overachieving student next quarter and get all my assignments done early so that I can be stress-free (at least as far as school is concerned) when Baby arrives.  To allow myself time for that later, I'm getting ready for the birth now.  So exciting!

Baby Radar just might have something to do with all that.  What do you think?  I can't be the only one to have developed this wonderful new ability.