Is Your Life Working?

Is your life working?

I subscribe to Dynamic Catholic. I am following Matthew Kelly’s Lenten program using his book I Heard God Laugh.

In the Ash Wednesday episode, he asks: Is your life working?

Not really. I am much closer to God and faith than I was a couple years ago. I examine my life more to keep it in line with my faith. But is it working?

In some areas, yes. But it’s limited. Partly, it’s limited because of the pandemic. Partly, it’s limited because I don’t know what to do with my life. 

I have one major goal, to leave a record that blesses my daughters’ lives, both in this blog and in a book that I am writing. But, beyond that? I want to be a good person. I have ideas about what that means, but I don’t have an action plan. I’m having trouble thinking beyond the pandemic.

I talk to others who feel much the same way. What does “after the pandemic” look like? We don’t think it will be the same. Even with vaccines, parts of our lives, people, businesses, attitudes, have changed. We don’t see it going back to what it was before.

So, is my life working? No, it’s in turmoil, but I’m trying to navigate that. I imagine most people are.

What would my life look like if there were no limits? If it could be what I want without thinking about a pandemic, or being disabled, or having anxiety?

I would want to be teaching adults (or all ages) compassion. Can that be taught, if people haven’t learned it already? I don’t know. But in my hypothetical world it’s possible. Even before the pandemic, I felt the desire to be a balcony person* or backstage helper.  I remember well the balcony people in my own life and how much they encouraged me.

I got my first Covid vaccine yesterday. Maybe in six weeks, I can venture out more. So, I guess I will spend Lent putting together concrete ideas to bring this idea to fruition.

*Balcony person refers to people in the balcony or on the sidelines quietly encouraging others. It comes from the book Balcony People by Joyce Landlorf Heatherley.