Sunday, April 27, 2008

Success - part 2

After a bit of discussion of other things, therapist and I spent about 5 minutes on success last week. I am confident about who I am in that respect. I've done a lot of things and gotten bored with them before I had a chance to be a success in the usual sense of that word - money, title, prestige, renown. And, of course, I have my times of feeling worthless, but deep down, I know I am a beloved of God and that I have worth in and of who I am without regard to what I do or don't do.

I've had a couple of successes in my career path. With a partner and later without, I operated an advertising agency for five years in a town of 30,000 people in Yeah. We did for five years.

Then, I organized, found funding for and operated Neighbors in Ministry, an ecumenical social service organization that had a thrift shop, a Kid's Cafe, a food pantry for persons who were HIV+, a coalition of agencies who worked with the Hispanic population, as well as intra organizational events to bring neighborhood people, churches and organizations together. We had a very good time and made a lot of difference. Later, other organizations took over some of the ministries and the Hispanic Ministry formed its own group. A good lot of work done by a good lot of people with me as their helper, guide and gofer.

But, my greatest success has been anchored in who I am. According to "What Color is My Parachute?", what I do best in the world is love people. And, I have loved all sorts of individuals in all sorts of ways to the best of my ability all of my life. That is my greatest success: I can and do love.

Here's to all of you who can love! Keep it up.

3 comments:

Cynthia said...

Thanks, ShareCropper. I needed this. I look at my male colleagues who are about my age, who are now senior ministers, getting their D.Min., and here I am at home with my girls, having worked full-time 5 years out of the 17 I have been ordained. It's hard not to compare and feel less-than.

You're absolutely right about love.

Kate Morningstar said...

Interesting. I told my 12-step sponsor recently (in lieu of a therapist) that what I seem to do best is love people. Now I'm saying thank you for it, and seeing what it feels like to rest in that, and what to do with it.

Blessings to you!

Anonymous said...

What a great thing to be able to do! Good on you ShareCropper. Keep going!