As a mother, I feel like I am living a life upside down. That does not just mean that I am keeping a crazy pace that is topsy-turvy! What is also upside down are my priorities.
I began my adult life wanting to promote myself. I wanted an impressive career. I wanted comfort and security. I wanted to make a name for myself.
But motherhood is the happy detour that I took, and it led me to a whole new place.
I want what is best for my children. . . which is often in conflict with any self-promotion. I have chosen huge portions of my day, week, month and year to be with them, which meant sacrificing the career I might have had. I have chosen time with them instead of a full-time job, which means forfeiting financial security we might have had.
I love my work as a philosophy instructor. I love teaching. I love the research project I am working on. But what I love the most is that my family comes first.
When I teach about philosophical views of happiness, isn't it good that I actually became happy? It took choosing family life as first priority to live it out. Now I can teach it--even though I am just teaching part-time--and do so with more authority than if I had promoted my teaching career. Isn't that ironic and fascinating?
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