Enlightenment

I had two days off this past week from watching my baby niece because she got the flu. Thankfully, the medication given to her worked well and she is on her way to a good recovery. She was with me yesterday and seems to be back to her normal, happy self.

The past few days granted to me the time for a bit of mental insight as to where things stand for me physically. I started taking care of my niece about a year ago, and before then I tried to live a fairly cautious existence. I consitently stayed home a lot and tried to make certain that I didn’t push my body too far. But…taking care of my niece has completely changed the way that I spend my time throughout any given day. She requires an enormous amount of time, effort, and energy. I spend my days doing things that I never really thought that I would be doing, including crawling around the house on my bad knee. Consequently, I think that my view of my own potential has been expanded over the past year. I’m starting to think that when I’m finished taking care of the baby (eight weeks each summer and eventually forever after she starts school) I’ll try to go to the office at the church more often. I still have to be careful with the amount of maintenance work that I commit myself to doing on a daily basis, but I didn’t go to the office very often before I started taking care of the baby because of issues involving fatigue. Those issues don’t seem quite as intimidating now.

Going to the church office isn’t a dire need. It’s a comparatively small ministry and I handle things fairly well from home. It’s just that going out and spending the day “at work” makes things seem better to me somehow. I’m thinking that I can perhaps go back to a more normal work schedule in the future. I have always enjoyed working at the office, even though I basically work alone. It’s just that it feels different (in a better way) to be out and about, as opposed to working from home. My body isn’t any better, but it makes me feel better to be at the office. Maybe I’ll switch gears soon enough.