Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Gap in the Resume

Cherished careers don’t always stay on track from beginning to end – especially in wobbly economic times.

This can be frightening and painful. A bonus life as a grocery bagger is not what anybody went to school to prepare for.

A commencement speaker at Harvard Divinity School, Professor Kimberley C. Patton, thinks that in profound ways, the difficult, uncertain periods are a good thing.

“…In these career detours, lie gestation and receptivity, what the Japanese call "hollowness" to the divine. In these nonproductive times, new things are hatching, being born in the darkness, if only we do not panic.”

How to avoid this panic?

Simply remember that the time may be very useful, that good things are germinating that cannot be forced. Keep coming back to that thought, because it so easily slips away.


(Thanks to Margaret, who sent me this address: “When the Wounded Emerge as Healers.”)


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2 comments:

Jodi said...

Thanks for this post, Peggy. I think this is where I am right now (bagging expensive breads and pastries) and I can't explain this well, but there is a part of me that is patient about it. At least for now.

Peggy Payne said...

Good that you have that patience, Jodi. No doubt you're doing exactly the right thing. And BTW, they are really first-rate breads and pastries.