Amazing Days

Yesterday I picked up a book titled “This Ordinary Adventure” by husband and wife team, Christine and Adam Jeske. They happen to be former Jubilee Volunteers, so they mailed a special signed copy! Today, I am already half way through the book. It’s THAT good and it resonates with a fear that’s lying right below the surface of my being. To quote the book:

 “We refused to be that couple who dried up into crusty old people who would drive their fifty-minute commutes to jobs jabbing at keyboards and checking off phone calls and never looking anybody in the face or leaving any glint of meaningful improvement on this world…. Intentionally living and tracking Amazing Days drew us out of the mundane ruts of life and into the small (and large) attempts to make the most of life.”

Our personal choice to leave our 9-5 jobs at good companies with good benefits that allowed us extra comfort in life and weekend meals at fancy restaurants, basically boils down to not wanting to get stuck in a rut of complacency and  getting too comfortable with routine and our desires to experience more meaning in everyday life. We wanted more amazing days. For me especially, my ratio of amazing days to the mundane or bad ones needed significant attention. 

Life at Jubilee, while still having its challenges (how do you dry laundry in the rain???), has produced some really great days. 

Sabrina’s Amazing Days:

• Riding bike around the property with 3 refugee kids hot on my tail calling out “Teacher… so fun!

• Getting my current 2 students ( a 7 yr old and almost 5 yr old sibling pair) to successfully stay inside the classroom for the full 2 hour class and then have them beg to stay longer

• Stopping to watch a beautiful sunset stretch across the Georgia sky and then turning to see that a whole group of Jubilee folks has gathered behind me to also take in the beauty of the night sky

• Cooking for the whole community and then receiving 30-40 “Thank You! That was delicious” compliments

• Collecting 65 eggs and having 4 of them sporting various shades of blue and green

• Singing hymns every Monday before eating lunch

• Eating lunch with Nate everyday and getting a kiss and hug from him before afternoon work time.

And today was an amazing day too! After cooking lunch (which I love to do) and receiving compliments on the hodge poge of leftovers I warmed up and added to, I was scheduled for a retreat. A retreat work slot means you have the time to do whatever you please… it’s like your boss telling you to take the afternoon off. I stopped by CVS to fill a script and found an owl friend to bring home with me (see picture below). I even had a 25% off reward at checkout! Whoo hoo! After a nice drive back to Jubilee, I am now relaxing on the dock by our swimming pond, soaking in a few hot autumn rays of sun (the south is still quite warm!) and finishing up my book. 

Speaking of the book, the Jeske’s go on to talk about how we all find ourselves in different identifying categories related to what/how we fill our days… like software engineer, mother, artist, friend. Adam Jeske says: This colors how we define amazing, as well as worthwhile, important, generous, interesting and more. And that determines what we seek, what we post on Facebook, how we live.”

For me, I was at a breaking point in my so called “career” as an administrative assistant. The job, while a very good one in a company that does a lot of good, wasn’t giving me life and energy, so I justified my unhappiness with the status the job afforded me:  a good job title, repertoire within the Mennonite community, nice clothes, money to pay off school debt, etc. Amazing for me was watching the last seconds tick by on the workday. Occasionally there were other work experiences that brought excitement to me, but mostly I was listening to be co-workers’ passion and enthusiasm for the job and wishing I felt the same…. Feeling like I must have been “missing the boat.”

I think that’s why I was so desperately seeking and craving something new. A change. What??? A change? I know, to those who know me well, I usually run and hide when change knocks on my door. But, nevertheless, I was seeking something less complicated with more tangible “Amazing-ness.” Something that would leave me energized at the end of the day and excited to start tomorrow. 

I have not a clue what I want to do when our year at Jubilee ends, but while I’m here, I can with pride identify myself as wife, teacher, chef, store keeper, gardener, seamstress, poultry tender, toddler watcher and so many more. 

I’ll close this post with a popular old story. I recently read it in a Susan Monk Kidd’s memoire and just heard it re-told on the radio today as I drove back from CVS. It seems fitting for my thoughts. 

There was a child on a beach throwing starfish back into the ocean. The beach was littered with the starfish after a storm had washed them up onto the sand. A man came along and saw the boy using much effort to throw the fish back into the waves. The man saw little point to the boys exhaustive attempts and as the boy stopped to catch his breath, the man called out: “Why are you exerting so much energy on these starfish? You will never be able to save them all. Just stop and rest!”They boy knelt and picked up another. As he tossed it into the sea he said “You might not think I can do much, but I just did a lot for that starfish.”

Much like the little boy, my hope is that my new roles at Jubilee will do good in the lives of those around me. I won’t be able to have a perfect class or delicious lunch every time, but when I can, I will have the opportunity to experience more Amazing Days. 

--- Sabrina---