Success!

Ten o'clock p.m. used to be movie time for me on Friday night, and I am already late. What a day. What a week. It's actually unbelievable to me that we are almost mid-school year. The early darkness is here, the cold is coming, and this is my one night to stay up late during the school year. Some of you may remember my writing about Treat Friday yesterday. I was feeling like I just couldn't wait for it to be over. Why do we do this to ourselves? I was thinking about that this morning. Why can't we just enjoy what we're doing when we're doing it instead of stressing about everything and taking the joy out of it in the process. I did not completely take the joy out of it but I am afraid I did limit it by worrying about it. The main worry was could I get up at 6:00? That's a half an hour earlier than I get up during the week. And could I get to sleep early enough to get a good night's sleep? And could I get to work early enough to park in view of the fact the children were bringing their "dudes" for donuts this morning at 7:30, I thought, but it turned out it was 7:50. This I did not know, so I got there in plenty of time and parked where I always park. Check, check, check, got all that done. I was not the first one of our team there either. Two other people were already setting things up. One of them, in particular, is extremely gifted at decorating and organizing, two things for which I am definitely NOT gifted at all. Long story short, we had a great Treat Friday. We had homemade vegetable soup with oyster crackers, bean dip and corn tortilla chips, a veggie tray, three kinds of pie (pumpkin, apple and cherry), cheese cubes, cherry dump cake and whipped topping, chocolate chip cookie bars, beer bread, cookies, donuts and actually some other things I don't recall. In sum, our Treat Friday was a huge success. And I enjoyed it almost as much as if I hadn't worried at all about anything. Guess that just comes with the territory. I was thinking about the meaning of success, as I often do, and after a lifetime of trying to be good at several different things, getting three college degrees, writing for weekly newspapers (without a journalism degree), having a column (of sorts) in my local newspaper, been a professional musician, been signed as a songwriter, self-published a memoir, and I will stop there because none of these things were, in my view, demonstrative of success. To some people, they might think otherwise, but I think my perception of success is probably warped. Why do I think that? Why does anybody think that? Some of us know that what the world considers success is not the same as what God thinks is success. I am not sure I am able to define success without getting preachy, and I don't want to do that. I just do believe that most people may not feel they are successful because they are not rich and famous, or they have not accomplished their dream or some other reason that the world has drilled into their head. I honestly don't think the world's view of success is accurate. However, I will not lie. I was listening to a Christian comedian on the radio on the way to work talking about how his particular gift enabled him to speak all over the world and I felt jealous. So, I don't like when people say things like that because it makes me feel like they're saying being able to perform all over the world or even preach the gospel all over the world is the signpost of success as a Christian. And if that is the case, I will be depressed all the remaining days of my life. I am not saying that to console myself either, to make myself feel better about not attaining my goals, because I know I wasted many years of my life and I haven't found my voice or fulfilled my potential or anything else that the world says defines success. I've done a lot of things that others haven't done, and others have done a lot of things I have not done. But in the end, what do all those things matter? I can't even tell you how many things I thought I would be doing for a living, from being a hair dresser, to working as an artist at Hallmark, to being a published author to writing a hit song to owning horses and land and a house and, well, there I go again. That's not success, you know. Some people get to do some things and some people get to do other things, and I am glad I heard the words of Jesus, "What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" I suppose that is actually my life verse, if I have to choose just one. I am starting to yawn, and that is a sign I should start the retiring for the night routine, even though this is the only night of the week during the school year when I can stay up late. I'm going to call it a day. Or a night, I guess. I love the fact that a few generations back I am related to Ralph Waldo Emerson, and I am going to close with one of my favorite passages of his: "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays." Goodnight.