Cindy Brown

A Spirituality for Real Life

At the age of fifty-one, I am still not sure what kind of work I am called toward. What
calls to my heart is to help people with any struggles that may face. My current position,
Quality Notification Coordinator, for a large medical manufacturing company, is not my passion
in life. This is a job, not work that I am called toward, so I thought. After reading the chapters
and the Address to a Graduating Class 2009, I look at it a little different.

My position is incredibly stressful, especially currently. We are currently dealing with a

medical device recall, and I am working ten plus hours a day. It is exhausting and stressful to
where I am losing sleep and my body is feeling the effects from it. Now I sit back and realize
that the work that I am doing helps thousands of people. If it were not for my work, these
people would not be able sleep at night without worrying about breathing. These people would
not feel rested because they do not have that medical device to help them receive that restful
night of sleep. These people depend on me to work so they can live a healthier life. This is not
the calling that I have wanted, but I realize now that through God, I perform my position, and in
return I am helping people like I always wanted to do.

I have had several jobs in the past. I have been a server, nursing assistant, respiratory
therapist. When my children were little I cleaned houses, so I was able to make my own
schedule to be home when I needed to be. And now my current position, which has been the
most challenging for me. As stated above I see how this work may be my calling and how I can
compare it to work and my job.

I need to stop sometimes what I am doing and think so I do not become mindless in my
work. Rest and reflect on how it makes me feel , do I need to rest or take some time off from
my job not just for physical reasons but to have an opportunity to process my experience of
what I am doing and learn from it for the future. Go back to work and let my reflection and
prayer time inform me on how you approach my work. It may cause me to approach my
relationship in a renewed way or allow my more rest time. I repeat this when needed to stop,
review, rest, reflect, and return so I realize the meaning behind my work. I can do these steps in
five minutes of days.

In the past 8 weeks I have learned to see God in many ways then I had in the beginning
of this class. I never thought of God in the things around me. The trees, the sky, the grass, all
the beautiful objects that God has created. The most prominent place that I see God is in my
beautiful family. I am blessed that God has given me my family and thankful for this.

I have set aside time every day and am trying to pray more often then just when I
needed God to help me or others. I am seeing God as my friend and want to spend more time
than I have in the past.

Learning meditation has helped me through the stressful job that I have now. I even find
myself meditating at my desk throughout the day. It does relieve stress and helps my
spirituality.

I apologize for any short answers or essays. As I wrote in the previous essay,
some of these topics are hard for me to discuss but I did enjoy learning the various aspects of
Ignatian Spirituality and am trying to incorporate some of those into my life.