Catholicism & Career Resilience

Welcome back to semi-coherent philosophical-ish ramblings with Samantha! So glad to have you. Things will truly be semi-coherent today, because I am simply musing. It will be fun, I hope. Enjoy the ride.

Also, please don't be frightened by the Catholicism in the title of this post--number one, Catholics are not out to get you, and number two, a lot of what I'm saying applies to Christianity in general I think, but since I have no direct experience with any non-Catholic denominations, I can only speak from my own experience, and that is of Catholicism. I'd love to hear the point of view of someone from a different Christian background!

Anyways.

Today is a topic that I've thought about a fair amount in the last year or so, and especially the last semester, as I peer into the murky fog that's my future.

 
In one of my classes, a small five-student seminar on the Landscape Architecture department, our teacher (coincidentally also our advisor, and basically the grandma of the department) brought up the topic of planning one's career.

"You should have more than one plan for your future," she told us. "Multiple versions of your plans."

And immediately, confusion set in.

Some people don't have more than one plan or career path idea for their futures? What on earth do they do when life throws a wrench in their wheels?

And that's when I realized, for the umpteenth time, that, oh right, I don't come from a background like everyone else. (I kind of hate and kind of love those moments.)

I come from a background where it's understood that God chooses the career, we discern it, and then follow it. 

And because I know that God is ultimately the one calling the shots in my life, I have ideas about things that I'd like to do, vague plans--dreams, if you will.

But because I know that I'm someone who would make a 5-million-year plan if I could and follow it to the letter and get all bent out of shape if it got messed up, I cultivate many dreams. To name a few: being a farm designer, owning my own small farm, becoming a philosopher/theologian and working for the Church, getting married and doing any of those things, getting married and being a stay-at-home mom while also farming, becoming a Sister of Life, or a Benedictine. 

Any of those would be okay with me. Married or single, having a job or not, owning a farm or not, being a religious or not. And if God wants to call me to something else than what I've dreamed? I don't have a problem with that. Or maybe I'd have a problem with that at the time, but I would work it out, because His plan is the best plan. I keep my plans vague and only a few years out at a time (right now, finishing college) because I know that ultimately, they will need to subordinate themselves to His plan. 

And that attitude, which has been kind of hard-won (and I still struggle with it at times), has protected me in many ways, I think. If I had had just one sort of plan, I would be bent out of shape any time that it went wrong, rigidly sticking to it, and wondering, every time it did go wrong, because it would, why the world was out to get me. That's just the kind of personality I have. The kind that He gave me. 

In any case, apparently, that attitude is also trendy, minus the part about God.

That's great. I think it's wonderful that people are learning that "hey, maybe I'm not the one who's entirely in control here". But, as with many of the recent trends that have caught on--fasting from meat once a week, intermittent fasting, meditating--I can't help but observe...

Hey, we did that first.

The Catholic Church has been fasting from meat once a week for centuries...just on Fridays, not #meatlessmondays. The Church has been intermittent fasting for centuries...just for hours before Mass, not #IF. (I'm not knocking IF, I do it myself. I'm just observing that the Church did it first!) Catholics have been meditating for centuries...only, we try to fill our minds, not empty them. We have been keeping our plans loose and not clinging to them for centuries...but because we are waiting on God's will, not only because we know that unexpected things happen. 

All of these practices are things that have been scientifically proven to be good for our health, the health of our common home, and our mental health.

And yet we get told, "oh, y'all don't know what you're talking about." The world wants to believe that it knows best--about its health, about doing what it wants when it wants, &c. It doesn't want to admit that oh hey, maybe God does know best about some of those things, and might have told His Church about them in various ways throughout the centuries. It doesn't want to admit that maybe the Church has the right idea. Because then...oh the horror...they might have to listen to us about other things. Like, morals. *gasp* *faint*

Sarcasm aside, I think that it's wonderful that people are embracing things that the Church has been doing for centuries. I just sometimes wish that we got more credit for it. That is, of course, not going to happen, but that won't stop me wishing.

So, the next time I see you not eating meat on Mondays (this is a joke, bear with me), just know that I'm thinking...

Hey, we did that first.

XD

So, now it's your turn. What do you think?