Thankfulness: A learned response

When I graduated from law school, I had to take the bar exam to be licensed.  I spent most of the summer studying and taking a class (which helps you study for the exam).  Finally, I spent three days in July answering questions.  Then the hard part started: waiting.  I was lucky, in Iowa the results are back by mid-September.  My classmates in California and New York had to wait until November and December to find out their results.

After all that waiting, I finally could find a job as a lawyer.  However, that was not so easy.  As September led to October and then November, I still hadn't found a job.  With student loan payments looming on the horizon, I needed to find a job to earn some money.

So, I became a Merry Maid and cleaned houses.  This job opened my eyes in a lot of ways.  First, I learned humility.  I had a bit of an ego after graduating from college and law school.  All that education had prepared me to be in charge of something.  With the Merry Maids job, I was working with women who generally did not have a college education.  Most of them had more seniority at the job than I did, so I got bossed around by them.  In reality, most of them were much better at cleaning than I was - they were more efficient, cleaned better and were more thorough than I.  It was exactly what I needed after months and years of having people tell me I was great for going to college and going to law school.  Being reminded that education isn't everything and that people without education have valuable skills and insight too was important.

I also learned from them that we humans have similar goals.  We all want a better life.  We want our children to be well fed, well educated and well-loved.  We have relationship troubles, often brought on by our own choices and actions.  As we traveled to various houses in the area, I had a lot of time to talk with my co-workers and learn from their life experiences.  It gave me great insight to my clients' lives.

As I worked cleaning, I was left a lot of time to think (vacuuming does not require deep thought).  So I started spending my work time praying.  It was amazing how many people I could pray for during the course of a day.  I could spend the time being thankful for the job I had, the job I hoped was around the corner, and the relationships I was forming with my co-workers.

I did finally get my first law job, and although it was what I wanted, it did require that I give up some of the prayer life I had developed.  Law required a bit more focus than cleaning out someone's sink and toilet did!

I was reminded this month of that job as one of my old co-workers died.  I wish I had gotten the chance to tell her how thankful I was for the time I spent working with her and the things she had taught me.