Today I had my whole day mapped out before I arrived at work.  The items I wanted to accomplish had accumulated during the week.  I only achieved 1 of the items on my list even though I worked the whole 8 hour shift. What happened to my master plan?  Life happened when I needed to respond to new emergent items that I did not anticipate before they happened.

In chaplaincy that is how life is.  We can have a list of worthwhile things we want to accomplish, but we have to practice triage when new items come along throughout the day.  Today triage was the game I played.  I was proud of myself because I did not let the change in plans sour my mood or frustrate me.  I know I can only be in 1 place at 1 time, and as long as I was where I needed to be, it was not important if it where I envisioned being earlier.

That is one of the things that keeps chaplaincy “alive” for me.  It has a movement of its own often with surprising changes to the original plan for the day.  The ability to handle change and not be thrown off by the change is a good skill to develop.  Since I like variety it fits my personality very well.  The next time your day changes from how you thought it would be shaped don’t feel like you are in that boat all alone, many others are in their boat experiencing the same thing.