For many months I have been minding my friend’s nine year old daughter a few afternoons each week. Their family is going through a rough time and, although my friend also has an older son, she wanted the added stability of another adult while she was away at work because her daughter has been having anxiety attacks.
Although I love her children very much and I’m happy to help out and earn some extra cash at the same time, I admit, I’ve had moments when I’ve questioned whether my time would be better spent in continued pursuit of my art, writing and public speaking career. Like the other day when her daughter and I were playing with her new doctor’s kit. She really didn’t have my full attention, at least not until she asked me what kinds of things would cause her throat to close up! To avoid that potentially scary conversation, I said, “Why do you ask that?” In her “wise beyond her years” voice she replied, “Well Paula, I ask you these questions because you know so much!!!” She knows I’m a nurse so I chuckled and waited to hear what she thought I knew about medicine. But, in response to my laughter, she persisted, “No really, Paula, I mean it! You know how to take care of me; you know what to do to calm me down when I’m anxious and you now how to hug me just right. Really! I mean that. You hug me just right!!!”
Well, they weren’t words of an art critic praising my latest painting or an editorial comment extolling something I just wrote, nor were they words inscribed on a diploma hanging on my wall. But they are words written indelibly on the walls of my heart; words that let me know I am doing something even more important right now and, according to the sweet young girl to whom it matters most, I’m doing it “just right!!!”
Let your spirit soar!
Paula
Spirit Rising Ministries 
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