Exploring thoughts with purpose ℠
[A Canaanite woman] came and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
– Matthew 15:25-28
And He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
I received a new project yesterday. It looked daunting: preparing and filing an entire patent application for a technology I wasn’t particularly well acquainted with, but know well enough that I recognize the technical field is fairly crowded and thus the specification needs to contain plenty of contingencies, to be filed in a week. That meant that I had about two days to work on it, three business days if we expected the client to drag their feet with respect to some additional documentation we need for filing. For perspective, I expect to spend roughly a week on preparing an application in a field I’m relatively acquainted with. And yet, I knew that I could not let the firm down; they were counting on me, putting their reputation on the line for me to be able to prepare this application for a longstanding client. Thankfully, I thought, I have the weekend between now and day three, so I can commit my Saturday to it.
I tackled tasks for other projects on my docket so they wouldn’t distract me as I was working on the application. Then, just as I was getting ready to dive headlong into the big project yesterday, my computer screen died.
The remainder of the day went to saving computer. And a tele-meeting while I was still working on it. And panicking about my computer dying on me. And getting compressed air to fix it. (And trying to find a dozen eggs while I was out. And, after failing thrice, trying to get a sandwich with eggs on it instead – and failing at that as well because they, too, were out of egg.) And, and, and. Long story short, the innards are clean and the computer is up and running better than it has been for the last several months, but it took time.
Just as I was preparing for bed a little after midnight, I open up my phone to adjust my alarm clock for a little more than six hours later. As I saved my alarm edit, an email came through regarding the work I do on something with a 0900 deadline every weekday: more to do than normal, please work on it ASAP. I was beat, so, in my weakness, I gave it up to God and crawled into bed, allowing the thoughts about the meeting I had in the morning, which posed a significant conflict to my ability to get that done, just swirl about and curl loose knots in my grey matter.
This morning, I was hailed before I could get dressed: the house I live in had been burglarized. There wasn’t much I could do about it, if anything, but it was clearly distressing, especially because people were in the vicinity while it was happening, they just didn’t realize it until later. But I had a meeting to get to, and work to do, and a docket to clear so I could thoughtfully and thoroughly prepare the application now pending on my docket.
I jump on to my computer, now late for my meeting, and load up alternative pages with the work for the deadline this morning. Good meeting; I only half attended mentally because I was busy meeting the aforementioned impending deadline. And the email I received after midnight? It had a follow-up attached to it pleading for notice about whether or not I would be able to help meet the deadline. Thankfully, I noticed it (and the explanation of the importance of meeting the morning deadlines, which I had heard previously and completely understood) after the deadline; otherwise, I would have likely snarkily responded that I can help but I’m too busy replying to an email instead.
Again, as I’m opening up files to jump into this big project, I get a phone call about another project that needs immediate attention to assuage the fears of a client. Yeah, no. So I had to explain to a seasoned attorney that I had to put the immediate, hard-external-deadline project ahead of the (likely unfounded) fears of a client regarding a transaction that we don’t even have half the necessary documents for yet.
Are you still tracking? It’s barely mid-morning, yet I already need a nap.
I log into my work email to discover an automated email sitting in my inbox: I was supposed to have a ready-to-file draft prepared for, and sent to, the client today. So that Saturday I was counting on to make a Monday deadline? Yeah, no, I don’t get that. Head spinning, I grab my tea and finally jump in.
Reviewing the task, I notice that it’s a lot of, effectively, copy and paste followed by substantive review to ensure compliance with domestic rules and practices. It’s not drafting from scratch. It’s not even drafting from an invention disclosure form. They basically did all of the substantive work; I just have to make sure it complies with the domestic regulations and advise to anything that doesn’t. The task just got phenomenally easier.
A few hours in, I hit a snag and call the paralegal for the project for help asking about differences between templates.
“I got X done, Y done, and Z done… Now I just have to do is A, B, and C.”
“Oh, no, no. I do A, B, and C; there’s a shortcut for those with a program we use.”
“Oh.”
“Yep. Though, I do think you should look at M and Q. Did you do that yet?”
“Ah. M. Yeah, that’s just making more work for ourselves; we can change it later if we need to, but it should be fine. As for Q… I’ll take a look at that now. Sweet! This looks like fun!”
“This is how you want to spend your Friday night?”
Q ended up being a short and relatively stimulating task which I was so invigorated by that I sent an excited text to a friend: I got to do lawyering today! It was super cool. And I kept seeing my name attached to documents, not just the names of the attorneys I’m working with. I still energized by the experience!
The project that I was so concerned about ended up taking less than a day’s work. And the client wasn’t even ready with the additional documents that we need, so it didn’t actually have to be done until Monday, maybe even Tuesday.
My last 24-hours have consisted of many, many molehills which I have consistently made mountains of. I still have tasks that, at the beginning of the week, I was hoping I would have done by now, but I don’t need to fret about them. I can calm down a bit because what needs to get done will get done.
Give it to God: He never disappoints.
When I pray, coincidences happen;
– William Temple, as quoted in Called and Committed
when I don’t, they don’t.
Context for the Quote:
British social reformers daily gave themselves to three hours of prayer. They also organized Christians to unite in special prayer before critical debates in Parliament. The measures faced staunch criticism by many who said prayer was no more than coincidence. This is how William Temple replied to critics.
We give thanks to Thee, O God; we give thanks;
– Psalm 75:1-3, 9-10
we call on Thy name and recount Thy wondrous deeds.
At the set time which I appoint
I will judge with equity.
When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,
it is I who keep steady its pillars. Selah.
I will rejoice for ever,
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
All the horns of the wicked He will cut off,
but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.
For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me; when you seek Me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord.
– Jeremiah 29:11-14
When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is a lonely place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
– Matthew 14:15-21
Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
They said to Him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”
And He said, “Bring them here to me.”
Then He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish He looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away. Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”
– Jesus in Matthew 13:3-9
I will bless the Lord at all times;
– Psalm 34:1-3
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the afflicted hear and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt His name together!
Hope is the word which God has written on the brow of every man.
– Victor Hugo,
Les Miserables
It’s okay to sing in the rain.
No –
It’s good to sing in the rain!
How else will you know you’ll make it through?
How will you make it through if you don’t know you will?
That’s the secret nobody teaches you.
We can pull through – we always have.
We just have to keep moving forward.
Just have to keep singing in the rain.
With the exception of eggs, things seem to simply be going my way.
Okay, so there are always minor things (like eggs and oddly reduced store hours) that are probably tossing many of us for a loop right now. Some are less fortunate as they have to endure the actual illness or put themselves in serious danger of contracting it. (Thankfully, the United States currently seems to have enough hospital beds and ventilators to keep pace with demand, and archaic regulations were recently waived to enable manufacturers and retrofitters to keep ahead of the turbulence. To the elderly in Italy, you have our prayers.)
I have a tendency to turtle up inside when given the option. I way prefer working in the office to working from a shelter-in-place scenario, but otherwise, I’m game for a snow day. Or a snow week. Or an Ice Storm of ’98. Just keep us to under two weeks of being unable to enjoy the light of day and I’m probably good.
Anyway, I was running exceptionally low on soap this morning, so I needed to venture out into an actual store. (Yikes, right? Thankfully I’m neither paranoid nor concerned about my immunoresponse systems.) Given several different factors, I opted to try the discount chain I frequent over the standard big box stores.
I walked in and was greeted by a full shelf of various soaps, boxes of gloves, and other personal cleaning supplies. (One of the soap products was made with volcanic ash. Simultaneously cool and not something I want to spend the premium to use.) I meandered about seeking some other things I was/am running low on. And you know what?
The shelves were full. Every shelf had product on it.
I found the actual handsoap aisle and discovered they keep soap in stock that my grandmother loves. (It’s a high quality soap with a mild scent.) As it made me think of Grandma, it went into my basket. I was in a pretty good mood walking in, and finding that just perked my ears higher. I got Grandma soap. I even managed to rationalize buying a six pack of it when one will probably last me a month. (They didn’t have singles of that kind of soap, and I wanted that one.) And the cashier was simply fabulous; we had a great little conversation, and I’d hop in her line any time.
After a successful venture there, I went to a normal grocery store to get eggs.
They were closed. At 7:15 pm, the grocery store was closed.
*Eyebrows furrow.*
Oh well. I shrugged it off and drove to the nearby supercenter. Again, no eggs, and no random this or random that which appeared on my list. However, having these random things actually on my list encouraged me to ask associates (mid-restock) for directions. Every single one of the people I interacted with (and they were in clusters, so speaking with one meant interacting with at least three) was in high spirits. Maybe they were enjoying the adventure of tidal waves of customers, or maybe they just had humor for the situation. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that they were amiable, happy to help, and even a little chatty.
As I was returning from the adventure, my brother called me – the one most likely of us all to come down with any rampant virus because he works in a hospital – just to check in. He’s doing well, and he even mentioned that he picked up enough meats to entertain himself with his smoker should he need to quarantine-in-place. (Plus, we talked about some tentative good news sitting just on the horizon.) Because he’s the most at risk and he’s doing well, I feel confident in saying the fam is doing well.
What a way to top off a day where I got a fairly intense, multi-day project done . I got it done, and I got it done well. (And I’m exceptionally happy that I didn’t give in to my grouchiness at technical problems and send off the product without proofreading it.) Perhaps a little overly-thoroughly, truth be told, but the secondary and tertiary arguments are the ones that stuck out the most, so they made it to paper first.
And.
And.
I’m still flying a teensy bit high off of the praise I received yesterday. The client, known to be quite picky and to change little things here and there in a work product, had nothing to add, delete, or alter before my document was submitted. The managing partner said they “really liked it,” and the paralegal pointed out how impressive a recommendation that is from that particular inside counsel. Yeah, definitely feeling like singing in the rain today.
So today was a pretty awesome day. We still have some snow, but it’s melting; the store wasn’t incredibly crowded; the personnel in the stores were fabulous; and I stayed on track with what I planned to get done despite myself and some technical glitches. Overall, I feel like whistling.
With this kind of luck, tomorrow there may even be eggs in store. 😮