Meaningful Work

My family and I went to a fundraiser for a local school that serves children with psychiatric diagnoses.  The benefit was fun and the food was great.  Watching the presentation about the school, however, made me feel nostalgic about teaching special education.  As I've mentioned before, I no longer teach.  I am currently on Social Security Disability.  My teaching licenses are still valid though and sometimes I miss teaching.  Being that special teacher that can reach tough to teach kids.  My specialty, over the years, was working with the toughest of the tough.  Severe emotionally and behaviorally challenged youth.  I've worked in juvenile corrections, locked psych wards, and treatment centers for adjudicated teens.  Anyway, part of me misses it.

One of the facets of working with teens that was so rewarding is that it was always clear that I was doing Meaningful Work.  What I did mattered.  What I did made a difference.

Since I've left teaching, I haven't had the same sense that what I am doing is somehow of service to my society and to my community.  I still need that connection to meaningful work though.  I've had to re-think what it means to be meaningfully engaged in the lives of those around me.

On one level there is my family and my farm.  I am a husband and a father.  I am raising four boys, homeschooling them, and mentoring them.  That is certainly meaningful work.  I also care for my animals.  That involves meaningful work.  Feeding, milking, and caring for the animals.  As part of the "feeding" of the animals we moved 16+ tons of hay this summer.  That was most certainly a lot of work.  It's been three weeks since we finished and my arms still hurt.

But how can I make that connection to being meaningfully engaged in my community if I am no longer playing super-hero as a special education teacher?  The answer to that, for me, lies in something I mentioned in last nights blog post.  I carry a message of recovery from active addiction and from bipolar disorder into the wider community.  A message of hope and a promise of freedom.  Lord knows I'm no super-hero at that either, but it is through the service of carrying the message that I am able to be of service to my community.  Today that is my meaningful work.  Whether I am volunteering to share on an informational panel at a local treatment center, participating in a local Narcotics Anonymous meeting, answering the phone when someone calls for help, or writing this blog, I am engaged in meaningful work in my community.

Tonight's presentation on the therapeutic day school made me nostalgic about teaching, but I don't think I'm going to jump into contracted teaching again just yet.  I think I might seek out a volunteer opportunity though.  Maybe I could be a volunteer tutor in a local literacy program.  I could probably manage a couple hours a week doing that.