Life Options

I have for eight years talked about birth options as a birth professional. I love what I do, all of it, yet in the last couple of weeks I have had to explore my options a bit, and somewhat reluctantly I must admit. Let me share my thought process with you...

We, as in my husband Allan and I, have been weighing his occupational options in light of a few considerations - both personal and professional - that have weighed on his mind and caused him stress in the last few months. We had waited until his two weeks vacation to sit down and really talk about this and explore our options. He has really been feeling like he has no options and through dialogue and our reassessing our short and long-term goals he has become much more optomistic.

In knowing his passions, and our sharing our dreams continually with each other, I have been putting out feelers in our new community in the avenue's he has always been interested in. One of those is in becoming a residential home builder, another is in computer repair, and a third in returning to his previous occupation of auto body mechanics which is loved many aspects of.

That is in addition to three distinct career avenues where he is currently employed... along his current path (towards store manager), photo lab management and loss prevention. Suddenly, in sitting down and exploring his options he truly saw having six distinct avenues he can move into. Not only that, three of those he has solid job offers in... three of them matching or exceeding his current salary.

In knowing Allan I also knew that he would lean towards the road less travelled, the most challenging road, because he has always needed to be challenged... both in career and in life. In following that road, he has also explored his options with bringing trusted and knowledgeable friends and not only have they been supportive, they want to help in various ways. No decisions yet, but he will return to work on Tuesday and two interviews in the next week will cement the decisions we have been exploring.

Which brings me to my options. I have two distinct roads... that along the same path I have been working unceasingly these last eight years, towards financial security through first supporting women, then through training those who support women. I know that this is certainly a road less travelled and I have enjoyed the journey immensely, but it has been a financial stuggle since I switched from support to training. That coupled with a few road blocks I have encountered in the last three years has left me questioning my future here.

The other road is also not a well travelled one, but one that has been my hobby since I was a teen... landscaping. From design right through to every aspect of structure, grunt work, planting and finishing... I have done it. Three residential properties which have been the envy of professionals and neighbours alike are in my portfolio. I have also recently moved on to volunteer my time in designing a 10 acre church property and the results have not only been exciting, they have been overwhelmingly approved at every step. I was just recently asked to landscape an acreage... most beautiful in its potential with a few great bones and, with effort, it would be splendid indeed.

Once in a while, in the last couple of years, I have thought about how I could combine both. That dream looked something like teaching on weekends and landscaping during the week. But as a homeschooler, that is bordering on insanity so I have left landscaping as an occasional hobby and focused on my passion, teaching birth professionals. However great the potential there is in filled workshops, the reality has not been as optomistic and though an income is had... it isn't the income I would like to see to make me feel the stress is worthwhile.

I have worked hard to let God's will be done, allowing Him to lead me in the direction I should go. That means letting go, even reluctantly, those things that I have been adhering to. That includes the possibility of relocating... again. And if that happens, landscaping is a much more viable option because starting promotion in a new location all over again is feeling overwhelming right now given the lack of workshop participants I currently have... two moves in three years has caused a huge negative impact.

My ideal is still a combination of both. If Allan does move in the direction he is leaning, he will need my support, though more in terms of business management, than ever before. The impact of that is uncertain, but the benefit of having two quickly growing young men as sons will buffer that too as they are incredibly helpful and even moreso each day. What the future holds is still wide open and I am very excited about it!