Unexpected Blessings
This year has been a year of challenges, and I will be glad to see 2009 in my rearview mirror. I’ve attempted more calming, deep breaths than I thought my lungs could handle.
So it may have been fate when, on a recent flight to Las Vegas, I found myself seated next the author of Happiness Is: Unexpected Answers to Practical Questions in Curious Times. Shawn Christopher Shea is a psychiatrist and director of the Training Institute for Suicide Assessment and Clinical Interviewing. And when he offered the title of his book, I told him I had plenty of questions about these curious times.
Shea wrote his fourth book for the layperson. It focuses on compassion and the search for meaning. Shea said one book reviewer wrote his book was “as if scientist Albert Einstein, business guru Tom Peters and satirist Dave Berry sat around having beers and decided to collaborate on a book.“
Shea and I had one of those conversations that only strangers can have at 36,000 feet. I was captivated by Shea’s explanation of why bad things happen to people and his description of “the human matrix,” which plays a “pivotal role in helping people nurture an enduring sense of happiness that is present and revitalizing even during times of stress, loss and pain.”
After we landed, I ordered Shea’s book. And Shea writes the way he talks. The book is easy to understand and provides good examples that demonstrate why it isn’t natural —or healthy — to believe we should live in bliss our entire lives.
As I work my way through the book, I find myself thinking back on the year and what lessons I learned from the challenges that seemed to appear and overwhelm each month. I’m also thinking about the people who were part of delivering those lessons each step of the way.
This Thanksgiving, I have many reasons to be grateful. My family may be scattered around the country, but they are healthy. My co-workers, too, are healthy — and employed. My friends are many and doing what the good Lord wants them to be doing.
I truly believe that things happen for a reason, and while I may not like all the reasons, having Shea as my seatmate on a long plane flight was meant to be and for good reasons.
Happy Thanksgiving and blessings to you and your family!
November 24th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Janet,
Thankyou for another year of your interesting and informative articles packed full of your firsthand knowledge and insight. Your topics are oh so current, fair, and honorable to this nations great fire service. Happy Thanksgiving to you and all the other wonderful contributing writers of Fire Chief. It is so appreciated by thousands nationwide !!!
Jon Marsh
November 25th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Janet,
I wholeheartedly echo the comments of Mr. Marsh! Your “fire service voice” gets better and better with every piece you compose, but your “human voice” is even better. One of the things we in the fire service have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving is that we have Janet Wilmoth on our team. Happy Thanksgiving to you and the entire Wilmoth clan.\
Robert Avsec
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