
Will you take a few minutes and join me as I share my story? Helping children, women, and parents and is my passion. I believe that therapy or counseling can be powerful and life changing experience. Owning my own practice has always been a dream of mine. I have been “ in the waiting” and preparing for this for a long time. I decided to go back to school to earn my master’s degree for this very reason. I have always known that this is exactly what I am meant to do with my gifts, talents, and love of connecting with and helping people.
Planting a seed was just the first step. We all know that when you plant a seed, it does not begin to grow right away. There is a time of watering, nurturing, and allowing the seed to grow and develop beneath the soil. At the right time, when it has received what it needs beneath the soil, it sprouts from it’s cozy little home and takes new form above the surface. This is when we start to see a glimpse of it’s potential to grow into the exact thing that it is meant to be. I would have loved more than anything to come right out of graduate school and start right away on my practice, but my seed needed to spend the proper time growing and taking form.
I continued to work and serve my community right where I was planted, knowing that one day this dream would come to pass. I was still able to do exactly what I loved doing – working with children, families, and women in community mental health settings. This was part of tending to my seed.
The process of waiting and nurturing a dream is a beautiful experience. It is definitely not easy. Wanting something and knowing it is meant for you, but also knowing that the timing is just not right is bittersweet. It makes your bones ache. It tugs at your heart and gives you all the feels. I decided I was going to trust the process and figure out a way to make the waiting work for me. Did I figure this out right away? Nope. This was not an easy journey to start. I had to be intentional about how I thought about this daily and I had choose what I would believe about this season of my life. I had to develop a plan and work towards that plan daily by tending to my seed and making sure it was getting what it needed.
In the waiting, a lot of things happened. I was figuring out my new role as a wife, I had two children, I spent time getting to know myself as a mother (I could write a whole blog post on this), I was able to build relationships with colleagues and community members, and I took time to get really clear about what moving forward with this dream would really look and feel like. Most importantly of all, the process of being “in the waiting” was growing and changing me.
I want to encourage you that if you find yourself “in the waiting” right now with something in your life to hang on, hunker down, give yourself grace, and find ways to enjoy the ride. After all, the time is going to pass anyway. While you are waiting…..make the waiting work for you. Remember that seeds take time to grow. At just the right time, when your seed has received what it needs and it’s ready to begin its journey up and out of the soil, it will.
Be Well,
Cathy