Rambling #2 - Life, Bricks, and Faith

"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith." - Steve Jobs, in a commencement speech at Stanford University (2005)

Last night, I laughed. It was 1:30 am. I was laughing so hard and so loud that I thought I might wake my roommate. I haven't laughed like that in awhile and it was all because of a quote from Steve Jobs that was cited in the June 2009 issue of Real Simple.

Job search is tough. Exciting yes, but emotionally exhausting too. Right now, laughter more frequently stems from a place of frustration and sadness than from a bubbling up of happiness in my heart.

Last night was a turning point. "Ok, life, you got me. Smack in the middle of my forehead. The brick imprint is there. But I'm still standing. So now what?"

Over breakfast, the next message came through loud and clear.

I love puzzles. The highlight of any excursion through an airport is when I buy the latest puzzle book on the magazine rack. There is a puzzle called an Acrostic (although the puzzle book just calls it a Crostic). It's somewhat complicated to explain simply, but I like them because you can work on it in two directions and there is a knowledge trivia aspect too.

This morning, the Crostic solution was "I am a woman in progress. I'm just trying like everyone else. I try to take every conflict, every experience and learn from it. All I know is that I can't be anybody else and it's taken me a long time to realize that."

Hear, hear.

I am a woman in progress. I am learning. I am reinventing. I am discovering. I am laughing.

Bring on the bricks.

I could use the building materials.