A good day

I've worried a bit lately that all my posts sound like I'm taking the Struggle Bus to Gloomy Town, because it's been a tough season. I've been posting about some of the difficulties at work, but all of that is happening in the context of some stuff I can't blog about. It might be hopeful stuff? I hope it's hopeful stuff? But while we're waiting to determine whether it's hopeful stuff, I have been racking up the 10-ride passes and the customer loyalty points on the Struggle Bus.

This morning I was not excited about the day that lay ahead, and I prayed an optimistic prayer. I said, "Let me see your goodness in a surprising way today." Then I had a little internal debate with myself about whether it is dumb to keep asking God for relief in a season of suffering, and then I forgot about the whole thing until the end of the day. But these are the things that happened in my day:

• a fun and effective morning class, in which I taught my students a bunch of new information and kept them laughing the whole time
• an unexpected resurgence of appreciation for the opportunity to work in a fascinating field that makes a difference in people's lives
• a surprise invitation to pop into a co-worker's office and chat for 10 minutes -- the kind of interaction that makes work so much nicer but that has dwindled away during the pandemic
• a welcome break in the middle of what is usually the busiest day of the week, during which someone else taught the grad students
• a pleasant set of brief email exchanges with a long-distance colleague
• a good outcome from a new set of exam questions -- they seem to have been fair and they were straightforward to grade
• an afternoon class with more student engagement than usual -- they don't love the late-afternoon scheduling and tend to be droopy, but not today
• a paper acceptance! for a paper I am proud of!
• an evening phone conversation with a dear friend during Stella's piano lesson
• a cozy chat with Stella and a surprisingly fun grocery store stop after piano
• making plans for a weekend get-together with one of my college roommates
• homemade cinnamon buns, courtesy of Pete

What a nice day, huh? Maybe, just possibly, it is not dumb to pray for relief in a season of suffering. Maybe, in fact, I should try it more often.