{"id":2714,"date":"2014-04-06T13:48:23","date_gmt":"2014-04-06T20:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shawnna.org\/?p=2714"},"modified":"2014-04-06T14:56:28","modified_gmt":"2014-04-06T21:56:28","slug":"lifes-curve-balls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/?p=2714","title":{"rendered":"Life&#8217;s Curve Balls"},"content":{"rendered":"<style><!--\n<span style=\"overflow:hidden;line-height:0px\" data-mce-style=\"overflow:hidden;line-height:0px\" id=\"mce_0_start\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\"><!--\n\/* Font Definitions *\/\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:Times;\n\tpanose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;\n\tmso-font-charset:0;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:Cambria;\n\tpanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\n\tmso-font-charset:0;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}\n \/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n\t{mso-style-parent:\"\";\n\tmargin:0in;\n\tmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\n\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\n\tfont-size:12.0pt;\n\tfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\na:link, span.MsoHyperlink\n\t{color:blue;\n\ttext-decoration:underline;\n\ttext-underline:single;}\na:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed\n\t{mso-style-noshow:yes;\n\tcolor:purple;\n\ttext-decoration:underline;\n\ttext-underline:single;}\np\n\t{margin:0in;\n\tmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\n\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\n\tfont-size:10.0pt;\n\tfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-ascii-font-family:Times;\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-hansi-font-family:Times;\n\tmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";}\n@page Section1\n\t{size:8.5in 11.0in;\n\tmargin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;\n\tmso-header-margin:.5in;\n\tmso-footer-margin:.5in;\n\tmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.Section1\n\t{page:Section1;}\n--><\/style>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">Six months ago (October 2, 2013 to be exact) for the first time in my very long work life, I was told, &#8220;it&#8217;s not personal&#8221; and <a href=\"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/?p=2613\" target=\"_blank\">laid off<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">The shock and sense of betrayal took its toll, as it always has.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">Unemployment barely covered the mortgage payment but because of the incredible support of Ryan and Matt, I survived and we were able to keep our home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">Ankle and eye surgery in October followed while I had health insurance.\u00a0 Then the healing began.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">Finding a job became my full-time job.\u00a0 I went to my first interview on crutches (I didn&#8217;t get the position).<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">My goal was to apply for at least one position every day &#8211; I usually applied for three or four.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">I eventually shortened my resume so as not to reveal my age; yes, age discrimination in hiring is rampant.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">Many interviews followed; most were for positions that made my stomach hurt.\u00a0 You see, I know too much about health plans and how our incredibly dysfunctional health system works.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">I decided to focus on either the regulatory or clinical area of health care.\u00a0 And I was very blessed to find a job in the regulatory area.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a perfect fit for me now. <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>After seven weeks on the job, I&#8217;m very satisfied.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">Backing up two months.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">It was early February 2014 and I had accepted my new position.\u00a0 Scheduled to start on Feb 17th, I decided to take a solo road trip to unwind both from the draining job search, and visit my son Matt in So California. <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>I also wanted to take in the Grand Canyon as well since I have never been there.\u00a0 The day before I was to leave, <a href=\"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/?p=2684\">my only nephew Vincent overdosed and went into a coma<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">The synchronicity of all of this can only be in God.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">I left our home and drove to my life-long friend Kyle&#8217;s house in So California and we headed straight to the hospital.\u00a0 It was pulverizing to see Vincent being kept alive by life support.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">After three days, they declared him brain-dead and started preparing him for organ donation.\u00a0 You see, <a href=\"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/?p=2706\">he signed up for organ donation<\/a> when he first got his driver&#8217;s license.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">It&#8217;s been two months since Vincent\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">My sister is a mess.\u00a0 Her own addiction and substance abuse is continuing unabated.\u00a0 This is making it that much more difficult to grieve in a healthy, growth-inducing way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">Life has a way of throwing us the curve balls we need for our own spiritual growth, at the very moment we need them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">I have to avoid co-dependency.\u00a0 My heart aches for my sister&#8217;s pain but it also aches knowing that her choices have brought her, and her beautiful only son Vincent, to this place.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">Owning the consequences of our choices is important to spiritual growth.\u00a0 I have to hold myself, and my sister, accountable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: .25in;\">My Spirit is looking forward to a challenging year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six months ago (October 2, 2013 to be exact) for the first time in my very long work life, I was told, &#8220;it&#8217;s not personal&#8221; and laid off. The shock and sense of betrayal took its toll, as it always <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/?p=2714\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-personal-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2714"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2723,"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714\/revisions\/2723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}