An excerpt from 'Journey to Freedom' by Scott Reall (the book I am reading for my class at the YMCA)
…Clifton Fadiman tells a story about Charles Steinmetz, an electrical engineer genius who worked for General Electric in the early part of the twentieth century. After his retirement, they called him in because the other engineers were baffled about the breakdown of a complex of machines. They asked Steinmetz to pinpoint the problem. He walked around the machine for a while, then took a piece of chalk out of his pocket and made a big cross mark on one particular machine. When the engineers disassembled that part of the machine, it turned out to be the precise location of the breakdown.
A few days later, the engineers received a bill from Steinmetz for $10,000 -a staggering sum in those days. They asked him to itemize it, and he returned the bill with a note that read:
Making one cross: $1
Knowing where to put it: $9,999 *
*from John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted (Michigan: Zondervan, 1997), 130-131
Journey to Freedom...
The class I am taking (& this book) is about changing your life. This particular excerpt leads up to the discussion about finding what’s “broken down” inside you and marking it with a the big X. This is one of the first steps… “Journey to Freedom is about learning to change the things in your life that keep you from reaching your full potential.” I am very excited about the journey I am beginning and want to share it with you.
I am taking this class because I am sick & tired of the way my life has been going for the past 9 or so years. After years of trials and tribulations as a teenager and a 20 something, I finally started to feel good about myself as a person. But, I think I got complacent somewhere along the line…
Through therapy, I had dealt with the repercussions of the bad decisions I made growing up. My doctors finally found the proper “cocktail” of medications to treat my Bipolar disorder. And, I got the help I needed to be able to take care of myself and my daughter. But, I still seemed to have a “hole inside”. I gave up and settled on my ex-husband to fill it. Things had been going pretty well for me despite the fact that I occasionally had to go back to the hospital for “tune ups”. When I met my ex, I was in a pretty good place for someone who had had a head injury and had struggled with an undiagnosed mental disorder for years. My faith in God was strong, I was very active physically and socially and being the best mom I could be (learning along the way).
Things started to go downhill after he and I got together. And, they never got better. After six years of taking care of him as well as Mikayla, I was losing more and more of myself and I couldn’t take it anymore. I started to proceed with getting a divorce. Four years of depression later, I had slumped back into some negative habits. My finances were depleted, my soul was smashed, and my sense of self was almost gone. That was two summers ago…
Now, it has been almost six years since Aaron and I broke up and I have just been coasting along. I've been ignoring the fact that I am unhappy with myself. Lately, I have become more and more tired of feeling this way and I am finally ready to make the changes I need in order to feel good again! I want to have a life of spirituality again! I want to allow creativity to flow through my mind into my hands again! I want to be able to teach my daughter how to live a structured and happy life. In order for me to be able to do all of this, I need help. And, I believe this class is the start!
http://www.journeytofreedom.org/
(Posted on FB Friday, June 5, 2009 at 12:59am)
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