Nov. 16, 2022 The same conversation took place between me and my son nearly every Sunday for three years. Me: Jake, I have no clue what I’m writing about for my column this week. Jake: Write about Jesus. Me: Ummm… that’s not very specific. What about Jesus? Jake: I don’t know. That’s your problem. And it was my problem. But that conversation wasn’t a problem. I always found it rather endearing. Not quite so endearingly, I’ve always had a bad habit of doing things at the last minute. That habit and a 5 p.m. Sunday deadline made it easy for me to push the last of my work on this newspaper – almost always this column – until Sunday morning, sometimes early Sunday afternoon, when I’d finish from my home office (a corner in our living room). In addition to creating a lot of chaotic mornings, my Sunday morning work created the routine of that conversation with Jake. Now, after not having that conversation for the last five weeks, I miss it. So why are we not having that conversation? As of the Nov. 9 edition, our print date has moved, and the NCC is now being printed on Friday evenings. A creature of habit, I dreaded the print date move. I was afraid I’d struggle to adjust my workflow. I was afraid I’d miss deadline, something I’ve never done in nearly 15 years in journalism. We, the NCC staff, reporters, columnists and photographers, practiced for a month before the actual “go live” on the new deadline. I can’t tell you how many times I prayed it would all go smoothly, but I still feared it wouldn’t. While I miss the conversation with Jake, God has turned this situation that filled me with dread into a blessing. Because I don’t have the option of pushing work to the weekend, I have more time on Sunday mornings to enjoy coffee and quiet time, to spend with “my two men,” my husband and son, and to better prepare for Mass to and to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. God has a beautiful way of turning what I initially see as a struggle into a gift. And that same thing has been happening for much longer than three years. |
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