Yeah today I start online classes at Starr King! I can hardly believe I am starting my second semester of my second year of my Masters on Divinity program. I have right at 18 months to go which means I am half way to picking up my third masters degree. When I started I had no idea where I was heading but now I know what I want to do. I want to get two Phds . One in Counseling of some sort( probably pastoral in nature as I am becoming an interfaith chaplain) and the other in Religion and Philosophy with a focus on womens spirituality and feminist philosophy but which order not certain but that is where my spirit is calling me . It is good to be figuring it out and I am just starting to reflect on it and what I am going to do with it . I have realized my masters days are on the down hill swoop. When I started taking classes I did it for fun and the love of what I was learning and never realizing where my study would take me in fact I practiced just being with my interest and it worked out great using a mindfulness approach to take it a day at a time . Who would have thought my journey to taking fun classes( to fill the time I had left over when my mother died,Jonah started college, and Jessica started school) would be leading to getting three masters. Having picked up two masters already and 18 months from having a third masters I have realized all these masters were necessary for me to go forward in life. The religion and philosophy study of women spirituality and focus on women in world religions allowed me to develop my academic skills and pursue scholarship in my study of temples to Black Madonna and submerged history of the feminine divine in all of the world religions . I also along the way honed skills in feminist philosophy which had been an interest since law school. My counseling masters allowed me to learn how to heal my inner child first and foremost and to help others with different kinds of therapy. It also taught me how to use in my life and do psychoanalysis. My Masters of Divinity started the process of combining the two as I learned I could study world religions and pastoral counseling all at one place and become an interfaith chaplain that understood the beauty of all the world religions traditions. So now what??? That is the question I am seriously reflecting on and will be thinking about as I finish this next 18 months of study. I feel kinda like the the Little train reflecting back when I started school in the spring of 2010 right after mother died in December. I was constantly thinking I think I can get one masters as I chugged along the way climbing that academic mountain after having been out of school for over twenty something years when I started back. When I got to the top of the summit the mountain was when I completed my masters in counseling( which Jim and I celebrated by climbing(by train) to the top of Europe the Jungfrau mountain in Switzerland) then as I was headed down the hill I was like yeah! and now as I am chugging to the finish line of my three masters I am slowly going as I am realizing it was the journey that was important so what is next after that finish line is my question? What I gained from all of this first and foremost was my soulmate Jim I never would have met him had I not started this journey no I would not and that would have been very sad I love him so much and he is so supportive of my interest. Also I was given the opportunity to travel all over the US doing work I loved , got to go to Berkeley and San Fran and see the beautiful coast, met all these wonderful good people along the way. Found myself literally studying all over Europe it has been a wild ride I dont want it to stop and I am pondering what next. Also I am reflecting as I turn 50 this month on February 15 and have just had surgery as I want another 50 years and not sure that will come but no matter what it has been a heck of a good ride and journey and it seem to have got great right when I went back to school and started studying something I loved. !8 months doesnt seem that far off anymore to me. By then I will have been back in school five years. Some have ask what I will do when I get there ? Others speculate will she give up law but the answer is no! NO! I realized along the way I will always self identify as a lawyer first as it was my first calling to come back to rural Appalachia and practice. However I like to think of this new study as my second act for the next fifty years but with my law work interwoven in it somehow seamlessly. Oh well wanted to share I am heading toward the finish line as I am over half way there and I am seeing myself as the little train in the book my grandmaw Grace use to read me as I am going I know I can I know I can. What a hoot or maybe I should say toot toot. I am headed for something new and already reflecting what is next! But I must remember to just slow down and enjoy the first ride as it has started dawning on me there are a whole new set of tracks awaiting and coming in 18 months .
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 17:28:49 +0000
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