SEEMING CATASTROPHES
SEEMING CATASTROPHES
30-plus years ago, I found out in my first semester in college that my student loans didn’t come through due to a glitch in the paper work.
I ended up dropping out of college that first semester and joining the Army.
I thought it was a bad thing. But turned out to be a good thing.
Then I went to Alabama for Basic Training and had adventures.
There I was warned of poisonous snakes, poisonous spiders, and poisonous plants. Then I was told to go play war in the middle of that forest, sleep in that forest, and check my sleeping bag for big poisonous snakes before I settled into it after a day of War Games.
It rained day and night on all 5 days of Bivouac..
I met people I will never forget, (even if I’m not in touch with any of them) and grew in discipline, maturity, and bank account.
I learned what a Boilermaker in Germany was (and enjoyed more than a few!) I ate schnitzel mit case und champignon which translates into a German for ‘porky fatty thing that hides its fatty chewy side by being overcooked and slathered with cheese and mushrooms’. It was actually delicious!
Fast forward to 3 years later, I thought I was a fool. I’d just passed the Sergeant Board and was told I would be promoted to the rank of Sergeant. But I was 6 weeks away from the end of my 3 year active duty term, and they wanted me to re-enlist before they could give me my promotion.
But I was burnt out, done, had had enough of my soldiering days and didn’t have the stomach to re-enlist.
As I took the Greyhound home, I was kicking myself for not doing 20 years in the Military and thereby insuring myself a small retirement for life. I thought I was a failure.
5 months later I was back in College.
What was at first a catastrophe (no college loans coming through) ended up being a blessing for me- an experience in the Army that made me grow up, made me strong, and helped me have the maturity and discipline I needed to later go to college- while living and paying for college at below poverty level income.
So often when we think it is the end, often it is the beginning. So many seeming set backs have turned out to be times where fate was re-setting my course.
I’ve learned to have faith. Learned to trust. And I’ve learned that though life is often a mystery, there is a purpose and meaning and reason for the many little setbacks, happenings, and stories that happen to us. We just need to have faith.
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About Zellie M. Quinn
I first started writing poetry in the early 1980′s while in the military. I found that I could write on the back-blank side of pages of important documents all the soldier poems welling up in me. The guys discovered the poems and began to take them. This proved to be a not-so-good thing, since during inspections our site was docked points due to the missing pages of important documents.
I wish I could honestly say that as soon as I realized this, I immediately stopped all further deviant behavior…
Alas…
Other than that I was a good soldier.
Currently the poetry editor at Catholiclane.com
For more poems of mine, go to: http://catholiclane.com/author/zellie-m-quinn/
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So very true…tweeting this please. Thanks for sharing
Thankyou Boomiebol!
Amazing how Gods plans are better than our own!
Certainly his plans have been better than mine! There is a bible quote, “Seek first God and his justice, and the rest will be added unto you”- What comfort in those words…
Thank you for this. Life is so full of “what ifs” that I’m always amazed at the gratitude for how things are through God’s grace. At the bottom of all my emails is the quote from one of Eliot’s poems:
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
T. S. Eliot, Burnt Norton
Wow Tom, I’ve never read that line from Eliot’s poems. I’m familiar enough with T. S. Eliot’s life and personna to know he was a complicated and brilliant poet- I need to get more familiar with his poetry. What a great line!
Zellie, this was a wonderful post and I enjoyed the comments left by others. I went to university several times and look back very fondly on the less academic pursuits like playing hockey and partying which inhibited my ability to get up for 8:00 classes. I went for the academic pursuits later in life, as a supposedly mature student.
I find myself at a crossroads in life or perhaps looking down ‘the road less traveled’ right now and you provided inspiration. Thank you.
Thankyou ivonprefontaine for your comments and for the reblog! I’m glad you were able to derive inspiration from this post. And believe me, when I wrote it, I forced myself to keep it brief as there were so many times in the Military, and afterwards that seeming setbacks were just part of the plan.
Sometimes it was just to show the miracle of God’s showing he was in charge. Like the time (after it rained day and night for 5 days) I got sick in basic training, and when I went to sick call, I was warned I’d have to start basic training all over if I missed anything. I’d witnessed this over and over with fellow soldiers being escorted to a new just starting training company for at times just missing 1 hour of training (for sick call)
Turned out I had a high fever and a respiratory infection. I thought it was the end. But it was a chance to see God work his miracle.
When I came back after missing training for 4 days in the hospital, it seemed surreal. It turned out that immediately after I’d gone to sick call, the Drill Sargeants had gotten a notice from Headquarters telling them that our specific Company of soldiers would be needed to test and try out the new firing range they were building, so all specific Basic training would be postponed.
For 4 days our company was suspended from all training that I was required to do so that they could test and re-test the new fancy firing range.
As soon as I came back Basic training started back up again. I hadn’t missed a single training event!
Coincidence? Nope, no way! There is a plan for us, but sometimes we are moved out of our comfort zones! Good luck in the crossroads you are facing- In years to come or sooner, it all makes sense!
Reblogged this on Teacher as Transformer and commented:
The past few weeks have been a challenging time for me as I struggled with decisions. I wrote elsewhere that I too often get lost in idea that when I come to the end I see it as a something terminated. Instead, it is a moment to look back, celebrate the successes that often emerged without a plan, and to embrace the uncertainty of the future without a plan. I love to be in charge and am trying to set aside that. Zellie spoke to that part in me.