Eileen MacEnery:  

(This is an essay which I recently wrote for submission to a weekly program on NPR (National Public Radio)called "This I Believe".) THIS I BELIEVE: MY LIFE'S WORK This I believe....we do not choose our "life's work"...our life's work chooses us. I was a middle-class baby boomer/American girl who grew up in the 50's and 60's in the NYC suburbs . My life plans were typical....college, travel, career, husband, children, church and community, maybe even local politics...and probably in that order. I did not imagine my future beyond the raising of my own family, and I assumed my life would be much like my parents' and grandparents' but much better of course!). I also believed that, in addition to those "average American" achievements, my life would contain some interesting and unique opportunities. The 70's and 80's brought drastic changes to our world...Vietnam, Women's Liberation, widespread and destructive drug use, societal upheaval, abandonment of spiritual guidelines, medical and technological advances, and most recently...the evolution of computers and the internet. These things changed the rules that American society had followed for over two centuries. (Although many still refuse to acknowledge this fact.) However, this I believe, among the things that have NOT changed, is the fact that our life's work chooses us, and not the other way around. In the late 80's I found myself separated from my husband, with 2 college degrees and 2 small children. I was abandoned and rejected by family and community, because I believed motherhood took precedence over job and career. Staying "home" with my daughters 24/7, as their day AND night caregiver, was both my "profession" and my life's work, even if home was a motel room, a shelter, campground or an old car. I was entrusted with these two young lives...for a brief season only...and being chosen for motherhood was more important to me than material, professional or soci...Expand for more