I noticed today that I seem to have my life back.

Last summer I started to work for a different security company which had taken over the contract for a site I had worked. It was full-time and that is rare in this business.

security-guard-1The schedule turned out to be a problem, but in this vocation that goes with the territory, as they say.

But after a month workplace harassment began. Complaints to the management went unheeded, and that caused the problem to escalate as the supervisor’s misbehaviour was actually aided and abetted by the company’s response to the issue.

Finally, in March, the situation escalated to a level of public humiliation that led to my serving a formal complaint to the company. The complaint was trivialized, and me along with it.

By the end of April I realized I was losing weight and my sleep was being negatively impacted. So I resigned for cause and applied for what we in Canada call EI (Employment Insurance). When a person quits the application has to be investigated. The investigator, a pleasant man, implied that I was unlikely to receive benefits. As the file was coming to a close the gentleman again implied that I would likely not receive benefits, based on what the company’s version of the affair indicated. Once that was in the open I was able to prove the company owner lied. I faxed the documents to support my claim. That same day the application was approved.

Very shortly after that I got a temporary government job and some shifts from another security company, so I did not need the insurance benefits anyway.

But what sparked my positive awareness today is that this morning I was able to hoe the entire vegetable garden (in the unusual heat of the first day of summer) on a working day. To work, and still have time and energy to do yard work, is an event that hasn’t happened for many months.

CONFESSIONIt is a strangely warming experience to come through a valley of shadows.

God doesn’t owe me that. Yet in God’s time The Holy One decided this was what was necessary for me at this time. So my gratitude is for Creator’s presence through all, the valley, the plain, the desert, the forest, by desolate paths and cool stream, whatever life has there is a truth that goes beyond all else; Jesus said, “Look, I am with you, even to the end of the age.”

The Great “I AM” is with. Where, or in what situation, the “with” happens has less and less significance. The “with” matters. The rest, well, it’s just shadow boxing.