Sometimes when you’re searching for a job, the right job ends up finding you.
Business professional attire…but I’ve been wearing flip flops, shorts and sandals to work for the past ten years. Classic, traditional clothing…well I’ve always appreciated the “little black dress” and now I’ll have the opportunity to wear one as often as I’d like. A mini vacation…I desperately need one! This weekend I’m headed to the mountains (fall, beautiful leaves) for more training…two weeks…all expense paid. Hopefully I’ll have a little down time to check out the area while I’m there. Counselor…I’ve always wanted to be one…now I’ll have the opportunity to do just that. Corporate America…I’ve always enjoyed the perks of working for a large company and today I’m officially Employee Number ***. Yep, after a few more weeks of training I will step into my new role as a licensed Family Service Counselor in the funeral industry.
God has a sense of humor and sometimes He delivers gifts to us in ways that we never would have imagined.
As mentioned earlier, I didn’t find this job…my new job found me by way of a recruiter who reached out and asked if I was interested in the opportunity. I was intrigued to say the least. I suspect that I aced the interview when I told her that I want to be buried in a “Life Is Good” tee shirt when I die except I want it to say “Life Was Good“. I’m sure it didn’t hurt either when I mentioned that I had written a blog post once about cemeteries and how much I enjoy visiting them.
I’ve been doing this for three weeks now and it’s been very interesting and pretty rewarding so far. I’ve had the opportunity to stand with a couple of families at the interment of their loved ones, I get to drive the golf cart (one of my favorite things to do) around the gardens (cemetery) when hosting tours; at times I lead the funeral procession to the burial site and occasionally I assist with traffic control. In God’s economy nothing is wasted and I’ve had plenty of experience with traffic control at my previous job as we checked in happy vacationers on Saturday afternoons in the summertime. This week the evening news became a little more real to me as I sat in during a consultation with a family whose young son was the victim of a homicide.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m “serious” enough to handle the responsibility that comes with a job like this. I’m generally pretty humorous and like to carry on a lot of foolishness at times. Then there’s the other side of my personality that is warm, compassionate and caring so it makes perfectly good sense that I would have a job like this. I like to use adjectives like “diverse” and “colorful” to describe my resume and career path so far. I’ve always considered myself to be somewhat of a jack-of-all trades and a master of a few…well I guess it’s time to add another trade to my list.
There have definitely been some awkward moments as I’ve shared with others what my new job is…you should see the perplexed look on their faces as they try to respond. For the most part I’ve been keeping things on the down-low because I don’t want to be perceived as morbid or creepy or anything like that. In case you’re wondering, I don’t have any direct contact with dead bodies…ha-ha. Since Halloween was this week, I thought it might be a good time for me to “come out” of the darkness and let you in on my spooky little secret. And in keeping with my quirky sense of humor, I just tell people now that I decided to leave one “dead end job” for another.
One of my favorite TV programs is Sunday Morning on CBS and last week they aired a segment that I found to be very interesting and enlightening. Feel free to check it out and comment if you dare/care…
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mortician-caitlin-doughty-on-a-good-death/
