Let One Guide

Today is a good day!  It began with the support and nurturing one needs to enhance our physical and mental well being.  This is the recipe for a healthy way.  However, one must be disciplined and determined to make it happen.  When this is accomplished the path will present itself in a truly wonderful way.  This is exactly where I needed to be today as I look forward to an opportunity that awaits me this evening.  I signed up to be a mentor for an up and coming social worker and could not be in a better place as our relationship will begin.  The mentee is in the final phase of their MSW program, looking towards the transition from the classroom to the professional world.   I look forward to being available to listen, support, and guide my mentee in a manner that is positive and helpful.  I truly appreciate and embrace the process of being a mentor.  Whether it is with my little brother (think BBBS) or in the capacity of the experience I will be a part of this evening, the rewards of this relationship are plentiful for all parties involved.

I am humbled and honored that I have the desire to, and the heart for this endeavor.  Not all can be in the position of guiding others.  It truly is a specialty that some struggle with.  My take is that the best mentors are those that are willing to learn from the process as much as they are able to give.  Furthermore, you have to live a little in the classroom of life before you can be ready.   I have seen some fail, particularly those that try to hard, want to be friends first, are not in a healthy place, and all and everything that can negatively influence and impact this relationship.  All of the mentors that have influenced my life in so many wonderful ways have embodied the qualities and strengths that exposed me to the right way.  My mentors were able to model more than words alone.   This is an important point because often you will see the overload of words and action in a mentoring relationship that honestly can contaminate the process of.  If you are not following me, think of any relationship you have had where you don't feel heard, or when you speak you are interrupted, or that connection of support and understanding is just missing.  This happens in many relationships in and out of  being a mentor.  So, I can not lose sight of the lessons given, modeled, and taught as they will further support me in my ability to give and receive.

I look forward to the process of returning back to my time and place as a last year MSW student.  So much has transpired since those days, in and out of my professional title.  Challenges and struggles amongst positive opportunities and accomplishments.  I look forward to learning more about myself while I learn through the eyes of my mentee.  This relationship is reciprocal and if you don't understand that then you would be missing a vital outcome of being a mentor.  I will keep you informed as I move into this new relationship.  Until we meet again stay present and available out there.  When you do, you will see that the quality of your world can change for the better!

*To my disappointment when I arrived at the event this evening my name was not on the list.  So, what that meant was that my information was not received and/or it was lost.  Therefore, I did not get to meet my mentee.  Another lesson to be learned and as always adversity has many.  I resubmitted my application and will be matched shortly, perhaps a blessing in disguise!

 The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

Bertrand Russell