I expected to post something on Thursday, and I expected that it would start with “Th” in order to keep up the pattern of alliteration following the days of the week theme. As the day progressed, I wondered what I’d write. But nothing really grabbed me, so I went about my day, mildly interested in the fact that I felt really no desire to write anything at all. It wasn’t until 10 p.m. that I suddenly felt like it would be very fun to write about the three vocations there are in life, and I was quite excited to see that the word “three” started with the letters T and H. As a matter of fact, it would be absolutely true to say that I was never, in my life, quite so fascinated with the fact that the word “three” started with those two letters.

But then I found that I didn’t really get a chance to write and I was tired anyway.

Maybe I’ll write about it another Thursday.

Or how about this: I’ll see if I can do it in 8 minutes.

Let’s call this, “Everything I now think about vocations.”

(Of course, the title isn’t accurate – you’d have to qualify it by saying it’s ‘everything’ that I can write within about 8 minutes.)

10:32 a.m. MST

Go!

Catholics aren’t entirely clear about whether there are only 2 vocations in life or 3. By vocation, we’re usually talking not about careers but rather, about ‘states’ of life. I wondered about this myself. Certainly there were the 2 ‘biggies’ – being called to the Married State or the Religious Life. (I capitalize just for the sake of clarity here.) But the unanswered question was whether there was such a thing as a call to the Single Life. I now believe that there is such a call. I also now believe that God’s plan for our lives is far more detailed than I ever thought before. So here’s a word about each state.

MARRIED: Most people are called to be married. God gives all women, but particularly those with a vocation to the married life, a mothering instinct. This means that girls will melt upon seeing a baby, or even a baby kitten. It’s a good sign. However, there are different ‘flavours’ of mothering instinct. One woman can really love the smell of babies and be really excited by carrying them, while another mother might not like that stage as much and instead be the conversational type, enjoying best the part when the children are old enough to engage in dialogue about complicated abstract topics. I also believe that God has a particular person in mind for you if you are meant to be married. You will generally meet this person fairly early in life, as in

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

(Time’s up.)

10:41 a.m.

Man.

You see the problem.

Eight minutes doesn’t get a person very far.

Just for fun, I’ll post this, but I’ll continue.