My Favorite Job Helped Me Connect With My Body

I had no reason to believe anything good would come out of my divorce — which happened when my son was three and a half years old. In fact, I was embarking on a major transformation that would change the way I lived in my body. It began with a new job, of all things — in a small eight-person office where the last thing I expected was positive change.

I first saw a posting about the job at a women’s center. The organization, called Melpomene Institute for Women’s Health Research, was a nonprofit. Its mission sounded fascinating: to bring cutting-edge health research to ordinary women and girls and to develop programs to engage them in leading healthy lives.

What that meant, from the organization’s point of view, was a profound commitment to helping women engage in physical activity — at a time when male sports/athletics were primary in every sense.

Melpomene was looking for a development assistant, and the pay seemed better than what I was seeing for other jobs. I had no clue what a development assistant was, but it said something about being a good writer and creating grant proposals, which I had done before. It was a part-time job, which I also liked because it would give me more time to be with my son.

At this point, I was a terrified human being, with nightmares of being homeless in waking and sleeping dreams. My son’s dad was paying child support and alimony, because I hadn’t worked outside home in many years, and was a stay-at-home parent and writer. I was grateful for the money, but it came with a time limit, and I didn’t want to be all that dependent on someone I wasn’t married to anymore.

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Photo: Property of Judy M. Lutter