Early in my professional career , I was the director of a small legal aid office on a Native American reservation. It was my responsibility to manage the office’s staff, clients, programming, finances, reporting, and quality of service. We had a large region to cover and sometimes had to spend hours driving in the course of our work. As a lawyer and a mother, I was juggling many balls to keep family and business working smoothly. Thankfully, I had Christian Science to provide me with daily inspiration and guidance.

Our office served three groups of specialty clientele. The first group comprised three Native American nations, whose members needed legal assistance in everything from housing to family issues to tribal/state conflicts. Another consisted of farmers and ranchers who were struggling to keep their farms during the farm crisis of the 1980s. Finally, we provided mediation services to anyone residing in the 24-county region served by our agency. 

During my third year as director, my employer announced that I should not only serve these three groups but also start providing free legal services to people in the six abutting counties. This didn’t seem right to me because my salary was almost entirely funded by grants provided for the three specialty groups. Nevertheless, my employer insisted that I decrease my services to these groups and take on the additional legal caseload. We had several meetings and confrontations over the ensuing months, and I felt that my reputation as an ethical, hard-working lawyer and manager was being attacked. At the same time, there were also stresses at home.