Monday - Taking yet another step

I am slowly praying my way through this Akathist.

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I love the last line:

O Lord, my Lord, my joy, grant that I may

rejoice in Thy mercy!

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I went to the informational networking interview.

It was hard.

I dressed up, hair and makeup done;

card and cookies with my thanks for the person's time.

*

It is hard to always put on a brave professional face

but God helped me keep it together.

My Christmas tree with cards I got in the mail.

So cute and small, my tree is!

Perfect for an apartment.

I have two main icons of St. Nicholas.

Had to show you this one as it is not only very beautiful

but is on a wall that is not blue;

had to console Margaret a little, as she loves my blue walls.

:)

So to everyone who celebrated St. Nicholas Day today -

Happy Feast!

St. Nicholas is one of the Saints I was close to from the time I was

a catechumen and I treasure his prayers of intercession that

have helped me so much

and are still active in my life now.

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I am still having insomnia and dizziness from the insomnia.

I am seeking to look to God for help.

Thank you again everyone for your prayers and comments,

your encouragement is such a gift to me.

*

May God bless and keep us.

All At Once...

So thankful for God's mercy,

for the intercession and protection of the Saints.

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Today I was at a beautiful baptism of a lovey baby boy.

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I went to my good friend's house to look into

the money issue from the letter

of unexpected money owed

that I received this week.

We discovered that the letter was not wrong.

I suddenly owe a large amount

(esp. right now for me)

so much that with the current regular bills I have

(phone, hydro)

I do not have any savings left

outside of the pension that was paid by my employer

that is now housed at my bank.

(I will see about payment options

for the unexpected bill,

I am responsible

and will communicate appropriately.)

*

My friend who is also in some grave difficulties

came last night and we prayed

services to the Mother of God and to St. Nicholas.

God is powerful in the intercession of His Saints.

*

I suddenly find myself,

a professional librarian,

who has great work experience and

formerly a decent salary,

in a position where

due to some other factors,

including lack of health care in the States

and no jobs in Michigan,

mean that I may need to stay here

and look into everything that can help me:

looking for any job I can do

looking into social assistance

figuring out where food banks are

so I have one less bill to worry about.

All At Once.

*

I do have a few friends who may be able to help me with

various things

but the situation is still serious.

And I am worried about Cleo.

What if I have to move somewhere where I can't keep her?

She is not young anymore -

and I am loath to give her to a stranger.

*

Please pray for us.

I am looking to God for help and for salvation.

God is good and He is merciful and loves mankind.

*

PS: the huge rash on my face continues to improve,

so that is one blessing

though between the physical pain I had from it

and all the doctor's visits I had to get it resolved thus far

meant that I was not able to do a lot of job searching this week.

November 1 2010 - cool skies and sunshine

Cleo my lovely companion cat.

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I told my Mom today that I was thinking

since I still don't have news

from the 2 jobs I have been waiting for

that perhaps I did not get them.

This makes me sad

even though there are other jobs I am applying for,

hoping for.

Sigh and deep breath.

So I am trying to start the process to look for other types of work.

It's tough going.

I am a librarian.

Pretty much all my work experience is in libraries.

I am often over-qualified for other jobs....

Needing prayer and God's mercy as always;

my money won't last forever

but I trust that God's mercy will.

A beautiful November sky line;

you can see the blue of my computer screen reflecting back...

I've had these roses since I graduated from library school.

My church family who came to the restaurant to love me

and say goodbye and meet my family

all at once

gave me these roses.

I really want to be a librarian again.

Please God, that I get a job.

All in time...

I am realizing it takes me time to know

what I want.

I am thinking that perhaps I want to live downtown

and not have to bus to Church, etc.

I need time and quietness and wisdom

to know what I need.

May the Lord have mercy on us all.

suivant - following

Suivant means following or the following.
I am following a partly unknown dream to what I hope is a better future.

The other half of this story is that it is a bit scary to commit
about half of one's life savings to learn a language
to try to stay in a city
that has become a home to me.

On one hand it so great to know what I am going to try to do.

Learn French.

However.

Today I am going to a Greek Monastery with my church.
And I am so relieved.
I cannot say enough about going to a good Orthodox monastery.

This past year has been very hard for me.

I was in a job that proved very difficult;

breaking my foot before that

was really hard;

not only did not I not get good care in the hospital

(not being told that you have two foot fractures
or how to care for an open wound

to name just two incidents)

but the internal wounds that come from a physical wound

take time to heal from.

Often what got me through was remembering the monastery I go to

and seeing pictures of other good Orthodox monasteries

that blog friends went to.

So today I am going to pray for a miracle:

that I can find a good apartment that I can afford

and find a way to better structure my life to learn French

(I am struggling with it already).