Friday - Sunshine and Quiet

I write

by lamplight and candles lit by my living room icons.

The doctor thinks I have some sort of flu.

One thing at a time.

One of the good things of sickness is when it quiets you.

At least for myself when I don't feel well physically

suddenly I realize that all those things

I was worried about

don't really matter too much

and that God is here and it is He that is in control,

not myself.

Now I do hope I will be well again soon and that when I am

I can somehow by God's grace

maintain some of this quiet...

Soup

Here's the soup!

My slow cooker is not new,

as you can tell!

Works great though.

It tasted pretty good;

needed a bit of salt and pepper;

would be yummy pureed

but I don't want to bother with more work!

*

Sadly, though, I was not able to fully enjoy this new

fun fall soup

as I have come down with some sort of flu-like sickness.

No fun!

Been resting all day and trying not to worry about

the fact that I was not able to do much job searching.

God is with us.

Wednesday - Full of Sunlight

Did I ever show you how Cleo will sit in my

dinner chair as if the food is for her?!

Silly Cleo.

Job Search:

no news.

Slow.

Food:

I made a cashew butternut apple lentil soup

for my slow cooker.

Looking forward to that tomorrow.

The other day I won a lovely book

to read to the lovely 3 year old

that I mentioned I read bedtime and other time stories to.

I won Jane G. Meyer's The Man and the Vine

and I am looking forward to having this book!

I already told 3 year old's mother that is coming

as the latest book reading installment!

Yesterday I shared the Olivia book with him...

I know other young kids who I would love to share Jane's book with...

*

Wanted to alert anyone who did not know already,

Jane has another contest this week

for her book

The Woman and the Wheat and 4 other books as well!

Be sure to go over,

if you have youngish kids for these books,

and enter!

*

And now, as the sun is setting

an hour earlier,

I need to go clean up for yet another dinner

to keep Cleo away from... :)

Remembering

About a year ago I had problems in

looking for an apartment;

some of my readers will remember

how 2 weeks before I was to move the apartment I was moving into

was suddenly refused to me

and I did not know where I would move to in 2 weeks time.

*

I remember telling my priest something to the effect of

'don't you see what is happening to me? my life is OVER'

well, I didn't say that exactly

but my anxiety was high and I felt like something was terribly wrong,

that I was now in this situation.

I remember the smile and peaceful response to my

panic.

*

It was like I was being told,

yes, I see exactly what is happening to you.

Well it took me a while later to see this,

but here is what happened - I was being kept from harm:

1. I was released suddenly from what would of been a bad

landlord experience for me.

2. I was given the apartment I am in now, which

is the one I wanted in the first place.

3. I heard later on in the year that the place I was going to live in

had a fire in it - I could of lost everything.

*

I had asked for God's help and Archangel Michael's help

and I was protected and taken care of,

even when all I could see was not having a place to live in two weeks time.

*

Still today I seem to fail at remembering this,

anxious about job situations, job finding, French language, Ottawa job situation

and on and on the list goes.

Oh what little faith!

Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!

Goodness and Hope

My Mom, Dad and Aunt are visiting

my Oma, other Aunts and Uncles.

I just talked to my Mom

and she said that my Aunt

whose house burnt down in September

was just telling her Mom

my Oma,

who will God willing be 102 years old this Christmas Eve (December 24)

that a lot of her photos,

boxes of them,

have been spared

as the fire did not destroy all of the main floor.

My Aunts friends are helping her dry out the pictures

(it took 5 firetrucks worth of water to overcome the fire

that raged most of the night / early morning hours).

I asked my Mom what the house looked like -

devastation she said;

outside walls still standing.

But I am so hearted by what was spared.

My Uncle's work clothes, my Aunt's dishes,

tea pot, silverware,

their new wood stove,

many of the doilies my Oma made

my Opa's Martinitoren!!

(His cross stitch I mentioned in the September post)

Just that my Aunt has her dishes, many of her pictures

(we do not know about the wedding pictures),

my Uncle's work clothes.

That is very heartening.

Though losing everything else

is understandably still significant.

But I am so thankful that in God's mercy that

He preserved some of what my Aunt and Uncle had.

I am still so happy about one of my loved one's getting

a full time job

after years of trying to scramble enough money to live

by doing various part time jobs.

Michelle's post on God's peace

and the song she put with it,

was an encouragement to me this morning,

and the song is so beautiful and uplifting.

*

I am working on three various job applications and have a forth to do

next week as well.

I am still dealing with some unbloggable stuff

but so is everyone and

God is with us.

It is hard to maintain one's encouragement and stamina

but with God's help I will make it through

and I pray that God will help us all

make it through our various trials in this life...

Finally Friday

Cleo and I hanging out;

Okay, you can't see me of course....

She and I are not quite sure how long we have to just

'hang out'

before I get some type of job

but I thought this picture to be fun and amusing.

Picture from this morning;

Cleo my hen.

She is so funny.

She will sometimes, esp. when she wants attention,

sit on the back of my chair,

like you see here,

when I am sitting on it.

Up close and wanting personal attention,

that's my Cleo Cat.

Sigh.

Dreaming of another day.

Found out today that I did not get the Ottawa job.

Mixed feelings about this; a bit glum;

but also quiet now.

Glum is such a great word though, you know?

So the anxiety department in my life has been a bit disorderly.

So any of you who think I radiate peace all the time

think again...

I'm just a human and broken as anyone.

*

But in the goodness department,

since the anxiety department has been wanting to run loose and ignore

Psalm 46

one of my loved ones got a full time job today!

Can't tell you how happy I am for this.

*

And apparently I am getting a gift card for some inconvenience

regarding a purchase I made a while ago in the States

that ended up being impossible to pay online.

I am hoping to buy a scarf and hat with it

(I already picked it out online, terrible, aren't I?!)

*

I have two job applications to finish this weekend

since they are due this weekend

and Monday I hope go to see about in-between work while I wait.

*

Am really feeling like I did not get either job;

I know officially today I did not get the one here;

the fact that the other one did not get back to me yet

even though I emailed

tells me that I probably did not get that one either.

*

I may be getting a cold again.

*

November is certainly here;

crazy weather and uncertain days.

Well,

Christ never promised us that it would be easy,

just that He would be with us in it.

*

Thank you again so much for your kindness, prayers and comments.

It means so much to me right now.

I thank God for each of you.

*

And Cleo assures me that she adores the attention,

even though she plays shy...

*

Okay.

Back to the cover letter writing...

Thanks again everyone.

Request

Just a short request -

I love my blog,

You all know I love my blog community.

But I need to keep some distance between my blog-life

and professional life.

So...

if you have a suggestion for a job ad that you see,

which of course I welcome,

could you email me instead of leaving a comment?

I would appreciate this and I do thank you all

for your comments and support.

so to email me in the blog world

...

roosjeblog

@

yahoo.ca

Thanks!

First Thursday in November - Hope because there is a River

I love this picture because it speaks to me of hope

of new life,

of how God does not snuff out the smoldering wick

or destroy the bruised reed.

I love God because His ways are so much greater than mine

and He is strong

and is within the city of God -

4 There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.
Psalm 46: 4-5 NKJV

1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Psalm 46:1-5 NIV

I love the NKJV for

God shall help her, just at the break of dawn

for it reminds me of Elizabeth Goudge's book The Middle Window

which I read an old library copy of years ago

(wish I owned it!)

and the knight separated from his king who he loved

on a dark weary mountain

in a battle that he heard the king was losing

still kept going

even in the darkness

for his faith and love in his king.

"God will help her at the break of dawn"

*

I love this verse also in the NIV

"Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea."

I vividly remember in a Geology class at Calvin years ago

my professor showed us an old film, on a film reel,

of earthquakes and mountains falling into the heart of the sea

and quoted these verses from Psalm 46.

I will never for get this professor's love and faith in God

and his understanding of Psalm 46.

God is strong

stronger than my favourite tree,

whose strong large trunk and roots you see.

*

I am recognizing in the midst of the stress I am currently in

dwindling savings

no job yet

no family who can lend me money

(but St. Nicholas has provided for me through his prayers to Christ before

and I asked God and St. Nicholas for a job for Christmas)

and the efforts I am making

and other non-bloggable stress in my life

that I am a bit burnt out right now.

When I say 'a bit' this can be translated as 'I truly am'

once a relative of mine emailed me that he was 'a bit sick'

and he was medically evacuated from where he was living.

So yes, I am a bit burnt out right now.

I can see the effects of stress in my life in various ways

and know that I must keep trying but

also try to keep myself afloat;

eat as well as I can

rest when I need it

and keep trying to do the things I need to do for getting a job.

*

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God

the holy place where the Most High dwells.

God is within her, she will not fall;

God will help her, just at the break of dawn.

*

We are all in various inner battles that are difficult;

I know I am not alone in struggles,

no, we are all broken, weak and tired,

but we must hold out,

for there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.

Wednesday - November Sun on Golden Leaves

The Cross of Christ.

Oh God how we need His saving help.

I love this tree.

It is my favourite tree.

So big, strong - reminds me of God as our Father.

There is a river who makes glad the city of God.

How I long for this river.

Soup

It is a sunny day here again in Ottawa.

*

Today I thought I would ask for your recipe suggestions for

Potato Soup...

I am looking for yummy, simple and economical.

Any suggestions?

*

I just found out that there is a career fair I could go to;

not so much for librarian jobs

but maybe other jobs.

I solicit any encouragement or thoughts on this

and also if you have ever gone to one,

how did it go for you?

Four books and some great links

On this November Day

I went out to do an errand and on the way found

a book sale with really good prices.

So I got these four books!

First,

pictured above,

And Mrs Carter Wore Pink

which is beautifully illustrated

and I think I am going to find a nice quiet solace

of a book in it.

I had one of these books when I was a kid -

the one I had was on Louis Pasteur

and had the theme of 'you can do it';

I loved that book so much that I asked my

long-suffering Mom to read it to me over and over;

so much that I told my Preschool Teacher about the boy in the book

who was bit by the rabid dog

and the next time she saw my Mom she asked about

how that poor neighbour boy was doing

and it took a minute for my Mom to realize I was telling the teacher

about the book!

I love Olivia!

Can you believe I got this book,

with dust jacket intact

for only 1.00!

All 4 books were 1 dollar each so not bad for 4.00.

*

So something very good in the day

even if I did not get those two jobs,

*sniff*

*

Also wanted to be sure to share some cool links with you that

I have enjoyed of late,

just in case you did not see them...

A new post by Fr. Stephen on suffering and the 1-storey universe

...if you have not read Fr. Stephen's writing on how we

in the West have lived like we live in a 2 storey universe

when really it is a 1 storey universe,

I would take a look and read.

*

Fr. Gabriel Bunge who wrote the lovely book on

Rublev's Trinity

has recently been received into the Orthodox Church;

I encourage you to read the link; it is beautiful.

*

I loved this recent Saint Story on Saint Anastasia the Roman

and how she saved a man when the Theotokos asked her to;

it is a sweet and comforting.

November 1 2010 - cool skies and sunshine

Cleo my lovely companion cat.

*

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.

First Snow of the Season

I enjoyed writing my long book post!

I do love writing...

So I am going to be applying for that job that caught my fancy

this week.

And looking for in-between work too.

First snow last night! Cleo was interested, as you can see above.

Various lovely small things that I have had

for a long time

that remind me also of where I have been,

like writing the book post

also reminded me of.

It was so very lovely and wonderful to be at liturgy again today.

First time I wore my winter jacket since

last early spring.

Felt like everything coming together again

with the season changing,

going downstairs into the church basement

to hang up my winter coat;

so simple but spoke to me of the community

I have here.

*

It is so odd to not know if I am saying an increased hello

to the place I live in or if I am slowly saying goodbye.

**

Either way today was a beautiful day.

Story through Books, in four parts

Part I

Macrina graciously asked me to consider myself ‘tagged’ for the book meme she did of 15 (or 14) books that were influential in one’s life. So I will do so. The question then is where to start and with what book. Well. I have long been using books to look for answers and for what God may be telling me, not that He cannot tell me directly but that books are a medium that I actually hear a little of what I am being told.

The first book ever, other than the Bible, which I developed a wild love for at a young age, hearing stories of my Grandma’s Grandpa Cornelius being such a grassrooted Bible scholar that the pastors in the area all went to him for advice. Pretty cool to have a protestant Great Great Grandfather who loved God and the Bible so much that others went to him for advice and wisdom. He and my Grandmother imparted a deep love of the Bible in me, that the first book I ever asked for was the edition of the Bible (NIV with Christ as the Good Shepherd on it) that I saw other kids having in my Dutch CRC school. So the first book is the Bible. The second, which I began mentioning before having to mention the NIV Bible itself, I was given by a school teacher that helped me deal with the enormous loss of one of my classmates who, at the age of 10, died of leukemia; he was the most Christian boy I knew and I loved him very deeply. My teacher gave me the young tweens (as it would be called now) book 6 Months to Live


I had prayed every night that God would heal my deeply loved friend and was devastated that instead God took him from me. The first thing I did after hearing of his death was leave the dinner table and go and ask God why He let him die. I kept looking for this answer for months until I found and later was given the book 6 months to live where the main character has cancer herself and loses a new best friend who had the same cancer and was her age. Ecclesiastes 3 was given to this character and it was the only answer that gave me any peace – that there is a time for everything, even dying. Needless to say, in my young teens the book of Ecclesiastes became my favourite book of the Bible and it was not until 20 years later when doing a panakhyda for him that I was really able to deal with and express my grief and love for this young compassionate Christian boy.

Moving along to my teen years, I loved C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity which I was reading, along with others, by about age 13. Lewis book Mere Christianity taught me the only logical thinking that I feel I was really trained in. I read his book carefully, even diagramming some of the sentences as his metaphors could be complex, especially for someone who is in grade 7 and reading the book of my own volition. (My Dad was a big Lewis fan so the reading of Lewis was a normal development for me at that age).

Part II

Then, skipping to 1996, the happiest year of my life; I was 19 and was, in a sense, rediscovering God after going through some painful times in my later teens. I was in love with God again, reading the Bible through for the first time, discovering the alluring romance and poetry of the Book of Isaiah, and about to rediscover the books of Madeline L’ Engle. I was just about to dive into many things at once that would change my life and life with God without being able to turn back. This started with the book by Elizabeth Goudge, The Scent of Water. One of my Roman Catholic friend’s Mothers also has a deep love for Elizabeth Goudge and calls her a mystic. I don’t worry about what to refer to her as, other than as one who really loves God and writes of characters that live in a world I ache to live in, a world that is rapidly disappearing.

This book was a loving life-giving water-shed moment / sea change in my life. I remember talking to everyone about this book for weeks and weeks. I remember siting in my grey horrid cement dorm room (at Calvin College no less, yes, I went there for the first year and a half of my rambling 8 years before I finally finished my honours BA in literature; Calvin College is near where I grew up and is close to me forever like blood because it is my family heritage; I may have never gone to much as a kid, but Calvin is a place I began from, even learned to swim there as a child; my Grandma’s brother-in-law taught math there. when I was young). Anyway, there I was at Calvin, in one of their older cement dorm rooms, reading Elizabeth Goudge and knowing only that this book was bringing out a deep healing and when I finished this book, I looked out the window and all was changed. The colours were deeper, brighter, the berries on the bush were a deep bright red; before I finished reading this book, all was grey, dusty, with a sense of lonely bleakness. I had tumbled into a great new frontier and the colours of my world were forever changed and I was left with the undoubtable sense of hope.

Soon, while I was young enough to have the courage to pursue God with a sense of abandonment, after reading The Scent of Water, and still living on the Calvin College campus (and since I was an English major, already knew the prof who was putting the conference together), I went to Calvin’s Faith and Writing Conference, my life took on another layer. I met and / or heard speak, Madeline L’Engle and Luci Shaw, Annie Dillard, Donald Hall and Lee Smith. An amazing weekend; Madeline’s talk with Luci Shaw was one that radiated a deep sense of love to everyone she was speaking to. I was quickly plunged into these authors worlds, reading Dillard (who read from her now published book for the time being)

and was introduced to Jane Kenyon’s poetry, Jane who had died just about a year before and Donald Hall, her husband and accomplished poet, was still grieving the loss of. Jane’s poetry, especially some that were written on subjects of faith and of death, formed me and still come back to me today. When I write poetry, the best of it is influenced by her; the poem ‘briefly it enters and briefly speaks’ and ‘let evening come’ still come back to me today, the lines welling in me providing the words that I speak inside, words that help me maintain my centre in a increasingly decentred world. I read Dillard’s American Childhood and Donald Hall’s book Without.


I was living in the world of New England (where most of these authors lived), a space I lived in for 6 summers in Connecticut at the same time, working at a Bible Camp. At this camp I found L’Engle’s book Walking on Water which I read and reread at age 19 and felt the world of angels and the possibility of miracles and even walking up stairs as a child without using one’s feet, like Madeline wrote of doing as a child.


My world was full of life, of the excitement and belief in a future with God that somehow would avoid the pain and grief that I had already known, that Donald Hall was already steeped in, that Madeline L’Engle knew, that Annie Dillard no doubt did as well, with her life perhaps not being fully strait forward as a writer, with a focused eye and pen on the unknowable world we live in.

Part III

But this was not to be; I too soon knew death and then even the silence of God. And in this silence of God I read all about God’s silence; L’Engle and Lewis again rescued me, explaining that silence was also the way of God. And then a dear friend in 1999 discovered Kathleen Norris, who I met years later here in Ottawa. I read my friend’s copy of The Cloister Walk and I bought her book Amazing Grace a Vocabulary of Faith (I think I may of actually read this one first) at a bookstore in St. Louis Missouri, in the airport on a flight home from BC Canada to Michigan for Christmas.

I ended up being put in a hotel due to an overnight unexpected flight layover and I remember the glorious adventure of one night in a hotel with this book. I remember sitting on the hotel bed and reading and my life being filled again with the hope of a something much greater, of a God so big that the hope and eternity with Him was so great that nothing could defy it, nothing and that the centuries of the Church and the early church was still with us and deeply alive. I discovered a St. Jerome that Norris said, feminists loved to hate and then she explained that it was not so simple and suddenly St. Jerome was no one to be feared and my then current life of literature, feminist lit theory and God’s silence was again uprooted and flipped and suddenly, give me another two years or so, and I was not a feminist any longer, instead I was on the verge of discovering another new world that I did not know existed.


Towards the end of my degree, I bought (and still have not read much of) Sherrard’s Church, Papacy and Schism which I had no idea what it was really about, only that some of my profs were currently reading it and finding it to be, at least at that moment, of a vital importance. I remember reading the beginning and the only concept of church I had at the time was the Christian Reformed Church of my childhood, a church full of God loving Christians who have the unfortunate inheritance of worshiping in a grey-walled church of cement. But it is the church of my home and is the seat of my family and if I go back for a family occasion, I see people who knew me for all of my growing up years and who still love me and care for me. People who prayed for me when I had my big all day interview back in September. Nevertheless, my concept of church was about to change forever.

Now during my time in 1996 when all was so incredibly new exciting and full of blue skied sunshine, I was also introduced to the Anglican church through a local beautiful stone and brick Episcopal church and, with the help of a Christology Catholic seminary textbook (that I read at Calvin no less) and Madeleine L’ Engle, I fully believed that the Eucharist was and is real and when I kneeled that Sunday years ago to receive Christ’s body and blood I felt the whole of myself falling in sync with a long history of Christians who had received this living presence into their mortal bodies and was never the same. I thought of Martin Luther then, who I really have never read, but he was about as far back in church history as I really knew, so it was him I thought of as my life was unalterably changed.

And so my life was about to change again, which about leads us to the present time – I was still out west and was finishing up my Honours BA thesis on John Milton’s Adam and Eve (especially Eve) and discovered some of the church father’s writing on the creation of Eve and suddenly this was very good and startling and again, I saw that what the feminists were writing and what was actually going on in earlier centuries of Christian thought, were so different that I was soon to be out of feminism all together and would find myself standing in a very different place indeed.

Part IV

And so how did I get to this place? It is perhaps the most unexpected and humorous story of this whole story of books and my life. Some of my friends from my evangelical University who were the Literature and Philosophy loving subversive Christians (i.e. my closest friends) were going to an Orthodox church. This meant nothing to me at all, just where my subversive friends were going. I knew one of my friends in this group was Orthodox and he was pretty cool; he really knew how to listen and loved books; so one day I asked one of my friends for a ride to the small Anglican mission I was going to at the time and she said no, but you can have a ride to St. Herman’s with me and p. (my other friend who listened so well) and so I went. That was Lent. Totally overwhelming and I remembered the candles burning and that image kept coming back to me. So the whole summer passed, I graduated, finished in an exhausted mad-dash my thesis and as the new semester started and I was working, I called my friend for a ride to the same Anglican church and end up back at St. Herman’s again. And this is almost the end of a never-ending story of my life: after liturgy, it being Labour day, I went to a potluck with others from this Orthodox church that I had just gone to for the second time. My friend told me about this book she was reading and loving called Courage to Pray by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom. And suddenly, as I was sitting on the couch while others ate roasted garlic and brie and drank beer, I read the first two pages of this book and suddenly, like reading Elizabeth Goudge at 19, knew I had just found the book I was looking for all my life.

It took me just over a month leave my small Anglican parish, 5 months to become a catechumen in the Orthodox church and another 6 months (by this time I was living in Michigan) to become a chrismated Orthodox Christian. 1 year after that I moved to Ottawa where I have been the past 5 years. Books that have fed me since this time (amongst others) include Christ is in our midst, a book that 8th day books in one of their catalogues called a primer for reading of the Philokalia, Light in the Darkness by Sergi Fudel and Fredrica Mathewes-Green’s book on the Jesus Prayer which, by the way, is finally explaining why I was looking for Met Anthony’s Bloom’s book for all these years; it has to do with the prayer of the heart and the understanding of the human having depths. And that is where this journey of books leaves me; and with the continued question and challenge of going forward into what I have been given.

Friday late Autumn sun with leaves underfeet: moving towards November

I wish this picture could really capture the depth of the

brightness of the sky's light and the shade of blue.

*

Well.

No job news this week!

Next week: applying for another library position that

has caught my fancy;

and seeing about getting in between clerical work while

I keep looking.

I am here to say that looking for work and suddenly falling into dream

about a new job posting

is almost like being young and in love with someone that is

oblivious to your love;

a job add emailed application holds a promise

but perhaps no fruition.

I hope that does not sound too sad or pitiable,

I am really not meaning it that way,

just that it is a similar emotional rush to it

because dreams are attached.

Let's just be thankful that God wishes us to be anchored in Him

who is not a dream...

I wish it were not this way, with suddenly falling into dream

about a job... as this is not evidence, I think, of a full

spiritual maturity; but...

as I said to a friend today,

Thank God that God is long suffering!!

This flower was pressed years ago for me

and some others as part of a well-meant loving reminder of how

something beautiful may be hidden and waiting for us,

that God has a plan for our lives.

I always kept this gift of the small yellow pressed flower as

a hope in this promise.

And while God holds true;

I am wondering if the Protestant emphasis on

God has a plan for you life - great and beautiful things are in store

is perhaps a bit misleading or even untrue.

Kind of liking falling into dream...

For now,

Cleo and I keep looking.

*

Meanwhile,

Here's a great place to spend some time in the blog world:

I loved this post about influential books in one's life;

I really value Macrina Walker's blog

A Vow of Conversation

while I am not as much an academic*

(though I can't get away from that side of myself

and perhaps should not try)

I love books and this definitely includes Orthodox books,

many of which she quotes at length.

*

May God strengthen us with thanksgiving as we go towards

November's month...

*I mean by saying I am not so much an academic is that I have not read much of the significant

academic tomes on Orthodox theology... but perhaps one day, as God wills...

Thursday, Grey and Windy

I had a special day with a dear friend;

prayed with, talked with,

loved her kids with,

it was a hearty day,

grey and windy.

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I have begun to make inquiries about the hiring status

for jobs I interviewed for.

No news yet.

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I plan on doing more intense job searching very soon;

of course I look online often for new postings...

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I am seeking to pray for God's help.

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I know it seems that this is all I blog about

but it is pretty much my life right now.

Those who are unemployed will know what I mean, etc.

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Thankfulness, remembering God

and asking His help;

this is what I am left with as an answer...

Wednesday was full of sunshine and yellow autumn leaves

Cleo and I are still hanging out;

no job news yet.

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It was a beautiful day today.

I visited with some dear friends

and am rereading the book on Elder Cleopa,

Shepherd of Souls,

which is a real joy to read.

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Soon I will either be starting a new job,

moving to start a new job

or looking for other jobs in Ottawa in another way;

but this week I need to wait

soon I should know more.

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So I realized the best thing to do with my days right now

is to be with friends and

read books that will be to my spiritual benefit.

Treasure the time I am given

as soon it will be different.

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I must say it is almost like a joke,

my not hearing back from these interviews.

But God knows and He is merciful.