Wednesday, February 15, 2006

You MUST listen to this

I've been meaning to stick this up all week. You MUST listen to this radio broadcast. I'm telling everyone I know. I've mentioned Renee Altson before - her book Stumbling Toward Faith has played a profound role in my own spiritual journey over the last year or so. Anyway, Renee was interviewed on a radio program last weekend. The interview was fantastic, but the quality of the program surprised me as well.

So, go to this link. And choose to listen to the February 10/11 broadcast. You won't regret it.

Negligent at Updating

I know. I know. I haven't posted here in too long.

The trouble is, stuff has been happening in my life that has not been very motivating to write about. In some ways I'm still recovering emotionally from that week a couple of weeks ago. I'm also still recovering my physical health (although I am doing quite a lot better!)

The stuff that's been going on has been mean and ugly, and hard to define. I can name the emotion - anger - but not necessarily the reasons for the emotion, or the things I'm angry at. The result has been an incessantly grouchy (or worse - the "b" word!) mood. I went out last night in the kind of mood that would have easily let me snap someone's head off. Probably not the best mood to go to a small group church work project in! But, cleaning that awful Christmas closet was good for getting out my aggression, and one of my good friends sat patiently as I verbally processed my week and vented some of my emotions. And I did feel a little better afterwards.

There have been some good things. The smiles on a few people's faces at church Sunday night. The venting session last night. One friend is still sober. Another let us come up with a game plan to get her out of a potentially abusive and dangerous situation with the minimum of time and harm. I got a great haircut yesterday. I bought myself some good quality makeup a few weeks ago, and I'm really happy with the way I've looked lately. I've felt pretty. The laugh when I walked through the greeting card aisle at the drug store on Monday, and found a row of approximately 10 men and 1 woman frantically studying the valentines cards. (Most of the men were also clutching heart-shaped chocolate boxes as well!) The rush of patriotic emotion watching a Canadian speed skater realize she won a bronze medal at the Olympics this afternoon. I'm hanging out with another good friend on Friday morning. I have the weekend off work. One of my clients tomorrow night is a very close friend and her fiance. I found two really great sweaters for only $5 a piece, and two really great tops as well (for somewhat more money.) I'm trying to remember these things, because this has been one of those weeks where a negative funk seems to hover over me, despite attempts to combat it, and I'm tired and angry, and frustrated with a number of situations both professional and personal. God, help me to remember the smiles, and the things that made me smile.

But, as an example of how my week has gone, let me leave you with this:
I was in the drugstore on Monday, buying bus tickets before work. I was carrying a 1 litre waterbottle with me, to use during my shift. As I was leaving the cash desk, the water bottle slipped from my hands. Now, this is supposed to be an unbreakable water bottle. But, my unbreakable water bottle shattered all over the drugstore floor, dumping a litre of water in the high traffic area right in front of the cashier, on a busy day, delaying me, and embarrassing me to no end.