237. Perfect Timing

Events 0

Last week I discovered that I had only two weeks before my military ID card expired.

It is always difficult to get this renewed. In this case, I didn’t have any weekdays off before the deadline. I called, and the nearest office didn’t have any appointments. “Nearest” was 45 minutes away, too. They said that they take walk-ins after 1:00, but I asked if I should go in an hour before, and she said that the day before they’d started turning people away at 11:30 in the morning. So I asked when they open and she said 6:40.

The upcoming Friday, I had a meeting of children’s librarians in Arlington. (It is also 45 minutes away, but in the same general direction as the base with the ID card office.) I figured I’d try to get to the ID card office at 6:40 and bring a bag of books and plan to wait 5 or 6 hours if I had to. At least my workplace was already planning on having me gone in the morning, though I hated to miss the meeting. I asked to not be scheduled on the information desk until late in the afternoon, and planned to take as much leave as necessary.

Well, I didn’t get to the office until 7:15. There was a 7:20 no-show — and I had my new ID card by 7:30!

I was early to my meeting, and even had some time to sit and read before I went to it!

What’s more, if I had arrived at 6:40, I would have been there when they had to call the police about a belligerent customer who got angry when they didn’t give him (a walk-in) priority over a person who was late to their appointment.

I had prayed that there’d be an opening for me to take. And that I’d get to go to my meeting and not have to take leave. But I hardly dared hope it would really happen. And it was my own fault I hadn’t kept track of when my card expired.

In short, it was total grace.

236. I Took Pictures.

Events, Nature 0

I’m scanning old film from when we lived in Europe – and I’m so very glad I took so many pictures! I do so love pictures of castles! It brings me right back to how it felt to stand on the top of tower and look out over miles of green countryside. Or maybe look through a broken archway and wonder what life was like in that very spot 500 years before.

I am so blessed that I got to visit so many beautiful places.

235. Healing

Health, Spiritual Blessings 0

I was thinking about trauma yesterday. I once read that betrayal is a kind of trauma, with post traumatic stress symptoms. Sure enough, when I first came to Virginia, after finding out a few days before that my then-husband had been having an affair for the previous year and a half – I was troubled with flashbacks and obsessive thoughts and dreams. If I went 20 minutes without thinking about it, I felt like I’d accomplished something.

That was 2006. It took years, but I really did heal. I don’t know how many years it’s been since I dreamed about him.

Now, maybe I’m tempting fate to declare myself healed. Things can come up and take me by surprise still. Even thinking about trauma got me thinking about it. But – trust me – I am worlds better than I was then! When I felt like my life was in shambles and how could I ever think clearly again?

Hooray for healing!

234. My Life

Spiritual Blessings 0

Okay, this is a nice big, general one. But as I was walking by my lake the other day, I realized I no longer think of myself so much as a divorced woman, but as a single woman.

In other words, I don’t think of myself so much as what I once had, but what I do have.

I’m a children’s librarian who’s on the Newbery committee!

I get to spend my time reading and writing – posting blog posts, writing emails to friends, connecting with people.

I have friends who mean a lot to me, from work, church, family and my gaming group.

I contribute at church and feel God’s hand on my life.

And life is very good. I’m blessed in the big picture, as well as the little things I usually mention.

229. Fireworks Out my Window

Activities, Events 0

Tonight I discovered there was a fireworks show going on outside my window.

Okay, it was far enough away that the bangs came quite a bit after the bursts of light. And, okay, there was a tree between me and them.

But the tree’s foliage was fairly sparse – didn’t really obstruct my view much at all. And the fireworks were also reflected in the lake – which was beautiful.

And I could actually sit in my rocking chair and put my feet up and watch the show – which makes them marvelous right there!

228. Answered Prayer

Family 0

Today I learned about an answer to prayer. My sister Abby recently finished her PhD in Educational Psychology and had asked for prayer about what job to look for in the Fall. We don’t know if she will still be needed to help care for my mother, who is in the last stages of Alzheimer’s. So she wasn’t sure where to apply or whether full-time or part-time.

Well, through a friend of a friend, she was put in touch with a professor who was looking for someone to teach a course in educational psychology this fall. After talking 3 minutes on the phone, she was hired!

It’s one night a week, 3.5 hours per night, and sounds like a course she’s interested in teaching. And the professor has some very good connections for when she’s looking for a long-term job.

It’s lovely to see prayers dramatically answered.