An Update

“I will not die but live, and tell of the works of the Lord.” ~Psalm 118:17

I have many favorite scripture verses, but I just love this verse! It is an affirmation I have said to myself upon waking every morning for a long time. I truly believe that it is not our time to leave this earth until what we are meant to do and say here are completed. Each precious person has purpose and meaning to offer and I’ve spent the past year connecting and being taught by some of the kindest Sisters, teachers, speakers, mentors and directors I could ever imagine. I thank God for that, knowing he placed my sensitive soul in the hands of such love to learn more along this never-ending spiritual journey. God has also given me the huge help of my family along the way. I would have never dreamed this possible upon my last diagnosis, but I believe God had other plans.

Though there were unexpected bends along my path since my absense here, there were just as many joys. The biggest perhaps was graduating my Spiritual Formation Program and being given the designation of a professional Spiritual Director back in May. It is a humbling privilege to hold that and it was not quite real to me until I had the certificate in my hand. This was definitely a work of the Lord. It involved many hours per week pushing through my worsening dry eyes in class and that made writing long hours on the screen difficult. I was always given strength in the moment and even enough for me to not to miss one day of my internship.  My peers have teased me on this one, but I still like the name of spiritual friend or mentor, rather than spiritual director. After all, isn’t the Holy Spirit is the true director of us all?

Since I wrote last, the Spirit has been teaching our family more about adjusting. Isn’t much of life like that? Smaller hands help much more in the kitchen, bigger ones push the vacuum and a faithful husband tends to oversee much more at home as well as our doctor’s appointments. Between my one daughter and I, we keep the calendar quite full of them. God is good to place us in families and to teach us how to jump these hurdles that some times get rearranged or come a bit faster in life.

Other than that, we are entering into our twelfth year of home educating here which is another God story of it’s own. Oh, and to add more laughter to life and keep us close to creation, we have added three new friends to our petting zoo: Nigerian goats! They are entertaining and I sure don’t lack for a dull moment…

So, I decided a while back, God was not done with me yet.  I’m curious upon waking, what each new day will hold and how God will make his presence known in it. While I don’t know how much writing I’ll be doing here, I want it to be about real life, the ups and downs. No perfect blog here, friends! However, I hope to continue to tell more of the works of the Lord.