Random odds and ends, part 10

Jim is on a trip to Ireland as we speak, taking a much needed and much deserved break now that the school year is over for him and his students are off doing whatever it is they do during the summer. I am getting VERY excited for Italy now that it's actually within arm's reach. I have spoken to my friends Michelle and her brother (also my friend) Alex who went to Italy a year ago and Alex sent me all the links to his online photos and the like. It's going to be beautiful.

Being away from work for a meaningful length of time is also going to be more wonderful than I can say. This past Tuesday was my 12-year anniversary of working (and all 12 years at the same company, no less!) . I think I mentioned this before, but I started working 5 weeks after I graduated college. Since then, I have never been away from the office for 2 full weeks. It's important for me to do this. It's important for me to live life and not live work. It took me a little bit of time to really realize this, but I have more clarity on the matter as of late.

I have been spending time doing more things and seeing more people lately--I have come out of hibernation now that summer is upon us. I tend to disappear more in the colder months, and have been enjoying the spring and summer. I am also tan and that always makes me feel more season-appropriate.

I've received e-mails from some of you asking for prayers and I am blessed to do so. I will ask everyone else to keep the intentions of all of your friends here (those you know and those you don't know) in your individual prayers as well.

Work has been busy--a young woman I supervise gets married tomorrow and is out of the office for over 2 weeks and a lot of the staff want to link up the 4th of July holiday to the weekend and are taking off either next Mon and Tues or Thurs and Fri.

I hope everyone has a BBQ to go to on the 4th. If not, let me know, you can come with me to Wyndee's!

The ideal way to greet a person...

I met my friend John for coffee last night near our homes. I hadn't seen John in about a year and half and the visit was long overdue, especially for people who don't live very far away from one another (he lives in the town next to me!)

I walked into the Starbuicks and John was already there, getting his drink at the counter. He turned around and looked at me and proceeded to greet me in the same manner that he greets me every time he sees me, nice and loud:

"HELLO BEAUTIFUL!!"

Now, if that's not the way to make somebody feel like a million bucks, I don't know what is. John is a person who truly makes me feel like I am beautful (and funny and smart and amazing) every single time I am in his presence.

He makes me feel the way I think God sees me. It's really a very special gift that John has and I know that others who know him would agree with me.

It made me think--I don't do enough of that. I think it's because I am a person who often has difficulty receiving compliments; however, just because I have a hard time receiving compliments doesn't mean that everyone is, and I need to do a better job.

It's weird, because I tell people I love them all the time (and I mean it) and I think I am able to very clearly "show" people I love them in my actions, but when I'm with someone I love (or like) and I think they look great or said something clever, I usually just think it in my head and I don't verbalize it and that stinks.

I am going to work on this effective immediately. The key is to work on it in a very genuine fashion and not in a phony way where I start throwing around compliments left and right just because I feel like I should.

Sigh. My work really is never done, is it?

Let me pray for you...

I went to my friend Pat's ordination ceremony on Saturday and cried the whole time. For anyone who hasn't been to an ordination ceremony, it's a lot like a wedding. The only difference is that the man is taking the Catholic Church as his bride and not a lady.

At one point I think he saw me in the crowded church. I had a cry rag (that's what I call my papertowels that I carry around to catch all of my tears. I cry a lot, much more than your normal person--luckily the tears are often happy!) up to my face when he saw me. He was probably surprised I was crying the way I was.

If I cried as he became a transitional deacon (it's "transitional" because he's only a deacon for the last year he's in the seminary and then he becomes a priest, God willing), imagine how much I'll cry when he becomes a priest.

Pat and I are not especially close, but I have prayed for him a lot since he entered the seminary. The "world," in general, and the devil, specifically, hates people who are willing to sacrifice so much for their faith. Good holy priests need a lot prayers to stay the course and stay strong for God.

Pat knows how much I pray for him and he knows that I always have and on the day of his ordination he asked me to please continue to do so this next year. It got me to thinking. I am a pray-er. I am known as such. People come to me and ask for my prayers.

Are my prayers any more powerful than anyone else's? Absolutely not.

So what makes my prayers "sought after," so to speak? Two simple reasons:

1) People know that I pray, and I pray a lot, and I pray all day long, formally and informally, and I ask God for things and I plead with God for mercy and I joke with Him (although I tend to pray much more for others than myself and I need to get over that and start pleading with God for what I need too). I also pray in my sleep, which I consider a true and humble gift from God. I see it as a sign I have begun to truly let Him into my heart (if I pray in my subconscious mind when I'm not really aware, He must be inside me somewhere!). I wake up from sound sleep saying Hail Marys.

2) I am 100% confident that my prayers reach God at His throne in heaven. I know it as much as I know anything else in the world. There are a lot of people who pray, but there are not a lot of people who feel like their prayers "work," so to speak, or that God "listens" to them. They pray because they are "supposed" to.

So, I've been thinking this past week that I want to put out the call to all of you. Please let me pray for you. What are your needs, wants, desires? Let me help you storm heaven with prayer on your behalf and behalf of those you love.

I always tell this to E when he tells me not to waste my prayers on him: There is no limit to the number of prayers I am allotted. I am not wasting anything. I am giving God more glory by speaking to Him--He wants to hear from us.

If you aren't comfortable doing the talking, then let me. Any of you who know me I'm never at a loss for words!