when you journey, the horizon is always changing

 For those of you to whom I'm not connected on facebook, 

here's the almost finished St. John the Theologian.

 
The first thing to tell you is that this post does not contain angst. Yay! 

I haven't figured out yet whether or not I believe in signs. It's conceivable that they appear to me, I recognize them and then fail to follow through. I hate to say that this is probably the case more often than I would like, since I have been known to hesitate when opportunity knocks. (I keep kicking myself that I missed the Groupon deadline to get Neat Desk at half price. I'm still hoping that it will repeat.) 

Anyway, here's a little of what's been going through my head recently. I keep thinking about dogs, and dog-related employment. One of the causes I support locally is Nashville Paw Magazine. A while ago I looked into what opportunities they might have for work, and though the pay basically sucks, contributing writers do get a stipend for work that is published. I need to submit some writing samples to be considered, but I am confident I can find something "safe" to get my foot in the door. Once that door is open, I have in mind to write a piece about service/assistance dogs as they are benefiting the lives of various people. There's my young friend Barrett, for instance, whose autism (and other ailments) challenge his days, and for whom a new service dog would bring so much relief and support to him and his family. There is K9's for Warriors, a group in Florida that pairs and trains service dogs and veterans (and some active duty folks) with PTSD, and Warrior Canine Connection, in Maryland, that raises dogs for that purpose (they have posted the most adorable puppycams!). One of the things on my "to do" list in the next couple of days is to begin the process of submitting samples, and then start my research for that piece. No matter what happens with Nashville Paw, this is all good.

It was my turn this past Sunday to write for the blog "Feminist Theology in an Age of Fear and Hope." I expanded and polished some of what I wrote in my last post here about my icon. Since I refer to Susan Campbell and Dating Jesus, I thought I would write to Susan and let her know what she had inspired. She is no longer with the newspaper for whom she wrote when the book is published, but I tracked her down at hot-dogma.com. I sent off the email, to which she replied almost immediately. She thanked me for the piece and asked if she could link to it. How cool is that!? As of this morning I don't see a link, but the future looms extensively. 

And then there is this. A job description for a parish associate job came across my path yesterday. Because I know the rector and see his posts on facebook, I'm a little bit familiar with the church. I opened the document to take a glance at what they were looking for, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it is actually an appealing position and a pretty good fit.  I know I have shied away from considering church work, but even before this little turn of events I had drawn the conclusion that any number of vocational opportunities might be fine for me, and being open to them is the first step toward ending up with a good prospect.   (There's a "joke" related to this that goes: a faithful person seeking a job change had two opportunities offered to him. Both looked good, and he was torn between the two, praying fervently for God to reveal to him which job he should take. A little like Tevye, he weighed the options: on the one hand, this; on the other hand, that. Divine silence ensued, and finally in frustration the man cried out, wondering why God wasn't being helpful. To which God replied, "Frankly, either one would be fine.") It is to this notion of staying open that my post title refers: when moving forward, the scenery on the horizon changes with each step, bringing new ideas and fresh prospects for consideration.

So that's today's report. And can I just say how tickled I am with how the icon turned out?