4 posts tagged “faith”

The church was packed.  Family, friends, neighbors, teachers, classmates, Cub Scouts, you name it. 

This was a boy, and a family, that people know.  Knew.  That people are glad to know; to have known. 

One uncle's comments in celebration of Luke's life included these words:  "It was a freak accident; it was nobody's fault.  I bear no anger toward anybody about this."  And you could tell he meant it. 

Here's what the mom and dad had to say, in today's local paper.

http://www.salinereporter.com/stories/090408/loc_20080904001.shtml

And she means it too.  She's just that kind of person.  She truly, truly wants people to pray for and forgive the man who killed her son. 

Because it WAS a freak accident.

High noon, not a cloud in the sky, no drugs or alcohol involved, a 40-year-old man, father of a 7-year-old boy of his own, plowed into the back of their stopped minivan.  At high speed.  Until today I was racking my brain trying to understand how on earth this could have happened.  He was a local; it's not like he couldn't have known that was a 4-way stop.  Why wasn't he at least slowing down as he apprached the intersection? 

Here's how.  I heard about it this evening.

He had just given blood, and was feeling lightheaded, and stepped on the gas instead of the brake, approaching that 4-way stop. 

Here was a man trying to do the right thing, giving blood; and he killed a boy.  A boy his own son's age. 

Can you imagine what he is going through right now? 

So seriously.  Pray for him, forgive him, cover him with love, too. 

And the parents. 

Early Sunday morning, their beloved son was taken off the ventilator, and wheeled into an operating room, where doctors did everything they could...  to make sure OTHER children would live.  They donated their child's organs. 

The dad was reported to have said, in making this decision, "I'm not sure this is what I want to do... but it's what Luke would have wanted to have done.  He would have wanted to know that other children could live, even if he couldn't." 

Who knows why?  Who knows why?

The web of our lives is woven together more intricately than we can know.

But that's love.  That's love.  To take your own family's tragedy, and answer the prayers of other families whom you will never meet.  To offer prayers and care to the man who killed your child.  That's IT; that's what it's all about.

That's love.

Go hug your children.  Kiss your spouse.  Smile at a stranger on the street.

Love one another. 

So people called me back yesterday.  Not Wednesday, when I called them, of course, and the only people I actually got on the phone on Wednesday regretted (not really) to inform me that I hadn't made their short list.  Hence, me cranky.

But, yesterday two of them called me back, and I have two interviews scheduled for next Wednesday.  One job of which I am really, really keen on--though it may be the lower-paid of the two--the other I would certainly take if they offered it to me (one of the jobs that's less than 2 miles from my house).

(dope!  ye of little faith...)

'Course, an interview isn't an offer, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

(thanks for your support, everybody...)

Here's what he said recently when he began to overhear Mommy and Daddy talking about Mommy looking for a job:

Eldest Son:  "But you already have a job!"

Me:  "Not really, hon."

Daddy:  "She stays at home all day with you guys."

Me:  "--Not a paying job."

Eldest Son:  "But you're an AUTHOR!"

***

Awwww!  What a vote of confidence!  Gems like that are what really get me thru the challenging times with this kid.

And now, a rendition of the words from my NEW favorite Sara Groves song:

"It's Going to Be All Right" from the album "Add To The Beauty"

It's going to be all right
It's going to be all right

I can tell by your eyes

that you're not getting any sleep

And you try to rise above it,

but feel you're sinking in too deep

Oh, oh, I believe, I believe that

It's going to be all right
It's going to be all right

I believe you'll outlive

this pain in your heart

And you'll gain such a strength

from what is tearing you apart

Oh, oh I believe, I believe that

It's going to be all right
It's going to be all right

When some time has passed,

and the story is retold,

It will mirror the strength

and the courage in your soul

Oh, oh, I believe I believe,

I believe
I believe

And I did not come here

to offer you cliches

And I will not pretend

to know of all your pain

Just, when you cannot, then I will hold out faith, for you...

I believe that it's going to be all right,

I believe that you're going to be all right,

I believe that we're going to be all right, I believe

It's going to be all right
It's going to be all right

***

This song has become my touchstone in recent weeks.  Any number of recent issues, and some of you know some of them, and I'm not going into them now, but when I my brain starts to race in circles like a hamster on a wheel, on caffeine, I just touch this song in my head, and it all smooths out.  Aa-a-hh-h-h.  Calm. 

The music that goes with these lyrics is so perfect too, just the most wonderfully apt sound to complement the sentiments.   

(And, dear A., I thought of you the first time I heard this song, and how true it has been for you, over the past few years in your struggles to help J. with his late-talking.) 

***

Sent out my two contest-finalist stories now -- having revised them based on the contest judges' feedback, plus feedback from my wiki buddies.  So now have 5 stories out at various venues.  So we'll see how that goes.

And, I have plans for the next two stories I want to finish up and get crit on, and then it's on to my next NaNo Novel!  I'm going to start outlining and pre-writing for that in August, so that the result after November will (one hopes) be less flawed (possibly even worthy of being edited and submitted somewhere, who knows???) than the result from last year.

***

Now as for the job-search --

I've been taken aback by the response of someone who, when I called to follow up on my email application, essentially said she was going to toss my resume entirely and only because I'm not presently working.  And, the others have not called back in response to my applications or, in some cases, my follow-up phone messages.  It seems likely, for the same reason, and they just can't be bothered to tell me that. 

Why am I taken aback?  It's not like I didn't know this phenomenon existed.  I've read the career columns in the Wall Street Journal over the past three years, even though I didn't then expect to be pursuing my former career.  I guess the offer I got a few months ago made me over-confident. 

But, I can tell you, from having taken long maternity leaves in the past -- 1 year, and then 6 months -- that my project management and analytical skills do not evaporate.  And haven't still.  It's just like riding a bike.  Seriously.  After a year off after Eldest Son's birth, when I finally went back to the office, it felt literally like I had left the week before.  And I performed FINE until my next maternity leave. 

Did I suddenly un-earn my Master's degree?  Did my IQ really drop 50 points over the past 3 years?  Did my quest for excellence lose its edge?  Did my ability to learn new skills and absorb new info really atrophy to uselessness? 

Or did I learn greater patience, greater tact, and the lesson that the direct approach is not always the effective one? 

(Um.  Those were rhetorical questions, BTW...)

Must think on this one. 

How to convey this, without coming across as defensive and causing my overtures to be tossed with the cover letter, never mind the resume...

Hm. 

Actually, I have an idea or two on that...  We'll see how that goes.  Yep, the old personal network -- it's really the only way...

But, it's gonna be all right.  I believe that. (music humming in head)

Fortunately, I started this search before I HAD to, so I can afford not to land a job tomorrow.       

***

Welp, that's all for now.

Cheers.