Learning To Listen

I was reading one of the blogs I follow, http://any-given-moment.blogspot.com/, and the author wrote about making decisions and listening to the holy spirit/God.  While I totally believe that God, or some higher power gives us signs about how we should make certain decisions in our life, I don't feel like I am able to hear or see the signs that show me the way to go.  I feel like I end up totally making decisions based on what I think I should do vs what I truly want to do.  I have heard others say that they had a sign that helped them to make certain life changing decisions, but I for one, can't really say that I have ever felt that (ok other than knowing that I was meant to marry my husband).

I think one of the reasons that this is speaking to me know is, I am trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.  I love being a stay at home mom and only working part time, but I am not sure that when I go back to work full time, I want to do the traditional social work things that I have done in the past.  I have said this before, but I haven't done anything about it.  I have all these thoughts, hopes, dreams, desires, and I know that I can't just dream about things, I have to do some sort of action to make my dreams come to fruition, but I just don't know what.  I would love to do more with things like the idea behind this blog, something green, handmade, natural, healthy.  I'm just not sure how to do that, make money, enjoy what I do, and not totally give up the whole social work thing (though I do think that my social work training will benefit me no matter what I decide to do).

 I guess I should spend some time praying, only this time I think I should ask for the ability to see the signs that will lead me in the direction that I should be living my life not just for the signs.  I guess I only tend to pray when I want or need something.  That's actually a pretty poor picture of how someone should be praying.  I try to pray often, and just give thanks for everything that I have.  There's really not much I need to change in my life other than the direction that my professional life/career should move and how to go about doing it.  I feel like, even though it's slow, I am progressing in home organizing.  I just now need to figure out how to make my passions part of my professional path!

Amy

Cancer Support and New Projects!

So, I did it.  I made the decision to cut my hair short and I love it!  As I posted earlier, I initially started thinking about this because my mom was trying to decide between chemo or no chemo and one of her concerns was losing her hair.  I thought that I could make the sacrifice of cutting my hair which I had been growing for about a year and a half, then I thought that maybe that really wasn't that much a a support.  the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to cut my hair, not just for my mom but for me.  I love my hair short, but for some reason, I thought that I should grow my hair long (I also wanted to save money and time).  So in support of my mom and all those who lose their hair to chemo, I chopped off my hair.

Also, in support of Cancer, I started my first prayer shawl.  I attempted to say a prayer while I was knitting it, but I found that I couldn't knit and pray at the same time, so I may just have to say a prayer at the end.  I am hoping that it comes out nice and that I can give it to my mom for when she has her treatments.  Unfortunately, she starts her treatments this week so I know it won't be ready for when she starts, but if I work really hard , hopefully she can have it for later.  I am following a pattern, and it's an easy pattern and I know how to follow a pattern, but it seems like it is going to be really small.  I  may have to look at doing another shawl for my mom and give this one to someone smaller.  I also want to start on some chemo caps for my mom and maybe in time for others.  I may be able to do prayer hats where I can pray while I knit the hat.  I've never heard of prayer hats, but what the heck, if you are praying for someone to get well, can't you pray while making anything for that person.  I'm off to look at chemo cap patterns and pick one for my mom.  Any suggestions?

Amy