So, I totally just wrote my spiritual director an email and used these words: "Is there a time we can meet? I'M SURPRISINGLY NOT BUSY THIS MONTH."
Can you believe those words were uttered by a TEACHER?! In SEPTEMEBER?!
Ah, but I'm a SECOND YEAR teacher now, folks! And it makes a WORLD of difference, let me tell you.
(I also cannot say enough about how much I love having my own classroom! Teaching six classes last year in five different classrooms suuuucked and I knew that. I guess I didnt' realize how much so until now when I GET TO TEACH IN THE SAME PLACE ALL DAY EVERYDAY. I AM VERY EXCITED. CAN YOU TELL?)
So since my return to the classroom has been less stressful this year I can turn my eyes to greater things, right? Sure! Like in the first reading today:
"Brothers and sisters:
If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above...
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth - Col. 3:1-2
I have been trying to keep to my summer routine as much as I can: gym, prayer, research paper, rinse, repeat. So today I headed to Adoration after work to take me some prayer time.
I remembered that I had been all about focusing on "the Beloved" BACK IN JUNE. WHICH WAS NOW THREE MONTHS AGO. What the?!
How did I forget to delve into that concept? How did I fail to make that a part of my prayer for MONTHS!? Where did the summer gooooooo????
Whenever I get real angry A.) it's usually because I haven't had coffee yet. MANY people can attest to this and you can rectify the situation by GIVING ME SOME. or 2.) I use THIS as my go to book to calm me down and re-discover the "warm fuzzies":
Tonight I opened up to a passage I marked a little over three years ago. It was (not surprisingly) exactly what I need to hear today. I'm not going to include the exact passage 'cause it's gonna make me sound like I was all depressed or something when I went to the chapel but that's NOT the case. I'm not sitting at home crying playing R.E.M. all day...things are GOOD, remember? But I was having a MOMENT. Sometimes I do that. Anyways...
If you are unfamiliar with the book "He and I" 1.) it is AWESOME. B.) It is written by a lay woman but it's her journal with the words of Jesus. ("She writes what Jesus speaks to her" is a less awkward way of saying that ;).
So as not to seem like I'm one step away from ordering a bunch of cats to keep me company, I'm going to give you some OTHER examples OTHER than what I read tonight- (even if it was PERFECT and what I needed) from "He and I" that are very uplifting:
January 10- Holy Hour
"Don't you love this hour when we come close to one another in such intimacy that My thoughts seem to be yours? It's as though our souls were one inside the other. And how can My joy be described? The joy of your Christ who yearns so much for oneness with His children that He invented the Eucharist in order to merge with them..."
Awww, Jesus! I'm blushing!
"Wake up loving Me. Hunt for Me, and I'll let Myself be caught. You will win and we will begin the game again...it will be another way for Me to keep you 'very close'..."
So sweet!
And...
"April 23- Even though you don't always feel Me beside you, I never leave you. Sometimes I come nearer...I hide behind a veil so that you may learn to walk by faith..."
What a charmer! You can hopefully see why this book never ceases to make me leave the chapel feeling peaceful and loved. So I'm picking it up again as I RE-focus on "the Beloved" these days.
Speaking of going back to things...Back to School night is tomorrow. I pretty much remember it being the worst thing ever last year. Not because of parents or anything but who likes the idea of teaching all day, then going BACK to school from 7-10pm, only to teach AGAIN the next day ALL day. WHO likes this idea, I ask?
Ah, but I can't complain. I gots my own classroom this year and my warm & fuzzy "He and I" book and that makes everything kind of better right now.
Peace,
Julia
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