Out for a couple of days....

Life just keeps chuggin' along, taking me with it. Half of me is very amused, the other is very humbled. It's a vague description of where I am right now, but the best I can do.

Physical changes--still working a recovery program one day at a time, not perfectly, but hanging in there...weight loss still happening, but at a slower rate. That's o.k. I've discovered that I'm unbelievably resistant to any type of change, even good ones. ESPECIALLY good ones. But with the good comes the bad...a little over four weeks ago I had a horrible toothache one day after my 51st birthday...turns out that I need not one, but two root canals. The first one will be done on Monday, May 4. I'm trying not to think about it. The dentist gave me antibiotics and painkillers in the meantime, so that calmed down long enough for me to develop another hernia rupture.

Yeah, this happened to me around the same time last year! And I was admitted to the hospital from ER, whisked into surgery where the calm, cool and collected Dr. Mortensen placed a mesh over the opening, stitched me up and kept watch over me for three days in the hospital. I went home with a drain contraction attached to my insides to collect excess blood and other stuff that was oozing out, and tight binding around my middle to make sure everything stays in place. It was a little more serious this time around. The drain came out yesterday, but I'm supposed to wear the binding for the next eight weeks. I took it off, just for today. It feels good to be able to take a deep breath.

In between all this, I'm moving away from my comfortable, one bedroom apartment to share an adorable cottage style home with a lady who needed someone to rent her son's old bedroom. It is a dream come true--I pay less in rent, and I get to live in one of those houses that reminds me of the illustrations of Hansel and Gretel's or Little Red Riding Hood's house. There's no evil witch or big, bad wolf--Barbara is a very sweet person, and she has a 10 year old Great Dane who has to be the mellowest, most loving dog I've ever met. But he is HUGE! I've gone from having a "micro-thug" hyperactive Pomeranian who yapped and ran off all the time, to the world's biggest lap dog who just wants to cuddle up beside someone.

So here I am, moving once again, have major health problems ONCE AGAIN...but I've been given the opportunity to re-establish my writing career. After all these years of wishing and dreaming, I'm doing it, with the assistance of the All Mighty, the Most Powerful. I don't take this lightly; this is an example of God's everlasting bounty and grace in both this world and the next. I've always known that I have a job to do in this life of mine, and I took all sorts of winding detours away from it. I think I felt like I didn't deserve to be a writer. But that is what I am, and what God gave me the tools necessary to do it. I have to come through with my part, and my fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) is that I will waste this opportunity as I have done so many times in the past. So I breathe deep, say 95 Allah Abhas and chant Is there any Remover of difficulties save God? Say: Praise be God! He is God! All are His servants, and all abide by His Bidding! Then I write.

I write for several online web sites, mainly eHow.com, AssociatedContent.com and Bukisa.com. And I was recently hired by the former San Francisco and Denver Examiner franchise to become an "examiner" (i.e., writer or reporter without a union contract aka "independent contractor") for the Sacramento area. On my application, I was asked to specify three different areas in which I have a considerable amount of experience writing about. After realizing that most of the arts and feature slots were already taken by other "examiners", I typed in parenting, addiction and recovery, and the Baha'i Faith. I was hoping the editors wouldn't ask me to write about the Baha'i Faith, not because I didn't want to or don't like to, but because I don't feel that I'm in any way an expert. NO one is! But of course, God has other plans for me. I received an email congratulating me on becoming Sacramento's Baha'i examiner for the Religion and Spirituality section of Sacramento's edition of examiner.com. I am supposed to write about anything and everything that is happening in the Sacramento Baha'i community and in the surrounding areas. I don't think I breathed for almost two minutes when I read that email.

I posted my first story today. It isn't "live" yet; the editors have do what editors do when a writer submits a story. But I figured I would start out with a brief overview of the Baha'i Faith, meaning the core beliefs and a summary of the history. That was extremely difficult to write. It was like trying to distill all of the water in the Pacific Ocean down so it could fit into an eight ounce bottle. I only hope I represented the Faith in best manner possible. Luckily, I was able to get the assistance of members of my Local Spiritual Assembly, and I will be working closely with them and the local public information officer in the future. I'm not alone, except when I'm in front of my computer. And even then, I'm not alone. God is everywhere.

Life definitely brings changes. I'm just suiting up and showing up. I'll be off line for a few days until my Internet service gets turned on at my new home. In the meantime, say a little prayer for me if you can. I can certainly use some prayerful assistance right now.