Christmas Blessings

I am so blessed. I have a patient and loving husband who has been supportive of everything I have had to endure both physically and emotionally in the past 23 years. I have five of the most wonderful children who amaze me every day with their compassion and love for their fellow man.

I have many friends that I have known for years, and co workers who truly care about me. These people really enrich my life and remind me that God never intended me to be alone in this world.

I have very challenging work that allows me to share my love for God and my love of my Catholic faith every day. While I may have to leave this position in the next year I feel as sense of peace, that whatever the outcome, wherever I eventually go I will be doing it because it is God's will and not my own, or someone else's. That feeling is a great blessing as well. I know that as much as I will miss the work I am doing now, the future will be filled with great things if I am doing them with great joy for God.

I had parents who gave me a great start in life. While now I am experiencing the end of my mother's life, I am blessed that her faith sustained me in some of the darkest times, and now I can give back to her by sharing my faith to sustain her on this her final journey.

I have a large and scattered family of five sisters and three brothers who are, by the grace of God all still alive. While I complain, as recently as a few weeks ago about my relationship with them, I have very fond memories of growing up in this large loud family. I know that I am the person I am because of my brothers and sisters. I am saddened sometimes that we aren't closer, but that is as much my own fault as it is theirs.

I have a wonderful community that God has placed me in at St. Meinrad for Gradual School that at times is closer than family (and more annoying) and at times I need as much. I count on them for support and prayers and counsel.

I have bonded with a wonderful community of friends through the internet and blogging, that serve some of the same purposes. I know that they are praying for and with me as I make the big decisions in my life and as I navigate the changes ahead, and I count on their advise and support and love, and wisdom even when it isn't exactly what I want to hear.

I am blessed beyond comprehension, and I have peace in the face of what might be a very uncertain and very terrifying future, but because I have all of these blessings, I have a peace that surpasses all understanding that comes from God, who gave all these blessings to me.

Pax