Welcoming Home the Schoolboy(Man?)

Mrangelmeg began another of his Masters classes today. Unlike my program, his classes are a week long, and he gets out of work to take them. He is in Budgeting and Finance this week and again I say better him than me.

I don't know how much nightly homework this class will entail, but I do know that he is going to try to stick to his schedule of working out at the YMCA each night. I am going to try to make sure that he has a nutritious meal each night, even if that means I have to actually cook. (And you all know how much I love to cook).

Tomorrow I have to drive up to Indianapolis to attend the Orientation session for my internship program. I would laugh at mrangelmeg because he is going to be studying so hard, but it turns out that I will have at least five books and between 10 and 15 articles to read this semester, and who knows how many papers to write. While my work won't be quite as taxing as Gradual School was reflection papers do take some time and effort.

Oh well, I will have plenty of time to stop reading and writing after I have died (unless my purgatory is a very long time spent in a place like gradual school, which I could easily imagine as being a place to work off ones sins).

Tomorrow's dinner will be whatever I decide to throw in the crock pot before I take off in the morning.

Pray I have nice weather for the drive, and Mrangelmeg has an easy time with his budgets and finances the rest of the week.

Pax

I'm In . . . Oh Dear!

My interview went even better than I could have expected. It was Spirit led and Spirit filled and we talked about a lot of topics; some personal, some professional. I laughed, I cried, and I must have said the right things because rather than follow the usual procedure of meeting together after my interview to determine if they thought I would fit into the program and then sending me a letter of acceptance or rejection, they offered me a spot in the program right there at the interview! I was so humbled by that, but also filled with joy, because now I know and can get on with planning my fall around the trips to Indianapolis.

So it is back into the classroom for me for another two years. Oh well, it isn't as if I ever thought I was at the end of my ability to learn new things, and I am really interested in learning about and becoming a Spiritual Director, so I am actually really excited about the thought of going back to class again.

I promised to leave it up to God, so I suppose that I have to assume that God has opened this door for a reason. I need to have the courage now to walk through the door and see where it leads.

Pax

Does a Racing Mind Count . . .

as aerobic exercise?

I was just wondering. I am so excited about my internship interview tomorrow that I can't get to sleep. If I have to stay up at least I should get some calorie burn for my troubles, don'tcha think?

I did tell you about my internship didn't I? No? How unusual.

I have been trying to discern what to do with my Masters Degree and so far the closest things that I feel to a "stirring of the Spirit" has come when I have thought and prayed about offering Spiritual Direction to college kids. So, to that end I searched the Internet for training programs in Spiritual Direction

I found a really great program at Boston College which would have been my first choice, it being a Jesuit Institution and all, but moving myself back into the realm of possibility, I realized that considering my state in life and my primary commitment to my husband and kids I needed to find an alternative a bit closer to home and more practical. So there happens to be a really well respected training program in Indianapolis at a (get this) Benedictine Abbey (why is God doing this to me, I ask you). So, before we left for Florida last spring I applied for one of the 25 slots for the cohort group that will begin this fall. I have the final part of the application process, the face-to-face interview with the Director of Spirituality tomorrow at 1:00 p.m.

I am really nervous. I know that by this point, the interview is probably a formality and after having read my personal spiritual autobiography, letters of recommendation from three people who know me (one being my personal spiritual director) and my goals and objectives for using the skills I will gain from this program they already have a pretty good idea of who I am. I could go in there tomorrow and really turn the Sr. off by coming off too arrogant, or too cocky, or too unsure.

I want to be honest about where I am right now in my spiritual walk and where I am going with my prayer life. I just wish I weren't so nervous. I don't think I was this nervous when I went for my Grad School interview.

Say a prayer for me. I have been praying to St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila, two of my spiritual mentors, and resisting the urge to pray to St. Rita and St. Jude.

I know I will feel so much relief tomorrow afternoon on the drive home. Whatever Lord! That is my prayer. I know tomorrow will turn out the way God intends because I have left it in His capable hands. Now if I could just shut of my brain and get some sleep the drive tomorrow would be much nicer I am sure.

Pax