This morning I am having some random thoughts. Perhaps because the cold I thought I'd fought off has returned in moderate force and I haven't been sleeping well, but either way I'm in the mood to share them :)
It amazes me how early stores stock their Christmas deco. It must have been at least 2 weeks ago (=mid-SEPTEMBER) that Michael and I were looking for a new plant to replace his recently-deceased aloe vera at Wal-Mart. Lo and behold, as we were walking out of the Gardening Center, I looked up and there were no less than five fake Christmas trees on full display! Seriously. It is sad to me that a holiday that was originally meant to celebrate the birth and arrival of a divine Savior has turned into the biggest marketing ploy of each year. Luckily, there are many organizations such as World Vision that are able to truly help people through their programs around this time of year. The simple joy of "giving" a pig or a goat to a needy family in a far-away country in honor of a loved one is really indescribable, though many are yet inexperienced in it. We cannot all travel to those places and help firsthand, but we can all help provide something for someone who needs it far more than we ever will.
Yesterday I had a long conversation with my dad in which I realized that my job search is perhaps becoming temporarily obsolete, given that the holidays are actually approaching. (This does not mean I'm going to go purchase one of those trees, however.) Living so far away from our families, the holidays are a truly special time for Michael and I, and I really don't think I would sacrifice even a few days of that time because of a job. If I had been hired for a job in my actual field, or thought that there was a potential job in it available now, I might consider the alternatives. However, lately I'm contacting people and applying to jobs that are part-time and completely unrelated to my studies. It's true that, on one salary and as we are still in the early stages of marriage and learning how to do finances in a smart manner, it's been up and down. But where do we draw the line between working to live and living to work? In the US it has moved from being a grey area to an increasingly disparate black and white that prioritizes work in order to attain some kind of materialistic status. Having a new car, indulging our every impulse, eating out - all have become "givens", though they need not be. We must learn to see this in our society and almost rebel against it if we wish to prioritize the things that warrant prioritizing.
Thus to say that I am wondering what good it is to apply to many more jobs at this point, since we hope to be gone several weeks only shortly after I would hypothetically be hired. It has been a good experience filling out applications and searching for jobs, and perhaps I will still find a part-time position that will be flexible. But for now, I am going to spend the day cleaning and practicing my piano, because life goes on. I have a roof over my head, an indecently nice car outside, and a wonderful husband who loves and respects me and our life. There are up days and down days, but at the end of them all, we're together finally, and that is good.
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