I have decided to stay at West End Ministries until I can find a full-time, paying job. That may mean that I start getting my resume out there now, and if something comes along that is right for me, I'll take it, but the real push won't come until spring.

This fall, I need to get back into shape again, as usual. I did really well for several weeks in Nepal, but the forced confinement of the general strikes, the heat in Calcutta, and the illness in Nepal upon my return, coupled with French food-- none of which I regret, really-- means that I have to begin once again to get myself out of bed in the early a.m., and to watch what I eat. I KNOW why I don't want to be a roly-poly fat girl, but my sweet tooth doesn't.

Natasha called last night to say that her back issues have at least been diagnosed: disintegrated disk. Yikes. Isn't that what you had, Suzan? The doc told her that it can be healed with some good physical therapy and taking care of it for the rest of her life.

I look around me at the people I know who have dealt with ongoing health issues all their lives, issues that are not "lifestyle" related. My brother, for instance. Well, I don't know how much exercise the guy has ever gotten, but he has been dealing with one thing after another. Some people, say the French, have une petite nature, and so have to take care of their health more assiduously than I ever have. I don't want to call this "luck" on my part, but it is some kind of blessing from the universe that I have been basically healthy if I did the minimum to keep myself that way. And energy! I don't have any idea how long I'm going to have this kind of get-up-and-go, but whooeeee, while it lasts, let's ROCK!

And when I don't have it any more, I can read, or I can be read to. I got projects to last me all the days of my life, not even counting this wonderful work I've found to do. I think this post is about gratitude. As they say around here, Thiank yew Jesus! Which, to me, means sending blessings out from me to the rest of everything.