Guidance

To whoever reads this blog, I would ask for your prayers.

What was a momentary whim has now become a semi-serious plan. Whether it is this job opportunity or another, I am seriously considering moving out to the island.

The idea of leaving the dangerous neighborhoods, traffic jams, and oil industry behind is very tempting right now. I crave the slower pace of life on the island. A province with a population 1/8th of Calgary.

I could afford to buy a house!
1300 square feet and an acre of land for under $120,000... I couldn't buy a shack for that here in Calgary.
But the question remains, could I live alone out there? Do I want to? Should I?
Could I stand the feeling of my family and friends being 5000km away? Could I handle the fact that it just isn't realistic for many of my friends to visit even occasionally? How often could I make it home to visit? Would I find a similarly loving group of friends and mentors out there?

I need some guidance from God as this adventure will be a waste of time and money if He isn't leading it. There are a number of obvious fleece - the job, a house, the funds - but I realize that the whole point behind the original fleece was that it was something out of the ordinary. I am praying that God will provide that unexpected fleece that will make this clear.


Please pray for me, that I might either be encouraged and pushed forward on this path, or find enough closed doors to accept the answer. If I'm to stay, I need an attitude adjustment to let help me appreciate this city and whatever job I am to do within it, because I'm certainly not enjoying either at the moment.

Eastbound Jonny?

MINE!!!
...quoth I, upon finding the following job advert.

I have just over a week to get my resume in order. Here's hoping (and praying) that something might come of it.



Title:
- Promotions/Events Manager

Employer:
-Cavendish Beach & The Dune Shores Tourism Association

Location:
- Cavendish, Prince Edward Island

Education:
- Completion of college/university

Experience:
- 1 - 2 years

Languages:
- English

Work Setting:
- Tourism services, Not-for-profit organization

Software:
- Windows
- Office
- Email
- Web-site creation and management software

Staff Responsibility:
- 1 - 20

Specific Skills:
- Plan, develop and implement communications strategies
- Establish distribution networks for products and services
- Plan and direct events for fund raising campaigns
- Prepare reports
- Generate ideas for products / services development
- Develop promotional materials
- Deliver presentations on products / services
- Participate in trade shows
- Write Request for Proposals (RFP's)

Additional Skills:
- Plan and control budget and expenditures

Ability to Supervise:
- 1 - 2 people

Other Information:
- At least 1 year experience coordinating special events.

Others

I wonder how my actions will affect those around me. This isn't a Christian idea, this isn't a religious idea, this isn't even an elective-moral idea; This is the basis of civilized society. I've been called out in the past for expecting people to live up to standards that are just not applicable to their lives; This is not one of those things!

Had a discussion with Cyler the other day about drunkenness. He made the valid point that since I've never been drunk, there is no way for me to understand how some people enjoy it. I'm not a teetotalar, I like alcoholic drinks, but I am actually quite afraid of getting drunk. I've seen how it affects those around me; Some people fall asleep, some people gain a remarkable ability to dance, and some turn in to complete and utter jackasses.

I hate the way I behave sometimes. I shudder when I recall the depths to which my mind has slipped on occasion. I am loath to think about the people that I've hurt in the past (accidentally or maliciously). All of this in my most sober moments.

What would I be like if I were drunk? Would I be a fun, carefree guy? Would I fall asleep? Or would I find within me a "Mr. Hyde" of sorts, the man whose very nature I have hated and forcefully suppressed throughout my life?

I won't judge you for drinking. I won't judge you for getting drunk. But I reserve the right to be disappointed should your behaviour (drunk or not) hurt me or those I love.

This was a disappointing Christmas day.

Dreams are weird

(I've never kept a true journal... so I'm sorry to all of you that are stuck listening to my thinking-through-writing.)

The other night, I had a dream about a girl that I haven't seen in almost 10 years. Being as hopelessly romantic as I am, it seems that we had a lovely dream relationship and we even shared a pleasant dream kiss. That's all that remained in my memory. I woke up this morning, went to work, and couldn't stop thinking about why she would suddenly show up in a dream.

I was a weird kid in grade seven (weirder than now...), but though she generally didn't run in the same crowd as me (I didn't have a crowd), she was never outright mean to me. I remember her actually waving to me one evening as she and her mother drove by. I thought it was odd and unexpected, my mom suggested that maybe she liked me (gotta love mothers). I didn't have a crush on her, at least from what I remember, but the thought rattled around in my head for a few days back then and then, it seems, buried itself in my memory until last Tuesday.

I wonder where Donna is now.

P.S.
I now remember her looking (at least in my eyes) like a young Cameron Diaz. Maybe it was the watching of "The Holiday" that triggered this. Either way, I maintain that dreams are weird.

... there's another kind of love: the cruelest kind. The one that almost kills its victims. Its called unrequited love. Of that I am an expert. Most love stories are about people who fall in love with each other. But what about the rest of us? What about our stories, those of us who fall in love alone? We are the victims of the one sided affair. We are the cursed of the loved ones. We are the unloved ones, the walking wounded. The handicapped without the advantage of a great parking space!

(My sister and I watched "The Holiday" today)