I started a new job a little over a month ago, managing the little Catholic bookstore in my community. I absolutely love the place, I love the work, I love the store – my boss has been my friend for several years so I love her, I love (most of) our customers –

Getting accustomed to a new schedule and new skills is exhausting. I’m arranging, ordering stock, receiving, pricing, shelving, re-arranging, paying bills, talking with company representatives… I come home absolutely happy and so tired a nap is required before I can think of supper or anything else.

That’s why I’m not blogging much lately – here or at the other place. And the other place has a loyalty this one doesn’t, because I believe in the work of Deliberate Engagement, and I love collaborating with Matt.

There’s a little room at the back of the store. It’s been a stock room of sorts, but it’s about to become my Kids’ Room as I upgrade our children’s stock and get in First Holy Communion items. Moving things around on Wednesday (a day we’ve been closed since Christmas, which makes it a good “housekeeping” day), I tripped over a box and landed on my already-bad knees. Could have been worse; there was an ice pack in the freezer, and a neighbor came in to visit a bit, which justified my sitting down with my feet up and the ice pack on, for a while. Ibuprofen and Tylenol do a good job for me with pain and inflammation – better than Aleve, actually (you take 400 mg ibuprofen and 1000 mg Tylenol) – and so I’ve not had any severe effects from my little accident.

Anyway – I’m taking an extension on my courses from the recent semester so I can finish them. I bit off more than I can chew, time-wise, focus-wise. I’ve discovered that the store is a good place to read, so I’m expanding the hours back to what they were before Christmas, to be available to customers – but for those quiet days the store will mostly be a designated study hall.

And all this means that the utter carelessness I’ve had about home comes to an abrupt and screeching halt. It’s too easy to think I can do something “later” or “after while” when I’m close to home most of the day… which means something doesn’t get done at all! – or until it can’t be procrastinated with any longer. A return to Flylady’s routines are keeping me better balanced and graced with a certain necessary degree of serenity. Not that it’s any easier to wash up the kitchen after supper/before bed, mind you! but the overall effect is very positive.

So much to be grateful for. A school friend found me through Facebook about a month ago, and we’re meeting for lunch today before I head the rest of the way in to Raleigh to attend/sing for the monthly Latin Mass at the Cathedral. I got a Missal last night, and read through the basic prayers of the Mass –

Amazing how significant, how profoundly beautiful this Mass is. Layers and depths of Meaning that so many people simply do not notice. I’m lucky – my local priests celebrate the Ordinary Form of the Mass with dignity and decency – but I can see how a lot of people find the Ordinary Form a fertile field for a free-for-all.

I’m told a story about one of our Raleigh diocese priests who was sent away for the training with the FSSP. This was a priest who had a reputation for being really liberal (one person of my acquaintance called him a bit of a fruitcake). He came back, the same person told me, wearing a cassock! and saying that he’d never understood the meaning of his priestly vocation before he attended that training.

I hope other priests will also go, and learn, and be transformed. We are in an hour when we so very much need good priests.

I’m not around much – I feel this week as if I’m beginning to find my balance, so I hope to be returning more to both blogs. The procedures are not as new, awkward and consequently fatiguing as they have been, and last night I came home with a lot of mental energy for the first time since I began the job.

I’m grateful for your prayers, and remember you daily in mine.

Love,
Laura