Category: Daily Life

John 20:19-31

The first Christians were victims of state terrorism. The sudden arrest and death of Jesus provoked a climate of fear and apprehension among the apostles. They assemble inside a locked room – probably that of the Last Supper. The terror is so great that one apostle, Thomas, is reluctant to approach them even in seclusion. The locks are not only on the doors but on their minds and faith. Jesus breaks through with a powerful witness of love. He gives them power to unlock souls as well as portals.

As one who doubted but then progressed to deep faith, the apostle Thomas stands as a sign of encouragement to all believers. Although we have not “seen” Jesus in the same way as those first disciples, Christians today have personally experienced his presence in their lives, have touched his body through the community of faith, have heard him through God’s Word and received his body through the gift of Eucharist.

– Fr John Conway

Luke 22:14-23:56

With all the sadness, life is often difficult to fathom. On a personal and global scale it is tempting to ‘give up’ or at least not to expect too much. Yet Christianity holds out extraordinary hope. Through the power of the cross. Christians believe that there is no evil, no tragedy, no sin, that can outweigh the joy of the risen Lord. It takes courage to believe in Jesus Christ. Today’s Gospel is a call to courageous faith.

– Fr. John Conway

With my part time ISP support job winding up this month I am smartening up my resume and arming myself for job search.

My resume hasn’t been touched for 7 years – that was the last time I used it, when my position at the bank was made redundant and I switched careers and found a job with an ISP. There are things in that resume that I only have vague recollection about – like the “Designing Interactive Web Applications” through Brisbane TAFE back in Feb 2000. I wouldn’t mind revisiting that one, just out of curiousity!

I’d forgotten about the employee awards I’d received at the bank – for accuracy, attention to detail, being a team player and reaching the milestone of “100 days of error-free cash handling” from my time as a bank teller! All that stuff seems like it was in another lifetime, but I must remember to look at it again when I need a boost of self-confidence.

I remember when the job at the bank ended, I swore never to return to a banking job! I was very pleased to find work in a different industry, and I felt sorry for my colleagues who went to work for another bank when all our jobs went. Times change and I don’t think I would mind a part-time job in a local bank branch if it helped bring in some money, was close by and left me enough time to do my study and web work.

So I’m brushing up my resume writing skills. Here are some good resources I’ve found:

• How to write a masterpiece of a resume – Rockport Institute
• Resume writing – The basics – CareerOne

Wandering past the local community noticeboard today my eye was caught by a poster promoting the new album of local singer/songwriter Kirsti Falconer. I’d never heard of Kirsti before but apparently she has quite a following in her local community.

Back home and on the net, discovered she is on MySpace and listened to a couple of tracks. She hesitantly describes herself as a “Melissa Etheridge without so much edge”. Hurricane has a nice bluesey sound, Believe is very folksey. I like it and wouldn’t mind hearing more.

She is playing at a combined concert at the local town hall at 8.00pm on Saturday, 28th April. I’ve marked it in my diary and my sister has just informed me she’ll come along too!

A psychologist friend frequently advises us to ‘try something new’, to expand our view of the world and help build up self-confidence. Yesterday I experienced something new and it has given me a few things to meditate on. At the invitation of my friend Lee I accompanied her to an Anglican Ultreya.

It was quite a pleasant afternoon – a lot of singing, a lot of listening, a bit of sharing. The first thing that struck me was the spirit of fellowship in the crowd. There were about 70 or 80 people there I suppose, and they came from many places. They didn’t all know each other, but acted like they did – there was no guardedness or aloofness so common amongst strangers.

There was a dedication of one of the hymns to a local parishioner who had died recently, and it was touching to see his widow surrounded by friends with their hands resting on her to give comfort as they sang.

There were a couple of witness testimonials – the one I enjoyed most was by Mary Anne from Thallon. She described her weekly meal and bible meeting at “Granny’s Cottage” as the highlight of everyone’s week. It made me realise how important it is for people to gather together.

Nearly everyone who spoke mentioned times when they struggled with their faith, and how it is something they must constantly work on to maintain. I realised that faith isn’t a ‘club membership’ where you either have it or you don’t.

Lately Hubby and I have been disturbed by the increased frequency in our dog Sasha’s coughing and wheezing. We believe it is being brought on by her heart murmur. I’ve been doing some reading and it seems there may be drugs that can help her, so she’s going back to the vet (we recently took her there to get treatment for UTI).

An explanation of what a heart murmur is and how it contributes to the coughing, from VeterinaryPetcare.com:

The earliest sign of a leaking mitral valve is a heart murmur. This is produced when some of the blood goes backward through the leaking valve into the left atrium. Many dogs develop a murmur from the mitral valve as early as six years of age. This problem is especially common in small breeds of dogs. A heart murmur does not mean that heart failure is imminent. But as time goes on, the leak becomes more severe and more and more blood flows backwards. This results in reduced pumping efficiency and, eventually, congestive heart failure. From the time a murmur develops, it may be a few months to several years until heart failure occurs.

When the heart is not properly pumping blood, the blood moves more slowly through the lungs. This results in small amounts of fluid leaking out of the capillaries into the air passageways. This fluid collection produces the earliest signs of heart failure: gagging as if trying to clear the throat, a chronic, hacking cough, and lack of stamina.

There is another article on the Bay Area King Charles Cavalier Spaniel site which goes into controlling the condition with medication:

In Dr. Ross’s experience, the time to begin medication is when the resting heart rate is consistently more than 100 beats per minute. The normal canine resting heart rate is 80 to 100 beats per minute.

I timed Sassy’s heartbeat – it is 140+ beats per minute while she’s at rest. I don’t know if it’s possible anyway, but I think surgery would be too risky for her (there’s a good chance she wouldn’t wake up from the anaesthetic), so I hope there is some medication that can help.