Figuring Out The Next Step

How many hints from the Holy Spirit does it take to screw in a light bulb?

I’ve been on the topic of dogs, well, my dog lately, because of the whole “Mom, I’m gonna eat pot off the ground in Chicago” story (part one and two) and I thought I was finished but something interesting happened to keep me on the topic. I’m going to start at the end so you can back track with me to see how this little happening was always coming.

As a storyteller, actor, spiritual director and all things freelance, my whole life I have had to - except for some years in the full-time arena - find work that would supplement the unsteady income in the above-mentioned artistic endeavors. It’s been my way of life. Do I like it? Sure. When I’m doing what I love. But I am who I am and have been gifted what I’ve been gifted and I’m terrible at math and though I’m pretty darn good at quality control and project management I really prefer the arts and I’d like to say they prefer me, too. (Yeah, I like to say that.)

So – after working a gig or when the clientele slows it’s necessary to find something that pays the bills and, you know, if I’m not asking too much - not kill the soul.

I now find myself in that Holy Pause. (I just made that up. Like it?) This is the Holy Pause where Spirit hasn’t divulged to me yet what that next artistic joy will be. So nose, meet grindstone.

I came back from Chicago with my husband and puppy after producing theatre just in time to meet the arrival of Spring. Thank God! (Not for nothing, Chicago was brutal. And it wasn’t even a bad winter!) We spent a blissful staycation week at home before facing the real world again.

So what now for me? I do all the “things” I always do and look all the places I always do for the interim work. In the meantime, I go to meet my friends at bible study as we began a new book about the spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux. St. Therese’s gift is mercy, simplicity, joy, and innocence (to name a very few). It is said that when you pray for her intercession, she’ll shower you with flowers… roses in particular. (Put a pin in that, it comes back.)

At the first session with my friends after some mind-blowing realization about how deep this sweet saint goes, we go around the table and share our own prayer requests. Oftentimes we request things like patience, wisdom, trust, gratitude.

And then sometimes more specific things. For example:

“I need a job.”

I’m done. Next!

Sometimes you just have to lay it out like it is. So I did. One friend qualified, “You mean something like dog walking?”

Never entered my realm of consciousness.

“Sure, I guess.”

Next morning I’m on the phone with a long time friend knows the drill. So, without my asking or mentioning work, she brings up the topic of “What’s Next?”

“I don’t know.”

“You know my friend makes a killing dog walking in California…”

Wait. What?

Strange. (That’s two, I think as I check my mental notecard on how many hints from the Holy Spirit it takes to screw in a light bulb.)

I text another friend later in the day and share with her these furry suggestions.

“I WAS GOING TO SUGGEST THAT YESTERDAY!” (We always type in caps when we’re excited.) then she adds…“But I thought it would insult you.” (Come to think of it the other gal said that too.)

I asked why.

“Because you’re over qualified.”

She must have momentarily forgotten I’d got my dog stoned on the streets of Chicago.

At any rate I figure now it’s time to give this some deeper thought. I look into Rover (the dog walking app). Talk to some more folks. I think about how I won’t dog walk in freezing weather but hey, summer sounds fine!

I sign up to begin.

Another friend finds out and asks me to sit her dog for two weeks in a month or so. All this within 24 hours.

Well… I guess I’m doing this.

Now we move backward.

As you may be aware I am a dreamer. Not in the John Lennon, Some say I’m a dreamer, sense but I mean that I literally dream just about every night and have since I was very little. I write my dreams down. I know a thing or three about dreaming.

Once I’d had a little time to process these new four pawed suggestions I was reminded (not an accidental phrasing - “I was reminded”) of a dream I had before I’d even gotten Philly, my eat-everything-in-sight-puppy.

In short, (for I know what a snore it is to hear or read the words “I had this weird dream last night” I will relay this as painlessly as possible:), I dreamed I was in a large shelter-like basement and from across the cement flooring came bounding a white and black boxer dog. He LEAPED in to my arms in such a way that exclaimed, “Take me, I’m yours! I love you, you’re mine!” He was so exuberant; filled with joy. He’d made the decision. I reassured him I wouldn’t leave him there.

I was reminded of that dream. Huh.

But the reminders didn’t stop there. After I’d made some more firm choices to move ahead with this idea, I was reminded of another dream. A dream that I’d had the very night before all of these suggestions from friends were revealed; the night before my St. Therese study began. (It’s all recorded in my journal! I have proof!)

Pull the pin out: Remember St. Therese and her flowers?

I was in a dining room holding a bouquet of roses and at my feet were a pack of friendly dogs just all over…roaming happily.

It meant little to me when I first recorded it but knowing what I know now…. It all seemed so beneficent.

Could it have been I was being led to this even in my dreams?

Regardless, it’s a happy choice. We’ll see if it pans out. But I like how Spirit goes before, and prepares your own spirit and subconscious mind in addition to giving you time and repetition to catch on to it all. And it all happens just when the timing is right, and not too soon, so you’ll really be blown away when you hit “eureka!” It’s just then that Spirit lets you in on the little secret.

So there you have it. Another dog and Holy Spirit story. Do you have a happening like that? I’d like to hear it.

Time to go now. Puppy is pawing at the keyboard….