Guess What I Did On The 4th of July Holiday?

I was up very early that day. I washed my car. Not going to a car wash I actually washed my car. I find you can do better detail work than sometimes driving it through a car wash. Believe me I do go to car washes also. There is something satisfying when you wash the car yourself. Years ago before I got divorced we owned a home and I really did like doing outside garden type of work. Planting flowers and yes, I liked cutting the grass sometime. If I was in a creative mood I would cut the grass in patterns. Diagonal rows across the yard, square pattern when I would just cut it following a square shape so to speak, starting on the outer perimeter and working your way to the center of the lawn. My next favorite was getting the garden hose after sweeping the driveway and sidewalks and hosing down the driveway. It was like the satisfaction one gets when they clean the house and everything is in order (for the moment that is) when children and your spouse walk on the carpeting and you no longer have the neat and pretty carpet lines from the vacuum.
 I planted an Easter lily bulb from a plant I had and do you know it bloomed in the Fall. I was to go on a retreat  to a monastery with Monks and with people from the Catholic church I attended. It bloomed that weekend and I just knew it was meant for me to go on that retreat. This was years ago and there was something so holy/ethereal getting up while it was still dark outside to hear the Monks singing and praying in the church. If I remember correctly they were an order of Monks that did not speak, but I think we were each given a time slot to speak with one of them. I would have to check my journals I probably wrote about that back then. This was a time in my life I am still Catholic but born again (didn't know it at the time until I took an evangelism class at another non-denominational church and thank God I wrote in my journals I was able to pinpoint it to a degree to the month and year I became born again.) I was seeing I liked to refer to them as "bleeps" I would see an image and write about it and get interpretation of what I was seeing. Holy Spirit truly was my teacher at this time in my life. I started praying in tongues not at a church but one day while on a piece of exercise equipment at home.  I had an open vision and wrote about that. The Catholic priests tried to help me work through these experiences, they sent me to two different spiritual directors. I shared all of that so you know there were conditions to me going on this retreat. The priest told me before we went on this retreat that basically I had to behave, contain myself so to speak. I was on fire for Jesus as a Catholic woman. Imagine that.
Do you see how I write, I start off in one direction and then there is a side story and then back to the story. I would also like to share this now. Even though my ex husband and I are divorced now I cannot take away the fact that he has been and continues to be a great father to our children. We get along and are cordial and when there is a time that our families need to come together such as graduations we do come together and plan for them. I suppose we would also do that in the event one of the children gets married one day. I have been divorced for well over 25 years now. I went through "Cleansing Stream" ministry at church and deliverance ministry also. My heart is at peace and has been for a long time now.  Writing I my journal was most helpful to me also. My time with the Lord and His time with me.
On the fourth of July I met some of my friends that I use to work with in a quaint city actually where we all worked together. When we get together it is not like a quick breakfast, lunch or dinner we are there a good bit of time. That day the breakfast convened around 9:30am and we left the restaurant around 12:30pm. We then walked around the downtown area and looked at some shops. Then one of my friends lives in this city so we got a tour of the city via their perspective. I think I got home that day and it was almost time for dinner. You see, if I never moved to this state to accept a job I would have never met them. Actually, the job I accepted was a total faith walk for me. My family does not reside here but God does. I actually interviewed for this very job years prior in a different state and was about to be hired but there was a crunch on the budget and I did not quite make the cut off list. If I would have I probably would not have moved from that state to begin with. The funny part of this story. I never interviewed at the job location and the first time I walked into the building was as a new hire. Everyone was talking about their picture id badge and I kept wondering to myself why did I not get my picture taken for my badge. Well I did, it was a few years prior to my hire date and the picture on the badge was the picture taken back then. I did eventually get an updated picture id badge. Is that not so much like God's plan? Yes it is. One day I was going through old emails and discovered I really must have been ready to start the job if not for a budget crunch because I was sent emails from that location years prior to me actually starting the job. That is amazing isn't that? God already knew when and where I was to be.