As I mentioned in my last post other people’s dreams are boring. So here is one more. I truly believe that God can speak to us in many ways. I guess He knows the only time I am still and my mouth is not running is when I am asleep. So I will share one more dream for you to enjoy/endure.
It was 1990. I had just given birth four weeks earlier to my second child. I had a full time job that paid well, had great health insurance ( that was the main perk), and a three year old little boy. I was at the point of maternity leave where I could not make myself want to go back to work and leave these two little boys at day care. I worried about turning in my notice. I worried about our income being cut in half. I worried that when I returned to work at some date in the future that I would not have the ever increasing technology skills needed to re-enter the job market at the same level. I was afraid that I would have to start completely over at the bottom.
You notice how many times I used the word worried above. Worry is my middle name. I fretted should quit? Yes. I would be so stupid to quit. How would we afford insurance without my job?
So amidst all of this worry, I had a dream. Again, I have no doubt this was a message. An angel appeared is a similar fashion as the last dream I shared in the previous post. Faceless, ethereal, bright, light, wispy, angelic are the only ways I have to describe this angel. In my dream I told my angel my worries. My angel told me, “You worry too much. When it is time for you to go back to work God will provide you with the skills you need for your job when it is time.”
I woke up and just like that I never looked back. I did not worry. I turned in my notice. We had half as much money. We quit shopping at fancy places and started shopping at Sears. We quit going out to eat every weekend. I bought my makeup from Maybelline instead of Clinique. It worked out.
I had always worked administrative jobs because the pay was steady. But my college education was in interior design. However, interior design is mostly commission work so I never had the luxury of having a fluctuating paycheck. When baby number two was two years old, I started doing small little jobs here and there decorating boutique windows. It was a job that I could get a teenager to babysit for three hours, I could get my job done, express myself creatively which is my gift, and be back home in less than half a day. I set my fee at a ridiculously high rate for 1992 at $30 an hour. I loved doing those windows. I would do maybe three windows a month for a total of nine hours and it gave us just enough extra money to enjoy a few perks in life. God had provided me with what I needed when I needed it. I also enjoyed my client’s actually being so appreciative of my work.
I had baby number three in 1994, and by then I was doing freelance decorating for client’s in their homes. For $30 an hour I would do what ever they wanted me to. I would rearrange furniture, empty bookcases and rearrange items on them, and I would go shopping for fabric, wallpaper, furniture, paint. I made arrangements with small furniture stores and interior design shops to get a commission for any items I selected for clients. I only did this one day a week while my kids were at Mother’s Day Out from 9:00-2:30 , one day a week. It was the most favorite job I have ever had outside the home. I even took baby number three with me to client’s houses when he was an infant and they loved it. I figured out how to make work fit around my family instead of family fitting around work.
I slowed down after baby number four. I had much less time but by then my husband’s income was able to make up the difference. It all worked out. I loved my decorating job more than I had ever loved putting on pantyhose and high heels and going to an office job.
God gave me the opportunity and the skills I needed when it was time to work again. Worry didn’t solve my problems. Faith, grace, and a little luck when I needed it did. If you are struggling with where you are now, think outside the box. Life is not always that simple and I could sure use some extra money to pay for all of the college educations we have been struggling with since 2006. But my health has not permitted me to work for a few years. So I am just trying to have faith, enjoy days as they come, and do the best that I can.
TaTa and God bless.
She writes about life, death, grief, and recovery.
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