Christmas Spirit

As Christmas approaches I feel blessed, and pray this joyous season will fulfill the hearts and needs of friends and family; times are tough for so many. My husband and I are both unemployed, but are able to maintain a nice life, for now. We feel blessed to have what we have and each other.

A couple of weeks ago while we were putting up our Christmas tree and decorations a woman came to the door with her two small children. She was selling candy hoping to pay for a small Christmas for her kids. My husband apologized for not being able to help her and politely closed the door. He sat down on the couch...a few second went by and he said, that was a “Jesus thing” and “I blew it”. I hadn't thought of it that way until he made the comment. I then joined in his spirit encouraging him to go after her. He didn't have any small bills, but I had some put away. I save $1 bills from change I get; it adds up. I went to my hiding place and found a $5 bill I had accidentally put in the box with the other $1’s. The woman was already several houses down the street, but I told my husband to go after her. What happened next was amazing. She had turned around and was heading back in our direction as if she had been given a sign to come back. I believe this was message from God for the season and always.

I witnessed another act of kindness this week which started out as a thought of concern and resulted in a warm heart. I saw what appeared to be a homeless man standing in front of my neighbor’s driveway. She lives alone with a new baby and runs a day care. Living on a very busy street we try to keep our eyes open. The man stood there for quite some time before my neighbor came out of her house adorned with a festive Santa apron and handed him a beverage. The man went on his way.

My resolution, not just for the new year but for every day and always, is to be more mindful of my blessings and share them with others. A kind word and a smile doesn’t cost anything, except a few seconds of your day. Giving them without expectation of anything in return is a gift from your heart. I found a wonderful website I want to share with you; it also has cost me nothing, except a few seconds of my time: www.HelpingOthers.org

God Bless you and Merry Christmas!

Blessing of 2011

It's been some time since my first blog. I pray you're all well and prosperous.

I continue my journey to seek employment. It’s been both challenging and rewarding being on this path of redefining who I am, growing every step of the way. I’d like to briefly share some of the blessings of this past year.

The first part of 2011 I continued to struggle with the loss of my 16 year position with HP. I learned from a wonderful lady this is very common as she helped me through the rough spots. She introduced me to a book; What Color is Your Parachute, by internationally famed author Richard N. Bolles. Some of you may be familiar with it. It was originally written 40 years ago and has been edited every year since. Mr. Bolles completely rewrote the book this year for his 40^th edition. As I am connected in LinkedIn I took a chance that Mr. Bolles might be as well. To my surprise he was and accepted my invitation to connect with me immediately. I asked him if he would be interested in coming to my job seeking group (Active Job Seekers of America) as a guest speaker. He quickly responded that although he appreciated the invitation he didn’t travel a great distance from his home in Danville, CA as he is 84 years old. I thought that would be the end of it. However, the executive director of AJSA knew someone who leads another job seeking group in Danville. Over the next few months Dick and I corresponded via email. After his latest book was released in August we set up and confirmed a speaking engagement in a large venue near his home on November 5^th 2011.

While waiting for and promoting this event I became a member of another group, Bayside Career Coaching/Job One.  As I became more familiar with the group and its leader, I became more aware of the impact Mr. Bolles’ book had and still has on people.  I was informed it was Mr. Bolles' book that influenced Bayside Church of Granite Bay to include a job seeking group in its ministry. Mr. Bolles is an inspiring speaker and the event was a complete success with approximately 300 in attendance.

Bayside Career Coaching/Job One is a group of effective professionals seeking passionate futures and generous retired professionals counseling its members to succeed in attaining these futures. On behalf of Bayside Career Coaching I am pursuing “hidden jobs” to share with my group of peers. “80% of all positions are filled without employer advertising. These positions are filled by--or created for--candidates who come to an employer's attention through employee recommendations, referrals from trusted associates, recruiters, or direct contact with the candidate.”

Please keep my information close. As you hear of new positions opening or opportunities which might benefit our group please let me know.

Thank you and God bless.

This is my first attempt at creating a personal blog or web page. It's mainly for my own pleasure of writing and sharing. If anything I write inspires then I am pleased. My writings will always be of the wonderful people and times in my life, new and old friends, and experiences; but I will never mention names, nor will it ever be ultimately negative.

I recently met someone who I instantly connected with once we had some quality time to visit and get to know each other a little. She is strong, passionate, emotional, and complicated. She’s creative and driven. Her interests are varied and eclectic. I decided to make this the first person to write about because my description of her is one I would use for myself; and because she has been a big influence as of late.

You know, I personally view all of these characteristics as positive and productive. But, when I think of my life it hasn’t always been very positive and/or productive. Until I lost my job last year I never really thought of who I really am or where I fit in. This last year has been a journey like no other. At my age I should be thinking about where I want to live out the rest of my days. Instead it’s become necessary to re-invent myself to survive.

During my life I was a daughter, a granddaughter, and a student; I was a wife, had a child, and then became a single mother. Now I’m a grandmother and once again a wife. I have been an employee with some great and not so great employers. During all of this I never had set goals nor had dreams I aspired to. I always just seemed to go with the flow. Whatever the tomorrows would bring I reacted to them.

I think I finally get it. It’s finally time to be Marta, strong, passionate, emotional, and complicated; creative and driven with eclectic interests. I have friends who understand me and family who love me. My life is blessed.