Turning a smile upside down!

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It was one of those days. Yes, even nuns have bad days! You know the days where you know from the start that things are going to be challenging. It started with sleeping out the alarm and waking up with enough time to get ready and go to Mass, despite a blood pressure reading of 80/50. Receiving the Lord did make the day a lot sunnier but it still needed copious amounts of coffee to get motivated and get ready for lectures. After lunch, I had to pick up some things so I headed out.
Waiting over 30 minutes for a bus did not help my mood but it did become a time to think and observe and take stock. I had forgotten my mobile (which I never do!), had no e-book reader so I took out my Rosary and prayed and watched the people go by.
Bookmark from the carpark
As I got off the bus, I was still annoyed, it was pelting rain and I had betrayed my Irish roots and gone out without an umbrella! As I dodged fellow pedestrians and dog-walkers, I made my way to the Residence. As I crossed the carpark, something caught my eye. It was a pink felt-type bookmark, wet from the rain and covered in footprints. I picked it up and read the words: “All your words are true, all your laws are eternal” (Ps 119:160).  It appeared to be a bookmark that some child had made and dropped on the way home. Well, it stopped me in my tracks!  I’m not one who asks for signs or visible manifestations of God’s presence but I felt that this truly was his gentle reminder that He is faithful to his word and He does keep his promises. The bookmark is now in my Bible as a reminder that the Lord does indeed use his ways and means to get back to looking at life in perspective and trusting that He is leading the way.
Baby Isaac, just a few hours old
When I got home, a wonderful surprise awaited me! News that Baby Isaac had decided to grace the world with his presence a few weeks earlier than expected! Thank God, mother and child are fine.Funny thing, I had picked up a little gift and card for him whilst I was out! Talk about a 'God-incidence'. I love the name that my sister and husband have chosen, Isaac: ‘God smiles’. All my nieces and nephews have wonderfully significant names (or else an overly religious aunt who makes them significant!). There is Chloe (which means ‘a grain of wheat’ in Greek...what a Eucharistic name!), Nadia (which means ‘hope’ in Russian), Joshua (which means ‘Jesus’), Conor (well okay, had to work at getting a meaning here!), Conor means ‘wolf-lover’ so I am just going to put him alongside St. Francis for the time being!

It was the first day of the Year of Faith: God had made me smile and Isaac had made me smile! Happy days!

P. S. This post was supposed to be written on Thursday but a necessary endurance test aka exams has kept me adequately occupied over the past few days!

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