Marked as Christ's Own

It's been rough around here lately. I've been in and out of the Pit, had health weirdness (I had resolved at New Year's to blog more, you see how long that has taken), and within the last week have suffered from volunteer fatigue, compassion fatigue, worry about my Maggie-cat (who had an emergency vet visit on Saturday, as I was working on catering a funeral, and came back home looking like Frankenkitty), cramps, homeless women screaming at me, hailstorms, and thunder. I got home from an errand yesterday afternoon just before the hail started again, seperated the squabbling cats, and crawled into bed to sleep.

This morning the storm had blown over and the sun was shining brightly in the living room. I had confined the kitten to the back bedroom to give poor recovering Maggie the run of the house, and Maggie was taking advantage of this by sunning herself on the ledge of my large south window in the living room. The sun was still moderately low in the east, so was glinting through the window at an angle, giving white-furred Maggie a halo. It felt like a real gift after the storm yesterday - wind, rain, hail, thunder, snow on them thar hills.

I laid down on the couch to catch the rays myself, and give Maggie her morning skritchies. It was quiet and I was very relaxed. A prayer formed in my head: "Please heal me, and give me strength, and forgive me all my iniquities." Then I felt a cross being traced on my forehead (a la Ash Wednesday) with the answer "You are marked as Christ's own forever".

I am much more at peace today, although still working on the overtired thing.