Catching Up!

I received the back issues of MJF and I'm having a ball reading them! (the Simply Bee issue & the Holiday issue '08) I'm amazed at how I've seemed to find where I belong at long last. I very much enjoyed the article "Compassion" in the "Learn to Live" issue. How timely that article was...I had just completed my 1st day of the week at a community college that I work part time at,and It's been made more challenging lately due to a co worker "Ida" (not her real name) who has become a constant complainer and is very into criticizing others for....you name it. It was particularly draining to work around her on Monday as it was busy. Part of the critique was involving yours truly as I'd taken extra time to help a student & Ida was outraged I was doing this because the more time I took with the kid,the more work Ida was having to do! (and she announced it!) Heaven forbid. What made it worse is her voice carries and she was working the window right next to mine,and he heard every grumblin word. While I can normally shrug it off,the negativity Ida was spewing really wore me down-it had an amazing level of toxic-ness to it. What a delight to find the magazines had arrived in the mail when I got home so I could start reading them & shift gears as it were. The Compassion article jumped out at me not so much because of anything I'd done that day,but because it pointed out the negative talk I'd experienced that morning,how widespread it's become in society,and I agree that it's impacting everyone who is in earshot of it. Somehow the Stink bug invasion must be stopped. Peoples jars are overflowing with them. I think some people have two jars of em. I want my jars to be filled with lightning bugs,ladybugs,butterflies,all things delightful & lovely to look upon. The article really helped me and couldn't have come at a better time!