Tag: career

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Five Minute Friday – Weary

Michele Kearns

Once again, I am hooking up with Kate Motaung for Five Minute Friday.

I was going to write this post next week but Kate forced my hand to write it sooner with her word prompt selection.

Since August I was rear-ended, let go from my job the following week, survived 2 months of therapy, and wrote through the month of October while conducting a job search.

I am weary. 

All those things have taken a toll on me but mostly it’s been the job searching that’s broken my back (figuratively). I should be sharing articles on LinkedIn more, I should be publishing blog posts on LinkedIn but I have no desire to do those things to increase my visibility.

I want to get out more but where?

Where does the weary widow go from here?

“I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”

Jeremiah 31:25

I do not know, so I am taking a break from blogging starting this coming week. Hopefully during this holiday break I will be able to figure out some things and God will restore my soul.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.

Psalm 23: 2-3

I have one more post to publish and that is a recommended list of books for your holiday gift list (either for yourself or someone else).

There is a Holiday Help page, in the wine colored menu bar, where I’ve listed some resources and when I come across more, I will add to that page.

But other than that, I am done till sometime next year.

This means even Facebook is going dark. Will only be using it to correspond with my Faithful Finish Lines members, but even that will not be as often.

You can always reach me at the email listed in the sidebar, as I have to keep up with any job search emails.

So Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year my friends and family.

Wishing you a safe, healthy, prosperous and joyous holiday season.

God Bless You.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

I’m coming Lord Jesus, I am coming.

Don’t worry folks, God will make lemonade out of this lemon period of my life. He’s done it before and will do it again.

thinbutterfly

grief

Unroll.me – How to Unclutter Your Email

Michele Kearns

Since for the next two weeks I will be working on behind the scenes maintenance with Writing 101 and Blogging 201 from WordPress, I decided to work on another “behind the scenes” project known as taking out the email trash.

Oh boy does my email get cluttered and it is my fault. I always need to keep learning more and more so I sign up for all sorts of newsletters and blog posts to hopefully help me be a better blogger, writer, jobseeker, networker and a better person overall.

Word for 2015

My word for this year was Thrive (and I’ve once again survived but not thrived). There were 3 words that supported “thrive” – Intentional, Simplify, and Trust.

Well yesterday I intentionally simplified by email by logging back into my Unroll.me account and deleting a lot of subscriptions to newsletter and blog posts.

It’s simple. All you have to do is create a Unroll.me account using your email and a password you remember, then it will show you all the newsletter and blog posts you have subscribed to. You simple click “unsubscribe” to anything you no longer want to receive. This is a great tool for simplifying your email inbox.

Now my email looks a lot better and yours will too.

Stay tuned for the further adventures of Michele’s “behind the scenes” life during the next two weeks.

Have a joy filled week.

thinbutterfly

Michele Kearns is the founder and HUG© (Hope Unites Globally) Award-Winner of JoyReturns. She encourages widows and educates society about grief and life as a widow by sharing her widowhood adventures. A graduate of Kent State University with a degree in communications, she has used her skills in the banking, collections, outdoor products and social media industries. Michele is a bookworm, lover of golden retrievers and an amateur photographer. You can see more of photography at OgleOhio.com.

grief

God’s Hand In Michele’s New Job!!!

Michele Kearns

As you read this, I will be starting my last two weeks at my call center job.

On May 26th, I will start a new job in a new industry – the relocation industry.  I will be doing customer service, marketing, and office administration for a company that specializes in moving executives.

So I get to add another industry to my varied career background, a background that includes:

  • retail sales
  • banking
  • collections (mortgage loans, lines of credit, automobile loans and leases, and student loans)
  • grief support
  • outdoor products

I have the ability to learn different industries and learn them well enough to be known as the go-to person if someone has a question. The exception to this is the outdoor products. I can answer basic questions about systems and decipher what customers are talking about, (“the rope that goes around the circles that spin the knives.”) but there is a whole lot of technical knowledge I do not possess that would require me to attend lots of training classes.

Over-joyed But Surprised

Surprised is a word that describes how a lot of people felt when they got my email or phone call. Everyone wondered how this came about because there were no requests from me about having an interview and needing prayers that I have all the answers to the questions.

This went down quickly. I got an email from a friend I met while volunteering. She knew I was struggling and needed a break. So when this position came open, she got in touch with me and asked if I was interested. I told her yes and we exchanged emails and phone calls about the company and my role.

I completed the application and submitted it and my resume, along with the background check form and went for a drug test. I was running a few minutes late going to work after the drug test when I got stopped by a train. I sat there for 11 minutes as a train with hundreds of tanker and box cars crept along the tracks. I was not the only person late for work that day. Guess God knew that it would not look suspicious when numerous people were late.

Then came the text that told me everything was fine with the background check and drug test so go ahead and submit my 2-week notice.

Everyone at work is happy for me but hates to see me leave.

Living The Bible

My friend offering me a break is an example of someone living out Proverbs 3:27 and James 1:27

Never walk away from someone who deserves help;
    your hand is God’s hand for that person.

Proverbs 3:27

(The Message) 

and

 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

(NIV)

There were numerous people in the past 6 years of career instability who had a chance to be the hand of God to me but instead turned their back, but that is a subject for another post.

God’s Hand

God’s hand was in this situation from the beginning. After all, He placed Isaiah 43:19 on my heart earlier this year. I just could not see “a new thing” until 2 weeks ago.

See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.

Thank you God for doing a new thing in my life that brings me out of the wilderness. Please forgive all my grumbling.

May you see God’s hand at work in every aspect of your life.

* “the rope that goes around the circles that spin the knives.” translates to “the deck belt that goes around the pullies that spin the blades.” Pullies are attached to spindles and the blades are attached to the bottom of the spindles on riding mowers.