A guide to finding your way in the dark

We talk a lot about vision at Paraclete. Where are we heading? What are we trying to accomplish? What is God asking us to do next? It’s an exciting way to work, scary sometimes, but never boring.

Last night I was walking home. It was dark out, and I had a flashlight (or at least a flashlight app — hooray for those!) I was using it to highlight a small area right in front of my feet, when this thought popped into my head. Grabbing ahold of the vision is a lot light using a flashlight. We can highlight the tiny circle around our feet, making certain we won’t stumble, but we’ll never really know exactly where we are heading. Or we can shine the light at the road ahead of us, possibly tripping on the little ruts along the way, but certain we are moving in the direction we want to go.

The Joy of Blogging

I’ve always envied bloggers.  Good ones particularly – making me laugh (and think) with  their witty comments and poignant turns of phrase. I was thrilled to be asked to blog for Paraclete – and somehow hoped that pithy prose would just flow out in a relaxed, readable, stream of consciousness style.

Then it took me the better part of 4 days just to come with a pen name!

I love my job. I stand (literally) at my desk making phone calls to parishes, diocese, and schools all over the country. For the better part of 7 hours each day I talk about Paraclete products to Priests, DRE’s, teachers, principals, pastoral care associates, etc.It’s not a job I aspired to – sales has never been my thing – but it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Somehow – by sharing the vision of Paraclete with people of common faith and dedication – relationship begins.

I have “customers” – people I have never seen, only talked on the phone  – that I consider close friends. How does that happen?

I’m glad it does.

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Hot off the press

Two new books

We just received these two books today.  I’m so excited about both of them. The Intentional Christian Community Handbook  “is a book we’ve needed for a long, long time” – plus it is our first book ever printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper. Anyone interested in life in community – looking for it, found it, whatever your story is – will find this book full of help and wisdom.

Soul Unfinished is my personal favorite book this season. The subtitle is “Finding Happiness, Taking Risks & Trusting God as We Grow Older” but I’m not 30 yet, and this book taught me a lot.  Older people read it and remember how much you have to offer, young people read it and remember how much you have to learn!

A (sales) room with a view

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September: it’s the time of year for new beginnings, new starts and fresh vision!  At Paraclete our sales year runs from September through August, so we are listening and praying about new ideas as we begin again.  I always find starting over difficult, especially after the completion of a long project or pushing towards a goal. I’d like to take a break, but God always seems to have another plan, a new horizon to keep our creative juices flowing, and to keep us at the edge of what we can do in our own strength, and drawing us towards him! A portion of our grape vineyard grows right outside of our window – this time of year the color of the grapes deepens each day – a reminder of the circle of new life and harvest.
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