New Year, new things

I am excited about this new year! More than the years before. And it already started different. Not as splendid as my sister's (new-hubby-job), but I love those little ones as well. So I started January 1st in PJ's, all day long - haven't done that for years. Sunday (new as well) I decided what kind of cake I wanted in a café just by passing the cake bar (usually I can't decide and it takes MINUTES!). Yesterday, Sandy showed me that "perfect day" coffee bar that has probably best coffee in town AND she found me the perfect warm winter jacket at peek & cloppenburg.

Oh and this one is the best! Since over a year I try to have my quiet time right when I wake up but especially during winter time I too often fall kinda asleep again. It's dark and cold and bed is so snugly... well, you probably know what I am talking about. During the last weekend I really racked my brain (and asked the Father for an insight) how I could change it and TADA, suddenly it was there - so bright, clear and easy I am stunned (and annoyed that this didn't appear sooner):

I have to get up early to feed the cats anyway, they always put up such a fuss unless I give them their breakfast... So I get up at 5 a.m (or 5.30 this morning) and when I go into the kitchen to get the cat food, I turn the heating on. Then, while the cats are eating, I take a shower and dress up and prepare everything so that I easily can leave to get the bus to go to work. When preparations are done, I go back into the kitchen, wich is warm and cosy by that time, sit down at my big kitchen table, set up my kitchen timer (about 20 minutes) so that I wouldn't miss the bus and start reading. It works! I don't fall asleep anymore and I get the most benefit out of it! I finally found my "holy place" even if it's only a kitchen table...

Friday 13th

Inspired by Anju and her post I want to debilitate the superstitiousness of "Friday the 13th is a bad luck day".

As I already mentioned I grew up with a mother who showed us how to believe in God and His power and she never told us about stupid things like "if you play with a bunch of keys it causes conflicts between family members" (that's a superstition a Portuguese friend of mine told me) or "never put shoes on a table, it causes bad luck". She would say "don't put shoes on the table, that's disgusting!"
The other day I bought new shoes and I went to a friends house after shopping. I wanted to show her my new shoes and put them on her table... Bad idea! She was nealy shocked and told me - I think you can imagine what she said. That's how I "learned" the utterly unplausible correlation between my shoes on the table and some bad luck... But I still laugh about it and refuse to believe in it.

But back to Friday 13th, today. When I first heard in school about Friday 13th and it's behavior (HAHA!) I decided to declare it my "lucky day". I didn't want to flip the meaning - that would be superstitious the other way around - believing a special day could bring luck. No! That's not my intention.
I only wanted to swim against the stream and possibly show some people they don't have to worry about or at that special day.

So read about my Friday 13th experience:
I badly need a dress or something alike for my friends wedding. One for the civil wedding August 14th (I am one of the witnesses and should not look too common) and one for the church wedding August 17th. And I am looking for it since days! And I hate shopping! This fact probably ruins the cliché about women and shopping, but it's true. My favorite duds shopping is: Coming into a store, seeing something, trying it (of course it fits perfectly at first go) and buying it.

And YAY - exactly that happened today! Although it is Friday 13th today! This is real bad luck, isn't it???
And the funny thing is, I actually never planed to look for a dress, I only was on my way coming from one doctor to see another. I just wanted to stop by the new mall at the train station to go grocery shopping because I had 1 hour time between the appointments. And instead of going into the grocery I walked into a clothes shop right beside. Like remote-controlled. And I left the store approx. 40 minutes later with a new outfit. I will take pictures when I ironed it - it's actually in the washing machine...!

Somebody paid for me (and I don't have to give it back)

Today we went out for lunch. It was a Greek Restaurant and we had very delicious greek starters and different kinds of grilled meat afterwards. I was pretty sure that we could pay with (credit-)cards, but when it was time to ask for the bill the waitress told me that I could pay cash only. Suddenly we had a problem...

We decided one of us should stay at the restaurant and the other one should go and find an ATM nearby to get some money.
We still were discussing that point when suddenly a man - one of the guests (a STRANGER!) not far away from our table - approached and said: Excuse me, I heard what your problem is. How much money do you need? Would 20,- EUR be enough? I can give you 20 € and whenever you come back to this place you can give the money back to the waiter and he will give it to me.

For one moment I thought: STOP - what kind of show is that - am I dreaming? A stranger is coming to us, asking if he can pay for us? Not knowing if he will ever get it back? But YES, it was true!!!

So we could pay and OF COURSE we went straight to an ATM, got some money and went back to that friendly man to pay our debt.

I still can't believe what happened today and I realized that this is almost the same what Jesus did for me, no, he did much more - because I don't have to pay back, what he did for me.

It is such a big deal, when a stranger offers you 20 EUR, just for nothing and you can pay it back any time. Now imagine what Jesus did - he came to the world (we remember that at christmas time) and died to save us... how can this be payed back???