Thoughts

This morning I was thinking about a conversation I'd had recently about God's grace and salvation and the like, when I was reading from the Baha'i Holy Writings.  And I was realizing just how much it's an either/or discussion in so many people's minds, between God's grace and good works.  I love how Baha'u'llah's writings put things in a completely different light, take away dichotomies, etc.  It's grace and the act of believing in God and accepting His guidance and constantly turning to him and trying to abide by the Teachings He's sent to us through these Holy Persons and His love for us, and I'm sure so much more that I don't understand yet.  I find that comforting, and yet it doesn't make life any easier.  In fact, it makes life more difficult because you're constantly trying to live a better life and become a better person.

In more mundane matters, I have a fabulous color of toe nail polish on right now, thanks to the pedicures B and I got after a long day of cleaning the Baha'i center.  I got to clean the front window area to the foyer, and I don't believe the windows have been cleaned since I cleaned them 5 years ago before we opened the building.  IT'S AMAZING what a difference clean glass makes.  My fabulous toe nail polish color unfortunately clashes terribly with my fabulous new red high heels, so I haven't been able to wear them to work.  Oh yes, I'm wearing heels now.  I found two pairs that I can wear and not have horrible pain at the end of the day!  It's exciting.

I can't wait to move into my new apartment.  I'm looking forward to:
 - having room to make iced coffee and keep it in the fridge
 - washing my dishes whenever I want to
 - having my books and kitchen stuff out of their boxes
 - decorating my new space with new and old things
 - having all my spaces closer together... there's something good to be said for having a smaller space.

I'm getting into a routine with my CFA studying, and I only have two more CFP classes to take - Income Tax Planning and the Case Study Review course.  December seems not that far away with how much CFA stuff I still have left to learn.

I had one of those moments today when the entire world was too hard to handle, and there was something I really wanted to do, but the idea of just getting myself to the place much less interacting with people was far too much to handle.  I really need to stay away from loud, echoing rooms/restaurants, and I need to really limit my caffeine intake, even though Starbucks is delicious and my own version of Cheers.