May 4

INTEGRITY MONTH: DAY 4: “There is no such thing a person can reach his or her goals by taking shortcuts because it is considered as one form of cheating. The person must use his or her own unique knowledge and apply a great deal of effort simultaneously in order to achieve his or her goals successfully.” ― Saaif Alam

What an interesting day! As many of you know, I have been looking for a home, either to purchase or to rent, for about 7 months now. The area I live in is experiencing a glut of homes, due to loss of several thousand homes during the horrible fires we had. Also, the costs have gone insane.

So, what has been the most interesting is that one of the reasons I want to move is to get a dog. My current home, where I lived for over two years with my dog before he died, has several things going on that make it tough to get another dog.

So, what keeps happening, and this is new in my community, is that property owners are not allowing dogs. Because I sometimes get VERY impatient, I have considered, a number of times, living in places where dogs are not allowed.

This, too, is a matter of integrity. Who am I cheating? Me, and I believe, my future dog. And this is a setup, because I will be terribly unsatisfied with any home where I cannot have animals. I love animals.

This just happened again this morning, when I replied to a woman who wanted me to rent her home, FINALLY, that I was not interested unless she could reconsider the dog.

It is hard for me to continue to hold on to the things I know I want in this situation. I laugh, because my lovely sponsor, (remember her???) keeps telling me to trust God and not figure it all out.

Hahahaha…she knows me so well. A true angle-shooter, I am telling you. Now it looks like I have a couple of people who want me to live in their homes. One here in my town and another a couple of hours away in a community I dearly love and want to relocate to. We shall see how this unfolds. I am not ready to make any decisions yet.

But I love what happens when I let integrity be the guiding force of my life. I really love this stuff. I really, really love what happens when I am able to sit still and let it all unfold, after I put in the effort to do the footwork. Hard to keep myself out of the solutions, but it looks like I am getting better at it!