14. Advice from Patron Saints

Marcy gave a gasp of recognition as she realized her horoscope had finally pointed out why her life was so unsuccessful.  It wasn’t actually her horoscope that had the solution.  She was reading that with her usual curiosity but little faith, if truth be told. She told herself it was just fun to pick up the paper on Thursday when she met her friend Jackie for coffee and check out what the stars had to say to her.  She only did it once a week so how bad could it be.
           Today it said, “Your many friends love you just the way you are.  Success comes to those who keep on the path.”  She scoffed to herself, where are these many friends who love me, and what path?  I don’t have a path I’m just cutting my way through a tangled mass of foliage in a dense jungle.” 
            Her eye caught a little boxed feature next to the horoscope she never noticed before.  It was entitled, Today’s Saint.  Hmm, she mused as she quickly read it.  Today, which also happened to be her birthday, was the feast day of Santa Marta (or Saint Margaret).  The note said Santa Marta was “the patroness of housewives, domestic workers, waitresses, and food workers.  She is invoked to protect the home.”
            Frowning, Eula May considered this information.  “No wonder I’ve never kept a job for longer than two months.  I’ve been working in the wrong fields—banking, finance, legal offices, and brokerage firms.”  She continued to argue with herself, “But, I’ve got a business degree from the U. of Wisconsin so shouldn’t I be working in those areas.”
           She flinched as she thought of all the disasters that happened to her in those jobs.  She once sent her boss’ wife the Christmas gift he had ordered for his mistress and vice versa.  Unfortunately, they each got a note with the others’ name on it, too.  The wife was especially incensed when she realized the gift for the mistress was much more expensive than any her husband had ever given her. 

Marcy shuddered.  She was beginning to think maybe she should find a job in her patron saint’s fields and stop thinking about material gain. 

“Since I was born on St. Margaret’s feast day, maybe I’d be more successful if I worked with my feet and my hands, not my head”.  Hmm, she thought about it.  Did she really want a job where she would be on her feet all day.  She flipped the paper over to the want ads and spread it out on the café table to find a job in the ‘service’ industry.

“Hey, Marcy, What are you looking so serious about.”  Blond and bouncy Jackie came bustling across the coffee shop holding her own cardboard container of caffeine.

“Oh, Jackie, I’m considering another job change and I was looking to my horoscope for inspiration.”

“You should be checking out the on-line job listings instead of that woo-woo stuff.”  Jackie gave her a quick hug, “But I know how you feel.  In this job market, it’s tough to find something you like and will pay the rent.”

Marcy smiled, “I think maybe I’ve been spending too much time on finding something that will pay the rent, rather than how I feel about it.”

“Didn’t someone once write a book about do what you love and the money will follow?”

“Well, I haven’t loved any of my jobs and the money certainly hasn’t followed.  Maybe it’s time I did do what I really like.”

Jackie plunked her large, fake designer bag on the fake wood table and asked Marcy,  “Well, what do you really like to do?”

“Eat fattening food and read, but I don’t think I’m going to get paid for those activities.” Marcy laughed, at least the laughter was helping her feel better.

“You’d better stay away from restaurant and library jobs, then, or you’ll never have time to do any work.”

Marcy tapped her finger on the paper.  “I did see a job ad where I could make some money while I look for a ‘real’ job.”

“Doing what?”

“Now don’t laugh, but being a dog walker.”

Jackie smothered a laugh. “There’s nothing wrong with that if you don’t mind picking up poop.”

“I always had a dog growing up.  I’m used to the poop parade.”

“I’ve seen dog walkers on the street and they’re usually trying to corral several dogs at once.  That might be hard to do.”

“That’s the plus of the ad I saw.  It’s just one dog and the owner wants him walked separately because he’s sort of skittish.”

“Who’s skittish, the dog or the owner?”

Marcy laughed again, “You are just what I needed.  In fact, I’m feeling so much better I will apply for that job.  It can’t be any worse that those I’ve had before.”

“Let me know how it works out.”….

However it was more than a month later, that she was able to meet Jackie again at the coffee shop.

“You certainly look a lot happier than you did the last time we were here.  Did you get the dog job?”

“Not only did I get the dog job, but I also got a career job.”  She triumphantly dropped a business card on the table in front of Jackie.

Jackie pushed up her sunglasses so she could read it better.

“Marcie Adams, Special Assistant, Oak Valley Veterinary Office.  What does ‘Special Assistant’ mean?”

“It means Dr. Vic was so impressed with the care I gave Jupiter, the skittish dog, that he asked me to work full time in his office.”

“Get outta here, you don’t know anything about taking care of dogs and cats.”  Jackie was almost speechless.

“Don’t worry.  He and his regular staff do the medical stuff.  I just take care of the business side of the business and in my free time, I help our patients feel at ease.  He thinks I have a special touch with animals and he was also impressed with my business experience.”

“Your business experience?  I hope you didn’t tell him about your disasters.”

“Sure I did.  He thought it was funny.  By the way when I told him about my patron saint and how she led me to answer his ad, he told me his story.  It seems his birthday is October 4^th and that’s the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi.  I’m sure you’ve heard of him.  He always loved animals and some people believe he’s the patron saint of veterinarians.  Dr. Vic just thinks St. Francis keeps his eye on vets so they don’t do any harm to his beloved animals.”

Jackie declared, “After hearing these stories, I guess I better find out who my patron saint is.”

                                      The End