Secret Garden - Adagio
Secret Garden - Always There (feat. Russell Watson)
Secret Garden - Appassionata
Secret Garden - Aquarell
Secret Garden - Aria
Secret Garden - Atlantia
Secret Garden - Awakening
Secret Garden - Belonging
Secret Garden - Cantoluna
Secret Garden - Celebration
Secret Garden - Chaconne
Secret Garden - Children of the River
Secret Garden - Daughters Of Erin
Secret Garden - Dawn of a New Century
Secret Garden - Divertimento
Secret Garden - Dreamcatcher
Secret Garden - Duo
Secret Garden - Elan
Secret Garden - Elegie
Secret Garden - Escape
Secret Garden - Evensong
Secret Garden - Fairytale
Secret Garden - Fields Of Fortune
Secret Garden - First Day Of Spring
Secret Garden - Gates Of Dawn
Secret Garden - Grace
Secret Garden - Greenwaves
Secret Garden - Half A World Away
Secret Garden - Heartstrings
Secret Garden - Home
Secret Garden - Hymn To Hope
Secret Garden - Illumination
Secret Garden - In Our Tears
Secret Garden - Invitation
Secret Garden - Last Present (Sun-Mool)
Secret Garden - Lore of the Loom
Secret Garden - Lotus
Secret Garden - Moongate
Secret Garden - Moving
Secret Garden - Nocturne
Secret Garden - Ode to Simplicity
Secret Garden - Once In A Red Moon
Secret Garden - Papillon
Secret Garden - Passacaglia
Secret Garden - Pastorale
Secret Garden - Poeme
Secret Garden - Prayer
Secret Garden - Raise Your Voices
Secret Garden - Reflection
Secret Garden - Sanctuary
Secret Garden - Searching For The Past
Secret Garden - Serenade to Spring
Secret Garden - Sigma
Secret Garden - Silent Wings
Secret Garden - Sleepsong (for my beloved)
Secret Garden - Sometimes When It Rains
Secret Garden - Sona
Secret Garden - Song from a Secret Garden
Secret Garden - Steps
Secret Garden - The Promise
Secret Garden - The Rap
Secret Garden - The Reel
Secret Garden - When Darkness Falls
Secret Garden - Windancer
Secret Garden - You Raise Me Up

I am nearing the end of my work week here, and I cannot say that I am too terribly sad about it. I will miss the routine of getting up in the morning, and I will miss the people with whom I have worked here, but I will not miss the aggravation of being on a project for which I consider myself poorly suited.

After this week has ended, I will spend some time with my parents in Maryland as I look for a new place. I have been working steadily on getting my stuff at home organized, and I hope to have the house on the market within a couple of weeks.

I met with my regular doctor this week and he was a bit startled at all that had transpired. He offered words of encouragement, but he also concurred with the doctors at the hospital - it is time to slow down and ease the stress for a while.

Money-wise, I am fine. I have been blessed with decent money-management skills and I have enough saved that I can make it for a while. I am not in a huge rush to find a new job, although for insurance reasons I will need one in the not-too-distant future.

I realize that I promised to write some fiction in here. I've not forgotten my promise. Be patient with me. There is much happeneing now that requires priority handling.

Lay down your head and I'll sing you a lullaby
Back to the years of loo-li lai-lay
And I'll sing you to sleep and I'll sing you tomorrow
Bless you with love for the road that you go

May you sail far to the far fields of fortune
With diamonds and pearls at your head and your feet
And may you need never to banish misfortune
May you find kindness in all that you meet

May there always be angels to watch over you
To guide you each step of the way
To guard you and keep you safe from all harm
Loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay

May you bring love and may you bring happiness
Be loved in return to the end of your days
Now fall off to sleep, I'm not meaning to keep you
I'll just sit for a while and sing loo-li, lai-lay

May there always be angels to watch over you
To guide you each step of the way
To guard you and keep you safe from all harm
Loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay

Secret Garden, "Sleepsong"

About a week ago I had a health scare that put me in the hospital. I am all right now, but the experience opened my eyes a bit to the way I have done things. I'd just as soon not get specific about the overall experience, but I will summarize it like this - I need to lower my anxiety and stress levels a bit.

This morning, I am handing in my resignation to my employer. I like the routine of having a job, but I don't *need* this job. Since my job is a source of frustration right now, it's on the hit list.

I will be selling my house and leaving Washington DC. I've talked this over with my parents and they have agreed to let me stay with them for a short while, until I buy a new place which will be somewhere more rural and slower-paced than metropolis. I am hopeful that I can be closer to them geographically, but I am not wanting to be on their doorstep. It is nice to know that they well be in striking range should I need them, though.

Once I am settled I will be looking at finding a job that suits me. Financially I will be fine for a while, so there is not a rush there.

I will be posting less for obvious reasons. I am not going away but I will be participating a lot less than I have in the past, while I figure out my new situation.

I have again been blessed with all kinds of encouragement from my friends.

One suggestion made to me was to post some fictional work here in my journal, that others could see and [hopefully] enjoy, and to offer feedback (or point and laugh, I suppose). I've nothing prepared that I would be willing to post yet, but I would be willing to work something up for this purpose if there is sufficient interest. I am not especially concerned about publication at this point - I regard my journal as a playground for the mind, not as a draft board.

I have been looking into graduate programs over the last couple of weeks, with the intention of pursuing a Master of Arts degree in English. I have made an interesting discovery in that direction.

There are a couple of routes I can travel. One is to get a Master of Arts degree in English, which is what I had in mind. However, I have found that another option open to me is a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing, a degree of which I was previously unaware. I have been encouraged to write creatively by several people, and as such I am considering this program as a good possibility.

It's just after 4:00am here. I am wide awake for the second or third night in a row, and I am starting to wonder how this pattern gets started. I am tired, but I cannot get back to sleep. :/

A couple of days ago I believe I saw my fat bunny for the last time. He had been hit by a car. I would have held out hope that it was the wrong rabbit, but the color and size were right, and he was close enough to the house to be the right one. He has been absent from the yard since then too. :( When I saw him I felt awful - I know, it wasn't my fault, but I still cried. There is a smaller rabbit that has been in the yard, but I've not seen him in several days either.

1. Have skylight installed on the roof of the house.

2. Grow gum tree next to house. Needs to be taller than the roof.

3. Wait for gray squirrel to make acrobatic leap from tree to roof (hitting skylight).

Dumb squirrel. There's nothing to eat up there...

My new keyboard was delivered this afternoon! I know what *I* will be doing for the rest of the day. :D

This week I have been helping out with Vacation Bible School at the church where I attend. It started when I was asked to help with the music, and it has blossomed into working with 4- and 5-year-olds in craft sessions and story-telling.

I have had a most grand time with them. Aside from a room filled with genuine laughter and happy voices, I have seen a couple of these children go above and beyond to learn and to do well in the tasks I have given to them.

Most special to me - I have lost count of the gratuitous/spontaneous hugs I have received from them over the course of the week.

At this instant (as I type), mine is playing Jurgen Vries, "Wilderness":

I'm falling away, I am lost in the wilderness
I'm falling away on a wing and a prayer
I'm travelling through, riding high into paradise
And all I can see is wilderness

When I was little I remember these large, black and yellow spiders that would make huge webs in the garden. If I would get too close they would "bounce", making their webs vibrate and flex, which always puzzled me but was fascinating nevertheless. The most interesting part about the web itself, however, was that the spider would make a thick, zipperlike pattern down the middle of it, and there the spider would sit in wait.

This morning, I discovered a similar web in a bush next to my driveway as I was preparing to go to work. This web is smaller than the others I remember, but the pattern is distinct - a near-perfect spiral with a thick zipper down the middle. This web was speckled with dew drops, which made it all the more beautiful.

Missing, though, was the artist that created this masterpiece. I've no clue where the spider had gone, but I will look for it when I get home this evening.

I have been looking for some time to replace my current keyboard. It works and it has served me well for a while, but I have wanted more (if that makes sense). This morning I have found a keyboard that I believe will suit me, and I have placed my order. It should be here in a few days. :)

(Yes, I had a chance to see a demo of one, so I am not buying this thing cold.)

I have written before about waking in the night and being up for hours. I have a new problem now, even more puzzling to me than before. I used to be able to stay up until 12 or 1 AM, getting up for the day around 6 AM. This has suited me well for years. Starting about a week ago I started getting tired to the point of exhaustion around 11 PM, waking up around 7 AM. I do not know why the change has occurred, and I am not especially happy about it.

This morning I was on my way out the door to go to work. I had my hands full with my work laptop and a couple of bookbags (I carry way too much junk with me to the office in the morning). As I stepped out the door, a cardinal decided to land on the railing along the steps. He sat briefly on the railing, studied me for a moment, and then fluttered off, apparently not particularly interested in me or the fact that I was close enough to grab him should I have chosen to do so. This was a rather pleasant surprise.

He landed in a smallish tree in the front yard along the walkway, and about three feet from him was a blue jay. While the cardinal was not especially bothered by my being there, the blue jay was quite agitated.

The red and blue splashes of color in an otherwise green tree were a nice start to the morning.