Twenty-two months ago I was laid off from a job I loved. I admit I had a pretty soft landing: a 20-week severance package and 99 co-workers in the same boat to commiserate with. But though it has been nice catching up with long-neglected friends, having dinner closer to dinner time than bedtime, and walking the dog, the time since the layoff has included plenty of dark moments.

The first day of my unemployment, I met with the career counsellor. Our purpose now, she told our group, was to make getting a full-time job our full-time job. What I couldn’t explain to her in front of the others was that I had long seen my true job as doing the will of my Higher Power. There’s a still, small voice inside me that, instructs me in all things, including employment.

I’d been given many wonderful work opportunities and was just as willing to listen as ever. Surely, I told myself, another great job would soon fall into my lap. Unfortunately, this time things didn’t work the way I beleived it would. I did get some short-term freelance projects. But by last November, even those had dried up.

Night after night I suddenly awakened in terror about the lack of a steady paycheck. My husband and I pored over our finances, and he reassured me that we could keep going for at least another year on our savings. But with our middle son in his first semester of college, and the youngest one starting in four years, the pressure was on. — Beliefnet.com