TRAPPED IN THE TIDE POOLS OF LIFE

by dianegates

The morning was bright, the tide low, and a gentle breeze stirred along the shoreline. Gulls strutted the water’s edge and my heart soared as patterns of foam danced up the sand while pelicans glided just above the sunlit waves.

I splashed through the pools of salt-water left along the beach from the receding tide. Some were slim and shallow. Others wide and deep. Various shapes and sizes. Each one cut off from the ocean, left to evaporate as the sun rose and the tide shrunk back to the sea.

A glance ahead revealed two shapes lying just inside the ridges of the next tidal pool—starfish—trapped from their retreat along the ocean’s floor. Their source of existence ebbed with each taunting ripple of the next swell. They would bake in the heat of the rising sun and drying sand.

The Best and Worst Jobs for 2012

By Cindy Perman | CNBC

The job market has begun a decidedly ungraceful recovery: Jobs have been added to the economy for 18 straight months and several gauges are back at pre-recession levels, including jobless claims and wage growth. But the job growth isn’t always as robust as many hope for and projections suggest it will likely take until at least 2014 to regain the millions of jobs lost during the recession.

If it’s one thing the recession has taught us it’s that not all job prospects are created equal. Job search portal CareerCast is out with their Best and Worst Jobs for 2012 and the jobs that have the best prospects — and those that have the worst — are a direct reflection of what’s going on in the economy.

[Related: Careers That Could Pay Six Figures]

“The jobs that continue to fare very well are those that fare the best in a tough economy – primarily information technology and health care,” said Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast’s 2012 Jobs Rated Report.

Interestingly, all the reports of shortages of skilled workers in these two fields hasn’t spurred more people to pursue them – in fact, it’s the opposite.

“The shortages are getting more acute!” Lee said.

For that reason, there’s also been an increase in demand for human resources – you need good HR people to find those skilled workers! HR Manager is new to the list this year, as is online advertising manager, reflecting the changing demands in the economy. And you need to offer incentives for those skilled employees to stay: Of the eight jobs that returned to the list again this year, all showed a pay increase compared to 2011.

So what makes a job one of the “best” jobs?

“The top-rated jobs have few physical demands, minimal stress, a good working environment and a strong hiring outlook,” Lee said.

But with the good comes the bad, hence the Worst Jobs for 2012. So what makes a job one of the worst?

High stress, high physical demands, and a tough or dangerous work environment, according to CareerCast. Several of the worst jobs in America involve working “in physically demanding, precarious, low-paying professions with a weak hiring outlook,” said Lee. While many college graduates remain unemployed, causing many to question the value of a college degree, the value is reflected in the lists: Nearly all of the “best” jobs require a college degree and many of the “worst” don’t even require a high-school diploma.
[Related: Survival Skills for a Job You Detest]


The food-service industry always ranks pretty low, given the tough working conditions and low pay, but the industry was even harder hit by the recession, when many people cut back on going out to eat.

The one new job that made the worst list this year was Enlisted Military Personnel for obvious reasons — a high-stress job in often dangerous conditions.
Here's the list of the top 5 Best Jobs for 2012.

Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images1. Software Engineer
2012 pay: $88,142
2011 pay: $87,140
Change in pay: +1.1%


Software engineer has been the No. 1 job for two years running. You can sum that up in two words, Lee said: “Technology revolution.”

Software engineers are the “creative minds behind computer programs,” according to the BLS.

“Every day new demand for new software is not being fulfilled,” Lee said. “Someone right now is in a garage somewhere dreaming up the next big thing and they’re going to need to find 100 programmers to make it happen.”

Photo: Stewart Cohen | Digital Vision | Getty Images2. Actuary
2012 pay: $88,202
2011 pay: $87,204
Change in pay: +1.1%


Actuaries analyze the financial costs of risk and uncertainty, using mathematics, statistics and financial theory to assess the risk that a particular event will occur, according to the BLS.

There is always demand for risk analysts across all industries – actuary has made the top 10 for four years running -- but the uncertainty that came with the financial crisis, and economic havoc it wreaked on companies, juiced demand for this profession even more.

Add to that the fact that most people who have an accounting background tend to pursue work as accountants because the pay is better and you’ve got strong demand. Employment growth in this profession is expected to jump 27 percent between 2010 and 2020, according to the BLS.

“The spotlight has risen on this profession,” Lee said. “More actuaries are needed. Demand far outstrips supply.”
Photo: Stockbyte | Getty Images3. Human Resources Manager
2012 pay: $99,102
New to the list for 2012

At first glance, HR manager being the No. 3 job was the biggest surprise of the best list, but when you think about employment trends, it makes sense: There are some high-skilled jobs in high-demand fields like health care and information technology that are in demand and there aren’t enough skilled workers to fill them, Lee said.

Add to that the fact that a lot of skilled HR managers are retiring and fewer young people pursue human resources as a career and you’ve got a perfect storm for one of the best jobs in America this year.

And, because it requires a qualified HR person to be able to spot and hire these skilled workers, HR managers get paid, on average, just shy of six figures.
Photo: John Moore | Getty Images4. Dental Hygienist
2012 pay: $68,109
2011 pay: $67,107
Change in pay: +1.5%


Dental hygienists clean teeth and examine patients for oral diseases such as gingivitis. They are increasingly doing more of the dentist’s work. To be a dental hygienist typically requires an associate’s degree in dental hygiene.

Perhaps a reflection of our declining dental hygiene as a society or the fact that fewer people are pursuing work as a dental hygienist – or both – employment in this field is expected to grow by 38 percent between 2010 and 2020, according to the BLS.

“It’s a lot like computer programmers – there’s demand and not enough supply,” Lee said.
Photo: Susan Trigg | Photodisc | Getty Images5. Financial Planner
2012 pay: $104,161
2011 pay: $101,164
Change in pay: +3%


As Baby Boomers get older, they not only need health care – they need financial advice for retirement. And with the stock-market gyrations that resulted from the financial crisis, that demand is even greater.

“People are realizing that they haven’t made the investments they need to make,” Lee said. “Even the savviest investors got hosed. It was a bit of a warning call that they need someone to help them with their investments.”

Not only is there demand for financial planners, but there are fewer people going into this profession than the demand is requiring, Lee said.

Click here to see the full list of America’s Best Jobs.
Here's the list of the top 5 Worst Jobs for 2012.

Photo: AP1. Lumberjack
2012 pay: $32,144 
2011 pay: $32,109 
Change in pay: flat 


Lumberjack has always been one of the worst jobs — like dairy farmers, you’re working outside whatever the weather, in dangerous conditions, with low pay in an industry that took a huge hit during the recession (hello housing bust) and is increasingly being automated.

That being said, you’ll find a lot of lumberjacks who say they do it for their love of the outdoors and that they take great pride in their work.

“I talked to one lumberjack who said, ‘I love my job! I’m outdoors,’” Lee explained. “I said, ‘But isn’t it dangerous?’ He replied: ‘Oh sure, I’ve broken my leg twice, my collar bone and lost my pinky finger. But it’s no big deal. Just part of the job,’” Lee said.

“How many of us would give up our pinky finger for our job?” Lee quipped.
Photo: Getty Images2. Dairy Farmer
2012 pay: $33,119 
2011 pay: $32,114 
Change in pay: flat 


Dairy farmers weren’t in the 10 worst last year so they not only shot into the bottom 10 but they debuted at No. 2.

First, it’s a low-paying job. Second, it’s very dangerous working with large animals such as cows. “Moving the animals, [farmers] could get their feet crushed,” Lee explained. “And there are more fatalities in dairy farming than ever before.”

Plus, the working conditions are tough — not only the obvious manure issue (though talk to a dairy farmer and he’ll tell you he doesn’t even smell it anymore) but also the fact that you have to get out there whether it’s 10 degrees or 100 degrees.

And the job outlook is tough: Dairy farming is increasingly becoming a corporate business, which is squeezing the little guys, Lee said.
Photo: Mario Tama | AFP | Getty Images3. Enlisted Military Personnel
2012 pay: $36,261 
New to the list for 2012 

Enlisted military personnel is new to the list but not because it suddenly became a tough job. It was hard to get solid data on the profession, according to CareerCast.

“It’s incredibly dangerous. You’re on the front lines and you’re responsible for others. The stress level is extremely high,” Lee said.

Plus, the hiring outlook is now weaker than it was at the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Photo: Tim Matsui | Getty Images4. Oil Rig Worker
2012 pay: $32,132 
2011 pay: $32,143 
Change in pay: flat 


You might be surprised to find any job in the booming oil industry on a “worst” list but these guys are the entry-level spot on the oil totem pole. Their jobs are dangerous: working on oil rigs, often far away from home or offshore, in bad weather and dangerous working conditions. And they don’t share in the wealth of the industry because they are typically paid very low.

“It’s clearly the most dangerous job in the industry,” Lee said. “The fatality rate is very high.”

One bright spot is this category climbed up three notches on the list, after being the absolute worst job in America for two years running.

“With the surge in the energy industry, the hiring outlook improved enough to nudge them higher,” Lee explained.

“It’s dangerous and doesn’t pay well but many people thought, ‘Well, at least it’s a career where I can retire young,’” Lee said. “Now, you can’t even guarantee that you’ll maintain your job, nevermind retire from it,” Lee said.  
Photo: Spencer Grant | Photo Researchers | Getty Images5. Newspaper Reporter
2012 pay: $35,275 
2011 pay: $34,275 
Change in pay: +3% 

Newspaper reporter has always been a high-stress, low-pay job, but add to that the explosion of online and mobile news and newspaper reporters make a hard landing on the “worst” list.

“The newspaper industry is going through a full retrenchment. There are mergers, bankruptcies and layoffs everywhere,” Lee said. “Point to a newspaper that hasn’t had layoffs – not in this country!” he said.

With the move to digital, the pressures have mounted on newspaper reporters. “They are now required to tweet and do video as well as write articles,” Lee said. “They’re asked to do much more for less — and the pay is not good.”
Click here to see the full list of America’s Worst Jobs.

Note: Pay levels are “midlevel income” 




http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-best-and-worst-jobs-for-2012.html

Celebration and Suffering

There's something odd about seeing someone celebrate over a miracle. On several occasions, I've stumbled upon some people celebrating for whatever reason, and snickered, 'what's happened to them that's worth partying over?' That, of course, is just being grumpy; it seems to come easier with age. But there is a more serious kind of strange feeling over celebrating, a strange feeling that is more relevant to spiritual concerns. Lewis Smedes put the problem this way, when seeing the fuss that was made over miracle healings at his college :

"It was a feeling I could not shake -- not a scholar's argument, more like a mood or maybe an intuition, but in any case a stubborn, uneasy feeling about the fittingness, even the decency, of celebrating far and wide the miraculous healing of a relatively few ailments within a world endemically infected by enormous, intractable, unalleviated suffering. It felt to me like proclaiming that God is alive and well in the world because you survived an airplane crash in which everyone else perished. And proclaiming your personal joy to those who mourned their dead." (*Reformed Journal*, Feb 1989, p.14)

Smedes wasn't trying to be a spoil-sport or a party-pooper by bringing this up. He was trying to remind us that while there are some things to celebrate, our celebration is, at its most, only partial. Suffering intrudes on our joy. What kind of suffering? The kinds that we don't want to have.
loss of jobs
infertility
loss of a loved one
loss of one's ability to do things
poverty
injustice and oppression by governments, armies, economies, or social structures
racism and sexism
the effects of natural disasters
new or renewed illness.

Smedes went on to remind us of some things which we must remember, if not as we celebrate, at least after we do. (You may or may not agree with this, but Smedes sets up the basic context so well that it merits your full consideration.)

(1) Ministries of healing are not the main Christian answer to suffering. At their very best, they eliminate a particular suffering of a particular person. They do not remove all suffering from life, and there are still many others suffering the same suffering that was just healed. The healings are signs "that God is alive, that Christ is Lord, and that suffering is not the last word about human existence" (p.19). But let's not overstate their importance.

(2) Healing from within suffering is as wonderful as healing from suffering. God gives inner strength that compensates for loss, and gives the sufferer resourcefulness to live faithfully and effectively.

(3) The amazing amount of health in this broken world is a greater sign and wonder than an occasional healing from illness. We're so fragile, yet we live, and most of us most of the time live fairly healthfully. We celebrate the healings we get, but what about the healings which, by the grace of God, we don't need, the sufferings that aren't there?

(4) Pray for power encounters between Christ and the devil in the matrix of devilish political systems. As Smedes put it, "Evil empires! Or good empires that bunglers mismanage! Or run-of-the-mill empires that knaves make worse! .... Name your system, and the devil will be there." (p.20) : "I find it strange that governments and societies find it so easy to do things to make the poor poorer and to rob the disadvantaged of what little possibilities they might have. And the churches too often sit still for the creation of such suffering."

Then, Smedes asks for a two-fold change in our way of thinking and doing. The first shift, the same change that churches such as the Vineyard and the COGIC ask for, is to see the world as a battleground of spirits.  The second is a shift away from viewing goodness in life as an entitlement and toward living life as a servant and disciple of Christ. Smedes writes, "If I make the first shift, I am more open to the power of the Spirit to act in response to peoples' suffering. If I make the second shift, I am more open to the power of the Spirit to give me courage to will to suffer when suffering can be redemptive to those who suffer." (p.20) I think Smedes' final observation hits upon what I see as a sore spot with many of the churches that most boast about healings : all too many Christians "expect and celebrate God's triumph over our suffering while we show little readiness to suffer for the people whose suffering never gets healed." (p.21). He's right. Jesus' example is that of putting others first, not ourselves or those we think of as being like us. Jesus spoke endlessly about serving and being a servant, of being a neighbor to others like the Samaritan who cared, of loving others, and most importantly those we find hard to love, with the intensity and single-mindedness with which we love ourselves. Then, He died as a suffering servant, to clear our way to the Kingdom so that even death could not stop us.

"Some of us will not see pain as a gift; some will always accuse God of being unfair for allowing it. But, the fact is, pain and suffering are here among us, and we need to respond in some way. The response Jesus gave was to bear the burdens of those he touched. To live in the world as his body, his emotional incarnation, we must follow his example." Philip Yancey, *Where Is God When It Hurts?*, p.325 (Zondervan; Walker revised Large-print edit., 1996)

What does all this mean? One thing I think is clear : we rejoice too narrowly. We rejoice for our own gain, our own health. But there are examples that point to another way : the songs of the Mothers' Unions in South Africa; the almost constant spiritual singing of the 1950s-60s civil rights movement in the United States; the way that the Bethel New Life folks in Chicago celebrate each small victory for their community. This is rejoicing that is born of other peoples' suffering, taking the signs of relief from suffering as signs that God is mighty busy here on earth, doing a fuller kind of healing.

I suspect that Smedes' strict Calvinist upbringing might have predisposed him to distrust celebration. I think that those personal healings should not just be acknowledged, not just be warmly received, but there really should be flat-out rejoicing. Cut loose, revel in it, praise the Lord 'til you drop! It's the right instinct. Just so long as when we end the immediate rejoicing, we get down to our Christian duty to remember what context the healings take place in -- a hurting, crying, brutal, unhealed world, a world that Christ loved and died to heal. And we then stop and pray that God shows us how to be of service in Jesus' work of bring wholeness where there is suffering.


http://www.spirithome.com/suffering.html

10 Common Hair-Care Myths

Think brushing your hair 100 strokes each night is healthy? Will frequent trims really make your hair grow faster? Read on to discover the simple truths behind great hair.

By Melissa Foss

 

Myth: Frequent trims make hair grow faster.

Truth: "Hair grows a half-inch per month, whether you cut it or not," says John Barrett, owner of the John Barrett Salon in New York City. Hair may grow slightly faster in the summer, but that has nothing to do with the stylist's scissors and everything to do with hormones, which do speed growth a little. One thing a trim will do: Eliminate split ends, making hair look better.

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/beauty/hair/hair-care-myths-0800#slide-1 
Read more: Common Hair Care Myths - Hair Care Tips - Good Housekeeping