Friday, March 26, 2021

For Now--Let's Smile Like the Moon

 

We've had seven good days in a row. Which we feel we seriously earned...we had so many bad ones I lost count. I was about to wallow in my misery when we finally turned a corner, and the God of all mercies lifted the darkness. 
Britton swam up slowly from all that weighed him down beneath the waves of behaviors and smiled bigger than the moon. He laughed and then he giggled...he ran and jumped in his bed. He was free of whatever held him...at least for now. 





It's an insurmountable difficulty... how do we remove the invisible chains that hold him, and release him from the darkness of pain and despair? Lots of biomedical interventions for sure...and more prayers than I expect most folks pray in a month! (Okay, I have no clue how much you pray, but I confess to only praying this much when I'm desperate for help.)
One thing for sure...This battle is real, and life certainly has seasons where we need to focus and pray for our lives! 
We've had a lot of marathon reading sessions lately. Eight hours and he still wants to read. I mean, I love to read but I've got to get myself a more comfortable chair! I keep blaming Britton for how wide my backside has become, it's from all the sitting. Only the good Lord knows how hard it is for me to be still. First He asks me to write books...sitting for hours. Now Mr. Britton has me perched beside him, so he can run his fingers under each word as I read it. (I might be complaining?)
When life swings up and stays there for longer than a few hours...I begin to struggle with believing it will last. Messing up the good days with worries that the bad days will be back. It's kind of like being haunted by the ghosts of the bad days. So many disappontments can make it hard to hope the good days won't slip through my fingers. 
I'm always planning my life as if I was in charge, laying it out like a lego structure that fits so nicely. I do know how it should fit. But usually something happens that I don't see coming, and maybe I planned for it to become one kind of structure, and suddenly it will have to be made into something else. Something I didn't plan for... So I look for new pieces, search for a different color...no pattern, no map...I wonder..."has anyone gone this way before me?" 
Maybe that's just me, or maybe it's happened in your life as well? In the frustation, I lift my hands to the heavens and ask, "You see me right? YOU are the one in charge, right?" His presence overshadows and I gasp at the power in it. How did I ever doubt? I open my eyes back to this world, this flesh world...where doubts pile up like dirty laundry. 
Britton stands on the top of the stair landing...the morning sun comes through the large windows in the vaulted ceiling. He flaps his hands and laughs because the dark days have ended. The golden wash of light covers him and he reminds me of a mystic thanking his God for rescue. Tears wash my face. Britton has so many lessons to teach me. Today, I've learned to be thankful for this moment. To refuse to let the ghosts of what might be...push their way in and steal the joy and peace that are here right now. To be truly grateful...for now. 

So...for now...maybe we can look around and find that thing...that one small thing we can be truly grateful for? We can tilt our heads back, let the sun warm our faces and know who's in charge. For now...in this moment, we can join Britton...and smile like the moon.

Friday, March 5, 2021

I WISH...




You've felt it too, right? Feeling like life is squeezing the breath right out of you? 

Have you been sitting...in the dark, freezing, with no water?  You must live in Texas. LOL 

Welcome to the 2021 none of us saw coming. 

I'm pretty sure It's the million dollar question isn't it? 

WHAT IS GOING ON IN THIS CRAZY WORLD? 

To most of us our world has been buried under a thousand unanswered questions and then tangled up in a million opinions. Ever get a tangle in your hair that was so knotted that you finally just cut it out? Our country sort of feels like that... like there's just no untangling this mess. Maybe cutting our way out of it is the only answer? I'll leave that question for you to work on...we've all heard enough opinions to last... maybe forever.

Sitting in the house in so many layers of clothes, a coat, a hat, wool socks and boots... I wished for a different life? Wished to get in my car and drive away, not stopping... hopefully never.

That thought has been going through my mind far too often lately. Probably beginning somewhere around May when I realized that no one was really wanting to flatten any curves. 

A lot of my struggles are the same as everyone elses. Mask, no masks, vaccine mandates, and people you love getting the vaccine because it's just easier and "surprise" your thirty plus years of vaccine research do not give you any credibility. You quite obviously know very little. They'd rather just drink Dr. Fauci's and Bill Gate's koolaid, and forget the fact that they stand to make billions of dollars if you will just comply...and if you won't, there will be laws to make you. All because there are millions of dollars to share with various Congressmen. "Follow the money?" But again, what do I know?

So there's that...and then there's daily life. The life with autism, with seizures, with the mountains of anxiety. I talk myself off a cliff so often that there are permanent foot prints imbeded on the edge.

Today I just wished...I wished for all the things I want to do with my life. Don't get me wrong, I'd do anything for my son, and I've proven it over and over again. But his refusal to even try (okay maybe once every six months) has made my "sacrifice" more difficult. I wish to finish book three! I wish to go to writing conferences even if they are online. I wish to workout ...heck, I wish to just be able to take a walk around the block. I wish... 

Most of us do. We wish for many things we can't do much about. I decided to ask you...

What do you wish for? 

Do you wish to be more than you are now because... you know that you were meant to be. Do You wish to be understood... do you wish to be loved? Do you wish the God of the Universe knew your name?

It seems universal, these wishes. I started asking other people, what do you wish for? If you could change what is, if there was nothing to stop you, what would you pursue? I researched what most people wish for and the list was surprising. Here goes... in order of priority.

1, Happiness

2. Freedom

3. Peace

4. More Sex

5. FAME? REALLY? 

6. To Change Themselves*

7. Love

8. Fundamentals (food, clothing, shelter)

9. Money

10. Good Health

Really studying the list I was amazed to know that 8 out of 10 of those we can get from our relationship with God. Sure, that's just my opinion, but it's also absolutely the opinion of every single story in the bible. I could list scripture to prove it, but I might lose you by # 4. LOL (Song of Solomon, I'm telling you it's there!) 

Britton and I have been reading "The Battlefield of the mind!" Because heaven knows that is the battle we are all in. Struggling to stay home, struggling to wear masks, struggling with sickness... and the big stuff...struggling with wanting a different world to live in. 

I read today, that less that 35% of Americans will check the box when asked if they are happy. So living in the richest country in the world, with the most stuff, 65% of us need something different. Stuff, does not make us happy...peace, freedom, friendships...loyalty, love... that's a where our happiness can be found.

I wish for a great many things...and somedays my wishes seem so small. All my wishes are wrapped around what I believe will make me happy. I keep wondering if we've got it all wrong...what if being happy first would bring us peace, freedom, loyalty and friendships. What if happiness is a choice?

I decided to pay attention to where I'm letting my mind wander. To actually think about, what I'm thinking about. Since we are encouraged... no maybe instructed is a better word, to think of specific things, perhaps that's where I happiness is controlled?

"Summing it all up friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious--the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. " Philippians 4:8

I've decided to test this challenge... keeping my mind under careful filter...then I am going to choose to be happy.  Filtering out all the things that increase my anxiety ought to go a long way towards changing my outlook.

I want you to know that I pray for each and every one of you. I ask God what you need, and to give me the words that will bless you. Words that will help heal your wounds, and most of all words that help you feel His love. I wish for each of YOU to feel happiness in all situations.

Jesus said, "I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy completely full. Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very. best way to love." John 15: 11-15

I translate that to say... I wish you happiness, the same way I have happiness. When I ask God what you need, He says you need to be happy. Love each other the way I love you, that is how you find true happiness. (translation... my own, and it made me happy when I did it.) wink 

So here I am shamelessly adding a book ad to the end of the blog. Hey at least I put it at the end so you can look at it or not. LOL I'm tirelessly working on book 3! It will be the final book in this series, who knows where I go from there? Please pray for me. I want to tell the stories that Jesus wants me to tell. 

Click here to read a free Chapter of THE CHOOSING