Late Fall Grays

As the month goes from the vibrant hues of reds, oranges, and yellows into dreary shades of brown and gray, so does my mood.  The news from around the country - OWS sheeple complaining about the cold, cop-killer literature found at protests, more disturbing info regarding Fast and Furious and the like - is more depressing every day and seems to match nature's mood as she prepares for winter.

It is the time of year when, along with the last minute Halloween costume prep (my kids seem to have decided mom is capable of whipping together any type of costume in very short amounts of time and test that skill every year) my entire being wants to go into hibernation mode along with the squirrels and bears.  Yarn and the thought of long days spent in front of a fire watching a marathon of Reese Witherspoon or Sandra Bullock movies call to me as do the stacks of books at the library - how many books can I get through this winter? - their siren call overwhelming.

Recently, I picked up a book on the "Staff Favorites" shelf at my local library called,  "Literacy and Longing in L.A." (Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack).  I'm only about 20 pages into it and actually may not finish it since the main character seems to mirror me a little too much.  When she gets depressed, she goes on book binges - reading day and night until the funk passes.  I can relate to that habit all too well, since I do the same. There's just something about books that soothes my soul - escaping into a world created by a fantastic author is so much easier than dealing with the realities of a hockey mama's world sometimes.  Through books, I've traveled with special agent Scot Harvath as he saves the country from another terrorist attack or with the Jewish slave girl, Hadassah as she, through her own life example of love, shows her Roman owners the way to Christ.  Even the "chick lit" books - "brain candy" to me - offer a moment to live vicariously through someone else's eyes, to escape the drudgery of the every day tasks required of a (ho-hum) stay-at-home mom of four.  I can burn through a "brain candy" book in less than a day and often do in the summer.  My choices are not limited to fiction, I also check out (and, in the case of Glenn Beck books, often buy) non-fiction books, usually political in nature, to try to understand more of what is going on right now.  My non-fiction collection includes "A Patriot's History of the United States" (I keep hoping my SwimGirl, now in American History at school, will pick it up but she has yet to do so), "Culture of Corruption" by Michelle Malkin and Jason Lewis's new book, "Power Divided is Power Checked" along with a variety of Biblical texts, biographies and memoirs (my favorites being by the sassy author, Jen Lancaster).

One of my dreams is to write and publish one of the many stories floating in my brain, but every time I sit down to write, the fear that the story will suck is overwhelming.  Sometimes I'll write a chapter or two, then read what I've written and think "Do people really talk like this? No." and scrap it.  I keep wishing for an invention that would enable the frustrated writer to connect a USB cable to his/her brain (maybe a port right behind one ear?) directly to the computer, so that everything that writer "sees" could be directly downloaded into the computer in whatever language desired.  Think of how much easier it would be to get those stories out!  Of course, there's always the chance of some rogue government taking the device and using it for nefarious means, which could create a lot of issues since there would be no way to know if what was being downloaded was actual memories or figments of a person's imagination.  Imagine being prosecuted for things you had only imagined! What trouble we would all get into. (Or maybe just me since my imagination has always been far crazier than my actual world.)

This is still a young blog, but I'm wondering if there's anyone out there who also finds themselves in the doldrums at this time of year and if so, how do you deal with it?

OWS, checkpoints: Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste

Several years ago, while watching a movie on a random rainy summer afternoon, I was hit with the need to WRITE. I ran upstairs and grabbed my story-ideas journal and started scribbling.  The words flowed through my pen like it was possessed, describing a future America torn apart by civil war and economic disaster.  It was the summer of 2009; the world I described was set in the year 2014.

A little freaked out by what I had written, I put the journal away, but couldn't release the images of ruin from my mind.  As time passed, I went back to the journal and added bits and pieces as they came to me: plot lines flowed from my pen as easily as syrup sometimes, other times, it was work to get a word on the page.  Some of the scenarios flowed from earlier thoughts - ideas that had come when driving into the State Fair a few years prior, or when driving through rural Minnesota on the way to hockey tournaments.

I do not claim to be prophetic with the things I wrote down; I believe that anyone who has been paying attention to our country's (and the world's) current events could possibly see what I've seen and written down regarding our future.  However, it is quite scary when things I wrote back in '09 start actually occurring, such as the checkpoints on Tennessee highways or in Michigan, the increase in civil unrest through the Occupy movements around the world, the class warfare encouraged by President Obama and the rest of his ilk, etc. and has been the cause of many panic attacks, until I grab hold of the one thing that can keep the panic away: God.

The Patriots of America need to stand up to the forces that would destroy the country.  We need to search for leaders who will hold true to the Constitution and who have the best intentions for our country.  We need to share with others the corruption occurring in DC and around our country, shedding light upon the darkness that threatens to spread and conquer our land.  But we also need to remember that whatever happens is part of God's Plan and only He knows what the future holds, and whatever happens, it is what He has decided to happen.  The "whys" or "hows" of His plan may not be revealed to us during our lifetimes.  Our job is to wait on Him, wait for His direction and then do the "What" He asks of us.  If we stand like Esther, praying and waiting for His call, He will answer us.

As it says in Romans 8:28-38: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.  Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persectuiion or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' no in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (NIV, emphasis mine.)

In all things, pray unceasingly and time will show who will be conquerors.  Do not lose heart, Patriots, but know that things will work out according to His Plan.  Do not be afraid, but plan for whatever may happen. Make sure you and your family has a contingency plan in place, pay attention to the signs and prepare.  There may be those who are claiming to know the day of the end of the world , but no one knows the time of the end but God.  (Besides that, our personal "end of time" can happen anytime - so we must always be prepared for that, right?)

Have faith and one way or another, we shall be conquerors.