I’ve been stuck in this house for way too long. The rest of our town is going about business as usual, mostly, but my driveway isn’t like most driveways. It’s long, winding, and shaded by a bunch of trees, which is great 99% of the time, but not so much when you need the sun to melt the snow so you can get in and out in your Front Wheel Drive jalopy (or when hauling your dumpsters to the street for trash day!) It’s starting to take a toll on my psyche. The first day, our daughter came to get snowed in with us, then our son and his girlfriend decided they’d be here too. I was so excited and had grand plans. I cooked chili, chicken and noodles, made cinnamon rolls and other snacks. We had tons of alcoholic beverages leftover from Christmas and lots of board games to play too. Faye, our daughter, mentioned that her sinuses were bothering her, and I told her my throat had been sore too, but we weren’t going to let that stop our good time. However, on the second day, our son’s girlfriend woke up saying she’d had a fever overnight, but she powered through like a champion. I found a bottle of peppermint Smirnoff in the liquor cabinet, and we made ourselves some hot chocolate to put it in with the logic that it would soothe our throats, and it did! The entire bottle in and several rounds of dominoes later, we decided it was time for a break. None of us got much relief though, and the girls both went home, and then we found out it was the flu. So here I’ve sat, with more than a gentle nudge, poking me, “Hey, make use of this time, go write!” To be honest, I’m so bored, I’m sick of myself!! But I have learned some things, and I guess I’m supposed to be sharing them.
I saw something the other day where a guy was talking about someone complaining about “why me?” and he replied to them, “Why not you?” And I thought “Amen!” I’ve seen bad things happen to people of all walks of life; we all have. No one is above the enemy and all the hell he brings to earth. But almost immediately, that flipped over in my brain, and I thought, “Why not me?” when something good happens? We live in a world that is so quick to condemn others. Why can’t we believe that we and others can be recipients of the good stuff, too? I always hear people complaining, “Oh, it was bound to happen, nothing can ever go right for me. If I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. There’s a little dark cloud that follows me everywhere I go.” If we don’t open our eyes and look up at what’s right in front of us, we might miss the good stuff for all the looking down. You know who’s down there, right? And you know who’s UP THERE, right? It’s a constant battle, and we can choose whether we’re on the winning team or not.
I’m going to go ahead and admit something that you may find extreme or even a little crazy, but I told you I’ve been snowed in for multiple days and feel just nutty enough to roll the dice here. After reading an entire book in a day and a half, plus all the other things I previously mentioned, my husband and I started watching a new (to us) series on MAX a couple of nights ago in an attempt to fill our downtime. It’s one that’s been out for several years that we’d tried to watch back when it first debuted. I couldn’t remember what had turned me off of it, but it didn’t take long to figure it out. I googled the release date and realized quickly that it was the same year we lost my sister-in-law to addiction, which is largely in part what the show is about. I remembered how it made my stomach roll over watching a young girl cave to addiction and thinking how helpless that can be, not only for the addict, but their loved ones as well. It’s not hard to understand how anyone can fall victim to substance abuse if you’re paying attention to the world around you at all. This world can be bleak, and I can easily see a need for something, anything, to numb your senses to it. That isn’t where I’m going with this, though. Since we’ve begun watching that show, I’ve been hit twice, in a significant way, with irrational fear that consumed me, crippling me, until I was desperately praying for help, and once I asked for help my prayers were answered almost immediately; all I had to do was ask. It got me wondering where that anxiety was stemming from, and it was made clear to me that I was bringing it on myself by inviting it into my bedroom right there on the TV screen. This is the part where I’m expecting y’all to be like, “Yep, she’s lost it.” But hear me out, it’s as plain as day to me now. Have you ever been around people or in a situation where you knew you shouldn’t be? Like something was surely off, but you couldn’t see it with your eyes? It’s called instinct, and you were given it for a reason. The reason is so that you can save yourself from the harm that it is doing or potentially could do if you don’t pay attention to it. You may think that’s dramatic for me to refer to that from a TV show, but that’s how easy and sly the enemy is. He’ll be so casual about it, just like that, and you won’t even know it happened until you’re in the bathroom fighting off the first panic attack you’ve had in months. I’ve been in plenty of situations throughout the course of my life to make me learn to keep my head up diligently watching for threats, but here I was making the same mistake AGAIN. That ol’ devil is real and he is near, BUT, so is God!
Now that I’ve hung all my crazy on the line, and am letting it blow in the wind, I’ll let you in on another secret… I’m writing a book! I’ve decided that 2026 is the year of declaring success over my writing. I don’t exactly know how I’ll manage both my blog and book, but I do know that I’m keeping God as my focus in the center of it all, so that has to count for something, right?! I do know that for now (and for the past year+), it means fewer and shorter blog posts. I pray that doesn’t change my following and that it might encourage you all to look forward to my upcoming book, Long Moon Rising, being published. I’m excited, a little nervous, but trusting God is leading me where He’d have me go. Despite myself, but relying on Him, I’m claiming 2026 to be my year!
