Life & Landmarks

This year has been chock full of pivotal moments. Painful, dark, scary ones. Bright, blazing, hopeful ones. Exciting, joyful, precious ones. Dull, boring, repetitive ones.

Such is life, they say. Made up of the beautiful and painful, side by side they sit as salt and pepper at every meal in a year saturated with grief.

I was still clinging to a board from our family’s shipwreck of death from 2022 when a mighty, maelstrom struck again. As I flung the puny wreckage aside and cried out for Jesus’ promised yoke, I gladly discarded the manmade and inferior design for His eternal, glorious way.

And I have proven Him true.

Grand baby births, a home purchase & house sale, book launch, double nickel birthday, and a 32nd anniversary…. Each one of these events has been laced with His incredible goodness.

But. I. Am. So. Very. Tired.

Events that marked our dad’s life this year… recovery from a stroke, transfer to SNF- Skilled Nursing Facility in Oklahoma, over 2 1/2 months to assess where he would recover in physical therapy, moving in with us the last of April. A UTI that landed him in the hospital, a lung clot that landed him in the hospital, new medications to prevent further clots, a brief hiatus of peace and health, then a three week hospitalization with removal of a gangrenous gall bladder. Now he has been home again the same length of time… scars have healed… the pain and sorrow of that period has been replaced by another season of regaining strength and continuous physical therapy.

All that to say. I should be tired. And… it’s okay to be tired. As I wind down from my first book launch I will finish book reviews I committed too, as well as some lovely book launches, and some fun compilations, but then I will be focusing on Overcomers Book 2.

Every September I quiet my inbox and mute subscriptions and delete extraneous sales e-mails. It gives me a moment to catch my breath and just breathe.

I hope your fall is full of simple pleasures… a napping great-grandfather, purring cats, mugs of hot coffee, laughter, and slanting rays of light brushing through the leaves as they change color.

But more importantly, may they be full of His presence.