Tag Archives: Choice

Challenges, choice and accountability

What Big Cat is He?

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He crouches low, creeping toward his prey. He bounds forward, leaping before it gets away. He races through the tall grasses, over a log, then hurdles the final obstacle. The female wildebeest jumps away.

He misses.
Yet again.
Next time.

Sparky thinks I’m his prey.

I have to dance away as he leaps over the sofa toward me. I heard him coming. Good thing, or he’d be dragging me down like a lion drags down a gazelle or a wildebeest.

I have to watch out for him. He hides behind the furniture and under the bed, streaking out to attack my calves as I pass. Sometimes, he manages to leap higher than my waist.

It’s a good thing he has learned to pull in his claws. Jack might be accused of abusing me with all the scratches and bites I’ve had on me.

Sparky is lucky he is a beautiful cat.

My scratches are healing.

I wonder if he descended from a lion, a tiger, or a cougar. He has beautiful stripes along his back legs like a tiger. He’s fierce like a lion. He lies in wait to attack along the back of my sofa like a cougar.

I wonder if he dreams of being a big cat?

Perhaps he does, as he lies across my keyboard.

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Challenges, choice and accountability

We Have a Problem

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Early on, we knew we had a problem.

I walked into my closet to see a quilt I had stored on the top shelf now lying on the floor. The quilt, made by my mother, waits for a granddaughter to grow old enough to graduate or get married. I had to take a chair into the closet to get the quilt on the highest shelf.

Now it lay on the floor.

Sparky!

But how?

I watched him when we were there for the next day or so. It didn’t take long to learn how he did it.

He leapt up from the floor, or from my husband’s oxygen machine, crawled up the sleeves of Jack’s shirts, and on up to the shelf above the clothing.

Later, we found Sparky sleeping on the shelf.

We banned Sparky from our bathroom.

I walked into the guest bath not long after and found claw holes in the toilet paper he had unrolled, completely.

Enough!

He’d jump up on me and onto the counter by the sink. Once, I had to move him from the sink so I could wash my hands!

He’s banned from both bathrooms.

In the living room, Sparky climbed on top of the empty birdcage and starred at the moving ceiling fan.

That wasn’t going to happen.

I moved the birdcage outside. I can’t give it away yet. I can’t get another bird yet. So it sits on our back patio, waiting.

Meanwhile, Sparky jumps from the floor to the top of the printer, which rests on a bar stool. He sits on the back of my chair, higher than me.

Brat.

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Author, Challenges, choice and accountability

How Will You Change the Country?

“What are you going to do to change the country?” my friend asked me the other day.

This has had me thinking for several days. “What can I do? I’m a lonely author, who has little impact on politicians and others who make laws for our land. I can vote, complain to others, respond to social media, and write letters to my Congresspeople. It has little impact on the country or the world.

My response to my friend was, “Nothing. Except live the best life I can, obeying God’s laws and the country’s laws to the best of my ability.”

Later consideration brought a few more ideas. I can be a friend to others, and do all I can to make my part of the country, and thus the world, better. I can offer assistance to others. I can do my best to be kind. And, I can write more books.

I’m an author. I try to change the world with my books. My imagination takes me to places I can never go. I share things I’ve learned as I tell my stories. I learn more things in the things I write. A long time ago, as a teacher, I discovered you don’t know what you know until you write it down. Writing my books helps me understand what I know about a few things, as I explore a time no one knows about.

The human experience doesn’t change, only the leaders and the things people gather around them. They walked, rode horses, or rode in carriages. We walk, ride in cars, airplanes, and soon spaceships. We all eat, dress, have children, or die. We love, hate, argue, solve problems, and search for happiness. It has been so from the beginning.

I’ve considered challenges in my life in my books. Some of the results I don’t like and hope my children never suffer the consequences I write about. Others of my stories I love. I hope more of my family receive these results in their lives.

So, I finished the editing of my next book, Betrayed Trust. I will release it in about a month. I still need a cover and a description for the back. More to come when it is closer. It, too, explores a different part of the human condition.

What will you do to change the world or the bit of the world in which you live? How will you make the lives of those around you better? (I’m hoping you will choose to read more of my books and review them.)

What would you suggest I write about in my next book? The one I’m working on now was recommended by a reader, one of you. I do listen.

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Challenges, choice and accountability

Weather Wonders

We had an interesting month in January. It was colder than most in our neighborhood, and colder for many of my friends in other places in the west.

The air has been cold and clear here in Southern Nevada. Snow covers the tops of our mountains. Skiers and snowboarders love the 117” of snow. We in the west are enjoying a break from a series of storms. We had nice rain fall from three storms, one after the other in the past weeks. Our parched earth soaked in the mostly gentle rains.

As usual, a few people had to be rescued from the swiftly flowing waters downtown and on the east side of the valley. All in all—it was pleasant.

We love to hear that the snow pack in Colorado and the Rockies appears to be well over the usual amount expected. The Sierra’s have received more than normal. Eastern Oregon and Western Idaho received so much the roofs on buildings collapsed from the weight, and more is expected. California is already seeing floods and filled reservoirs. We in the west hope this weather pattern continues, with less destruction of property and relieving our current drought. Even with all the rain and snow pack, officials fear Lake Meade will continue to drop down the least few feet to trigger mandatory water conservation through the west.

How can that be possible?

Obviously, we use too much water in our homes, agriculture, and play. The west is a great place to live, but with our lack of water, too many people can cause big water problems. Worse, for the whole country, lack of water creates problems for agriculture. Many vegetables and fruits grow in the warm sunshine of California and Arizona. If mandatory conservation laws are put into place, I hope the farmers and fruit growers figure out how to grow more and waste less.

Government, industries, companies, homes, families, and individuals need to be aware of how they use and waste water. Is there a way you can be more water aware?

In Eve, First Matriarch, Eve and her family face a drought. They prayed for assistance from Jehovah, then went to work.

It did not rain for a long time. The family was forced to change their water usage. Crops dried without maturing, animals that didn’t leave died from thirst. Children were bathed less often. Only after great faith and waiting many months, did the rains return.
When it did:

Absalom lifted his head and asked, “What is that sound?”
I listened. A small plop sounded on the roof, too loud to be leaves. Another plop. I opened the door and Bilhah and Absalom ran outside.
“It is raining, mama! Rain!” Absalom danced in the gentle rain.”

Sometimes, our best inventions come from a great need. Perhaps new methods to recapture and waste less will be a result of the current water crisis. Or, maybe we will get more snow and rain.

Regardless, as the snow melts, and the storms march across the continent to the east, people will be endangered by floods, tornadoes, avalanches, rock and mud slides, and other storm caused dangers. Where ever you live, be watchful of the storms and their after effects. Be careful, and use water wisely!

What are you doing to protect your water resources? How are you surviving your winter? Are you inundated with snow, or is it dry where you live? I look forward to hearing of your winter weather.

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choice and accountability, Eve

Must We Accept the Hatred That is Reigning?

It is easy to succumb to the hatred that rages across the Earth today, especially in light of the political conventions held last week and this. No wonder—almost every day news reaches us of another shooting or terror attack. No country is immune to the terror. Whether internal or external, hatred brings violence and terror.

Some people feel compelled to express their hatred by shouting bad things about others. Others express their hatred in murdering members of an opposing culture, religion, or country. Often, the story of murdered Christians, or Muslims, or other religious sects in far away countries becomes lost in the arguments of politics or violence at home. Men, women, and children are at risk, for the hatred of others leads to violence, terror, and murder.

What can be done? How can we, as individuals, combat this trend of raging hatred? One cannot battle the large numbers of haters. However, one can set examples to others, can have an effect on those in our smaller circle. What is the answer? Love, simple love.

Love, as exemplified by the Savior of the world, accepts each person, In a Worldregardless of that person’s political beliefs, their religious beliefs, their sexual activity, their gender, or their so-called race. All are sons and daughters of God. All have redeeming qualities. He cares about us and wants us to return to His presence. His love is unconditional.

Can our love be like His? Can you love someone who is different from you? Someone who behaves in a way you do not like or believe in? Someone who has hurt you?

I believe you can. Loving the person does not mean loving a behavior. I have friends who participate in behaviors I do not agree with. I have had my trust broken and been hurt by those close to me. I have learned that I can love these people as long as I remember who they are, children of God, not the behavior that I disagree with or that hurt me.

I am working to be more charitable, to have love for others, regardless of their actions and beliefs. It is difficult, but as I think at them as Christ would, I can succeed.

What has all this to do with Eve and the books I am writing? Much. For I believe the things she told me about their lives. She and Adam looked forward to the coming of Christ in the meridian of time. She knew Christ’s love, though she called Him Jehovah. She knew of His willingness to forgive. She, more than any, knew we are all His children, and all her children. Eve continues to weep for our actions and our hatred for others.

Will you join me in my personal challenge to learn to love others for who they are, not what they do? We can change the world, one person at a time as we love those around us.

I’d love to hear your stories of love for those you thought unlovable. Please share.

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choice and accountability, Eve

Could This Be Changed?

I was chatting with a good friend today. She asked me what I thought happened to the spirit of a child after a miscarriage. She has had a few, as have I. We shared our thoughts and then she said something I think is profound. “Why don’t any religions have a rite for families who lost a child to miscarriage? If they did, there would be less abortions.”

Though I understand my religion’s reasoning for not having a rite for the loss of a miscarriage, I see her point. Thousand of children are murdered every day in the name of “women’s choice,” because a child is inconvenient, or uncomfortable, or will make the woman ‘fat’, or any of the multitude of excuses for using murder as birth control. If the early loss of a child was mourned by religions, perhaps there would be less abortions.

Eve was fortunate. In her time, women and men were still perfect, with little cellular degradation. I doubt she suffered, as my friend and I have, from miscarriages. Yet, as I have stated many times, I believe she and Adam were given to know what would happen in our time.

They must have been excited to see the many technical advances of our day. Imagine their delight in seeing our advances in transportation and communication. For instance, the ability we have to travel around the world in a day, and receive messages from the other side of the world immediately. News, and other presentations are instantaneously available.

The command given specifically to Eve was to be a mother, to multiply. Much, if not all, of her life was spent bearing, raising, and teaching children—hers and those of her daughters and granddaughters. When she no longer could give birth, her daughters and granddaughters carried on replenishing the earth. Even then, I believe she taught the children and their mothers.

Knowing that, imagine her deep sorrow to learn that women would willingly allow their children to be murdered, under the guise of “women’s choice” and “my body, my choice.” I can see her weeping for many days over this knowledge. How could women so easily destroy that great gift she gave up so much for to have?

Additionally, I believe she wept when women began to struggle to bear children. It was given to women to bring life to the earth. Those of us who cannot have children, or who struggle to become and stay pregnant, feel Eve’s anguish.

Child bearing and raising children has been the domain of women. Still, men feel our pain and their own when expected children are lost. My husband grieved with me, for me and for himself, over our lost little ones. Other men ache for lost children.

I was blessed to finally deliver five healthy children. Not all couples are so blessed. We, who have lost children to miscarriage, and those for whom conception is impossible, grieve over lost children who could be ours, through adoption. We perceive abortion as selfish withholding of beautiful, healthy children from those who want children, but cannot bear them on their own.
What do you think? Should churches provide rites for miscarried children? Have you experienced the pain of miscarriage or inability to conceive? How have you managed? I look forward to your comments.

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choice and accountability, Eve

Don’t Let This Happen to You

20150810_210057It’s amazing how things can change for you in seconds. I woke up in the middle of the night and bumped my arm on my nightstand drawer. No big deal. Because I have the thin skin of a hundred year old, I bled. I stumbled into the bathroom an covered it with bandages.

The tiny gouges were infected two days later, my arm swelling and red two days later. Now, after a second trip to the ER, I’m admitted to the hospital to receive IV antibiotics. Difficult for me, as I’m allergic to many antibiotics. (This is a poor excuse for a late blog.)

As I think of my silly little injury, that could be life threatening, I think of the people who have gone about their lives, attending concerts, Christmas parties, eating in restaurants, and other common events, only to have their lives disrupted by crazed people seeking infamy in deaths of others. I wonder if those who died remembered to kiss their loved ones good-bye as they left that day. Did they leave for work with an argument on their lips?

Eve’s life changed in moments when she chose to marry Adam and live on this earth—yes, I believe she had that choice. That time was a time of challenges and joys. Later, her life changed again when Cain killed Abel, this was not a happy change. Each time she was required to decide to make the best of the changes.

We never know when our lives will be changed suddenly. Though it may be difficult, remember to leave your loved ones with love rather than in anger. Don’t be the one to mourn if your life changes suddenly.

I’d love for you to share your tales of sudden life changing events. Please share, here in the comments section, or direct to my email: [email protected]

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choice and accountability, Eve

A Disturbing Trend

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Greatest HeatThere is a disturbing trend in schools lately. Though there is a clear Constitutional separation of church and state, children have not been allowed to pray in school for years, not allowed to read the bible, nor even perform a Christmas program of songs and dance. When I taught music in a school in Hawaii, I could not put on a Christmas Program for the parents, we had to call it a Holiday Program, and receive special permission to include a song about the birth of the Savior, because that is the song the children determined they wanted to sing.

Lately, however, that separation is only enforced for Christians. Islamic teachings are taught, insisting that students know all their tenets. Progressive humanists, or atheists, preach their particular religion, defaming and failing students who refuse to deny their God. What happened to equal rights? What happened to separation of church and state? What happened to freedom of religion? What happened to our constitution? Is that freedom only given to Islam and atheists?

There is no such thing as cold, only absence of heat; no darkness, only absence of light, as taught by Einstein when confronted by an atheist professor. I argue atheism is on the far end of the religious scale, opposite from a strong knowledge there is a God. It is an absence of religion. These scales vary from one end of extreme heat to no heat; extreme light to no light; and strong belief in God (religion) to the opposite end, no belief in any god (no religion). Atheists are on the far end of the religion spectrum, but still on the scale.

When an atheist forces their non-religion on a group of school children, as a middle school teacher in Texas did recently, that teacher is as at fault as an Islamic believer forcing their teachings on Christian students or atheists, or a Christian forcing their teachings on atheists or Islamic students. None of these are legal, none are appropriate, none are moral.

Eve lived in a time when things were more black and white. Her children accepted Jehovah, or they chose to follow Lucifer. There were no other religions, then, only following Jehovah or not. Other religions sprang up, suggested by the Destroyer. Men and women created idols to worship, found other gods and goddesses to worship.

Eve taught her children to read, to write, and to obey Jehovah. There was nothing to stop her, no government body, no one from outside pushing their beliefs on her. Hers was the first home school, and she taught her love for Jehovah. The only safety we have for our children is to teach them ourselves. Schools will not do it.

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Eve, Hatred

Tears Fall Because of This

Our Mother's TearsIt is easy to fall into the mob mentality, thinking those (fill in the blank) are horrible people and should not live among us. It happened in the 1930s, when Hitler raised his ugly voice suggesting the Jews were non-human, unworthy of the air they breathed. It happened in Africa, those black people didn’t need our support, they are uncivilized. It happens around the world, the unborn need no protection, particularly if they are children of a group of people we consider unnecessary, abort them.

In the United States, the cry has been raised against Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Irish, Italians, Mexicans, other Latinos, Russians, Muslims, and now Syrians. Each group was different, thinking differently, acting differently, looking differently from the majority. Eventually, most of these have integrated into society, and one wonders at those cries of hate.

I read the results of a Religious Freedom conference recently. The headline suggested an agreement to live and let live. Sounds good to me. If you choose to worship Allah, that is your right, do it. If you choose to worship the universe, that is your right. If you choose not to believe in any god, that, too, is your right and privilege. It is NOT your right to tear down or destroy other belief systems. Yes, live, and let live.

“Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.” —Desiderius Erasmus

Light comes from truth, and truth is found in all religions. It is the darkness, the dark side, if you will, that encourages hatred for others and their beliefs. Walking in the light of truth allows us to be aware of the truth found in what others believe, finding association with the truths you hold dear and those held dear by another.

I know Eve was saddened when her children turned away from the fullness of light as given to them from God. Some of her children could not accept everything, leaving to live good lives with a portion of the light she and Adam offered. Others completely turned their backs on the teachings of their parents, choosing to follow Satan, the father of darkness.

I am certain Eve received reports of wars among her children, brought about by hatred and distrust. One group of people was a little different in belief than another. Over time, I would think Eve has been weighed down by the hatred and ugliness her children have heaped on their brothers and sisters. Many tears fall, even now, because we choose to hate, we choose to fear, we choose to see the differences rather than the similarities.

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choice and accountability, Freedom

Women Have a Right to Feel Safe

20150810_210057The news isn’t full of the stories any more, they are much too commonplace. A girl or woman is attacked, sometimes raped, by a man who believes he has something to offer her, whether she is interested or not. If the woman or girl is lucky, someone steps up and prevents the action from becoming more. If not, she struggles with loss of security and self worth. Sometimes, even, her community of family and friends believe she had something to do with it, enticing the man in some way.

None of this is fair or right. Men have no right to force themselves on a woman for any reason, especially just because she is weaker, or beautiful, or dresses nice. No woman should have to fear the actions of a man, nor should she be held responsible in some way for his lack of control. Men are men, and they should behave as men, with respect for others, gentleness, and self control.

They are men, not boys; and boys, should behave like men in training, not as members of a mini-mob just because of their gender. Girls should be able to feel and be safe in school and school functions, church, and in homes of their friends. They should not have to be constantly aware of their actions in relationship to boys in their lives.

Yes, girls sometimes encourage bad behavior, and that behavior should be corrected, as well. But, a woman’s behavior or dress is no excuse for brutish, disrespectful, out of control behavior.

I have been working on book two of my series, Ancient Matriarchs. This book will tell the story of Seth’s wife. So far, it has gone well, I have written over half the rough draft. Until now. I am having trouble deciding how she will act under conditions I have not faced. I’ve visited with my wise husband and received good information, but I am still at a loss. I am hoping to hear from you, my readers, to give me some help.

She has had an incident involving a man who wants to push himself on her farther than she wants while her husband is gone. She is not raped, but she feels violated and her reputation is damaged.

Have you experienced this? How did you feel around men after this kind of incident? How did you act?

I really would appreciate your help! I welcome your comments on this.

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