Turkey Nightmares, Angels and Common Sense

Ever had one of those crazy dreams you just want to wake up from, but somehow you are trapped in?

I had one of those this morning, after an unusual breakfast of turkey.  I could say I wish I would have chosen oatmeal, but if I had not had that dream, I would not be writing this today.  And I have been very remiss at my writing.

So after my turkey, I snuggled up on the couch with my favorite pillow and drifted off to East Tucson.  Somehow I was at my friend Christina’s house, although I have never been there.  And somehow this friend had a beautiful new red mustang, but I couldn’t find my car.  So she loaned me hers, and I set off on an adventure. 

I took off happy as a lark driving, going down Golf Links, when I suddenly realized I was on the wrong side of the road straight into oncoming traffic.  There was nothing to do but throw it into reverse and attempt a very rapid back up, and pray I didn’t hit any other cars.  So in my dream, I was doing 60 mph in reverse, maneuvering like a pro and managed to swing around a corner into a side street straight out of the jaws of disaster.  I breathed hard, calmed myself and proceeded on my way, but I was now no longer in East Tucson.  I was in Atlanta, Georgia.  And I was lost.

I recently took a trip back to Georgia and this very thing had happened to me, which is why I suppose it was incorporated in my dream. Their freeways made me swear never to complain about Arizona’s, but it was when I was on the city street that I was really lost.  It was a maze of twists and turns, no street names and people who lived there who had no clue where they lived either. I was lost for 3 hours, and stopped to cry, since this had never happened to me before, when a homeless man came up to me and inquired very tenderly why I was crying.  I told him I was from Arizona and I was lost.  ‘Well you are a long way from home, girly.”  And then he gave me 1/3 of the directions to the airport.  He wasn’t sure about the rest of them.  I set off on the 1/3 and when I got to the destination, parked again, and cried.  Another homeless man came up to me and directed me to another place, near my destination, but when I got there, I couldn’t figure out how to get to what I could clearly see.  And then a taxi cab driver came up to me and asked why I was crying, so I told him.  He said ‘Follow me” and I gladly did, and finally reached my destination.  I tried giving him a tip, but he just asked if I was ok now, and drove off. Personally I think they were angels. 

Back to my dream though. Now I am in Atlanta and I am lost, but I find a street that is going the direction I need to go which is East, but it’s really West and South and every which way.  I stop, park the car, and go into a building to ask directions.  Here there was a man with wild crazy hair, who leads me into the office and very professionally welcomed me to the Mall.  He seemed quite confident and I was glad that finally someone had come to show me the way.   As I make my way into the waiting area I hear him scream that there is a black widow.  I ran to his rescue, with a strange large leather shoe in my hand that I had no clue where it came from.  When I look at this man, who was screaming like a sissy, I see him looking behind me at the wall.  I turn around and it is covered with hair and dirt and in between all that mess, one teeny tiny spider.  So I smash it, take the piles of hair I wiped off the wall and the dead spider and proceed out the door to the trash can.  In commencing my departure from this place, I realize that I have lost my keys, forgot where I parked Christina’s car, and can’t find my cell phone. 

So I wandered around this business plaza and found that it was really a bunch of shops called “The Browsers Mall.”  Everything was free, but in perusing the merchandise, nothing was worth owning.  So I decided to leave to take Christina’s car back to her.

I ran down the stairs only to find a homeless man (No, not the ones from REAL ATLANTA, one from TUCSON/ATLANTA of the nightmare realm), and he asks me for something, which I turn around to give him, but when I turn back, the Mustang is now an old Pontiac, all marred and scarred.  I ran around the corner to look for the Mustang.. and then I looked up and cried, “God please help me!” 

And I woke up.  In my home, on the couch, with my favorite pillow, sun shining and all right with my own little world.   

I realize that dreams are just dreams, perhaps the effect of what you are going through, or perhaps that last piece of turkey you ate.  But this one seemed so much like life in America right now.  We hope for prosperity, but expect it to come freely, without hard work, and then find ourselves going the wrong way in a place we never intended to go to.  We have put men in office who have allowed our laws to become dirty and overrun with lobbyists and people who do not have the good of the people in mind.  They show a brave face, act like they know what they are doing, but when it is time to fix the countries problems, they end up screaming like sissy’s, eating their free lunch so they can go home to this most confusing place we have allowed them to build.  I mean seriously, where is the country I knew and loved? 

In the meantime, we, the people, are shopping in the Browser’s Mall, hoping we will get stuff for free, but nothing is worth having, and when we return to the place where it all began, we find that it’s not there anymore.  We have sold our souls to the Devil to try obtain stuff that will not sustain us as a nation, or individually, and turned to TV to tell us what we really need.  And the worst part is we let a bunch of Grown Children take over our government and we act surprised that things are in such a mess.  IMHO, we have bludgeoned common sense to death with our repeated hammer of greed, slit it’s throat with the knife of stupidity, and then cried that America is dead.  Do not be fooled.  WE DID THIS.

Let me note here, that it only takes one big leather shoe, a little bit of grit and determination, and some common sense to rid the world of the spiders that eat our souls.  The leather shoe is the Bible, the grit and determination are our faith that God is and that He hears us, and if you don't know what common sense is.. Look IT UP.

In the end, I hope we will all end up screaming “God please help us!”, because He wants to, He is able, and He will if we just ask.

You Reap What You Sow!! Gotcha!

I live in a 3 story apartment on the ground floor, due mostly to the fact that I was born a klutz.  This has its advantages, mainly that I won’t fall down the stairs (again).  It also has its drawbacks.  Mainly that (and I so graciously give Simon and Garfunkel all the credit for this saying) one man’s (or woman’s) ceiling is another man’s floor.

My upstairs neighbors are wonderful young men.  Two roommates who apparently work all day, since I can hear their dog, whining in her crate all day long.  When they arrive home, it’s a little noisier, until I suppose they go in to take a nap, so they can perform all night.  But when 10:00 pm arrives, it’s like the entire United States Army has arrived with boots on the ground, radio’s blaring.  The only thing missing is gunfire… Or perhaps they are performing some ceremonial dance, with accompanying music..

                                                            

I have attempted a few times to silence them.  I took the stairs, carefully, and went up to ask them to tone it down.  They willingly gave me their phone number so I could call and ask them to tone it down, instead of taking the stairs.  And I did call them, several times.  But they seem to be short on memory regarding their heavy stepping, loud stereo and TV blaring all night long. 

But last night I got them back!  Ha-ha and on a weekday too, when they had to get up the next morning and work!

I have been sick for a few weeks now, with a cold that seems to hang on for dear life.  It has now taken up residence in my chest, and I have developed a horrendous cough over the past two nights.  The first night, I never thought of how it would affect my neighbors above me, who could hear a pin drop through the ceiling.  But last night, I could not stop the cough.  I would drift off to sleep and wake up coughing, a cough that sounds like machine gunfire. 

                                                                         

But about 3 am, after a particularly bad round of coughing, I noticed that when I coughed, my neighbor got out of bed too.  I could hear them, as soon as I started coughing, for it seemed they jumped out of bed at the onset, then when it quieted down, all was quiet upstairs. 

To make a long story short, they got only a couple of hours of sleep last night.  Then off to work at 6 am this morning. 

Be not deceived, whatever you reap you will sow… And now it’s daytime, I can nap!!  And they have to work.. HAHA!!

                            Always, Always look at the bright side of things!

THROUGH THE EYES OF WONDER

I was visiting one of my “older” friends today and we were discussing, or so I assumed, physics. The exact thing that brought it up was the storm that was running rampant across Arizona today, dropping snow and significant rain.  And, yes, I know significant for us, is like nothing to the rest of America.  I won’t even go there.

But the subject was this.  If the clouds are full of water, which is heavier than air, what holds them up?  My immediate response was “God does”.  My friend’s response?   “How?”  And a great discussion ensued which left me wondering “How?” 

So of course I got on the internet to check it out.  Science is not my forte, after all.  I must rely on what real scientists have discovered.  So here is what I found.  Bear with me, please.

From Scientific American.  (The short version without radius squared and all that stuff.)

“Even though typical clouds do contain a lot of water, this water is spread out for miles in the form of tiny water droplets or crystals, which are so small that the effect of gravity on them is negligible. Thus, from our vantage on the ground, clouds seem to float in the sky.”

From Mental Floss

“Figure out how dense the cloud is. Scientists have measured the water density of a typical cumulus cloud (the white, fluffy ones you see on a nice day) as 1/2 gram per cubic meter—about a small marble’s worth of water in a space you and a friend could comfortably sit in. The density will be greater for different types of clouds. “

(So my friend Yolie and I can’t float, how does a cloud? And then the answer.. sheesh.)

“If elephants or donkeys or dinosaurs were hanging out in the sky, they’d fall. So how does a several-hundred-ton cloud stay afloat? For one thing, the weight isn’t concentrated in a hundred elephant-sized particles or even a billion marble-sized ones. It’s distributed among trillions of really tiny water droplets spread out over a really big space. Some of these droplets are so small that you would need a million of them to make one raindrop, and gravity’s effect on them is pretty negligible.”

 (And now we are elephants and donkeys and DINOSAURS??  Well, maybe my OLDER friends are dinosaurs, but I am not.  At least not yet. More like a donkey, but REALLY?)

This afternoon, after returning home and completing my “research”, the most glorious sunset with the most intricately woven clouds of all colors appeared.  There were dark clouds with flat bottoms, golden ones with red tinges, Orange ones, Dark blue and grey ones, and a glorious white one behind them all.  As I sat there viewing it in awe, it occurred to me.  I really don’t give a fiddle how clouds are held up there.  I know WHO holds them up and that is all that matters, and then it hit me.

The WONDER of clouds, the sky, the earth, Trees and plants.  Air creatures and water creatures and HUMANS…..

And I had my answer for my friend.   GOD DOES. 

Psalm 8: 3 -4  “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?” 

Wisdom from the ages.. About that opportunity...

I have been thinking about things that are going on, not only around the world, but also in my own neighborhood.  It brought to mind a story that a pastor once told. I can’t remember which pastor, and I am not sure if he plagiarized a plagiarism, but I thought that I would just to entertain you all and make a point. Here goes.

A man woke up one day to hear the sound of a sheriff’s bull horn as they drove by and announced that everyone needed to get up and evacuate because a flood was coming.  Drowsily, he went to the window and saw his neighbors fleeing to their vehicles.  He said to himself, “I can wait until all the cars leave, that way I won’t get caught in traffic.” So he made a cup of coffee and sat for a little while, then went out to start his car.  Unfortunately, he had left the lights on, and the battery was dead.  He stuck his head outside and looked at the horrific clouds looming on the horizon, and said to himself, “I don’t need to hurry or worry.  I will wait for the Lord to rescue me.” And with that he went back inside to enjoy his cup of java. 

A little later, he noticed the sheriff driving down the street with the bull horn, calling out to anyone who had been left behind.  They saw him and urged him to get in their vehicle.  He told them “No, the Lord is going to rescue me.”  And went back in for a second cup.

Not many minutes later, he heard the sound of rushing water, and when he looked outside he saw a wall of water rushing down the street. He knew he needed to take to high ground, so he went outside, climbed up a ladder and got on the roof.  Not two minutes later the rushing water came down, taking with it trees and automobiles and pieces of houses.  He was a little afraid, but he said to himself, “No, I will wait upon the Lord. He will rescue me. “

Just a few minutes later he heard the sound of an engine, and down the middle of where the street once was, came a boat with two men inside.  They called to him “Get in! We will take you to safety!”  But being convinced in his own mind that the Lord was going to complete a miraculous rescue, he called back to them, “No, I am waiting on the Lord,”  With that the men in the boat went their way looking for people who were willing to be rescued. 

It seemed forever that he had waited.  The water was up over the roof of the house now, and he could barely keep his footing. But he felt sure that the Lord would rescue him, so he prayed.  About that time he heard another sound, a helicopter overhead looking for survivors of the flood.  They spotted him and zoomed down and lowered a rope to him, telling him to tie himself to it and they would pull him up.  “No,” he said, “I am waiting for the Lord to rescue me.”   They pleaded with him to no avail, and then flew off to search for others who were willing to be rescued.  

Suddenly a huge wall of water came crashing in, and the man was swept away.  The water was so powerful that it ripped and tore at his limbs and he could not stay afloat.  As he sunk into the depths of the flood, he told himself, “The Lord will surely rescue me now.”  And with that he lost consciousness. 

He awoke to a bright heavenly light and all around him were angels and the sound of music more beautiful than any he had ever heard.  He got up, and found that his body was intact and he was wearing a beautiful white robe.  He began to wander, looking around and convinced himself that this must be heaven! 

About that time, the Lord appeared to him and he fell to his knees.  He looked up at the face of the Lord in awe and then a question came to his mind.  “Lord, when I was in the house, in the flood and underwater, why didn’t you save me?” 

And the Lord answered.  “I sent a sheriffs car, a boat and a helicopter.  What else did you expect?” 

And the moral of the story is:  When the call to evacuate comes, don't sit and think about it and remember, God works not only in unexpected ways but also in ordinary ways.  When He provides you an opportunity, even though you don’t think it good enough, take it.  There might not come another.

On Building Patriots

My son and grandson called last week to ask me what the meaning of the song "American Pie" by Don McClean meant.  That inspired me to republish this little article I wrote back in 2009, in a time when it seemed the world was turned upside down.  It has gone so much farther than that since then, that I felt it timely to post this again.  Take some time to listen to American Pie, the prophetical song, by Don McClean.  And then read on. 

On Building Patriots

What picture comes to mind when you picture a Patriot?  Does your mind conjure up pictures of men marching carrying the Flag?  Do your thoughts turn to the pictures we have seen of our soldiers coming home from Iraq?  Is the only thought you have of a Patriot that of someone wearing a uniform and shouldering their duty off to war?  What about the picture of a woman standing at a machine in her house dress, taking the place of her husband, so he could go off to fight?  How about images of teachers who stand up for what is right and have their careers crucified because of it?  How about that single mother struggling to feed, clothe and educate her brood, rather than going on welfare?  Or a father teaching his children to say the pledge of allegiance with “One Nation under God” reverently spoken? 

Growing up in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, being a patriot was not something that was talked about much.  It was something that most of us thought little about, sort of like breathing or sleeping.  It had somehow been instilled in us by some unseen hand.  Doing what was right was the thing that most people strove for, however, when it came to service to their country, the only thing that was considered patriotic was serving in the military. Perhaps, to some extent, that is still the case.  However, I wish to present an answer to these questions that perhaps you have never thought of.  What if being a Patriot only means loving your country and living what is right before your family and your community? 

Ah, but you may say that being a Patriot requires sacrifice.  Yes, that is true, however, who has sacrificed more than one of us who has worked 50 years at the same thankless job, but managed to pay his debt, raise his children to be good citizens and stewards of our land, without notice and without thanks?  What of the grandparent raising their grandchild with old fashioned, family values, to be a man of his word, and of honor?  Yes, Sacrifice is a requirement of being a patriot, but there is more.

Being a patriot requires not only loving your country, but your fellow citizens, and doing what is right not just for yourself, but also for others.  This is not always an easy thing to do, since many of our citizens have turned aside from the values that made this nation great.  Many of our elected officials either never had these values or have forsaken them long ago to pursue the very opposite of being a Patriot, that of being traitors.   Values like honor and integrity, selflessness and prudence are often misconstrued by some of us, or perhaps these values mean nothing at all.  It was not always so.  America was a strong country, full of love for each other, and concern for our fellow man, not only here but also in the entire world.  We were a country of people who fed the hungry, housed the homeless, fought for those living under tyranny, and died for the freedom of all who longed for it. We gave of ourselves, not only to our fellow citizens, but also to the world.  

How did this all start, this downhill slide from our core values?  Well, for one, I believe it started with each and every one of us, when we chose to let actions that were selfish take hold and set selfishness up on a pedestal to worship it.  Those of us who did not participate, turned a blind eye and went on our way, married to our lifestyles.  We pronounced that the new wealth was getting what you cannot afford with what you did not have, and keeping it all to yourself.  When things were bad, we chose to shop, rather than to give to someone in need.  But there is something far worse that we did, that is at the root of all of this.

Our country caved in on itself, simply because we were not watching as our principles and values slipped away.  And that all started at home, when we began choosing to have our children read to by tape recorders and radios, rather than spending the time with them to read, and tell stories.  We parked our children in front of the TV and allowed the commentators, game show hosts, and Barney the dinosaur to baby-sit our children, rather than take them to the park or play games with them.  We allowed the schools to teach our children who God was or wasn’t, and turned over the most important aspect of their lives to school boards who do not know us or what we believe, and do not care about our children.  We abandoned our children to technology and people who we do not know. 

There was a man back during the great depression named Vash Young, who became highly popular because of what he taught.  That being that our greatest wealth lies in what we give, not what we get. 

He touted the man who would give his brother a hand up as the wealthiest on earth.  That used to be the picture of America.  Now it is gravely different. 

We drive past the homeless and are afraid to talk to them, much less give them a hand up. Our children see us, and believe that everyone that is homeless is bad.  We live next door to people who are spiritually and financially bereft and we cannot even give them a word of encouragement.  Our children see how we relate to others and disconnect themselves from their communities.  We watch the old and frail, buying their $40.00 a month worth of groceries, and cannot even pitch in $2.89 to buy them some milk.  Our children see us, and learn that people who are struggling are not valuable.  We rush them off to bed so that we can have our “quiet” time, without kisses without hugs, without prayers.  Worse yet, we find it impossible to take time for other children who come into our lives because of a lack of parental guidance, telling ourselves we are protecting our own from bad influence, rather than involving  ourselves with them to make a difference in their lives.  Our children see us, and learn that they too, as children, have limited value in this world.  

And many have grown up not knowing what values are needed in their lives to succeed.  Some of them may be able to make vast amounts of money, but squander it on foolish things.  Some of them might become leaders with great power and no greatness in them to handle that power.  Some of them may become the ones who are tossed away under bridges.  Some of them may live in poverty, spiritual and financial, all of their lives because we never gave them a chance for a different life.  In short, the real wealth of our lives, our children have been led astray by our own foolishness and lack of interest.  

But not all of our children, not all. There are those parents out there who still hold honor, integrity, love and all of the things important to life, with strength, and teach them to their children. There are those who know that our future lies in those tiny hands.  There are those who understand that in order for this country to survive, we must raise up to ourselves those individuals who will lead our nation through trying times, and back to greatness.  Those people are patriots.  They do what they do for love of their children.  This is at the core of patriotism, love for our God, our families, our freedom, and love for one another. 

Some may say it is too late to turn this thing around.  Some say, and I agree that we have hard times coming upon us and wonder how we will survive.  I say it will take a band of Patriots to turn this thing around.  People who are willing to speak up against what is wrong, live what is right, and stand in the face of the enemy that we have become to ourselves.  It is not too late.  We all have it in us to spend a little time with someone who is sick, take care of someone who is old, and read a book to a child once a week.  It will take little sacrifice, but it will take sacrifice. 

Do you love your children?  Do you love your fellow man?  Do you honor the sacrifices that were made so we could be free?  I believe most of you do.  Now the crisis is upon us, now is the time to give of ourselves for our country.  Stand up, speak what is right, do what is right, and let your children see it and be involved in it.  You will be building a nation of Patriots. 

Copyright 2009 S. Linn Gomez

BEFORE YOU GO

Before you go

Before the light dims from your eyes

And your suffering on this earth is over.

Before the story ends,

I want to tell you..

Your sacrifice has not gone unnoticed.

Your loyal heart is not taken for granted.

The blood that was spilled, the pain endured

Is not unnoticed.

While you are here with me,

Let me bind the wounds of battle

And honor the sacrifice you have given

So we can be free.

Before you go,

Let me hold you and ease the pain

That you hide behind a smile..

While inside, you ache..

Let me honor your life now, while you live

Not with flags on a grave that offer no comfort,

But now, while you are here,

Let me tell of your loyalty to God, to country,

To us. 

Blessed Ones!

Over a year ago, I started out on a mission that I felt in my heart would bless the most forgotten ones.  After 5 years of visiting my dad in the nursing home, I had made acquaintance with many of the residents, and decided that I should continue to visit them, to encourage them and cheer their hearts.  What I have discovered after a year of this, is that the opposite of my “mission” has occurred.  They have encouraged me and cheered my heart! 

These people, who are basically imprisoned by their disabilities and age, have shown me some wonderful truths.  Larry, who turned 90 last week, walks 4 miles every day, and because he is in the assisted living section, still drives his car, takes people to church, and when opportunity provides, helps out others  that live there.   Doris writes little notes and gives them to those who pass by, stating that she is a nice friend to them, and puts her room number down so they can find her later.  Carol, whose lungs and heart are failing, gets in her wheel chair, and gets out of her room and involved with the resident advocates, helping those who she doesn’t even know by casting her vote for those who can’t speak for themselves. Margaret, who has had a debilitating stroke, smiles and offers her hand to everyone.  Johnel, who also had a very bad stroke, so that he can’t even get out of his room, complains very little with his surroundings and situation, just waiting on the Lord, or as he puts it “Just relaxin”.  I have to admit that in the beginning, before actually getting to know these people, that I felt they were a “mission” field.  I have since had my mind decidedly changed, and realize that I am their mission field.   

So what could I possibly find that would cause me to change my mind about the situation?   Or, to make that clear, yours or mine.  For it is surely true that we all will go the “way of the world”, and we only get one chance to ride around the sun.  We have to face it, one day we will all end up either in a nursing home, or stuck at home with little ability to care for ourselves.  And one day, that great leveler, Death, will come for each of us, unless the Lord comes back first.

These ones are just a sampling of the people within nursing homes.  These are those who built our country, fought our wars, made lives for themselves and their communities, and yet they are relegated to simple quarters, and over 90 percent of them get no visitors.  Of course, in this working world, it is nearly impossible to take time off from our busy lives to visit, and it could be that some of them alienated their families by their behavior, however, what I found in visiting these people is this.  Each one, at some time had a life.  As some of them put it, “I had a home, a car and a job once.”  For most Americans, these are the simple necessities.  For these people, all those necessities have been stripped from them.  They now have a bed, in a room they share with strangers, with perhaps a few personal items, and nothing else. Their health is not just on the decline, they are waiting for the end, sometimes even hoping for it.  The ability to care for themselves and to preserve some form of human dignity, even to the point of personal care such as toileting, bathing and feeding, has also been stripped from them.  They are what our society would call, “the cast-offs”. 

But they are far more than what they appear, as I have finally come to understand.  In their world, filled with darkness and hopelessness, they are a shining light.  In the midst of the suffering, in the pain and the lonely nights, in the endless waiting, they have a hope.  Each of the ones I mentioned have put their trust in the Lord God, believing every word He has said, knowing it to be true, and trusting that one day, hopefully sooner than later, they will be with him. 

So how have they changed my mind about my “mission” field?  I find this; they were once as I am now.  Working, having a car and a place of their own, having families and things to do. They were once held by the dreams of this world, to succeed in their chosen paths, to live a long and happy life, and to spend their days in happiness.  It never occurred to any of them that they would end up in a nursing home, abandoned by family and friends, having some stranger wipe them, feed them, and take care of their every need.  They are, to put it bluntly, you and I in the very near future.  And as will happen to all of us, the unthinkable happened.  They got too old and ill to take care of themselves. 

But something greater happened in all this too.  In losing everything, they found their center, the truth of our hope in Christ.  They had always known the Lord, but now they found He truly is “with them always”.  They found that, in the midst of the suffering, He sustains them, holds them and loves them.  They found the only true thing in life, that the Lord is their strength, their shield, their comforter and their friend.  And even in the middle of the suffering, they all found joy! 

And thus, I became their mission field, and they became my mentors and teachers.  There is still so much to learn from them, before they leave this earthly home for their heavenly one.  I want to know what else they can inspire me to do, what advice they have to give, and most of all, I want to get a firm grip on the hope that makes them shine like beacons in the night. Because one day it will be my turn to pass the torch.  I can only hope I will be anything nearly as wonderful as they are. 

Take a moment, listen to the song at the beginning, contemplate your life.  You were made for a purpose.  Live it to the last drop.