Southern Yankee

  It has been a long month and I thought by giving up Facebook for Lent I would have more time to write. It hasn't worked out that way. My life is back to being chaotic with lots of ups and downs. I have spent some time with a few amazing people in my life doing different things like: helping move from one house to another, having dinner and cleaning things up, talking on the phone, going for rides, hanging out by the water by the bridge and walking trails. That has all been nice but the flip side is I haven't had me time. I'm still taking care of the parents and trying to figure that all out, work on taxes, run to appointments, figure out how to pay the bills, take care of the house and land. Summer is coming and without a doubt I'm going to need some help. I also have had my ups and downs with my health and I'm back to that old anxious feeling. Especially around a lot of people. I'm overstimulated and I just want quiet, to be still and know. I told a friend th...

Warning: Long blog but worth the read:   People can tell you anything they want, even if it's not the truth. They will tell you things to pull on your heart strings to benefit their motives until you are no longer beneficial to them. I'm sorry and I love you are the two most misused words ever. Sorry doesn't mean a damn thing if 1: you are not truly sorry and 2: if you keep repeating what you are doing and think saying sorry is going to help, it doesn't! I love you is a big one, anybody can say it but very few mean it or truly show it. I love you has gotten a lot of people hurt and has had them doing things they wouldn't have other wise. Those three words can make or break a person. People don't take what they say and mean seriously, they often don't think about what they are speaking and then we wonder why the world is like it is today. The thing is these are all just words, what matters is the actions of the person for what's in the heart will come out...

  Monday Feb 5th was a great day! Being totally relaxed and enjoying the day is exactly what I needed. I haven't felt to good physically the past few days but I had great company, good music, food, beautiful place, sunshine on our face and the weather was wonderful (62) to be outside. I'm so happy and looking forward to what God has planned for me. When you can finally say it will be what it will be and you have Faith it's amazing how beautiful and blessed life can get. It's the simple things in life and the people in it that makes you smile and know it's all going to be alright 😊 God I just want to say Thank You for all your doing in me and through me. I love having my peace and joy back! I'm praying for others to have and find this too. God and Jesus I Love You 🙏💙

 TURN IT AROUND  Some friends and I wrote the song “Turn It Around” after wildfires ravaged homes in Santa Rosa, California, just miles from where I live. Several members of our church lost everything in these fires.   The devastation of the wildfires made me think of all the times fire was used as a symbol throughout the Bible. God called down fire from heaven to prove His power. He spoke to Moses through a burning bush. He appeared with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in a fiery furnace.   Fire is often used as a metaphor to teach us a bigger lesson. Like flames that consume everything in their path, sometimes God uses difficult circumstances in our lives to burn away all of the areas that don’t honor Him. But what happens when we can’t see through the flames? What happens when the heat gets turned up, and the sting of the burn is too great to bear?  The reality is, when life heats up, we quickly find out what we’re made of. We find out what we truly ...

Have you ever known anyone who did something one time and it changed their life forever? One time having sex and end up with an STD or pregnant and having to decide how to cure the disease if there is one and whether to give life or to end it, takes a drink of alcohol then decide to drive thinking their ok only to hurt or kill someone or maybe themselves or ends up being an alcoholic and fighting with that for the rest of their life, do the drug only to become an addict to fight their whole life to stay clean or it kills them to leave their love ones to miss them, one lie turned into a life time of them and people won't believe them at their word, one affair ruins the relationship and does damage and hurt to others, tells one secret they we're told and now can't be trusted, steals something and it becomes a habit, leading to a life of thieving, one hit or punch leads to being an abuser, and the list goes on. Even if you been doing things for years it only takes one time for...

When you know and still hand someone the knife to cut you the deepest you can't get mad when they finally strike. When they take everything you have and almost your life you can't blame them when they finally do. You think people are loyal, honest and true until they are down on their luck, their backs against the wall, you see their true colors and you feel the fall. Don't act surprised you knew this was coming, you are still learning because you haven't learned yet, to let go of those people whose hearts not true. So pick up your pieces, dust yourself off, thank God for the lesson and turn that learning into learned.  If we don't learn from our mistakes we will keep making them. You need to take accountability for your wrongdoings. Quit placing the blame on others around you, quit justifying why you hurt others. Ask God to change you because until you do, you'll keep hurting others and bleeding your pain on them too. Life's not fair and never will be but u...

This is for anyone who has never loved themselves or puts others before themselves. It's not a bad thing to want to help others or to love them, it only becomes hazardous when you lose yourself and are being hurt. I hear all the time you must love yourself before you can truly love anybody but I disagree. There are a handful of people in this wide big world that love others so deeply that you can't find where they start and the others end. No one knows who they truly are, including themselves because they have lost themselves in the people they help and love. Every person they have helped and loved has taken apart of them and left them not knowing who they are. They are like a constant ocean wave changing at every tide. When they finally had enough and go looking for themselves it's hard to sort out who they are and who they are not due to the pieces that were taken. When they finally find and decide who they are, life and people tells them  that's not them and quit bei...

  How much does it take to trust someone? I mean really trust them? Are you a person who does that easily or do you question people's actions and motives? If you trust the right people they will never let you down, they always have your back and you know that your life is safe with them. That kind of trust is hard to find. I would say like 3%. The other 97% will be quick to throw you under the bus when things go wrong, they will leave you when you need them the most and if they know enough about you will destroy your life leaving it shattered into pieces. You know what though, God always turns ashes into beauty, He will make your life shine even when people are trying to darken it. His people may go through some things but He always restores those who love Him and do His will. You have seen it time after time what God can do in people's lives. So be aware the more you try to do a Godly person wrong the more God will lift them up and bless them. The truth always comes out and yo...