Life in the Pandemic

💓  Valentine's Day is just around the corner 💓 WW 84 , based on the DC Comics character Wonder Woman (Diana), premiered on HBO Max Christmas Day. The saga is out there. Against all odds, Diana triumphed over America's, and the whole world's, sinister and power hungry Max Lord.  Cunning Max Lord, the egocentric and lawless "friend" of earth, offered to grant one wish of each and every person. The problem is, one person's tunnel-vision wish could be another person's nightmare. Unity was non-existent. Chaos and destruction ensued everywhere. In other words the goal, Make  Yourself  Great Again,  miserably failed. Diana was the hero, and the world's fears were calmed. I am currently neither Republican nor Democrat; instead, I voted against the candidate that I never voted for in the first place. On January 20th, it felt like our battle ended, for now. "Max Lord" no longer resides in "The House." COVID still remains, but I am hopeful. ...

Tears are a mystery, because we shed them for diverse reasons. Sad, mournful, embarrassed, happy, touched... tears just come. So, see me cry, and don't assume the emotion I feel is sadness.  Wonder Woman Yesterday, I shed a few tears. This time tears were unfortunately due to sadness. Watching, live, a mob of radicals storming The People's Building, breaking windows to enter The Capitol. It was disturbing to me, close to the point of heavy tears. When I watched the movie  WW84 on Christmas Day, seeing actions that included destroying buildings, and cars, and property... it was so disturbing. At movie's end, the concrete, serious side of me thought, "How sad, and who would fix all of that destruction?" And then there are touching tears. Tears that come because of a story's message or the way a special event feels. That happened just today.  The COVID pandemic has provided unusual opportunity for interaction with Littles and reading together. At the tail end of ...

Merry after-Christmas!  Can't wait for 2020 to be over! We BeLieVe... for a Happy New Year.  BeLieVe We received a Christmas card today with no return address and an initials-only signature. The initials were impossible to decipher, but we could clearly read the handwriting: Merry Christmas! Miss you guys. Love your snow. Be safe! WL (or initials something like that). We racked our brains thinking, Who is that? The handwriting seemed so familiar! We were puzzled. And that is the way we felt about 2020. Puzzled AND confused! COVID-19 had no return address, and we didn't recognize our daily lives or our country. Masks were required where we live, beginning in March, worn at every store and pretty much everyplace (except for outdoor exercise, but even some people wore masks doing that). No wonder. In 1918 a poorly-timed mask-less parade caused Philly to be a hot spot for the virulent Spanish Flu. People were dying in the streets. So, with the COVID pandemic, this entire pa...

I am hooked The feeling of closure ...it is like adding that final ingredient to a complicated recipe.  It is the satisfying "click” when a plethora of different devices close properly. It is pressing the last puzzle piece into place in a 2,000-piece puzzle. It is snapping into place the finishing block into a difficult (12+ years) LEGO creation.  It is holding a diploma in-hand following years of education.  A peace dove we recently spotted, probably released at a wedding Our satisfying closures, on the looming cusp of COVID-19 and during, include bucket list trips to the Grand Canyon and New York City (dreams-come-true), career fulfillment after a half decade of trying years, and family relationships reconnecting after 25 . long . years. Also, after 38 years of persistent prayer, one specific and earnest answer was ideally fulfilled, with a beautiful Midwest wedding on August 1, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has had its downs, but I will not forget its ups. On a d...

It is said that children who have experienced trauma often develop beneficial skills to cope in adulthood. So, add another something to the list of things learned during my childhood! I can handle change. Trauma during my childhood was far less than what others experience; but still, growing up to any extent in an alcoholic home is traumatic. And becoming suddenly motherless at young age 35 adds to trauma. It is also said that if there is faith about something burning from within, speak it. That is what this post is about. Speaking or presenting a request. S peak? I will.  And I pray the right person will read this.  I fall asleep believing there is something else I need to know. I awaken with the same thought on my mind. I think I am ready. If there is someone who knows more information about my childhood, please contact me. I need to hear from you. Privately, on Facebook Messenger, is a great avenue.

Too often a passing phrase is inserted lightly into conversations, "It was a miracle.” Being a born-again Christian and follower of Jesus, when I say or write a phrase like that, it is not used lightly. I mean that God provided a true-blue miracle.  One definition of miracle comes from Webster's online dictionary,   An effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause. Miracles and acts of faith go hand-in-hand. The Bible's  Abram (later named Abraham) followed God's command to "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you" ( Genesis 12).  For Abram to follow through with that act of faith, miracles had to occur. Supernatural guidance, for instance. Abram asked, "Where are we going, God?"  God replied, "Buckle up."  In other words, God did not tell Abram where. He put his trust in ...