Body, Mind and Spirit

What a privilege it’s been to be a marriage and family counselor for thirty years. My method has typically been to work with clients on three levels body, mind and spirit. We always examine spiritual issues. I focus on these because but often relationship, career or addiction problems are only a symptom of a deep spiritual emptiness.

For some clients my bringing up this topic is a huge surprise. They’ve never given much thought to the spiritual aspect of themselves. I may lighten the subject by asking, “Had a shower or bath recently? Read the newspaper? Great way to care for your body and your mind! What have you done for your spirit today or even this week or month?”

We have to get past the institutional religion roadblock. Often people have been hurt in church situations. God is not a religion, I explain, and I clarify that I don’t mean simply attending church an hour a week but conversation and connection with the living God. It’s amazing and gratifying to see the life transformations that happen when clients sincerely do this. My clients found these truths on their life quest when financial success and fame turns out to not give enough meaning to existence.

The truth is we all need to savor the personal presence of God. His gifts of unconditional love and eternal life can truly excite us. “If any man (or woman) be in Christ, (s)he is a new creation…”2 Cor. 5:17 Is there anything more cool than that!

Breathless Meditations can kick start your contemplation about our fascinating God. Booklets are available at www.judithrolfs.com

Fanciful Thoughts

Fanciful Thoughts

Would you like to play an imagination game? During my morning prayer time I often write mini-devotionals. Today I wrote one a bit different called Fanciful Thoughts. I have no illusion that this is extraordinary writing, but it was fun to compose. I e-mailed it to my young and adult grandchildren asking them to add a line or two or create their own collection of fanciful thoughts. Perhaps you will add a line as well.

Fanciful Thoughts

I’d like to:

Touch the center of gravity,

Ride the winds of spring,

Measure the weight of a snowfall,

Stir the insides of a tornado,

Watch the design of an unborn baby,

Play in the precision of mathematics,

Watch ideas explode inside minds.

A few words about imagination. We all have this treasure trove within us, that comes along wherever we go, and needs recharging occasionally in nature and times of solitude. Opportunities for expression help imagination grow and it thrives in an environment without stress. All ages can play, and seniors should be even better at it than youth with their history of experiences. (Although seniors sometimes forget to play imaginatively.)

You may wonder why imagination is important. What value are fanciful thoughts and actions? Playing games with thought is enervating and fulfilling and reminds us of connection to our Creator in whose image we’ve been made. Movies like Inception, creations like MAC software, and every invention on earth began as someone’s fanciful thought.

The use of imagination requires no wires, cables, it doesn’t need to be downloaded, and it’s totally free. Often children are too busy with organized activities. I urge parents to guard their time and minds for imaginative play like the beach picture above. My Adventures of Tommy Smurlee mystery fantasy books are all about helping children discover the delight of imagining. Don’t let them grow up without knowing Tommy as a friend.

Will you try a fanciful thought or two yourself today? Share it here if you like.

Favorite Christmas Memory

As a Mom I often felt like Mary in the year 1985 because many times I had to watch my son suffer. But here is a happy memory from that time. And it's a favorite Christmas memory. Let me know what's yours.

December 25^th, 1985 we arrived around nine at Lakeland Nursing Home with song sheets and home-made gifts and cards. It had been our custom for more than ten years, since our children were toddlers, to visit residents in the quiet of Christmas morning even though we didn’t have family there. Wayne and I wanted our four to experience the joy of ministering to others. But in 1985 our eighteen-year-old son David had overslept. He’d been treated for lymphoma since October, was mobile, but fragile. We left him home in bed.

As we worked our way down from the top floor, I’ll never forget stepping from the elevator and seeing David with a semi-circle of silver haired ladies listening attentively to his reading of the Night Before Christmas. He’d driven over late rather than miss. I paused as my mother’s heart took a leap, then closed my eyes and prayed, Lord may our precious son’s life continue. The very next week David was hit by a drunk driver while jogging and his leg was shattered. It would seem our prayers had not been answered, but we clung to faith.

After several leg surgeries with cancer raging through David’s body, a new experimental procedure at UW-Madison Hospital, bone marrow transplant, was suggested and ultimately succeeded.

David and his wife, Kathy and their six-year-old twins, Joshua and Anna, will soon visit us from Florida and Christmas morning we’ll be at another nursing home with his brother Dan and wife, Stephanie, to continue our legacy of bringing Christmas joy to God’s precious elderly. We’ll celebrate Jesus, for in Him, and through Him all things are possible.

Blessed Christmas everyone!

Friendship Thoughts Then and Now

I recently attended my high school reunion - class of 1960. Renewing friendships was deeply satisfying. Coincidentally, soon after returning I began teaching a weekly Total Health Class in Gurnee, IL to eleven awesome, home-schooled high school students. (One, my grandson DJ, is how I got involved with these great young people.) Our text book covers four areas of health: physical, mental, social and spiritual. I reflected on how pleased I was that social health was included because I never gave it a thought in my high school days.

To emphasize social health for my enthusiastic, diligent students and in honor of my reunion I drew a cloak on the dry erase board making designs on it using the letters in their names. “Look around class,” I said. “Some of your fellow students may be lifelong friends, others will be a tiny part of your cloak design but all the people you interact with become part of the fabric you wear throughout life. Sometimes you pick the people who impact you; others enter through circumstances. A cloak with holes is no good and one without design isn’t nearly as lovely. Bottom line is relationships matter so take care of the ones you want to keep strong. Some need minimal care; others more careful attention and they’re well worth it. Treasure friendship! When I’ve gone through tough times, how I’ve appreciated having friends come alongside me and help me. And what a privilege to be on the giving end helping others.”

Next we studied the eleven systems of the body. I loved having my students consider these intricate structures we carry around every day some of which perform without our direct supervision. (When did you last tell your heart to pump?) In their notebooks my students are recording some fascinating numbers: 206 bones in the human body. 600 muscles in the body. Millions of nerve cells. Man, wo-man, amazing dynamos! We’re created on purpose for unique purposes and relationships are part of how our life purpose is accomplished.

A Woman’s Guide: 52 Ways to Choose Happiness and Fulfillment has a helpful chapter on developing friendships and understanding the levels of friendship. You can download it free from my website www.judithrolfs.com. Have a grace-packed day, my friend.

My Yes Brought Great Joy

Today I’m sharing the heart-wrenching article I wrote 19 years ago when I began to totally trust God for the first time. "MY YES BROUGHT GREAT JOY" appeared in Billy Graham’s Decision Magazine (Circulation 400,000 who hopefully were encouraged by its theme.)

“After the birth of our third child my husband, Wayne, and I had received medical advice not to have any more children. But here I was, pregnant again.

Depression engulfed me. Emotionally I faced the possibility of two horrible outcomes: If hemorrhaging occurred, as it had during my third pregnancy, and I was unable to receive immediate Cesarean surgery and transfusions, the baby and I would both die.

Another fear was that this newly forming life might be destroyed within my womb by my own antibodies because of previous RH blood factor complications. If this baby should need a total blood transfusion at birth, the baby's brain could be damaged during the difficult transfusion process. Clearly my own health and the mental and physical health of the baby were at risk.

Then there 'was my emerging career. I was ready for the world beyond the home. I was reluctant to interrupt my beginnings of college courses and part-time teaching.

For me the most significant argument of all against this pregnancy was our three children; I knew that I didn't want to leave them motherless! I began to consider seriously an option-abortion.

But one question. kept on disturbing me. Was this pregnancy an accident, or was it the hand of God directing my life? If this turmoil inside me were the result of my deepening relationship with God, I felt betrayed and cried out, 'God, just how involved are You in my life?'

The words in Psalm 23 spoke to me of a personal God who shelters his own: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" (Psalm 23:4, KJV). Would God protect me? Was he part of this?

One evening my neighbor, Judy, came over to visit. I shared my deep fears and confusion with her. 'Judy, I have to know if things really do happen for a purpose-if God is in control of all aspects of our lives. Or do we humans just make mistakes that result in accidents?'

I knew what I wanted to believe, but was it true? Judy listened thoughtfully, bounced ideas back and forth with me, then asked, 'What does Wayne think you should do?'

I told her that Wayne was as concerned as I was but that he would not choose an abortion for me. He had told me that the final decision was mine. That night I fell asleep with the question of whether to have an abortion foremost in my thoughts.

The next day I awoke knowing what I would do! Perhaps my friend had prayed; I knew that Wayne had prayed. With quietness and confidence I chose to place my trust in God. If it were time for me to die, I would; if I would have to rear a brain-damaged child, I could. I would not destroy this new life within me! As for my "career," it wasn't worth the life of our child.

On March 27; 1972, Daniel Thomas was born. He was named Daniel after that great man of God whose trust in God never failed, and Thomas for his mother who'd had to overcome doubt before she could fully trust.

Daniel's birth was premature, an emergency Cesarean section, but miraculously he did not need a total blood transfusion.

Daniel, God's great gift, is precious beyond words! Far from being brain-damaged, Daniel today is a bright student and an excellent athlete.

Looking back, the interruption in my career was brief and barely noticeable from the perspective of a lifetime. How can I compare that to the life of my son?

Watching Dan mature has been all the more treasured because of this decision that had meant his life or death. I do not question the loving intervention of God in my life."

DECISION MAGAINE April 1991

[That's Dan shown in the picture above with his Dad at Wayne's birthday this year .]

Trusting God is a major theme in my mystery novel, Directive 99.

Advice for Learners 2010

I've always though a new school year was exciting and filled with potential. This is the advice I sent via letter to our six-year-old twins as they started school last week. I think it contains wisdom for adults in new situations, too.

"Dear Anna and Joshua,

Grandpa and Grandma are proud of you starting first grade. School is lots of fun - you get to meet new friends and learn new things.

Here are some things we’d like you to remember:

Look at your teacher and listen when she talks. Obey her rules with a cheerful smile and don’t be grumpy when you have to do something.

If you have a question or need help ask. If at first you don’t understand how to do something, it’s okay, sometimes you need to try several times before you can do something new, like riding your bicycle, remember? And sometimes your brain needs to hear things often, before the new idea gets stuck in it well. Be patient with yourself.

Look for children to be kind to. Check if someone seems to be left out and include them. Even if other children are sometimes naughty, you be good. However, if someone is rude or unkind you don’t need to play with them until they improve their behavior.

You may want to keep this letter and read it from time to time to remind you of these things. Especially always remember God and your family loves you.

Love,

Grandma and Grandpa"

Learning is a joy and a privilege. What are you inspired to learn this fall? I encourage you to make it happen!

You won't find a children's fantasy mystery book that's more fun or has better life lessons for boys and girls ages eight and up than Adventures of Tommy Smurlee.

Pottery Class and God

Yesterday I finished the last of my six-session pottery class. What a privilege to participate in the creation of eleven objets d'art (?). I’m in awe of those who create with their hands. Is this how a plumber feels when he brings water lines to kitchens and bathrooms in new homes, or an electrician who works with God’s amazing power to bring light where there has been none?

My new friend Laura, who dug garden plants and made pies with me for a Fontana Garden Club scholarship fund-raiser event, suggested I’d like pottery-making. Same principle as pies, except instead of rolling a crust, you actually use a wooden rolling pin to flatten the clay and then imprint it with shapes and form it into platters and bowls. My husband, Wayne, thought this would be better, too, because he always eats my pies, and there’d be no calorie danger with decorative art.

I’d read the Scripture about God being the potter of our lives, but had no idea it was such a rich analogy. Isaiah 64:8 “Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

You can “throw” on the wheel too, although I felt like the wheel was throwing me and I was holding on for dear life when I got it spinning at maximum speed. The importance of centering the clay first spoke clearly of how our lives must be centered in Christ before we can accomplish anything of value. Centering is not easy, but nothing happens without clay being centered first. Over and over I had to reshape my glob – the way of centering is pushing down and pressing in at the same time. Isn’t that what God does to me when I need shaping and need it again and again?

Theological principles abounded in the art room: Don’t be afraid, just try. It’s necessary to continually use water –keep the clay wet enough, drizzle it with a small sponge. Where am I without Your living water O Lord? Just enough pressure, not too much or the pot will collapse. I tried the wheel several times, and then made the rolling pin my method of preference, although I hope to master the wheel some day.

After rolling and shaping comes the glazing. What a wild process that is! The colors that are painted on with a brush or sponge are nothing like the gorgeous shades that come out of the fire! In fact they’re rather ugly. Nothing looks like it will be after it’s put in the fire.

Using multiple layers and different colors seems to produce the most exciting effect. Lord, isn’t that true of our lives too when they’re enriched by many experiences? Our instructor’s wise advice went something like this: I can’t tell you what to make, do whatever you think. We all did, and found creativity within us that worked. When I saw my first piece after it came out of the glaze and remembered I’d painted on chalky looking shades of almond and thick, crackly forest green I exclaimed to Betsy: “It’s a miracle!” My platter was a shiny, vibrant green with shades of gold forming the veins on my leaves. She laughed and said, “That’s just what happens.”

God, isn’t that just what happens when you push and pull on us and allow life to smash us up a bit, then you glaze us and set us in your furnace? And voila, out comes beauty shaped by the Creator’s hand, each of us unlike any other person around.

What a visible experience for me of the Lord's amazing workmanship. I praise Him for equipping me to participate in my little acts of creation. I shaped platters for each of my married children, which may end up in closets displayed only during my visits, but that's okay. I made birds, flower holders, riz-a-ma-tiz’s (yes, that’s my new word meaning thing-a-ma-jugs) for my garden, and bowls and platters in every color. Every single piece was a total experiment. How fun it was having no idea when I began shaping the clay what it would be. Often the way the clay rolled out suggested it’s ultimate function, but sometimes I just twisted and patted and pushed and pulled it a bit until it found a design.

The whole process is fraught with emotional danger. You can never become too attached to any piece because it could crack and fall apart in the kiln and not even make it through the first firing so it can be glazed. The second firing was no less risky. Lord, is that how You feel when you watch us live out our lives with our self-will running rampant? Jeremiah 18:4
says “But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him."

It was exhausting work at times. Those pieces of clay are heavy, the work is messy, and clean-up is a process in itself, but I’m thrilled to have done it and learned lessons I’ll never forget. Now I need to build a shelf so I can see what God and I did – for without His Creative giftedness within me, without the 54 bones He placed in perfect functioning order in my hands, not to mention the brain cells, and the intricate bio-chemical process of vision, none of this could have happened. What a Creator, what a fun experience. Thanks, Laura, my sculptor friend, and Betsey, my instructor.

If you haven't already done so, read Directive 99 with its powerful life messages. Only God, our potter, has the right to end the life of a person, only he knows when the shaping of the clay is complete. I’m humbled and amazed at the response e-mails I've received from readers. This one came in today from a couple in Southern Illinois while I was writing this: "My husband just finished your book and loved it. It’s on my list to read now. Alice"

(The picture above shows me in the center making pies with friends Claudia and Norma.)

Spiritual, just not religious?

Have you ever heard anyone say I’m spiritual, just not religious? I had a conversation like that with a person recently who took pride in having a faith that’s neutral, passionless. He described it as a firm belief in an undefined, generic God Who doesn’t impact personal life.

It seems to me that a vague belief in a Creator who is powerless to impact one’s daily reality is like having a treasure chest in the middle of your living room where you can walk around and admire the construction of the box, yet never open the lid and experience the treasures within.

I value the treasures of God and wouldn’t live my daily life as I do without them. Like assurance of the love of God that makes it possible to be an outrageous lover of all God’s people, enemies included. Like the supreme trust that enables me to live with joyous self-abandon, because God has ultimate control. I like the excitement of each new day anticipating the challenges and wonders God has planned. The deeper I dig into God’s Treasurebox the more there is: sweet comfort when I hurt, hope when I’ve walked into a place of blackness and supernatural energy when mine is depleted. And when I see a scene like this while driving through the Carolinas I gulp, He's amazed me again.

By the way, I don’t consider myself religious either. Something about the word reminds me of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day – men who walked about preaching to others the externals, legalities of faith, without having the internals straight. The character, Jennifer, in my new novel, Directive 99, is like this. Her spirituality was surface without substance. She served others without joyous heart affection until God got her full attention. (For more info on Directive 99 visit my website www.judithrolfs.com.) Personally, I prefer the descriptive words a Jesus truster or an unabashed God lover.

Treasuring the Elderly

Here's my new book baby launched this week - a mystery thriller that includes murder, kidnapping, two love stories and a message about protecting the elderly among us.

I’m not sure how my love affair with older people began. Perhaps it was having interesting grandparents. Maybe it was my wonderful carpenters in their 80’s whose workmanship more than compensated for the fact that their work pace was slower.

I do know it was sharpened by the word of God which reminds us to respect the living treasures of wisdom we have among us. Leviticus 19:32 "Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD."

In a church I visited last week while vacationing in St. Petersburg, FL, I encountered Ann – 88 years young sitting next to me in her spiffy pill box hat dressed to the nines. Of course, I had to chat with her afterwards. Angel Ann I immediately nicknamed her in my mind– what a sweet face, joy spilled from her eyes as she shared how she washes and irons the church altar linens every week and has performed this service in various parishes for sixty-two years.

After we exchanged names Ann promised to write me a letter if I gave her my address, because writing letters was something she liked to do, but “Sit down when you read it, because I write long letters.” I told her about my current writing and she promised to pray for me every day, promptly adding my name to the list she carried in her purse on a big card. Getting a quick glance at the paper, I estimated about fifty names already on it.

Ann reminded me of Kathryn in my new novel, Directive 99, a resident of a futuristic government run life centre for the elderly. Here greedy officials introduce a plan to euthanize them in incrementally lower ages because the economy no longer can handle the burden of their expense. My Kathryn, vibrant and alert, performed her part-time work as an antique jewelry appraiser and was a beloved family member to her nieces and nephews, but she would be among the first to die.

I’ve studied current population data and prevalent myths (I’ll present them in depth in the future), but beware of false dogma. What God creates he provides for (unless the greed of man snatches it away.) We need not destroy the elderly to advance our personal lifestyle. The time is coming when euthanasia very well may be presented as a viable choice. It’s not - not ever.

If you like suspense, a love story, and a fast-paced novel with a moral message, I encourage you to get your hands on Directive 99, available through Amazon or Barnes and Noble stores or my website: www.judithrolfs.com

A Normal Day

How I treasure a normal day. Life changes in a second when suddenly normal is gone.

You remember the moment forever when you learn of the physical illness or death of a loved one. It’s like your chest is being compressed as terror floods your mind. You want to yell, stop, this can’t be happening, but your gasp is silent as it should be, if it is a family member or friend dealing with their own shock and needing every ounce of support and encouragement you can give, but it’s enormously difficult.

The disruption of normal happened to my husband and I the Monday after Thanksgiving when he returned from a pre-op physical and announced the EKG revealed a heart abnormality. A week filled with stress tests and echocardiogram and cardiologist visits spun by in dizzying speed. Until we heard no alarm, heart’s okay, but the tumor found during a colonoscopy was to take two days in UW. Madison Hospital to eradicate. If there’s a sweeter word in the English language than benign I can’t think what it is.

Where was God in all this? I felt like a tightrope walker holding two poles, Christ and the Holy Spirit, and a magnetic beacon, God the Father, drawing me forward. The Scripture verse that sustained me, for I surely needed strengthening, was given me by phone from a dear friend the next day. You may laugh when you read this or perhaps consider me dotty, but I embraced “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all (I really needed this because I become very assertive when a loved one of mine must maneuver the medical maze.) And then this next section is a gem, “The Lord is near.” Followed by “Do not be anxious about anything, but present your requests to God with petitions and thanksgiving and the peace of God which passes all understanding will be yours in Christ Jesus.” (Phillipians 4: 6-10)

Not only did I read this, I printed out three copies – one for my purse, one for my bedside, and one in case I lost either of the other two. I memorized it and meditated on it. If ever Scripture was a sword, this was for me.

Now again I’m savoring normal days, but taking longer to dwell over the joy of a shared trip to the store or lingering while we wat breakfast together instead of zipping off. Rejoice? You can be sure we do, with hearts of gratefulness.

If you or a loved one faces the terror of cancer or heart disease, may I suggest requesting a copy of Triumphing Over Cancer, a manual I wrote to help patients after being thumped by our own eighteen year old son’s cancer followed by his being hit by a drunk driver. There is a fundamental flaw in the name it, claim it prototype of God, but there is total truth in a God whose love is measureless and whose strength of grace is steel in His hands and ours.

I wouldn’t, couldn’t, walk through the devastation of concern for a loved one without Him. The manual, Triumphing Over Cancer, will do more than two or three greeting cards. Order it at the website or e-mail me direct at jwrolfs@charter.net.

Eyewitness Account Washington D.C.

Health Care Rally November 5, 2009

Wayne and I arrived in Washington for an extended weekend visit to the Smithsonian Museums arranged months ago. As God would have it this happened to be the day of the Citizen’s Rally against the House Bill on health care. Of course, as a writer and an American, who would be impacted, I wanted to check it out, and there was no holding back my husband.

As I walked among the crowd of thousands upon thousands while listening to the speakers on the steps of the Capitol, I wondered why had these men and women dropped everything to come on short notice of less than a week? Why the sacrifice of time and money by many who, according to their own admission, had never before been involved in politics?

I studied their faces, heard their comments and read the signs they carried to get my answer. Then I understood. They came to see if the concept that made America the greatest country on earth still works. These people had hope written all over them that the voices of “We the people” still meant something in Washington.

All ages were represented. A woman in front of me with green streaks in her hair and tattoos up one arm tended lovingly to a baby in a stroller while cheering loudly for the health care bill to be halted. One voice, one mission: legislators use common sense; do not abuse our trust. She eagerly accepted a bumper sticker being passed out, which I didn't understand at first - a yellow coiled snake with the saying "Don't Tread On Me." Later, I learned that was symbolic of the American Revolution when people told England to stop imposing impossible, unjust taxes.

Reliable polls had determined that the majority of Americans want the health care system improved but the majority do not want a government run system. These hard-working people feared receiving inferior and limited health care. Most doctors and other medical professionals have said this would follow as surely as the sun rises and sets and point to government systems in Canada and England as examples.

The House Health Care Bill is far reaching and proposes a system of gatekeepers to see if medical procedures and prescriptions doctors recommend are necessary. These gatekeepers may be government controlled doctors or lay people who will decide -how no one knows for sure - perhaps simply by quotas, or “quality of life” issues. Rally-goers wondered how adding another layer of bureaucracy could do anything but add more costs and inefficiency to health care and increase taxes for all.

In fact, the people we spoke with feared their backs would be broken with the total cost of government run health care and other new government programs being proposed. The people are scared by a financial burden beyond their ability to bear. Is this an exaggeration? Hardly. Our country has never in its history seen such runaway deficit spending. In the final bill passed late Saturday night a travesty would be executed against them - they will be responsible for more new debt of one to two trillion dollars. These people, like most, live by core financial principles. It would never in a thousand years occur to them that they should pledge to buy something they couldn’t pay for.

It shocked me to learn that in the bill citizens may be threatened with fines and jail if they do not buy the government plan. What an incredible violation of liberty that I MUST buy something – I can imagine our patriotic founders laughing at the thought!

But the worst aspect of all is the concern that we might have to participate in funding the murder of unborn children and speed up the demise of the elderly. Abortion is unacceptaable to the majority of Americans at every level. I believe it is the worst abuse ever foisted on women who suffer horrible physical and emotional complications from believing the lie that abortion is okay.

We encountered rally goers who also visited their own Congressional representatives in groups and individually beseeching them to rethink what they were about to do. Outside Nancy Pelozzi’s office a group gathered to crumple and toss to the floor pages of the 2000 page bill as they peacefully protested against abortion. Inside a little old priest lay on the floor in silent prayer and protest until he was carried out by three police officers.

On Saturday evening “We the people” watched as many of the men and women we’d elected broke every principle of sound financial management. I’m sure many who stayed through the vote gasped with dejection as the government passed a bill placing their families in a nightmare of debt. Fortunately Stupak's amendment stopped the abortion clause but only for a time. Watch out for what comes through in the end from the Senate!!!

No one has greater compassion for the poor than Wayne and I. However the poor are not served by creating more poor among us.

Other options for health care reform were totally ignored in this bill. Setting up state funds to help those who are unable to purchase insurance, as some states already have for those denied coverage wasn’t mentioned. No effort was made to curb excessive costs of medical malpractice. In fact, states that already had reforms in this area must eliminate them.

Some attenders believe that the reason for the Democratic government’s free health plan is a power play. If most people are dependent on the Democrats, they will also have control of their vote. Might this be true? However, it’s not the politics that concerns me as much as the lack of common sense in coming to a solution to this problem.

One thing is certain: The American people should not be subjected to the hypocrisy of legislators who create a health program that they refuse to personally participate in!

It’s as if the enemy has infiltrated our government and the enemy is within. People are scared by the direction our country is taking. Is America being destroyed by the actions of those who were supposed to guard it? Sad, but true, “We the people” seem to have lost our voice as we’re being changed into “We the government.”

But not yet. And we must continue to express our concerns and do all we can to keep this country fiscally sound and socially responsible for the needs of ALL AMERICANS.

Just a few thoughts, dear ones.

November Fun

After finishing the manuscript for my new novel 99, I celebrated by taking a trip with Wayne, my traveling buddy-hubby. We observed the passionate people's Health Care Rally in D. C. on Nov. 5th in opposition to the current House Bill, then attended an evening lecture by Tim Keller at the National Cathedral of the Episcopal Church. How inspiring to see 1000 young adults and thirty and forty somethings absorb his message to beware of false idols of wealth and possessions. (I highly recommend checking out Tim Keller's website and downloading some of his powerful free podcasts.)

The International Spy Museum was fascinating and provided research for a future suspense plot. We were enthralled by each of the Smithsonian Museums and walked to, fro and within each about five miles daily, praying often throughout the day. (We value prayer-walking ever since our time volunteering for Campus Crusade.) The highlight of our trip was all the fascinating people we met as we rode the Circulator bus, spoke with fellow travelers in our hotels, toured the Capitol, etc. We splurged on one night downtown D.C. at the elegant Hotel Monaco hob-nobbing with lobbyists and legislative aides and praying as we conversed.

After D.C. we spent three days in Williamsburg studying the factors that led to the American Revolution against the loss of liberty and the excessive taxation that England imposed. What an interesting parallel to contemporary politics. Then off to Virginia to visit our son and his wife and our five-year-old grandchildren.

We live in a great country filled with awesome people. May it thrive ever more in the years ahead.

What a gift of joy this trip has been - much laughter, mind-stretching experiences, spectacular education - I'm filled with gratitude - such an outstanding prelude to Thanksgiving!

May yours be extraordinary!

Birthday Thoughts

You young things hang on, because the years roll by with breathless speed.

All of a sudden, like me, you'll find yourself in the senior ranks, and the delightful surprise is it's quite fun after all. The opportunity you have for reflection that the hurry-scurry years seldom allowed is great. Yes 60's are all in all quite a nice place to be.

I recently took the time to ponder what 67 feels like.

Life for me has been less a self-planned unfolding of my choices as I used to pompously believe and more an intentional journey with God. A release, a freedom to day by day plunge into the unknown, ordained by Him. And then hanging on tightly and delighting in the tour He's planned.

New options appear at every season for walking through open doors God has placed before me. Entering isn't scary any more. I'm always eager to respond to anything that might be of Him.

Sometimes I start leaping too fast as St. Peter often did. But then my husband, Wayne, reminds me he became the first Pope. So Wayne's taken to calling me Popette. But always I'm guided, sometimes with a thump, back to the reality God has intended for me in every course of this feast of life.

Over the years I've learned a few important things about me that change the way I view everything:

I have no giftedness apart from what our God has placed within me.

I have no desire for riches except to use them for God's work in the world.

I have no need of anything that He hasn’t provided.

I am among all women the same but different because I KNOW I am richly blessed with treasure that cannot be lost or stolen.

How I praise my God who has birthed His love and wisdom within me!

My goal is only that I may honor Him adequately with these brief days of life.

And leave a legacy of truth and strength for generations to come.

I embrace fully the heritage I received, including my family's history of alcoholism and dysfunction, but also one of faith and creativity and love, all of which I desire to sent forth into eternity.

In EVERY SITUATION, I bow to the one who made heaven and earth and me and I say Thank You for dwelling in me. And for giving me a power to laugh at life and see the sparkle in each person. And thanks for instilling in me a few talents to invest for the Kingdom to come.

Happy Birthday, Me!