I spent Christmas of 2014 alone and it gave me some time to look back on some of my most notable regrets.  While I never thought I’d be turning 35 without a career, a husband, a house or any children – this appears to be on the agenda for 2015.  Going through Christmas alone was actually good because I realized that being alone is not as bad I once thought.  I enjoyed Christmas cookies, some phone calls from friends and family and some really good holiday movies.  Being alone at the holidays did not kill me – it actually did quite the opposite – it gave me back some of the power I had lost somewhere along the way.

 They say you should never compare yourself to others, but I find it to be a tall order.  Most of my friends made better choices in life and as a result are enjoying a soaring career, motherhood and all the things that come with that good life.  I, on the other hand, seem to have developed a knack for changing both career and scenery every three years.  Instead of enjoying the good life, I’m wondering what will become of me, how I will be taken care of and if I will ever feel like I belong anywhere.  It was these questions that made me take yet another look back at some of my most notable regrets, only this time, I did not regret the choices I made.  You see I simply was not ready.  If you’re not ready – guess what?  You’re just not ready.  Had I accepted that dream job in the Christian music industry, I would have sabotaged it and still ended up penniless in Los Angeles.  I needed to go to LA, I needed to get a taste of the industry and I needed to be brought to my knees and I needed to get sober.  I also laughed in the face of a few great men that I now would give anything to have someone like them come across my path.  We’re talking good-looking, Godly, athletic, sweet and amazing men that I just wasn’t ready to meet.  They were ready to make an impact on this planet, get married and start families whereas I couldn’t see past running in circles.  Had I forced myself to settle down I would probably have ended up divorced with major wreckage in my quake.  These guys were and are amazing men, but I wasn’t the woman I needed to be when I knew them. 

I guess you can say that 2014 has brought me to terms with the woman I have been and made me ready for the woman I am to be.  I do regret not being ready, BUT, I do not regret the choices I have made.  Those choices, strange as they may be, are what led to who I am today.  Without them – I just wouldn’t be.

My resolutions for 2015 are short, simple and as follows:
1) Continue my venture into Celebrate Recovery and go through their Step Program (more on this next month)
2) Pay off my debt and keep it off this time.  (my wandering ways were not meant to hold debt)
3) Stay Gypsy! (aka Stay in His Wind Always)

My Life Verses for 2015 are as follows:
A) Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you... plans to prosper you, to give you a hope and a future.
B) Joel 2:25 - I will restore the years that the locusts ate away.

Wishing all of you a happy and joyous 2015!

As I write this blog, I am in the middle of saying my goodbyes to the friends that became my family here in Los Angeles.   I sure have had some amazing adventures here in the City of Angels.  Hiking, standup paddle boarding and kayaking became a part of my life here.   I can say I have sat on the top of a mountain, scaled a waterfall and learned to rock climb thanks to my adventures in LA.  While there will not be any mountains to climb in my new city, I know there are new adventures awaiting my arrival in Northeast Florida. 



 I recently wrote out a list of all of the things I want out of life.  I labeled this list Dreams: Having a partner in life in the form of an athletic, good looking, outdoorsy, faithful, spirit yielding man; having a broad platform as a writer/speaker/blogger for Christ; Having a ministry or three; having a family/Adoption; Owning my own home; Being financially stable; Staying Cancer Free.  I shortly thereafter wrote another list and labeled it Reality: obtain and keep a nice job that is easy and gives me enough money to not live pay check to pay check; Get involved in a church; Get my non-profit off the ground; Write and publish some books; cultivate my painting; adopt some fur babies; if financially able – host international students.

I later realized that the Dreams list represents what I perceive to be in God’s realm of responsibility and that the Reality list represents what I perceive to be in my realm of responsibility.  It hit me that I still don’t really trust God.   I guess there is a reason that Jeremiah 29:11 is my favorite verse.  For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, to give you a hope and a future.  I even wrote it on a huge painting (displayed above) and as you can see, this painting reveals that I need to work on writing with paintbrushes.   

 In a recent sermon, Erwin McManus recently stated that if we knew what all God was standing in between for us, we’d all instantly die of heart attacks.   The real reality is that neither list is in my control.  I have to learn trust God and I am having to trust Him more than ever with this upcoming move.  I am in the worst financial state of my life.  I have a car that has been giving me reason to doubt its ability to take me across the country and I will only have two months to make it in this new city to which God has called me.  I was so consumed with fear over my decision to move that I could not sleep.  My heart was pounding out of my chest and I was up walking around and telling God that I could not handle this move.  That He was asking too much of me.  That this was more than I could bear. 

 Erwin spoke earlier that day on how God meets us where we are and is always willing and happy to do so.  Erwin was recounting a scene from the life of Doubting Thomas. Jesus had just died and been raised form the dead and there were many witnesses.  Thomas, however, refused to believe the reports that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Thomas said he would only believe if he could put his hand in Jesus’ side where the spear had pierced Him and put his fingers in the holes of Jesus’ hands where the nails had been driven.  The part of the story that really hit me was that God did not get mad at Thomas.  He just showed up in all His glory, but with the spear hole in His side and the nail holes in His hands so that Thomas could realize that His God was not dead. 

In a similar fashion, God met me and my fear the very next day.  I woke up to an email from a woman named Grace, with a company I had been in contact with regarding an open position.  I have an interview scheduled three weeks out for my first week in my new city.  It calmed my soul for a day or two.    Then I started freaking out again and God gave me another interview.  I may not know if either of these interviews will turn into a job offer, but I do know that God is meeting me where I am and saying I have you in the palm of my hand.  This is my will for you so don’t make yourself sick over this move.  In fact, I have already gone before you and given you a nice place to stay.  The rent may scare you, but I already have that handled too.  God has also allowed me to know at least one of the whys for this move.  You see my current company is in trouble and a new GM has been hired and due to God giving me favor with one important person in this company, I have the inside scoop on what is about to happen and let me tell you – had I not put in my notice when I did there’s a good chance I would have ended up stranded in LA without a way to get home and no money to pay rent.  This move across the country might seem crazy, it might seem drastic, it might seem not well thought out, but this move is my saving grace.  Louie Giglio once said that God loves Chaos.  I think he is right.

I honestly do not know what is going to happen over these last two months of 2014.  I will either obtain a job or I will be packing up again and heading back to Tennessee to spend some time with my mom while I pay off debt.  The one thing I do know is that I am 100% in God’s hand and in His plan for my life so I now sleep fine at night knowing that whatever happens, wherever I end up – God’s Got Me and He definitely has a plan for my life or He wouldn’t be catapulting me back across the country to save me from what I could not see coming.

Change, my friends, is the name of the game.  God has been gently making me aware of why nothing seems to be happening for me here in bright, sunny California.  I mentioned in a previous post that I have been pondering the idea that my sobriety might have been why I was led here and that since I am now sober, my time here might be up.  Over the past few months, God has been making this more and more clear to me and I believe I know where He wants me too.   

It’s like God has taken my dreams and started replacing them with His own.  It feels weird.  Once, I knew what direction my life needed to take, I began badgering God for a place to land.  I know the words ‘badgering God’ don’t sound too smart, but I felt that I needed more direction than ‘leave LA and look for stuff like this…’ And so over the course of a week I would get up each day asking God where He wanted me and I would see a map with a circle over one half of the country.  Each day I would ask the same question and each day the circle would get smaller and smaller and smaller until it was over a city.   I know of this city, but I have never been there; however, after doing some research, it does meet a lot of my requirements: on the coast, at least medium sized, good weather, lower cost of living, etc.  It’s crazy for me to even think of moving right now and I have let God know that it seems financially impossible at the moment so I am leaning on Him for this potential move.  I also cannot fathom leaving the friendships I have here, some of which are just beginning to blossom.  And then there is Mosaic – I get up each Sunday excited for worship, excited for a brain challenge from Erwin and Hank and I simply cannot fathom finding a place that matches the energy of this faith community I now call home.  But more than anything, I know I want to be where God wants me because if I am not where He is, it won’t matter how I position myself; the doors will remain locked.

The real uprooting that is taking place in my life is the ripping out of the belief that I am simply not good enough for anything or anyone that God has planned for me.  I guess this has always been an underlying current in my life from sports to career to men to my overall social graces.  It started one night when I was looking at myself in the mirror and getting superbly upset and Jesus reminded me of that day I actually saw myself in the reflection of a man’s sunglasses.  My entire rib cage was exposed.  I had no idea I was that skinny.  I never saw it reflected back to me.  The mirrors I look into only reflect an overweight and hideous looking person.  Then God reminded me about how I tend to get unwanted attention from men.  They always have to look me up and down about five times before they start talking and they have to whistle or say something stupid… Jesus reminded me, in that moment, that I cannot see myself correctly.  Later that night Jesus tapped me on the shoulder while I was going to sleep and said, “It’s time to deal with this.  We have to for what is coming.”  I simply replied, “Okay, but You’re gonna have to do it because I cannot even begin to deal with all that encompasses.” Crazy thing is… He is doing just that. He has made me acutely aware of how much I bash myself on a daily basis.  I mean every other sentence is nothing but self-degradation whether it be my appearance, my efficiency, or my brain.  It wasn’t long before He was cutting me off and by that I mean that internal pulling that makes you stop talking mid-sentence and you’re like yeah sorry and you move on to another topic.  At this point, I can’t even get those sentences out of my mouth.  I mean I’m even starting to like the way I look in the mirror! That’s a first, people, that’s a first.  Jesus is doing exactly as I asked, He’s uprooting this unhealthy and limiting belief from my life and I have absolutely nothing to do with it.  It’s just happening.  But then again, that’s the God I serve.  He never gets angry or frustrated with my incredible humanness.  He just meets me where I am, only giving me what I can handle, always calling me to a greater purpose and He never fails to carry me when required.

Perhaps next month, I will be able to share about the new dreams God has placed in my heart.  I feel like God has taken the dreams and plans I had on the front burner and replaced them with the dreams I had put on the back burner.   I never really got on the whole Tebow bandwagon, but I have been looking into him lately because it appears God might be doing the same with him in that he seems to have also had two very different goals in life and per recent events, God seems very concerned with the one and not so much with the other.  I guess time will tell if he stays on his new road or gets diverted back to the NFL.   And time will reveal whether I will be starting down my own new road and whether that road is here in LA or in a city on the other side of the country that looks really nice from a Google Maps perspective.    

Oh and one more thing! In case you haven’t heard already, November 9th, 2014 is the first ever World Adoption Day!!!  Spread the word to adoptive hearts everywhere whether they were adopted, have adopted or are interested in learning more about adoption.  World Adoption Day is a global celebration of life and family and we want everyone involved!  Go to worldadpotionday.org to find out more!  

I turned 2 on August 26th.  I have officially been clean and sober for two years.  While I still have cravings and yearnings of times gone by, I can most certainly say that I do not have any desire to go back to the life I used to live.  I cannot even imagine being that person again.  When the cravings and yearnings come for that so called simpler time, I am immediately reminded of my inability to control my drinking and who that drinking made me become and the yearnings disappear. 

What seems like an easy answer is often times nothing of the sort.  More often than not, easy answers lead to even more trouble and don’t actually do anything to help one out.  The way I see it, the use of drugs and alcohol is a self-induced mirage.  Dude has a bad day, Dude goes to bar to blow off some steam, Dude forgets about how stressed out he is for a few hours, Dude crashes into bed, Dude wakes up and is stressed beyond belief all over again.  Another example of this self-induced mirage is a woman getting over a heart break by going to the clubs and getting smashed out of her mind and going home with someone she won’t even remember, she forgets everything for a few hours, but come morning she is sneaking out of an apartment and trying to figure out where she is and how to get home and the heartbreak and loneliness return a few minutes later.  Both scenarios are culturally accepted ways to deal with heartbreak and stress; the problem is that neither of them actually solves anything.  They are easy, temporary bandages that take us farther down the rabbit hole.  Only problem is that we don’t recognize our being in the hole until we find ourselves stuck at the bottom. 

We as a society love self-induced mirages.  We are all about distraction instead of answers.  Don’t get me wrong, it is good to take a break from life and get into a good movie or go out and dance the night away. The question at large is the intent behind these and other distraction actions.  Are you desperate for a distraction from feelings and thoughts you don’t want to feel or think or are you just allowing yourself a needed break?  There is a giant difference and unfortunately, you often need a clear heart and a clear mind to tell the difference between the two.

The real answers to our unwanted thoughts and feelings involve facing them head on, sitting with them, getting comfortable with them and learning how to accept them as a part of life.  Once we are no longer afraid of these feelings, their power lessens and we are able to navigate around them in a healthier way.   Many of the greats say that if you feel lonely – you should do something for someone else; if you feel alone – you should become a part of something of significance; if you feel not worthy – you should lift someone else up; if you feel heartbroken – you should find a way to help mend someone else’s heart.  The only distraction God has ordained is our focus on Him, his Goodness and His fierce love for each of us.  For it is by focusing on Him and the giving of ourselves to causes that provoke positive change in our world that we receive healing.  It all starts with a relationship with Jesus and a few good friends who are speaking truth into your life.  If you don’t have either of these, then I suggest starting that relationship and getting involved in a good church or faith-based community.  After this, I encourage finding a few more ways to connect.  If you like hiking – join a hiking group.  If you like painting – go to some painting classes to find others who enjoy your craft.  If you love animals – volunteer for a local shelter or rescue group.  In other words, get a grounding group of people around you, belong to a community and make sure you are involved in something that makes you come alive.  And lastly, when those unwanted thoughts and feelings rear their ugly heads, share them with your grounding group of friends and be willing to let them carry you through when needed.   

Happy Labor Day from a quiet cove in Malibu:

I have been plagued with sickness this past month.  My mind, body and soul have been rather weary and the heat isn’t helping.  I am also not getting enough rest, which is something I have struggled with my whole life.  I am really good about sleeping on the weekends, but the weekdays are an entirely different story.  I guess I am feeling pressure in regards to getting a new career going, but I can only do so much and I really need to listen to my body more often.

On a positive note, for what is sadly the first time in my life, I recognized a player for being a player.  It took three months and constant prayer for discernment before I realized that I was completely being played, but I was able to see the truth in the situation before any strings got attached if you know what I mean.  What’s even more amazing is the fact that I was able to realize that I do not want someone who has the qualities I see in this guy.  I actually want a good guy who will treat me right.  I am actually looking for someone who is honest, kind, gameless and has an active relationship with Jesus instead of the normal slap-me-in-the-face carnal attraction player types for which I usually fall victim.  Now, hold your excitement, because while I want a guy with these characteristics – I am obviously not yet attracted to this type of guy.  But, I can say that I have turned onto the road that will lead to my being attracted to someone who is actually a decent human being.  So there is growth happening in this 34 year old who is sometimes going on three and a half.

Another positive from this past month is the confirmation that I definitely want to make a career transition to a non-profit ministry.  I know I shared that I was giving this idea serious thought last month and can confirm this month that I am now concentrating my job search efforts in this direction.  I feel that my writing is faith based, my stories are faith base, that everything I create is faith based so I might as well transition to a career that aligns with where my heart apparently resides.  I actually had an opportunity to interview for one of the few faith based non-profits in the San Fernando Valley.  I cannot lie and say I was not crushed when I literally slept through the interview, was able to reschedule only to get lost beyond belief and still able to reschedule a third time only to not check my email in time to confirm the appointment!  However, I can say without a doubt that it was not I who sabotaged this opportunity.  After the events of this past week, I feel that God slammed that door in my face so that I could have closure regarding the player mentioned above.  I guess I needed to tie up some loose ends and receive some confirmations before moving forward.  Sometimes receiving clarity is best gift one can receive.

I apologize for this being a short and not at all poignant post.  I set aside an entire weekend to focus on this post, but ended up in bed the entire weekend with a fever and extreme fatigue.  While I am better, some healing thoughts my way are definitely welcomed as the Southern California inland heat is not making things any easier.  I am definitely better, but I am either suffering greatly from the heat due to lack of air conditioning or I am experiencing a drop in my potassium.  Both cause one to be fatigued, have a low-grade fever, muscle weakness, shortness of breath and an all around feeling of blah.  May you and yours have a lovely end to the summer season and I will catch you in September.

Last month I shared my inability to create a community around me here in Los Angeles.  I also shared how this inability to create a community was eating away at my soul.  As it turns out, this simple longing in my soul led me to cling to the only person available to me, My Lord, Jesus. 

As everyone and everything appeared to be taken from me, it became clear that I needed to cling to Jesus, that I needed to spend time with Him and ask Him what He wants from me and for me.  He did not hesitate to respond.

His main priorities concern the proper care of my spiritual body through spending time in His Word and in prayer, the proper care of my physical body through moderate exercise and healthy eating (something I’ve been struggling with as of late) and of course, my writing. 

It was through spending time in His Word, that He has slowly revealed to me what I believe to be a portion of His plan for me.  His plan starts with my growing up.  He gently told me that I have been an infant Christian for over 15 years and that it is time for some growth.  I have found myself back at the very first church I crossed off my list when I started church hunting a few months back.  I started going to this church for the sole purpose of spending time with a spiritual friend who happens to attend this church.  My intent was to spend time with my friend and endure this church, but this church is where my growth appears to be beginning.  To be frankly honest, the plan God has laid before me starts with taking part in several learning and growth opportunities available through this church, which means I will be remaining in LA for quite some time. 

This plan also laid out a new career track and I have begun the exhausting work of job hunting.  I know I would like to work in a non-profit or ministry related non-profit, but I do not have any further definite direction.  I feel like God is taking me all the way back to my beginning.  I thought I had already come full circle, but it turns out I wasn’t quite there yet.  As each month of sobriety passes, I get a little more clarity on who I am and an equal amount of clarity on how much confusion alcohol brought into my life.

 In August, I will be celebrating my second year of sobriety and with this celebration; I am recommitting myself to the AA program.  I have to admit that I have not been to a meeting in months.  I had to leave my home group due to a bleeding deacon and some issues relating to the male variety.  While I have been searching for a new meeting that easily fits into my schedule, there are semi-convenient meetings available and I am just going to have to make one of them my new AA home. 

On a recent hike, a friend and I planned on following a local hiking group to a southern Cali waterfall that actually had water.  We kept a decent distance until we got lost in our cameras and completely lost sight of the group.  Since we were following a group, we did not bother looking at the map at the park entrance so we had to pick a trail and hope for the best.  And so we hiked and hiked and hiked until we found a stream.  It was easy to tell which way the current was running so we stayed close to this stream and headed up towards its source.  We had no idea where we were, but we knew we were headed in the right direction.  We followed the stream for over an hour and were about to give up when we heard the sound of rushing water and laughter.  We pressed forward and found this stream’s source, a beautiful and somewhat rare, southern California waterfall. 

Sometimes, God only reveals which way His current is flowing and leaves it up to us to take on the adventure of following His stream wherever it may lead.  It’s what I am doing right now and if you find yourself in a similar circumstance, I hope you will choose to follow the stream because if you don’t – you just might miss the beauty and wonder of a magnificent waterfall.  

There are times in life where everything seems so unfair.  Whether it is treatment from co-workers or so-called friends, an inability to build a community around one’s self or a constant financial struggle.  Life can, at times, seem very unfair.

I feel like I am on a rollercoaster of emotions these days.  I have somehow gone from supreme happiness and contentment to the deep seeded need of belonging to a community.  I feel more alone than I have ever felt and I do not understand where this feeling is coming from.  While it is true that I have had a hard time building a community in Los Angeles, I have also stayed very busy so it has not been a bother until now.  For a woman, feeling alone equals feeling unloved and you would think that my Father in Heaven would be very sensitive to me at this time.  That He would gently remind me of His love and that He has great plans for me.

Instead, my Heavenly Father is in full on DAD mode.  He has made me acutely aware of the fact that while I may feel like He is not taking care of me, He actually is doing that and so much more.  It started with my learning of a gentleman who had a car accident very similar to the one I had several years back.  The only difference being that I landed upright and he landed upside down.  That one difference means I walked away with lesions and a life long case of whip lash, whereas, he has endured multiple surgeries to fix an internal problem that has yet to be fixed.  He remains in constant misery, unable to work and lives on the verge of suicide due to excruciating pain from an internal problem that cannot be found much less cured.  I could have been him, but I was not.  I function normally, have no pain other than the reactivation of whip lash which means I cannot rock climb or do any thrill riding.  What a difference in our lives!  Favor was definitely bestowed on my indignant soul.

My Heavenly Father went on to remind me of all of the favor He has bestowed upon me in all those paying the bill jobs that I routinely tell Him I could do without.  The only reason I even landed my first job was due to the fact that my boss just liked me and felt like I could be a friend and a co-worker.  It was a similar situation in the second full-time job I acquired.  The woman who was doing the hiring, wanted someone closer to her age that could be an accountable co-worker and friend and that is exactly what I was to her.  I also received favor in the form of the president of the company taking a liking to me.  This man was a ferocious human being, but when he saw me, his whole demeanor changed.  Not once, did he ever accost me like he did everyone else.  Moreover, once I had put in my notice to move to Los Angeles, I found out that he only kept me on the payroll for the previous year because he liked me.  Work was very slow and there really hadn’t been a need for me at the company, but I was able to keep my job and my paychecks, which allowed me to save money to move to Los Angeles all because favor had been bestowed upon my indignant soul.

Once in Los Angeles, I was able to find a job in what I thought took eons but according to LA locals, I was “so blessed to get a job that quick because it can take up to a year or more to get a job in LA”.  Again, a man at my company just took a liking to me from the start.  If you ask me, I think I remind him of a younger version of his wife, but he has been on my side since day one and has also managed to get me two raises in a company where no one is getting raises even when they get un-asked for promotions.  This last raise is what has finally moved me out of living paycheck to paycheck and allowed me to create a plan to get out of debt over the next year.  Even though I tend to see nothing but what is wrong and missing in my life, God has yet again bestowed favor upon my indignant soul.

While I am not completely content with life as I know it, I guess I need to stop complaining and start thanking my Heavenly Father for being my DAD and making sure I have everything I need to live a decent life.  Los Angeles is both great and horrible at the same time with the main issue being that I have not found a place to truly belong.  It is this inability to belong that has me wondering if I only came LA to get clean and sober.   The aloneness I constantly feel is eating away at my soul and it has me thinking about that job in Nashville that I so rudely kicked back to God while screaming “Hell No”.  The very unfunny truth is that clean and sober Jessica would absolutely love that job!  Go figure, right?  I have also been thinking about the fact that if there were one other city in America that has the same self-publishing and writing community as Los Angeles, it would be Nashville.  While Nashville has a few too many rednecks and no ocean, it is close to family and boasts a great city where I can afford to buy a single-family home.  I guess I can say it is on my radar as a possibility in the next couple of years, but even as I type this, I am reminded of my mother who was bound and determined to get out of Tennessee and back to California – she never made it back because love has a way of happening when you are making other plans. 

So here’s to staying up in the air, keeping an open mind, making choices that keep my writing a priority, having a thankful heart instead of a complaining one and most importantly… Here’s to a great summer full of whatever blessings God has in store for this indignant soul.     

I am a Rom-Com geek if there ever was one.  When I say Rom-Com, I am referring to the film genre of Romantic Comedy.  In fact, if a movie is not a romantic comedy, then I most likely have not seen it.  What can I say? I just love romantic comedies. 

If you are not familiar with this genre, I can enlighten you on the main plot points.  (Note: men can be leads in this genre, but to simplify things I am using the common female lead) We usually meet the lead character in a low point in her life.  She is usually single or in a bad relationship and she is usually battling some sort of career dilemma.  She almost always has some character flaws that need to be tweaked as well.  More often than not, the lead character will go through a small metamorphosis brought about by an external situation, whether it be a new job, a break-up, the marriage of a friend, the death of someone close, etc.  This small change usually brings about a determination to focus on what can be controlled in life, like a career or a long-standing passion that has been ignored.  Once the lead character is on this new journey, we see her begin to change on a deeper level as she struggles to make her dream a reality.  Sometimes the main character struggles so much, that she wants to give up, but she usually preservers thinking that this undertaking is all that she has left in life. 

I pause here because God recently made it very clear to me that this is where I am.  I feel lost.  I do not see anything changing on the career front or the personal front.  And so I have done the one thing I can do, and that is put my writing back on the front burner.  I mean, if God keeps telling me that my job is to write and that He will handle everything else; then I should write, right?

I cannot lie and say it has been all roses because it has been anything other than roses.  I have not been able to open a door much less a window and I cannot give an answer as to why this is the case. I am trying to count my blessings, but I am facing the grim fact that I might be spending a very hot summer in a condo without air conditioning.  I have been tossing around the idea of getting my own place, but after crunching numbers, I have come to realize that I can actually afford to be in the exact neighborhood I want to be in provided that I wait one year and pay off all of my debt.  Insert sad face here. 

I can say that I do have a decent day job with a laid-back company that has the high-class problem of growing by leaps and bounds.  This company also allows for flexibility as long as I am getting my job done and that is a major plus too. I know there are many more pluses in my life, but this whole not being fulfilled at work and wanting my own place and needing to make more friends and not being in a relationship and turning 34 in a couple of weeks and watching my chance to have my own family fade away and missing the family that claim me as their own and wanting a reason to be 2800 miles away other than the fact that I like it better than the South… all of it has really had me beat down this past month.  There were days I did not even get out of bed.  I was just in a deep depression.  Nothing in my life makes sense and on top of that, I have felt that I am in an answerless season.  A season where I just have to trust that everything I am doing right now is going to lead me somewhere good. 

During a recent bawling session, my Creator finally spoke.  His words were few, but they were powerful. My Creator, the ultimate screenwriter,  simply wanted to remind me that I have not arrived at the twist.  No, I am not talking about Chubby Checkers.  I am talking about the twist in plot that comes in every Romantic Comedy on the market.  You see just after loosing hope for the upteenth time and somehow finding a way to continue in some form an existence, the lead character encounters a twist of fate.  This twist of fate usually happens after the lead character has cleaned up some of her character flaws and started chasing whatever dream is in her heart.  This twist of fate can come in the form of a person, an opportunity or both.  The main thing you need to know about this twist of fate, this chance meeting, this divine appointment… is that it changes everything and instantly connects all of the dots. 

God was revealing my place in the movie that is my life.  He was letting me know that once I arrive at the twist, everything will make sense.  And I have to say that judging by my own decisions (the decision to get clean and sober, the decision to come back to God, the decision to make my writing a priority, the decision to be more aware of my attitude and make a moment by moment effort to be a light to those around me) all of these personal transformations point to one thing – the twist is on the horizon.  I know where I am in the script of my own romantic comedy and I have a peace and a joy that I cannot even explain.  Might I dare say, that I am HAPPY.

So the question I leave you with is where are you in your life script?  Wherever you believe you are, please do not forget that while you cannot control everything that happens, you can control the overall theme, tone and message of the script that is your life.

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell

Speaking of a soul nudging, I had an intense desire to worship on a week night in March.  I was just being pulled to the computer so I got some things done, logged into Pandora, clicked on the worship station and let it rip.  By the second song, I knew this was not going to be an ordinary worship experience.  God had made this appointment because He had something to reveal to me.  I have previously shared that I have issues grasping and believing God’s love for me.  I can fully believe it for everyone else and often encourage others in His love, but I have always had a hard time accepting it for myself.  Alcoholics are known for being hard on themselves and I can say with all certainty that I have this trait.  Becoming more and more aware of my lack of joy, I have been praying that God would help me to open up to His love, that He would help me receive it on a daily basis so that I can have the joy that so many other Believers seem to radiate.  I don’t feel that I can ever become a light in this world until I am fully able to receive this love and so I have asked Jesus to help me receive it, that His love would become real to me, that it would impact me daily. 

This week night worship experience ended up being a dialogue of love from my Heavenly Father to me.  Through the songs that played He told me how He already knew every mistake, slip up, wrong turn, absurd plan, stupid word and every disappointment I could ever cause Him and He still deems me worth taking on the worst death in history so that we can walk together through this life and escort me into an eternal life that is beyond what any imagination can fathom – supreme happiness – everything this world started out to be until we intervened.

I am proud to say that since this worship experience, I have noticed a difference in my attitude at work, in the car and during my personal outings.  I am nowhere near perfect, but I can tell that God is transforming me into that radiate light I so want to be and it is awesome.  If you are reading this and think you are too far-gone to ever make a change like I am making – then by all means read through my earlier posts.  I am not a saint and that is exactly why I am thankful for my Savior.

This worship experience has also redefined my goals for this year.  First and foremost, I am striving to love Jesus by living my life in such a way that it leads others to Him.  A second goal is to stay sober, which has not really been an issue as of late.  This, however, is due to the fact that I tend to only hang out with people who either do not partake in alcoholic beverages or I only accept invitations where it is unlikely that alcohol will be a focal point.  I know that I will have to branch out at some point, but until then I am happy to just be enjoying the sober life.  Lastly, God has reminded me of something He told me a few years back:  My job is to write; His job is everything else.  Insert eye roll or dumb face or whatever you would like because these are the ways I usually respond to this comment from my Creator.  It just does not compute in my brain.  How can I only carry the writing and God carry everything else?   It seems like a deal anybody with even a quarter of a brain would jump on but, I am one of those beings who seems compelled to make everything more complicated.  Nevertheless, I am complying and what I am finding is that as I make my writing a priority, interesting things start to happen around me.  For instance, the more energy I put into my writing, the clearer I become on what I want out of my daytime career.  I also have some doors opening in terms or new writing groups, critique groups and info-panels that directly correlate to my own business plan. Hmm, maybe I should listen to my Creator more often!  It’s a horrible statement, but it is true.  So often in life, we earnestly seek God’s advice, but as soon as He gives it, we tend to shrug and go make another mistake that makes more sense to us.  Somehow, He still loves us through it all and even patiently holds our hand while trying to keep us from walking directly into and/or climbing over the bumper rails He’s so kindly placed on our paths.

The winds of change are still blowing through my life at this moment and I know I am headed for a major career change, but I also know that this change will usher in a new era in my life.  I feel a resurrection of sorts is on its way – Whoever said it is not about the destination; it is about the journey was right.  Destinations change and often times you find that once you arrive, it is not at all what you had in mind so you might as well savor every moment and let the destination find you.  Besides, if it weren’t for the journey, how would you ever know where you belong?

Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.
Joseph Campbell

I feel like I am in the middle of an uprooting.  Just how much of an uprooting I do not yet know, but I am definitely being pulled up and out to something, someone and somewhere new.  Over the past month I have had some mind bursting revelations in regards to promptings.  It seems that I may have been confusing certain promptings for panic attacks or crazy and unfounded fears. 

It all started a few weeks ago.  I started having intense panic while driving to church.  My muscles would tighten, my breath would shorten and my mind would desperately search for the “why”.  Nothing was causing this reaction.  There was not any beliefs or bad thoughts or fears.  It all just seemed irrational.  It got to the point that when I would step back into my car afterwards that my mind would utter “Whew.  I got in, I got out and they didn’t get me.”  Who is “they”?  I wasn’t sure and I did not know why this was happening.  This same strange phenomenon was also happening at a mission class I was involved in at this same church and it was beginning to happen at my long-time home AA group.  The question as to why remained. 

I can recall having panic attacks prior to my decent into alcohol absurdity so my natural inclination was to think that I was right back to my starting point and had to figure out how to handle this panic without alcohol.  The problem was that I only had this phenomenon in certain situations.  So, why these situations?  I for one did not have an answer. 

Here is where it gets interesting.  One night God was pulling me to the computer to write.  He does this often.  It is a particular pulling in my soul and I know exactly what it is when I feel it.  The only other time I have felt something similar was that day in the hospital when my soul was set on fire and I knew I had to kick everybody out because it was time for my family to say goodbye to my father.  That fire in my soul feeling was not instantly understood.  I remember just knowing that it was now, it was urgent, it was time to say goodbye.  I did not understand it, but I had to act.  I have only experienced this one other time in my life and that also centered on an earthly departing.  It was in the recalling of these experiences that a key piece of information hit my brain.  All of these promptings centered in that area near the heart that I refer to as my soul-self.  Anyone who has experienced these soul promptings knows that you just can’t put these experiences into words.  They are not readily explainable, but you somehow know what they heed and in that moment you realize that you really are much more than this existence. 

That key piece of information was this:  These so-called panic attacks center in the soul.  The same place I get pulled to sit down in front of the computer and the same place that got lit on fire that day it was time to say goodbye.  In this same instance my mind went back to the previous “panic attacks” and I realized that every place I had experienced this phenomenon something very bad ended up happening to me.  It was in this moment that I realized these are not panic attacks.  These are warnings.  God, Himself is sounding the warning alarms in my soul and my body is responding.  The tightening of my muscles which make it hard to drive and walk, the shortness of breath, the inexplicable uneasiness in my soul pulling me up and out of the situation – trying to prevent me from even being in the situation.  I am not having panic attacks, people.  My soul’s alarm is sounding because impending doom is ahead if I continue in these situations! 

Now I don’t know about you, but that is what I call a mind-bending revelation.  All I can do at this point is acknowledge and heed these warnings and see where they lead me.  As a result of this new information, I am taking a step back from my current church and from my AA meeting. These two places and the people in them have been my LA home for the past year and a half, but I am heeding the warning and letting go.  I know you have to be willing to let go of what does not completely serve you in order to receive what does, but that does not make the letting go any easier.  So here’s to seeing where this Wind is blowing as I march into the month known for its changing of the seasons.