Sometimes life takes you way, way, way up in the air and just leaves you there, hanging.  After a while you can’t help but wonder if you are headed for a touchdown or a crash landing. 
 
While my financial situation hasn’t changed, my stress level has skyrocketed.  The company that I have been trying to run from is crumbling before my eyes.  There is good news though!  After feeling uneasy and unsafe for so long I had started to question if my past was causing issues in my present, but it would turn out that my gut, my discernment, my instinct – whatever you want to call it – it was telling me something is off and so are all these people.  I couldn’t understand it.  It was unfounded and I found it crazy that I felt safer in gang-ridden Los Angeles than in Jacksonville, FL, but as I now know those feelings weren’t so unfounded after all.  This is the good news.  It wasn’t me.  It was and is the company and people I call my day home.  While I cannot share any of it here at this time, it does feel good to know that I can and should trust my instincts. 
 
I have been questioning many of my past decisions that were made based on my gut instinct and while they look like they might have been wrong – current happenings say otherwise. Following your gut instinct can lead you into a deep valley, but that doesn’t mean you were lead astray.   In my case, I know that the valley I am in is a back-to-the-basics, re-grounding and re-focusing list of lessons that will make all the difference when the gate opens to the pasture in my future.
 
One of those lessons is the simple truth that I can ask Jesus for a hug whenever I feel overwhelmed and over stressed.  I learned this one evening while in shavasana after a hearty detox flow.  I saw myself as a little girl in a white dress balled up crying my eyes out.  Jesus came to me and picked me up and I watched myself disappear into His light.  I did catch a glimpse of myself in His arms and I was smiling from ear to ear and happy as a child could be. I then saw present day me get up off the yoga mat and walk into Jesus’ arms disappearing into His light.  While I was watching all of this I felt an overwhelming sense of peace, calm and tranquility.  I was immediately elevated somewhere above my current human status and experienced a calm I had never known before.  I guess what I felt was love and my tear stained face proved it.   And I have felt this same tranquility again and again as I have taken Jesus on His word when He told me at the end of that vision “Don’t forget I AM always here.”  I no longer deal with anxious or unwanted thoughts in bed and I no longer worry about what to do with myself when I am alone.  Some people have alcohol or weed or a host of other things, but I have Jesus and I find Him to be the most effective calming presence with zero negative side effects.
 
I am also finding out what is important to me and what deserves my focus and what does not.  I am sad to say that like many people who grew up like I did – I have quite a fascination with materialistic things and the finer quality things at that. Take it from one who always wants the most expensive of everything… It turns out that I look just as good if not better in what I can easily afford!  I do have to admit that my pride took a hit and I might have had to be forced into one of the stores after exhausting myself in 100-degree heat trying to replace a pair of everyday sandals that broke, but once I was in the store I had a hard time leaving.
 
And then there’s that whole living with intention and learning to make the best of every situation and becoming a living example of what I want to see more of instead of what I want to see less of…. Yes, I do agree… trusting your gut can lead you into a deep valley, but it does not mean you misunderstood or made a mistake.  It does mean that you went where you needed to go to learn what you needed to learn for when you get plucked out of the valley and into the pasture that is your future.  I mean what’s the purpose in getting everything you want if you have no idea what to do with it?  I am now realizing this could have happened to me and it would have been a complete disaster!    Oh and another something – I am finding that when I spend the day in Jesus’ arms – all those personality traits that I have been trying to get rid of somehow disappear and I didn’t do anything but ask Jesus to let me sit in His arms all day long.  They say Jesus is sufficient and after spending the last couple of weeks in His arms I can say with complete certainty that He really is more than enough.

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.

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.     

Earlier this month I asked God to help me grasp His love for me.  You see, some pretty awesome people that are on some serious Jesus juice surround me and I want to be on it too.  They have this passion and peace and joy that is contagious only I can’t seem to catch it.  I do know that they all seem to be able to grasp how much God loves them and that is one thing I just cannot seem to accomplish.  I will believe it for a few days or on a good week, but then life slaps me in the face again or I make a mistake or something doesn’t go my way and I for some reason assume that God doesn’t approve of me which translates to Him not loving me. 

It’s strange that I have always been able to trust God when it comes to keeping me cancer free. (Back-story: I had a melanoma while my father was fighting his losing battle with melanoma.  Mine was in the skin which is stage 1; his was everywhere which is stage 4) I recall begging God to just keep it in the skin so I never have to go through what my father went through and I’ve never really worried about it since.  I’ve had several moles removed over the past six years with most of them being pre-cancerous.  In fact I had another mole removed this month and it was while I was alone in the room waiting for the extraction that a terrifying thought occurred to me.  I have a part to play in my having this type of cancer.  You see, I’ve always thought the reason it was so easy to trust God with something like cancer was because I had no part in it.  It was His deal and therefore He was responsible.  The truth is that simply is not the case.  While a genetic predisposition to Melanoma does play a huge factor in whether one is susceptible to this disease, so do one’s actions.  As a young lady in the south, I did more than my fair share of idiotic sunbathing.  Hell, I’d never even use sun block… No, I sir… I had to have the tanning oil that seeped the sunrays into my skin.  I was also a heavy tanning bed user and considering that my melanoma was on my foot, I’m pretty sure that what I use to refer to as my “bright, warm coffin” almost actually was just that for me.  I mean I even returned to the tanning bed after my father lost his battle with melanoma and after I had a melanoma.  I mean my actions were beyond stupid, but God has honored my request nonetheless.  I can see His hand in the timing of some of my doctor appointments, in the doctor’s I was lead to who ended up being awesome, proactive caretakers including my brand new California caretaker. 

It hit me in that exam room, that God has been keeping me alive and keeping this persistent melanoma from going past my skin for six years.  I also thought about my many car accidents, all of which, I am extremely lucky to have walked away from much less walked away unharmed.  Those accidents were 100% my doing, God had nothing to do with those and yet He kept me alive through all of them.  Then I remembered how I almost died when I was a year old due to a heart valve that wouldn’t close.  I just stopped breathing and if my neighbor had not been home to rush me to the hospital, I would have died.  I recalled how I endured several high-risk surgeries and practically spent the first few years of my life in a hospital in Nashville.  My mother says it got to the point, that if I saw anyone who resembled a doctor or a nurse, I would just start screaming.  They were trying to help me, but the only thing I knew was that when they came, it hurt. 

Believe it or not, the list actually continues.  Some items on the list are all my doing and some are half mine and half God’s and only one is just God’s.  The fact is that regardless of whether I was at fault, God still had His hand on me, He was still carrying me through and He has had more than several chances to get rid of me, but He has chosen to keep me around.  He must think I am worth something.  He must have a plan for me.  He must love me.

So I asked Him to help me slowly chew on this as it was going to be a long digestion.  God is showing me a lot of love right now through the people He has placed in my life.  People that love me right where I am and are patient with me as I continue to learn to navigate this world sober and I can truly say I have never experienced anything like it before.  I can actually see His hand in everything that is happening in my life.  Why I landed where I landed in LA, the people I have come to know, the jobs and internships I have held, the purpose of my current responsibilities… the dots are starting to connect. 

Six months ago today, I surrendered the one thing I thought was my everything.  On that day, I thought God was being mean and punishing me and wanting to take away the one thing that always got me through, but it turns out He was intervening on my behalf because He knew that if I stayed on that road, I wouldn’t be alive to write this post. When it comes down to it, we can be some dumb, defiant, stubborn, and greedy people and if we are honest with ourselves, we find that God works in spite of us much more than He works with us.  However, He continuously chooses to intervene on our behalf… and if that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

“Walk out of any doorway, feel your way, feel your way like the day before.
Maybe you'll find direction,
Around some corner where it's been waiting to meet you.”  
Lyrics from Box of Rain, Grateful Dead

Have you ever been in a situation where you were so sure it was going to work out only to find yourself slapped in the face with calamity, disaster or even worse, humiliation?  Have you ever had a person enter your life that you thought was the answer to a problem only to have them spit in your face and call you crazy?  Have you ever landed a great job only to get settled in to find that the writing on the wall screams not your cup of tea?  Well, that’s just God taking you in a different direction. 

I’ve had a string of these situations recently and I find myself in the middle of such a situation right now.  It’s not fun being unsettled, especially when the writing is so clearly written on the wall and you have yet to uncover your next destination as well as the how and when of your arrival.  It’s like being stuck in two worlds.  You know you aren’t staying where you are and you have some clues to where you are going, but the exact destination and route are still unknown.  It’s all God leading you in a different direction.

I was recently handed a job that was a literal lifesaver in that I was about a month away from being homeless when I got hired.  I was very excited to find that not only was I able to stay in California, but I also had a pretty easy job with awesome co-workers, kick-ass bosses and a general laid back, easy going vibe of an office.  All in all, it was a good fit… well, all except for the fact that it is nowhere near my life’s passion.  I knew when I took the job that it was not a forever kind of deal, but I had no idea the honeymoon was going to end so quickly!  These past couple of weeks I have become very aware of how tired and drained I am at the end of the day and the general disinterest in all things pertaining to my job doesn’t help either.  Moreover, God is staring to nudge me in terms of reminding me of why I came to California in the first place.  He’s starting to build a fire under me regarding my writing.  I told my God that I needed a day job that excites and energizes me if I was going to get my writing groove back.  I also spewed something along the lines of this tired and annoyed shadow of a human being is hanging on to her sobriety by a thread and now You’re nudging me to get back to writing?  When and how was that going to happen?

 For all I know I’m just having trouble adjusting to working full time and you know – being fully aware of it.  Luckily, I remembered something Mastin Kipp said in one of his classes… that confusion precedes clarity… so I’ve been hanging on to that invisible thread, and trusting God to show me whether it’s me or the situation and what my next steps should be and then something amazing happened.  For starters a nocturnal owl perched in the room next to mine confirming my search for new digs…. Mind you I’m not sure where I should search for digs at this point as I also started hearing things at work about how the company was going to be changing over the next year.  As it turns out, almost everything I love about the company will soon be non-existent.  The people I love are moving to a different location, the laid back atmosphere is being replaced with an annoying high security ambience and the one thing I’ve always said I’d never partake in is becoming a part of my job duties.  Well, how’s that for some giant and completely legible writing on the wall!  I told my God I was beginning to feel like I was being shooed out of a town without any money or transportation to take me on to the next town.  I then began to become acutely aware of the fact that the work I do in an internship capacity always energizes and excites me no matter how drained I am and that I needed to pay attention to that particular piece of information.  It also dawned on me that I happen to hold a volunteer position in a different component of the same field.  Light Bulbs Flashing!  So not only was the writing on the wall as clear as day, but I finally had a clue as to what direction I needed to move towards.  It’s all such an emotional whirlwind: this whole being where I am, while trying to figure out how to get to where God’s taking me.  I like the people I work with and there are perks to my job, but it just isn’t my final destination.  This job is more of a layover in that it is keeping me in place so I won’t miss the plane that is about to pull into the gate.

Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t and we can’t take it personally, we just have to realize that God may be taking us somewhere else.  The next time something or someone doesn’t pan out, ask God what that was about… I’m sure He’ll tell you that it was just Him leading you in a different and better direction.

Happiness, hit her, like a train on a track
Stuck still, coming towards her, no turning back
 --  “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence Welch & Isabella Summers

This year has brought a lot of necessary change as well as some mighty useful life lessons.  After three years of wrestling with whether or not I should move to Los Angeles, I shifted into gear and drove across the country and landed in the San Fernando Valley.  I quickly became accustomed to the LA area traffic windows, pedestrians and the unfortunate parking situation that is known as the City of Beverly Hills.  I mean what is there not to love about this town?  It is beautiful here and it usually boasts awesome weather to boot.  While I wish I could say this journey has been all smiles and no frowns, I would be lying.  I recall that in one of my resolutions from last year I stated that I felt God might have some intentions that were not on my radar and He did. 

Enter Life Lesson #1:  For reasons beyond my understanding at that time, God deemed it necessary that I get clean and sober and stay that way.  After taking a couple of classes with Mastin Kipp (you can find him over at The Daily Love) I came to realize that my lack of sobriety was the one thing keeping everything from falling into place.  It became clear to me that God was holding the key to my being able to stay in LA and that the only way He would hand over that key was if I handed Him my alcohol – something I wasn’t willing to do, but under the circumstances I had no choice.  As the fog cleared and I started feeling feelings I’d never really felt before ( aka loneliness) I stumbled upon …

Life Lesson #2:  I found my Creator and Sustainer and He wasn’t mad at me nor did He want to punish me; quite the contrary, He wanted to love me and prepare me for the gifts He still plans on giving me.  As I continued on my sober journey and took a second class with Mastin, I came to realize…

Life Lesson #3 … that my fear of not being good enough is the root to every problem I have, including the alcohol.  I learned that I continually sabotage myself by subconsciously seeking out people, places and things that reinforce my status of “fuck-up” or “black sheep” or “not good enough”.  I learned that I have continually put myself in situations where I either didn’t have a chance to shine or never could shine so that I could keep my comfort status.  I apparently decided that I’d rather amount to nothing and never achieve anything than face the fear of finding out if I am indeed good enough for myself, my family, my friends, much less a good man and the lovely masses. 

So for 2013 I only have one resolution and that is to reinforce the positive in my life, which in turn allows me to face my fear of not being good enough on every level possible.  This means putting myself in situations where I have responsibility so I can start changing that comfort status of mine.  God, being several steps ahead, already has things set in motion.  I have a new job where I am learning how to handle studio assets and accounts, a volunteer position where I am learning how to handle the media portion of a church service and an internship where I will be handling a live show or two come spring.  I am also reinstating my writer status and have three projects to kick me off.  Reinforcing the positive also entails spending time with quality people that have good hearts and good minds and are supportive in nature and you know actually give more than a flying hoot when it comes to my world.

Happiness does indeed sometimes hit like a freight train, especially for those like myself who fear anything that is actually good for us.  I define happiness as a change that you don’t want or fear because you don’t realize that it sets the stage for all the things you want to come into your life.  For me, sobriety hit me like a freight train.  I hated it.  It turned my comfy, miserable world upside down and made me realize what was actually keeping me in a deadly holding pattern.  It also set the stage for me to uproot my greatest fear from my life and thereby make it possible for all the things I have secretly wished for to finally make an appearance in my life.  So as we start this New Year, my only question for you is what is your freight train?  What change do you need to make?  I cannot promise it will be an easy ride, but I can promise it will most definitely be worth it.

They say that Jesus loves you.   What about me? - Jewel

Oh, the T-word… I spoke about it last month, but it is has been a serious struggle for me this month.  Yes, the word I am referring to is TRUST.  I have to say that I have been in and out of church my entire life, but I don’t think I ever grasped the real, everyday concept of trusting God.  I guess in a way, I have always had other people to rely on in the event I got myself in any sort of physical or financial strain, whereas, now I do not.  While it is important to trust God for a roof over my head rather than a park bench, which is a reality that is extremely too close for comfort at this moment in time, my main concern is my seemingly inability to trust that God really does love me. 

A Christian man at one of the meetings I attend always asks me why I’m having such a problem because as a Christian the twelve steps should come easy to me.  This made me think about the things I easily trust God with versus the things I have a hard time handing over to Him and leaving in His care.  What I found is the things I have absolutely nothing to do with are easy to hand over, but the things that I play a part in are the things I keep taking back.  As it turns out, I have a serious trust problem.  I mean the Bible doesn’t say our works makes us righteous; it says our TRUST makes us righteous.   Never mind the fact that my inability to trust states that I have more control than my Creator and Sustainer.  I mean come on!  Yes, the choices I make and the actions I take do have consequences, but if I am honestly doing the best that I can and seeking God’s will daily, does God not honor that effort and add His touch to the situation?  Did I not write about this last month?

I guess I should add that I am having a problem seeing myself as a person of worth and value which is why I am having a hard time grasping the reality of God’s love for me.  All of my self-sabotaging ways are a result of this deep inner feeling that somehow, some way I’m just not good enough, but God has an entirely different view.  God created me to be a blessing and not a curse.  He created me for a specific purpose and has a specific plan for the contributions I will make to this world.  I’ve been trying to force myself into agreement with God’s view of myself and getting absolutely nowhere except for Discouragementville.  Then I heard God whisper that I am trying to make a leap where I need not make one.  All I need to do is be willing to accept that what He says about me is true.  If I am willing to accept that what He says about me is true then I can be willing to act like what He says about me is true and as I act like what He says about me is true I will eventually become His truth.  I will become all that He says I am.  I just have to be willing to accept His truth, which allows me to act on His truth, which will at some point down the road make me His truth.   AWESOME.

I’ve started praying the following prayer each morning:  Lord, help me to trust You.  To believe that you really do love me and to know that what You send me is good.  Because sometimes the best presents arrive in the ugliest wrapping paper.