I’ve been knocked out sick all week, which means I’ve had lots of time to lounge around in bed with my eyes too blurry to read, so I’ve been catching up on movies. I found this 2021 movie on Netflix called "Moxie". It sounded interesting so I decided to give it a try.

In the arena of mental health, we talk quite a bit about triggers. Triggers are sights, sounds, smells, textures, tastes, or experiences which remind us of a traumatic event. Sometimes, triggers can activate a body's self-defense system, setting us instantly into fight or flight mode or into a flashback of the event so paralyzing it is as though we are re-living it.

The other day, the icebreaker question that was thrown out was: if you could sing like any famous singer, who would you want to sing like? I knew the answer almost immediately: Lauren Daigle. I love her voice. She has such incredible range and her songs are always so full of emotion. I’ve also recently become a fan of Charity Gayle, I suppose she would be second in line of voice I would like to steal like a sea witch.

"Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." - Daniel 12:2

As I was considering this post, I was trying to recall if I have ever been to a cemetery. I believe the answer is yes, because I have a hazy memory of visiting one as a child. I don't remember who we were visiting there, however. I do know when I lived in Peru I went to one, accompanying my mother-in-law. But it didn't look like this picture. There was no grass, and the graves weren't in the ground, but rather in a cement crypt of sorts. 

I'm about to be real honest.

Time is a funny thing. It flies when we are having fun. It goes by in the blink of an eye. We are strapped for it, or we have it on our hands. We race against the clock sometimes; other times we kill time.

How many of you have seen "The Princess Bride"?

Trigger warning: this post talks about suicide. If this is an issue close to you, you might want to skip this one. There are resources listed at the end of the post if needed.

In case you were wondering at my silence this past two weeks, well, I was on vacation. Although the vacation itself was marvelous - very restful, in fact - the travel to and fro was long and full of delays and other annoyances. Nevertheless, I used the long travel time to read and rest and even watch a movie.

Growing up as a pastor's kid, I constantly felt under the microscope. I felt as though all eyes were on us as the pastor's family, and likely, that was not mere paranoia. We were under incredible pressure to always look and act perfect. We knew somehow my dad would be judged if we did not. I can remember driving to church, fighting in the car, my mom screaming at us from the front, and then pulling up by the sanctuary and all of us getting out with bright smiles, as though nothing had happened.

As a writer, putting words to paper is not difficult. What is difficult, is coming up with a title that captures those words and the attention of potential readers. Which is why it surprises me that today, I am starting this post off with a title, and no words.