In the Aftermath . . .
First, It is Over. My Life Isn’t.
Friends are hurting; others are dazed unable to believe what happened November 8, 2016 happened. But my life isn’t over! (Although the saddest outcome was learning that almost 47% of Americans, who could have voted, didn’t.)
Second: Real Life Goes On — So, I Should, Too!
Mr. Trump stunned many; nevertheless, the sun is still rising, and the moon showed off, reminding me to look up and away from problems over which I have no control, and get on with what I can control — like my appetite, exercise, the chores, writing and reading.
Writing still shows me what I don’t know – an embarrassing revelation on the one hand, but a welcome realization while I still have a library card and Amazon prime. Reading really is fundamental to mental health.
Always look on the bright side of life. Otherwise it’ll be too dark to read. ~Author Unknown
I am plowing my way through a biography of the Nightingales1 – the family from which Florence came. Reading how others came through uncertain times is always a good use of time — Tamps down the urge to throw a pity party!
A Worthwhile Read
So, too, is reading how God still woos unlikely folks to Himself. I finished a new book from Andrew Klavan2 whose faith biography is refreshing, hopeful, challenging, and uncomfortable; it is an understandable rendering of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.
God had set the full truth of himself aside in order to reach me in my unbelief . . . God had given me the pieces of the puzzle one by one until . . . I saw the empty tomb and I had faith.
. . . Through my own foolishness and the foolishness of my time, through the fog of my egotism and stubbornness and insanity, God had sung to me without ceasing in the stories I loved and in my love and in my story . . . And somehow, once again, by the hilarious mercy of God, I had made my way to the great good thing. (The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ, Pages 248, 263)
So, I say to myself: Self, get on with the wonderful life I have today . . .
The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you. ~John E. Southard
And now to the flowerbeds: they need some attention before being bedded down for the winter. The faster I get that done, the faster I can get back to my mystery: The Cinderella Murder: An Under Suspicion Novel, by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke!
1Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale –by Gillian Gill
2 I read his testimony in Christianity Today — How a Man of Cities and Coasts Found Christ, and promptly bought his book. The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ, by Andrew Klavan.