Monday September 14 2015  FOOD OBSESSION

My cousin says I have an obsession with food.  Synonyms for obsession: “mania, fixation, passion, preoccupation, thing”.  I wonder which one best describes the meaning of obsession for me?  I would rather use the word ENJOY to describe my “thing” regarding food.  Yes, I love to eat it, after all food is not something we can live without, but even more so, I ENJOY the beauty of food.  I ENJOY the smell of fresh fruits and vegetables and the textures I feel when working with them.  I ENJOY figuring out new recipes and foods that will and will not work with each other.  I ENJOY the aroma of fresh herbs picked from the herb garden and the warm cozy feeling one gets inside when you walk into a kitchen that has something baking in the oven.  And…I ENJOY color and food presentation and the flavors of well prepared meals.  I actually ENJOY preparing and cooking.  So, I suppose “PASSION” would also describe my obsession.  And the thing I get the most satisfaction out of is the way I feel after I have eaten a well-balanced, delicious (to me anyway), and satisfying meal.  What I eat truly does affect my physical output.  When I don’t put the proper foods in, I cannot expect my body to perform to its highest performance level.  Performance to me is having energy, feeling well as I go about my day, having a bounce in my step and enthusiasm in my spirit.  I don’t want to feel like I need a nap after I eat a meal.  After eating should be when I have the most energy and vitality to enjoy life.  I don’t want to be constantly thinking about the next time I can eat.  I want to be satisfied, sated, physical needs satisfied and on my way. 

Since Dave must eat on a strict schedule I have become more attuned to getting into the kitchen early enough to prepare food before his blood sugar crashes.  So therefore, I have to think about food more frequently as to when and what I have prepared for his next meal.  That is one reason I enjoy making large batches of recipes so the food is prepared and ready to serve up.  I always have prepared vegetables of some sort ready to eat, as well as protein that can be easily used in concoctions, rices and quinoa salads prepared ahead, and fresh salad greens ready for cutting up.  It makes each meal a bit easier to get on the table sooner.  So, I spend a couple of days cooking and preparing and then for the next several days we eat off of that and never seem to have the same meal twice because I always mix and match and pull protein entrees from the freezer to make different concoctions.  I buy Costco rotisserie chickens and cut the meat into cubes and freeze in serving size portions to add to soups or salads.  The more things I can create, the more I enjoy it.  It makes eating fun, and it makes the prep work seem like less work.  And to even make it more interesting, I don’t really know what we’ll be eating until I receive my food boxes on Thursday and then see what Aldi’s sales are for the week.  We eat seasonally and I design our menus around the sale items and the food box.  When fresh berries are on sale I buy them in flats and come home and freeze berries and cut up fruits on cookie sheets so the berries do not stick to one another.  That way we can just reach in and add whatever fruit we want on our cereal or salads or fruit smoothies. 

So now you know why my freezer is full and why my cousin says I have a food obsession.  I love reaching in and pulling out bags of beautiful raspberries and blueberries and strawberries and mangos and pineapple and many more varieties during the winter months.  And the bonus is, I get good fruit for less cost, especially when you consider winter costs.  Come next spring and summer I again will have more space to fill in the freezer.

So, maybe I should quit talking about food so much.  Perhaps then I wouldn’t have much else to talk about.  I’ll go a few days and see what I come up with.  That is, after I tell you what I have cooking for tonight.  Another Strata bakes as I write this blog and then I will bake the carrot cake muffins when the oven is empty.  If you like carrot cake just let me know and I’ll be happy to share my recipe.  The recipe is actually for a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting but I make the batter into muffins instead and do not use frosting.  Every time I take my muffins someplace to share there are ladies who ask for the recipe.  There is a secret ingredient in it that makes it the cream of the crop.

So enough about food.  I’ll see if I can refrain from saying one more word about food until I can’t.  I’ll see how long that takes.

Today was one of those perfect, end of the summer, days.  Cool morning, blue sky, gentle breeze and up in the mid 70’s for most of the day.  Bright and clear and so enjoyed.  My feet are itching to hit the road again.  I think I could go for another few months.  The only thing is, I wish I could retrace my steps more slowly to the places I have already been.  I know the time of year is different so the weather and scenery would be different, but it would be awesome to see some of the places in a different season.  I am still in love with Montana and Wyoming.  If I could, I would go and spend each summer just exploring those states.  But alas, I must settle down in my old age and finish my memoirs and compiling my other books if I am to finish them before I get too old.   I have looked ahead and figured out that I may have an additional 18 good years left with a brain that functions fully (I HOPE).  Perhaps that is being pessimistic but actually I am trying to be realistic.  Things start happening when you get my age.  I don’t want to say too much just in case there are younger people reading this blog.  I do not want to make you think of reality too soon.  Sometimes ignorance is bliss. 

My wisdom for this day is to enjoy each and every moment you have to the fullest.  Do not allow negative feelings and thoughts to crowd into your space.  Love life, lift up your hands and twirl around in the sunshine.  Do something that you are far too old to do!  Run and hop and skip and jump!  Lie down in the sunshine and watch the clouds drift overhead while imagining all the cloud shapes into faces and animals and flowers and trees.  Read a child’s picture storybook and really look at the pictures and remember when you were little and what it felt like to be held in someone’s lap.  Then pick yourself up, dust yourself off and become an adult again, renewed with joy and a sense of wonder.  Never get too old to enjoy the moment you have.  It is over all too soon.

P.S.  And eat well!

Psalms 103: 1-5

Bless the Lord, O my soul;

And all that is within me,

bless His holy name!

² Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits:

³ Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases,

⁴ Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

⁵ Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

LIVE LIFE WITH CHILDLIKE WONDER

By Kathleen Martens

September 14, 2015

With childlike wonder deep in your heart

Allow each day to fully start.

See the amazing that greets your eye,

Stop and experience a butterfly.

Smell the roses that waft in the breeze,

Every moment fully seize.

Hold tightly to joy that it escapes not,

Enjoy beauty that cannot be bought.

Hear the song of the little bird,

Open your imagination to understand its word.

Let the song penetrate deep,

It is these moments you want to keep.

See everything new, each and every day,

Let not the mundane creep your way.

Your road is fresh with dawn’s new birth,

More valuable that gold, is its worth.

Let not one hour, pass without love,

Lift your eyes to the God above.

From God comes, all good things

Our heavenly Father, the King of kings.

Be grateful for each breath you take,

Choose on this day, to make it great.

Your attitude sets the course of your life.

Choose joy instead of strife.

Love yourself as God made you,

So that then you can love others too.

Give from your heart the joy that God gives,

And live to the fullest the life that you live.

Good Night and God bless and keep you.

Sunday Sabbath September 13 2015  PUT YOUR HOPE IN GOD ALONE

Popcorn time!  That is one of my favorite times.  A big bowl of popcorn, air popped, then smothered with coconut oil and a tiny bit of salt.  Mushroom popcorn is my favorite.  I buy it at an Amish store.  It is a very large kernel corn and pops very large and is shaped like a mushroom.  I sit here typing in the sun room with the bowl on my lap.  Dinner is over.  We ate very light tonight and I just felt the NEED to satisfy my popcorn urge.  I had room in my tummy so I said, “Go for it”.

I think we all need to have these little “vacation moments” periodically.  Sunday is the day I love to do a little vacation time, a little something that differs from what I do the rest of the week.  Today I actually rested a couple of hours.  When I go and go and go and do and do and do I finally get to a day when I need to rest.  That was today.  I rested for two hours by actually watching a couple of one hour programs of a show my son told me to watch.  It is on HGTV and it is called “FIXER UPPER”.  It was very interesting and entertaining.  I think I could get used to this TV watching if I let myself.   Maybe I fear getting used to it and that is why I stay away from TV in general.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  There is another show I would like to watch if I could remember the channel it comes on.  I saw some of the shows at my cousin Joyce’s in California and it was called something like “America from the Air” or close to that name.  Joyce, if you are reading this please email me with the TV call letters, the name of the show, and the day it comes on if you know it.  I would really appreciate it.  Anyone have any other good shows to recommend?

After my rest reprieve I jumped up, raring to go.  It is really difficult for me to sit down or lie down or be still for any length of time.  I would rather be standing, walking, or moving in some other fashion.  My library time in the morning and my blog time in the evening, along with meal times, are about the only moments you will catch me sitting.  I think I had to sit for so many long hours behind computers, working on photos, that it drove me nuts.  Now I am going to have to settle back down to computer time when Dave and I return from our trip.  It will be time to get serious about the compilation and editing of the books I am working on.  I have hours of transcribing to do.  I haven’t found anyone one who can read my writing so I must do the transcribing myself.  Sometimes I can’t even read it.

When Dave and I went out to eat last week the waitress gave me a recipe for a potato and bean soup.  I have so many potatoes from my farm box and they are piling up on me.  Dave rarely eats potatoes because of the high carbs and high glycemic level.  Well, I figured out he can have one cup of soup and stay within his carb count.  The soup is delicious and he is happy to have a cup of soup, some vegetables, and protein for dinner as we both like to eat light dinners.  Our midday meal is our bulkiest meal, all within the right levels of each food group for the diabetic.  He is doing wonderfully with his fasting blood sugar level each morning.  We sat down and figured out that since he began eating differently after he was released from the hospital he has lost on average, one half pound per day.  He has reduced almost 40 pounds since he started eating only the meals I prepare for him.  We did go out the one time last week but the rest of his meals were eaten at home.  He has gone down three pant sizes. 

Well, back to the soup I made.  I have one problem.  I have about 16 cups of soup in two containers in the fridge and I have no more jars to fill for the freezer.  I know I can buy more jars, but the real problem lies in the fact that there is absolutely no more space in the freezers.  I also made another vegetable strata (Dave’s favorite) which fortunately will live in the fridge until it is eaten.  An even bigger situation for me is the fact that I still have one more 9X13 dish size casserole to make and freeze for our trip.  And…a big pot of chili to cook and freeze.  I think we will need to do a little rearranging in order to get it all in.  The good news is, once I take everything with me to Branson there will be more room in the fridge when I return.  I will have two winter delivery boxes coming filled with a plethora of winter vegetables; squashes, a pumpkin, turnips, beets, onions, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbages, daikon radishes, parsnips, and whatever else the farm may be producing this year.  There have been as many as 6 boxes delivered per delivery for the winter share.  It takes me the entire two weeks to work up all the food for drying and freezing and soups and current eating or to give away.  At the end of the two weeks I then get another delivery and must do the same thing again.  We eat out of the freezer for the winter and spring until all the fresh foods start arriving again.  Of course I still must do some shopping for protein foods and fresh salads and fruits.  It’s a nice way to eat in the winter. 

I will publish a photo I took the other day of the lunch I prepared.  This is our largest meal of the day and it is filled with all good things.  I could not eat it all.  What I usually do is save what I am unable to eat and snack on it later.

I guess by now you can tell I do not plan to talk about any world matters or matters of the heart.  My heart is breaking for what I am seeing on the news.  I know I have something brewing in me but I’m just not yet ready to write about it.  I think the emotional toll is too great for me right now.  My heart also goes out to all the families in California who are in the paths of the fires that are burning out of control.  So much pain and tragedy happening every day.  I do pray that all of you will be safe.

PUT YOUR HOPE IN GOD ALONE

By Kathleen Martens

September 13, 2015

How can we close our eyes

To the pain of another?

So much tragedy taking place,

For mankind claims no brother.

If all, could but accept

Our differences are not wrong,

That each desires to live life

Singing their own song.

But evil seems to rear its head

Creating tragedy and loss.

Because beliefs so differ,

Many pay a deep cost.

So many slaughtered, pushed aside

As Satan spurs his wrath,

Urging men to kill and maim,

Doing the Devil’s task.

This is just the beginning

Of what must come to be

When tribulation takes its hold

Allowing no one to be free.

Put your hope in God alone

Though you may die for your beliefs,

This world is not your home

But a home in heaven you will receive.

Put your trust in God alone

Believing in your heart

That no matter what man may do

He can never make God depart.

Romans 15:13

Saturday September 12 2015 SCHEDULE?  WHAT SCHEDULE?

A wonderful Saturday.  Started early.  Awake at 4:30 a.m., up at 5:20 a.m. and by 6:30 a.m. finally situated comfortably in the place I was supposed to be.  I’m recycling!  Trying very diligently to be in bed by 9:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. so my body wakes naturally between 4:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.  SO TOUCHDOWN!  Today it finally happened.  I was as happy as a clam.  Let’s see if I can make it happen two days in a row.

The place I am “supposed to be” (according to me) is downstairs by 6:30 a.m., showered, dressed, and breakfast eaten, to spend time with God.  It is my favorite time of day.  It was still dark with just a hint of shadowy outlines of trees.  A beautiful, magical moment.  Just me and the Lord.  It’s as if I can feel the Lord waiting for me there.   I know God dwells within me at all times, but there are times when I need to position myself in a still, quiet place to hear His voice.  And when I do just that He is always willing to speak to me.  He speaks to me in my thoughts.  New thoughts come to mind and I just start writing them as quickly as they come.  He has a beautiful way of speaking.  He tells me how much He loves me.  He bids me to come and rest in His presence.  He gives me words of encouragement, never condemnation.  Oh, sometimes He will bring up things that I need to work on, but it is always spoken in love.  I do not hear the future revealed, nor words about others.  When He speaks to me, He speaks to my situation and not someone else’s.  I marvel at His words to me.  It is so amazing to commune with God, the Creator of the universe.  I am in awe, and reverence, and delighted, all at the same time.  I talk to Him as if He is right there in my room sitting beside me.  Sometimes I can even picture Him in the room with me.

Well, today was no exception.  He met me in the quiet of the morn.  Oh how I have missed my quiet mornings.  Hopefully I will be able to get settled into a routine now.  The changes that happened when I arrived home were quite remarkable.  Here I was, home from 4 months of travel, a few days later I had a very sick husband in the hospital for several days, then lots of running to infusions and doctor appointments, both his and mine, surgery scheduled for me, Dave getting sick again with the return of the infection, more antibiotic transfusions, monitoring blood sugar, trying to settle in and make a routine, creating a new eating program for Dave, cooking and preparing meals and menus, staying up too late writing my blog at night, and the list goes on…But today was the first day that I thought perhaps a routine would work again.  AND I LOVED IT!  Getting back in my library early in the morning to be with God was the first giant step to my normalcy.  Dave might beg to differ.  I can just hear him saying, “Normal? Nothing you do is ever normal”.  Does he know me, or what?

In one aspect things are slowly getting back to normal.  I had two calls for helping others with photo shoots they could not do today.  One was to photograph a wedding and the other, a large family photo session at Olbrich Gardens.  Before I left in March I was always receiving calls from people needing some sort of photography service.  That was one reason I had to escape Wisconsin when I did in order to break the tie of me always saying yes.  Well, today I would have said yes to both had it been possible.  However, I was already booked with a previous engagement with company coming to my home for the day.  We had a wonderful lunch, a time for sharing and then time to spend together talking about the Lord.  It was a long, wonderful day. 

Oh, by the way, I do want to mention that I did get my two lasagnas put together yesterday.  All total it took almost 5 hours from start to finish.  The larger one is now in the freezer awaiting its trip to Branson.  In a glass dish.  I will take it frozen, along with a stack of other frozen foods, packing them as insulators for each other that they remain frozen during transportation.  Maybe I won’t need to cook anything while I’m gone.  Maybe I won’t have to do anything at all when I am gone???  I guess that will not be.  Dave has been diagnosed with a large hernia and cannot lift or stress the hernia.  He has a surgery consultation this week and we’ll see what is to happen in regards to our trip.  Hopefully, if surgery is needed he will be able to have it on our return.  That means I’ll be doing the packing and lifting.  I guess there goes our “routine” (of one day) if he does need the surgery.  I hope he is able to have it so it will not continue to open larger.  He is still able to do most normal activities.

THE LORD DETERMINES MY STEPS

By Kathleen Martens

September 12, 2012

Predictable and unchanging? 

That is not our typical day.

The synonym of ROUTINE

Is not showing the way.

Every day different

Than the day before.

And time is gobbled up

Before I can score.

I just never know

What news may pop up,

Or where we’ll be

When it’s time to sup.

Sometime it’s E.R.

A world of its own,

As if the word “routine”

In my vocabulary unknown.

So each day comes,

No two are alike.

 I might as well give up

And go take a hike!

MAYBE THE UNKNOWN IS MY ROUTINE!

So I must tend as if it is.

By being prepared for the new

And making everything my biz!

It is never boring,

And there is always surprise

When each day when I awaken

And open my eyes.

But I can still dream

And hope for the best

And that’s just what I’ll do

After my daily rest.

PROVERB 16:9:

“IN HIS HEART A MAN PLANS HIS COURSE,

BUT THE LORD DETERMINES HIS STEPS”

Hope your Saturday was as wonderful as mine.  Being with a friend is what made mine so special!

God bless you.

Friday September 11 2015  REMEMBERING 14 YEARS AGO

Today is the kind of day that one remembers exactly where you were, and when you first heard the news of the tragedy of the collapse of the Twin Towers.  Probably like it was for the people who were alive when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor or the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  I was not yet alive on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed but I vividly remember the Kennedy assassination.  And I will never forget Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001.  It was the day our country changed forever. 

It was a day when true evil of the world reared its head, and unfortunately, it has never gone back to sleep.  I am studying the book of Isaiah in the Bible and for the first time I am understanding the part that evil plays in the end times when God judges the earth and its inhabitants.  I see all the pieces of the end times coming together and understand more fully that there are certain situations that must come to pass before Jesus returns to earth to greet the righteous in the air.  I certainly want to be ready for that day if it happens in my lifetime. 

There is so much that I could expound on here but I feel so inadequate not knowing and remembering the scriptures in detail and I am concerned that I would not be able to get the story across as the Bible lays it out.  If you are interested, I recommend you go to the web and google “Calvary Chapel Modesto” and click on “THRU THE BIBLE” and take a peek at the book of Isaiah and Revelation.  Actually it would be to your advantage to listen to the entire series so you will really know what is coming down the pike.  It is about the most interesting story of both history, and of the future, that I have ever read.  I wish my brain was big enough to take it all in and remember all I have read or listened to.  I will just leave this topic with the comment that as long as I live, and do not suffer from dementia, I shall never forget the horror of this day fourteen years ago, and all the sorrow so many families and millions of Americans suffered because of another’s evil hatred.   And the saddest part is, that that evil and hatred has grown exponentially over the years.

IN MEMORY OF 9/11

By Kathleen Martens

September 11, 2015

A time of grief and so much sorrow,

A pain that lingers in all tomorrows.

So long ago, but yesterday to some,

To those who’s loved ones, forever gone.

The road of memory paved with pain.

So many people never regained.

Sons and daughters, moms and dads,

The deepest sorrow that can be had.

A grief so deep and forever raw,

A constant pain that forever gnaws.

And one day silently, it is put away

Just to survive for one more day.

My heart feels such deep grief

For all the hearts that need relief.

So many scars of injured souls

From the disaster so long ago.

No words I say can ever heal

The deep sorrow I know you feel.

So I grieve for what you’ve lost,

And wish I could share your great cost.

Just know that the world has not forgotten,

Your parents, loved ones, or your begotten.

Your pain is also ours to bear,

Just remember, your sorrow we share.

After writing the above poem all else that I accomplished today or thought to write in my blog, pales in comparison to how I feel right now.  My pain is deep and my sorrow is real for the families who suffered so greatly in this great terrorist act remembered on this day, the 14^th anniversary.  Tears sting my eyes and my heart cries for what that day did to so many lives, both those who were killed so needlessly, and family members left behind to grieve such a horrendous loss.  And my heart is so saddened by what has happened and is still happening in the world to so many others all because of evil and hatred of man toward man.

I will close as I can no longer see through my tears.

I pray God will be with you at the close of this day and in the tomorrows to come.  I pray that he will lead you beside still waters and restore your soul and though we all someday will walk in the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil for God is with us.  I close with Psalms 23:

Psalms

23 The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
² He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
³ He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell^[a] in the house of the Lord
Forever.

Monday September 7 2015  COMMUNICATE! COMMUNICATE! COMMUNICATE!

Take a look sometime when you are in public and observe just how many people are on their telephone, either talking, face booking, texting, or looking up information.  It seems that personal communication doesn’t exist much anymore.  I have a hunch that the people of the present generation believe they are communicating even more so than the previous generation.  I would beg to differ.  They might know more about a person’s comings and goings or their plans for the weekend or who they are dating and on and on about facts of their lives without ever talking personally.  And that is where the breach begins.

Synonyms for breach:  break, hole, crack, fissure, rupture, gap, obstacle

I sometimes wonder if it is not all the electronic communication that has caused the fragmentation of communicating in person.  The synonyms for “breach” really does seem to best describe the current communication situation with the younger generation.

I see “friends” in congregations, each with their cell phones, heads bowed, texting or facebooking.  When I was at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas earlier this year, there were six or seven young men all sitting on a long bench texting or on the phone talking.  I walked down to the end of the row and there was one young man that did not have a phone in his hand.  I had my camera with me so I acted like I was going to take a picture of something and slowly turned toward this group and took a “candid shot”.  I let the camera drop around my neck and walked nonchalantly by the group.  When I walked past the last young man without the phone I was about 15 feet in front of him and he called out to me “How did we turn out in the picture?”  Gulp, I was caught!  I thought I had been so incognito.  He was the only one that noticed.  I just thought it was such an interesting photo with so many on the same bench using their phones and one lone figure without one.  They were a group that came to participate in a shooting competition and were all friends.

I was called out for snapping a photo of the group on the bench when I hadn’t intended anyone to know I had taken it.  I decided I couldn’t ignore the young man’s direct question without really looking bad, so I picked up my camera as I said, “well let me take a look and see.  Hey, you guys turned out really good”, and a conversation ensued.  At the end of the conversation I asked the phoneless young man what wisdom he would offer for his generation (he was 23) and he said without hesitation:  “Get rid of the phones”.  I was impressed that those words came from someone so young.  And I agreed with him!  I see that scenario more and more frequently.

Today I gave scrutiny to myself.  At the dinner table tonight, mine and Dave’s conversation drifted to this topic.  I do have a Facebook page but only go there about once a year (literally) due to time constraints.  I have a cell phone but I am not much of a phone user, again due to time constraints.  I do carry it with me and take pictures when the right opportunity presents itself to me, mostly for my blog.  I began analyzing the time I take writing my blog and wondering if this media is robbing me of communicating with those I love.  I think while I was traveling on my trip it did cause me to lose some valuable time I could have visited personally.  I have learned since then to write at times when I would not normally be around others so as not to let it intrude on our time together.  And here I am, at home, no trip to write about and I’m still writing it.  So I pondered that question for a bit.  Would I be more productive with my time by interacting with others personally, or does my writing have a purpose?  I’m sure some probably think the purpose is finished if it was designed specifically for my travels.  So I thought about that for a few moments and come up with the following conclusion.

I have figured out that my writing is done because I need to do it.  When I look back and think of all the emails I have received that have given testimony to me about how my words have helped them, it is then, I know that my time is more valuable writing the blog than going to bed on time. I am touching lives I would never be able to touch in such a way as I do with my words.   I too discovered, that when I write I am leaving behind a legacy of who I am, how I think, and how I love.  I suppose it is that deep need in so many of us to have our voices heard.  As I’ve said before, even if no one reads this blog I will continue to write because it is something I want to leave behind for my children.  I know they don’t read the blog now that I am not traveling due to their busy schedule.  I hope someday they will read these words, and others I’ve written, and they will realize that I wrote so that the voice of my generation would be heard.  Values change over the years and I want my values to be heard in the future when perhaps they are no longer present in the current population.  The  world is going to hell in a hand basket, so to speak, and I want them to remember a time when it wasn’t always like that.  Yes, there have been wars and disasters and tyrants all throughout history, in every generation.  However, I desire my children and other’s children to realize that love and joy and peace really was possible, and actually existed in some lives.  And it exists in mine and I want to share it with the world.  If my blog will make a difference in even one life, all the writing I do will have been worth it.  Someday, I hope my children will read between the lines and see me for who I am today.  I am a child of God, a woman, a wife, a sister, and not see me as just their mother.  Remember, sometimes mothers really don’t know all that much.  But that is okay.  And just because I write a blog doesn’t mean I know all the more, but the thoughts of my heart will be shared in print to those who may find them encouraging, a comfort, or even occasionally wise, and I will faithfully print off a copy so they will be available to be read at a later date, if they choose to. 

The world is changing.  I’m hanging on to the important parts that existed in my past and I just want to share them through my words to any who will be interested in hearing what life was like in mid-century 1900 to however long I shall live.  If you want to see the changes going back even further, just pick up a book written around the turn of the 1800 to 1900’s and read the simple, beautiful, elegant prose of along ago writers.  It may bore you to tears, but at least you’ll definitely be more aware of the more gentle tones of the past in comparison to the harshness of the present.  Every day the world changes just a little bit more, kind of like looking in the mirror every day of your life and always looking like you did the day before.  So if that is true, what has happened, and when did it happen, that I look like I do now?  It is so subtle that the changes sneak up on you and you except it as your present reality.

IN YOUR HEART ALWAYS BELIEVE

By Kathleen Martens

September 7, 2015

Speak words that need spoken,

Give comfort when comfort needed.

Touch a heart that is broken

Do what must be heeded.

Learn to live a life you love

Become the best you, you can be.

Allow God in heaven above

Teach you how to be free.

Look deep inside to find your heart

Give your soul wings to fly

That joy and peace will not depart,

And that your love will never die.

Love yourself as God says to do,

Then your love with others share.

And every day love will renew

Because you really know how to care.

As you give, more you receive,

So practice every day.

In your heart always believe

That more love will come your way.

I leave you with this thought.  Take time today to TALK with someone, even if it is a stranger.  You’ll find that people are truly starving for conversation.  And be prepared to listen to what they have to say.

Good night and God bless you!