Mission Faithwalk

                It's Halloween. Tonight we turn the clocks back. Tonight is also the deadline I gave myself to get my first article done. It's about alcohol abuse. It's 4400 words long, with 51 endnotes and an two page appendix, which probably means that it's closer to 4600 words (10 pages.) I haven't read it in a couple days but I'm saying it's done. I made a list of a few magazine publishers who might consider it, but I'm beginning to think it's a chapter of a book. The problem with that is that I was hoping this was a quick project so that I could move on to the next.         I did move on to the next, and finished a rough draft about hope. It's only 1131 words long at the moment. It needs lots of work, but at that length, there are more magazines that might accept it. While I'm getting enough distance to be objective about it, I've also been spending time over the past couple days casting about for something that could work for

                In case it has not been clear, I didn't want to come to Florida for the winter. As I've told people, Florida is too hot, too flat, too muggy, too buggy, too sandy and it has critters that will eat my dog.   The idea of living in a 37 foot motor home build in 1988 for 6 months with my father and my Shiba is not exciting. The prospect of either living in a garbage dump of a park, or in a "gated community" with ten thousand rules enforced by storm troopers doesn't make my day.   This was not to be a trip in which I was going to lie around the pool or do the tourist thing. There are lots of other details that make this a less than desirable choice of living situations. I feel like I'm being a broken record, but it is the context in which anything I say has to be understood.                 Over the past week, I have walked 5 miles per day every day except Sunday. More importantly, Dad has walked more days than he has not walked. It's not

                One of the things I've had on my mind is the question of how to build good habits when I got here. I may even have been being anxious about them. In my previous life, I never seemed to have time for things that I thought were important. Now that I'm here, I have to begin to build those habits. Some of them were on my mental list: taking care of Dad, spending time on spiritual matters, writing and creativity, education,   taking better care of myself physically, training Gracie, etc. Some have become more obvious now that I'm in the situation.                 Some of this has been sort of natural. Since we didn't have electricity for several days, we were going to bed around 9. That means that by 7 at the latest, Gracie was saying "Morning time!" Since it's against the rules to chain dogs outside, I've been putting the lead on her and walking. For the past three days, I have managed to walk more than 5 miles per day, mostly in the

                Today is our first full day "at home" in Florida. The trip down was uneventful, with only one minor glitch on my part. We stopped and spent the night in Columbia, SC then got into town here just in time to eat at Dad's favorite restaurant. After dinner, we tried calling one of the places Dad wanted us to go. No answer, no answering machine. We also called someone who was selling a mobile home. No pets allowed.   That was the first time Dad said that he thought maybe we should have stayed in Erie.           The next morning we went back to the place Dad wanted to go. It's a dump, to put it mildly, but it is supposedly a very inexpensive dump. We never found out because we couldn't find an office and there was nobody around. Our next   stop was where the challenges of the day really began.   While I was in the office getting information, the car battery died. We got it jumped and got a new one, then returned to picked out a lot and register. W

                For years when people have asked me what they could pray for me, I answered "my 'tude," because I can guarantee that the first thing to go bad in any situation is my attitude. Let things go the way I don't want them to and I go with the tried and true: fight or flight. Let things actually go the way I want them to and I'll get cocky and - well, pushy. After all, if I got my way or was right about that, mustn't it go without saying that I should get my way or be right about this, too? I'm not asking for some Pollyanna perspective. I don't want rose-colored glasses. When I say, "Pray for my 'tude" I'm asking to see things clearly and deal with them appropriately, without being more overwhelmed by what's going on inside my head than I am by what's going on around me.                 Starting in July, that prayer request changed to "Direction, wisdom, and attitude" and I have mentioned it often enoug

       It's a tricky business, trying to thoughtfully make a new, healthy life. It means changes to diet and exercise routines, starting educational endeavors and projects that we always promise ourselves we'd do "someday." The thing that has stopped me in my tracks is stopping. One of the things I love about not working for someone else is that I have Sundays off. It's a time to set aside to spend with God and family. Then Sunday comes and I have to say, "ummmmm."                 Job #1 is caregiver to an 86 year old man, an adolescent dog and myself. I am on-duty 24/7. I'm not needed all that time, but Sunday as a family time makes Sunday like every other day. Maybe more so. How do stay-at-home moms get a Sabbath while still making it about family?                 Job #2 is as a writer. So, on Sundays do I not read anything? Do no research? Write nothing? Not think about whatever has become my temporary obsession, or anything that might b