The pitter patter of rain falling upon the roof, was my morning wake up call today, drawing me from my dreams somewhere around 5:30 a.m.

Typically, I don’t sleep more than 4 to 5 hours a night, waking up anywhere from 2 to 4 a.m. in the blackness of night. I am one of those sleepers that gets her best rest, somewhere between not to light or dark, and not too loud or quiet… it’s maddening, to be quite honest! 

Growing up on the streets began my nocturnal confusion, wandering through the dark most nights, in search of a safe place to catch a few winks. This unusual habit was followed closely, in my adult years, by the night owl behavior required by parenthood; raising tiny humans is a pretty taxing job for both mom and dad. Completing the circle of my love/hate relationship with sleep, lay the mind of an overthinker! Once the brain gets poked, whether it is from the outside environment or a dream, there is no shutting it back off… I finally learned to just get up!

Anyway, this is how my nights usually play out, though recently, I’ve started having random days of a solid 4 to 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Don’t let this get out, but I have actually had a couple of nights where I slept for a full 8 to 10 hours, and it wasn’t because of being sick, which is normally the only way I get that many zzz’s. It’s really not that big of a deal, but as I noticed how much better I feel from the added rest, it made me wonder what might have caused the change. 

One would think that a higher stress level, brought about by heavy storms in our life right now, would make sleep impossible for this overthinker. Currently, we are only half way to finishing the rebuild, of literally every one of the RVs internal water pipes, which shattered from the intensely low temps of the recent deep freeze. This unpleasant reality, among a large number of other storms, raging around us right now, should be turning me into some strange form of Naked Mole Rat that bites anyone approaching. 

I’m sure that many of you noticed my strained writing, of late, as it has been a bit emotionally charged, to say the least. I pray your forgiveness, if I have reflected poorly, God’s faithfulness to us, in these circumstances. Rest assured that while you may see some blips on my writing radar, God is definitely here in the Lobby, carrying me through the parts of the storm that are too much for me to bear. 

As the maelstrom rages and blows all around us, here at the center of it all, I am at peace!

God has been undoing me, storm by storm! It seems that I have begun to write better, stronger and deeper… the louder the squall! I know I told you that I had challenged myself to start writing live every day, in order to break the habit of editing my own work before writing it down. I wonder if this change has freed my mind, allowing God to empty my brain onto the page more freely, thereby, relieving the literary traffic jam inside my head. Honestly, I don’t know exactly what that even means, now that I’ve said it! 

All I can say is that I have felt more akin, recently, to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who stood in the furnace, where they should have been consumed by the intense flames. But… there was another within the fire along side these three men… a 4th! I am never in the fires of this world without Him who has overcome the world, leading me through. Instead of getting a writers block, due to the pressure of the storm, it appears that God has given strength to the literary waters that feed my Wiwohka side. 

As the pipes in this old RV finally burst and gave way, due to wear and tear, accompanied by too many severe temperatures… so too have my old habits, bad habits, and just plain lazy habits. 

God is completely restructuring my spiritual, emotional, as well as, physical pipes. He has begun replacing the old with the new, flooding my system with fresh, living water! From now on, I get to sport the new and improved pipes that have a 100% money back guarantee, never to break again, even in the worst of storms! Everything God has ever repaired or replaced for me, has come with this guarantee; there have not been any failures or malfunctions on His part yet, so I don’t anticipate any problems with this newest installment of equipment.

Somehow, through all of the intense wind and turbulent waters surrounding us right now, I am actually halfway through writing the book of my dreams! I no longer care or worry about anyone’s approval, aside from Gods whispered, “Well done child, I think it is beautiful!” If I get my Fathers thumbs up, then I’m good! God has been showing me that to write is a gift, and I should not waste it…

I guess we can all consider this note I wrote for you, as sort of a pep talk for all of us. It was important to me that I acknowledge, and apologize for letting my emotions get the best of me for a few of my entries, of late. I truly care about all of you, not wishing for you to be affected by my words, in any unhealthy way. 

That being said, I do wish to encourage you, with all of what God IS doing in and around my life… the good stuff, not just the bad and the ugly that the world offers. Raising my daughters, I always tried to wrap guidance and/or discipline between two pieces of Gods love and encouragement. Guess whose example I learned that one from?