You know that refreshing sensation one gets while dipping their toes into the sand, just at the water’s edge?
If you asked me what it feels like to walk with God on a daily basis, well…
Toes in the sand, my friends, toes in the sand!
By Google’s current definition, the word Wiwohka either means roaring water, a Native American tribe up near the Great Lakes, or my least favorite… a group of derelict misfits that banded together to make a settlement town of some sort, or other.
I liked it much better back in the day, when I first chose this nickname, if you will. When I originally found this name more than twenty years ago, it was on a Native American name generator site, and simply read as “Rushing, roaring, or raging water”. No idea where this new village of miscreants definition came from, nor do I find it very appealing. In answer to the prompt this morning, I’ll be sticking with my original definition, since it’s far less nefarious than the most recent description.
While the name written on my birth certificate carries absolutely nothing, as far as, meaning, significance, nor etymology… Wiwohka does! Though the word’s etymology doesn’t concern me, the significance and meaning are threaded throughout the tapestry of my existence!
Throughout my life, the name Wiwohka has been the truest explanation of who I am… who I’ve always been. My very birth came during a storm, of sorts. I spent much of my childhood in back alleys, strangers beds, and often times… out in the rain, drenched to the skin. Up from those dark and troubled waters arose a very angry, volatile, and fiercely independent young woman.
What’s rather interesting about the meaning of my name is that it’s definition has taken on a completely different meaning, though the words have not been altered. I originally chose it because it made me feel strong and self-reliant, and flowing by my own power. Looking back now, I realize how powerless I actually really was!
The truth about water is that it is, in fact, very powerful… but, how? Water, in and of itself, just sits there unless something moves it! Water gets it’s power from whatever source it originates from, as well as how its path has been directed. The strength, force and sometimes destructive power of water will be based on who or what is directing the water’s flow.
When I finally came to realize where the water within my spirit had originated, its like all the places within my heart and mind that had been mistaken in thinking that I controlled the flow of said water, simply washed away with the tide. Do you know how difficult and exhausting it is, always having to push a thing along with your own effort? Isn’t it always more pleasant to get a ride, instead of doing all the pushing by your own strength? I guess that somewhere along the journey I realized this, and I’m so glad that I did!
Now, I flow with a power and strength not born of my own ability, but of the One who is my source of power… my living water!
Have a cookie…
Sometimes…
Sometimes, it’s the way he looks at me and smiles.
Then there are times where he doesn’t even have to smile or anything… I can see it in his eyes.
Sometimes, it’s the way he laughs at the silly things I say.
But there are still those moments when things aren’t so funny… he won’t laugh or say anything at all, really. He just rests his shoulder against mine to let me know that he’s there.
Sometimes, it’s the little things he does… like bringing me that first cup of coffee in the morning, or surprising me with my favorite candy bar. It’s not even about receiving a gift, it’s about the planning or forethought, if you will. It makes me feel so loved that he was thinking about me, even when I wasn’t with him. You know, sometimes I’ll wake up from the sensation of him tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear… he’d been lying there watching me, as I slept. Isn’t that so adorable!
I could go on and on about all the sometimes that I have felt loved… and these examples are about my husband. I haven’t even gotten to God, yet! If I could share with you all the times that I have felt God’s love, it would fill a book… oh yeah, I already did that!
Let’s just leave it at this:
With enough examples gathered together, one might say that I always feel loved! But, since it was very hard to pick just one time to tell you about, I opted for a handful of my sometimes.
Don’t forget your cookie…
If Eustace and I can help it, wherever we go and whatever adventure’s we take you on this year… we’re going to try filling them with laughter!
Why?
Well…
Why not?
Laughter is good for the soul…
And, the One whom I follow and serve happens to be in the soul business, and He does have a sense of humor… I’m certain of it!
Where do you think I get my sense of humor from?
It runs in my family!
I’m not really happy with the pictures I used to update Journey With Me’s website for the new year, so I’m sort of on a quest to find a fun theme for this spring. What to do, what to do?
I could go full nautical, with short stories, ditties, and fun seafaring food recipes… stuff like that.
Or, I could head for the hills with a camping, hiking, woodsy theme…
I don’t think I’m up for foodie stuff on a large scale, and I doubt you are either. We’ll just keep to the cookies,
with an occasional review from Gabriel, who considers himself a pretty good judge of flavors…
What I am seriously considering is a fun mystery kind of theme. Some of you may remember when I did several episodes last year called Tuesday Tattler, which read somewhat like a journalist writing a column in a paper…
If I do a mystery theme, I think it would be really fun to take this miniature version of my persona and take her around the world on some hilarious assignments…
If you haven’t noticed yet, I deplore boredom… can’t stand wasting my brain!
And… if I don’t like reading the same old same old, I suspect that you don’t either…
As a writer, it’s important that I keep your reading experience fun and engaging, among other things. Your thoughts are important to me, so let me know what you want to see more of this year…
And I’ll get right to it!
As Castle says, “It’s what I do!”
So, here we are…
Day 4…
Ladies and Gentlemen, I still can’t sit in a chair… let alone, move very far from the bed.
But, I can move slowly and carefully, with slow being the operative word!
In terms of progress and recovery, I’m getting there… even if it isn’t as quickly as I’d like for it to be. One would think that all the downtime would be welcomed rather than rejected. If I want downtime, it would be preferable if I had it on some sunny beach, with a fruity drink in my hand… not trapped in bed. The thing is, I do NOT like being helpless… it freaks me out!
I lay here all day feeling a mix of panic, frustration, guilt, and self-shaming over my own weakness. Yes, this woman of God still has pity parties and panic attacks! I think it simply comes from lack of sleep and being in pain for an extended period of time. Spirit, mind, and body work together to balance me out… and the body part is just offline at the moment, that’s all!
This girl has to show herself some grace, exercise her faith … and be at peace with her own fragility…
Thanks for listening, my friends 🧡
The truth of things is this, I got a bad back… have had for a number of years. While this has to be the first time my low back has gone out this bad, and for this long, once I get the pain and swelling down, things should balance out. Here’s where it gets tricky! While trying to manage pain from an injury, I have to deal with responses from both my Fibromayalgia and IBS. Fibro is lit up from laying in bed for so long without moving, and IBS has destroyed my ability to consume nsaids without my stomach starting to bleed. YAY!
I took an Ibuprofen for the first time in two years, this morning. I’m hoping I can get away with it just this once without too much trouble. I am eternally grateful for my Lidocaine patches, or else I’d have gone to the hospital by now. Actually, what I’m currently doing is probably the very thing the hospital would offer, aside from an x-ray that’ll most likely show that yes, I have arthritis there, and yes, I’ve probably herniated the disc from coughing, of all things.
If I can spend 4 days arguing with myself about whether or not to do a hospital visit… it isn’t an emergency! As long as I can see some improvement, even if it’s only a bit, I’ll resume my medical care after we resolve this homeless thing…
One thing at a time, right?
I know this prompt is a repeat, but my answer from last year still holds… and it’s always fun to look back on things we’ve written in the past, don’t you think?
As a girl of only eleven, I had already discovered the item I was most fond of… my survival!
Life has a way of sometimes being reduced to nothing more than a thing… an item to be played with, bartered, or thrown out when its usefulness has been expended!
For many souls, it can take an entire lifetime to figure this out, only really feeling the harsh bite of reality, as it begins to surface on or near retirement! Basically, most begin to take more notice of feeling less valuable to society as the body begins to slow and lose the ability to carry on at the same pace they’d once kept.
Then, there are souls like mine, who learned painfully early in life how little value they held, how they weren’t valuable enough to protect and care about… never worthy of being saved! This was my dark alleyway of existence, wandering through the night until I found a place to sleep… doing whatever I had to do in order to secure food, warmth, and sleep… never safety… just sleep! This life was not much, but it was mine, and I valued it above everything else!
I’m 55 now and nearing the age when most are preparing for retirement and their golden years… but not this runaway!
I’m just getting started, I think, striving to prepare and strengthen myself for something bigger, better, and still yet to come.
It has taken some considerably long years of running to find myself sitting here recalling what I’d valued so much in my youth. Over the years, I’ve not cared for nor cherished it, as one might expect. Battered, bruised, misused, and tossed aside is that item I valued so strongly as a child…
None the less, it’s still in tact, for the most part!
If you’ve any curiosity about what has become of the item I was so attached to as a youth, you need only read the letters I have written to you all, over this last year, here on WordPress.
As this site is really all I have to show for explaining things, it will have to suffice as my best answer!
I don’t know about all you, but I need a cookie…
Have a cookie…
Live life to the fullest… but keep your bags packed!
Some days, I pray He bring me home right then and there…
Other days, I desire to be standing there on the day He comes riding in on the clouds … what a glorious sight to behold, I say!
Either way, I shall walk each day with purpose, faith and love for others, as if we’ve years yet to go. When He calls to me… I will hear and respond, leaving everything of this world behind!
I know where my home is… where my hope is… the timing of my life span is not something I need to concern myself with.
Have a cookie…
Journey With Me! 