Salty Zebra

   Have you ever lost something? I'm not talking about misplacing your car keys, but losing something for good. Like, it's not coming back, ever. It can be disheartening, disappointing, or downright depressing! But sometimes I think it's a good idea to step outside of the situation a little and look at it from a different perspective.  Many, many years ago, when my kids were little, I had a Winnie the Pooh coat. It was my favorite winter coat. In fact, it was my only winter coat. I had a closet that was on the small side, so every spring I would pack up my sweaters and winter coat and other winter clothes and break out the summer wear. Then, in the fall, I would reverse the process. One year, the fall of 2004 to be exact, I went to get out my winter clothes and my Winnie the Pooh coat wasn't there! I searched all around where the bin had been in storage. I checked other bins with the kids' clothes in different sizes. I went through every closet in the house, checked...

“All day long my tongue will also tell about your justice, for those who want to harm me will be embarrassed and ashamed.”  Psalm 71:24  The last couple of weeks have been rough. I knew that coming home from Disney World would be hard because I would need to recuperate, but I had no idea what else lay in store. The pain and exhaustion and uncertainty and emotional overwhelm has been intense! But you know what? In all of it I am still so very blessed ! I’ve learned in life that what you focus on determines so much. I could be in Disney World with my whole family around me and be so focused on being stuck in a wheelchair that I miss out on all the fun. Or, I could be so in awe of how God put together such a perfect trip and feeling blessing upon blessing that I forget I’m in a wheelchair!   The author of today’s Psalm could have whined about how they were under attack, but instead they focused on the blessing of God’s justice. They weren’t worried about defamation of ch...

“May my accusers be humiliated and defeated. May those who want to harm me be covered with scorn and disgrace.”    Psalm 71:13  Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse… Throughout history, people have faced trial and tribulation. We don’t like it. It’s not fun. We wouldn’t request it as we offer our petitions to God. But, could it be what’s best for us?  As we turn toward the end of Esther’s story, we see the Jews disseminated amongst the various provinces of Persia. They are stretched from India to Ethiopia, and along with them, God’s truth. They had been uprooted from their homeland and carried off into exile, but was God seeking to be mean to them through this, or was He using them to plant the seeds of His love and truth throughout the known world? No, these people weren’t carrying the gospel, it hadn’t been written yet, but they were the people of God. They had His Word. They had His Name. Wherever they went, they were different. Haman even called i...

"With pacing, the goal isn't to use as little (or as much!) energy as possible, but to find a stable amount of activity you can do each day that won't worsen your symptoms." -Visible Pacing Lessons   Pacing is something I'm not very good at, as evidenced by my new lowest stability score on my Visible app * this morning. So why am I writing about it? What could I possibly have to offer you on something I obviously am not doing well in? Well, I want to get better at it. I need  to get better at it. I have found that putting in the research and learning to put together a post helps me so much to grow in an area, so you're getting insight into the mind of a Salty Zebra.   Yep, you read that right. That's a 1, a 1 out of 5. And as it reads below the 1, I am, "Out of balance." How did I get here? Well, I worked pretty hard at it, I can tell you that much! This month, I traveled to Florida, spent 10 days at Disney World with my family, traveled home fro...

  Well, friends, that's what I'm about to find out. You see, if I'm going to be able to continue to travel, it's going to have to be by different means that I previously did. Over the last nine months or so, I've been learning about how to acquire points and miles and then travel with them. I've dipped my toes into a few of my first point redemptions and been exceedingly blessed by them. I've enjoyed the benefits that come along with the cards I've gotten as well including: lounge access, travel insurance, and even free ice cream. Yes, you read that right, I have a credit card that gives me free ice cream every month. Now, because I am having to balance my blood sugar points as well as my credit card points, my husband has actually enjoyed the free ice cream, but he's definitely not complaining! But, beyond these things, how much actual travel  can you do with points and miles?  Points (and miles, the terms are interchangeable and I'll just pick ...

  “A faithful person will have an abundance of blessings, but the one who hastens to gain riches will not go unpunished.”  Proverbs 28:20  After my husband was laid off recently, we have been facing some questions and choices about his future career. Does he continue in the tech field because it pays well, or does he focus on something in more of the social service genre because it is more fulfilling? There are a lot of pieces to this puzzle and we are far from a decision.   As I mentioned before , one of the things that we have benefitted greatly from with his previous job was the healthcare. Spoiler alert, not only does working in social services pay less, the healthcare isn’t as good either. I have multiple chronic conditions as well as a brain tumor. My conditions are pretty much all degenerative, meaning that it is likely things will get more challenging, and therefore more expensive, over time. The day my husband lost his job, I told him, “God is my health ...

  “The one who digs a pit will fall into it; the one who rolls a stone – it will come back on him.”  Proverbs 26:27  “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” Says the Lord in Romans 12:19b . Why does He need to say this? Because hurt people hurt people. It is in our nature, our sin nature, when we are hit, to hit back. “Revenge is a dish best served cold” says the Klingon proverb. When we are injured by someone, it is likely that we will either consciously or unconsciously seek to hurt them in return. But that’s not what God wants us to do. He’s not asking us to just put up and shut up though, He’s asking us to trust Him that He will bring everything together as it should be. Esther and Mordecai got to witness this, along with all the Jewish people living in exile.   Haman was a vile man. You can see this not just in what people say about him, but in his actions. Somewhere back in history, he, too, was hurt. We don’t know Haman’s back story, but from the history of the...

  I prayed and prayed about what to write today. A lot of the things that came to mind were, well, not super positive and I feel like I've been writing a lot of heavy stuff lately. I'm at the beach this week and I looked out the window and said, "Lord, I want to write something that matches how I feel when I look out the window here." So he held up the mirror and pointed out the obvious, I should write about the beach!   When we were a young family, just starting out, we were blessed with the opportunity to spend time at our friend's beach house. How much did they charge? Nothing. It was free. Which was great because that was our budget! It was our first vacation as a family, our baby wasn't even one-year-old yet. It was followed by a beach trip nearly every year for twelve years, and then multiple times a year once we had our own beach house. Not all of them were at our friend's beach house, just a couple of them. My husband's family lives just inland...