Maybe a Butterfly After All: according to my friend . . .

Last night after the worship encounter evening at our church (all music, no sermon) I talked to my friend about my travel plan, and she said I was going to be like a butterfly. She said I came here to North Idaho like a caterpillar, and have been in a cocoon for a long time (my comfy apartment?) and now will be coming out of the cocoon to be like a butterfly in my future travel (and service) life. I thought it was cool synchronicity that she came up with the butterfly analogy right after I'd written a blog post claiming not to be a social butterfly!

#vanlife

Truth is, the van life will put me into much closer contact with other human beings in the future, and maybe that's one of the reasons I must go there. Right now, I spend most of my time in an ivory tower. A nice two-bedroom apartment on the third floor, with a great view. Today my great view started with wet streets, from rain, and now, in the last hour, turned white with big snowflakes. Like I said, snow was on the way.

Gratitudes:

1. So grateful for the worship encounter evenings at my church, once a month. Awesome experience last night! Give it all to Jesus - and trust Him for the right results - in EVERYTHING ...

2. I'm grateful for the discussion I had with my friend (Nita) about prayer . . . about how we need to give every situation to Jesus in prayer. He wants to hear our concerns. He already knows! But He wants us to be able to identify and verbalize our concerns to Him, and trust Him with them. For example - my difficult relationships with siblings and a few other family members. I can't fix a thing and have done plenty to mess things up... so I feel my efforts are hopeless. This morning I was ruminating about my situation again, and realized that this is a situation I need to identify, pray about, and give to the Lord, and He will do His Will... which is the best thing that can be done for all involved. Praise the Lord!

3. I am grateful for Naomi's neglect of me (parental estrangement) because it has taught me to understand what God feels when His children turn away from Him. Ah, the pain of it all . . . but I was one of those children turning away from Him toward false gods and false prophets, and now that I've been welcomed back, like the prodigal son, having spent so much of my life in ignorance (agnosticism, the word, derives from the Greek word for ignorance) I'm finding Jesus still loves me, and shines His light on me, and gives me the full heart I've always yearned for. I know I am loved, and what is better than that?



Plan for the day:

1. Figure out a new budget, heading into 2019, accounting for travel expenses

2. Write a book review for my lindajomartin.com blog . . . I want to review the best books I read during 2018. I'm starting with Blue Highways.

3. Walk 4000 steps and cycle 30 minutes on my exercise bike while listening to an audiobook

Currently reading:

1. The Nightingale, by Kristen Hannah. I passed the half-way point and now I'm headed downhill. That's what the second half of a book feels like to me - the downhill half of a hike.

2. Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young. I've been reading this devotional since last summer, and like it a lot. It always reminds me how much Jesus loves me.

The Story is No Story Today

I want to have a story for you every day, but today's story is only that there's no story. My imagination isn't racing, it isn't producing, it isn't revealing anything for me to share with you.

Oh, I could go into fiction and create a story that way, but what do I have to tell you about my life? I'm sitting in my apartment, the evening news is on TV. I've had the remainder of this post written for a while now... the gratitudes, plan for the day, and current reading list. All that had to wait until I could find a story to tell you.

I am serious about sharing my life stories on this blog. One little story per day. Can I do that? Honestly, I don't do well with consistency. The words "every day" are anathema to me.

Recently I bought a book about story telling from life - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story. I've only read a few pages, so far. Apparently I'm supposed to find a better story by living a more interesting life.

Well, hang on there! I'm planning to give up my apartment to move into a van... would that make life more interesting?

My main reason for doing that is ... well, there are a lot of reasons. How can I choose just one?

1. If I stay in my apartment for the next 20 years it will cost about 150,000 dollars. Living in a van would cut my expenses.
2. I've been desperately wishing for road trips. Well, in a van, my life will be nothing but road trips.
3. I have a blog called Journey! California that I've wanted to develop ever since the early days of the internet. What's been stopping me? Mainly - the opportunity to travel. But now I'll have that opportunity - though I won't confine my efforts to California only.

So, my no-story day has turned into a bit of a story. My story today is that I need a more exciting life, and the plan is in the works. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll test drive that van.

---

Gratitudes:

1. I'm grateful that I've got an audio version of the Bible. Some days I don't feel like sitting at my desk to read, and it helps to play the audio Bible instead. Today I listened to a few chapters of Proverbs, and some Psalms.

2. I'm grateful for the many friends I've made at Booktube.

3. I'm grateful for a day without rain (hopefully) tomorrow. That will help a lot as I want to test drive that van.

Plan for the day:

1. Pay bills

2. Bullet journal border video

3. Install and use new scanner

Currently reading:

1. The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer, chapter 1

2. The Nightingale, by Kristen Hannah

I've been reading both The Nightingale and People of the Book. Last night I decided that I must choose only one ... two novels at a time - that's just too much for me. So I decided to finish The Nightingale first.

Videography and Me

One of the most frustrating things I do is... videography. I am trying to learn to use my new video editor. That's already a task. But the worst part of my video making journey is that I am not a speaker... I'm more of a writer. So getting my thoughts out there on a video is very challenging for me.

Case in point, here is one of my first videos ever. I tried to memorize what I wanted to say. It came out very stilted. I noticed that when I spoke freely it sounded better. I look like a scared rabbit in this video, and that summarizes my problem with video making.



Now you've seen my worst video ever. I keep that video on my channel to remind myself of where I came from. It is also a good reminder of what I'd like to include in my book review videos.

I bought this book to train myself to create
better videos. My brother recommends it.
How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck
by Steve Stockman
Buy at Amazon

Background noise on that video is outrageous!! I still don't have a good camera.

My goal is to learn to produce better videos, that will gradually improve. I'd like to produce mini-documentaries rather than just splatter my life all over YouTube.

What I've done so far has been fun, a learning experience, challenging, difficult, and frustrating. However, I will continue on, and learn to make better videos in the future.