It Is……. What It Is.

I can tell I am starting to feel better. When my husband asked if I wanted the tub of fall decorations today, I told him “yes!”  It took me a long time to put this bit up and it was done while sitting on a chair….but, I feel rather triumphant that I got it accomplished. (I must confess when I was done I went and sat in my recliner with my eyes shut!)

Somehow while in the fog of my West Nile journey the season seems to have changed on me. My husband is picking my pie pumpkins and tells me my two plants were over achievers this year as he has counted up to 40+ pumpkins out there in the garden. I have no idea, as I have not been near my garden for 5 1/2 weeks now.

I also discovered that while in this “fog” of healing; another event passed me by. A couple weeks before my illness I became part of a book launch team for a gal that I know. She has written her third book for women called, “It’s All Under Control”.

Part of being on the team was to help promote the book, read the book and let people know what we thought of the book by word of mouth and social media. I did this for approximately two weeks, then got sick, crawled in bed, went to the hospital and cocooned myself in my home with outings to the doctor and the physical therapist.

So…….now I am getting on top of things and would like to do a book and workbook giveaway…..A few weeks late as the launch is over…but better late than never….right? Before I get to that I want to introduce you to the author and how I know her.

Her name is Jennifer Dukes Lee and she is a farm wife and mom who lives about 1/2 hour from me. I first met her when we were both speakers (as lay women) at a Christian women’s retreat in our area.

The day I met her we gave our “practice talks”. She was polished, professional, had her power point ready and even used the “clicker thing” to run it! I, on the other hand, had no power point ready, would not dream of using the “clicker thing” myself and once I started talking, could feel my mouth dry up and turn to cotton.

As I talked I could feel my upper lip creeping up my teeth and my gums and knew it was not coming down as there was zero spit in my mouth. I tried getting a glass of water to my mouth and watched in horrified fascination as my hand started to shake halfway up. I put it back down since having your lip in an odd sneer, stuck on your teeth and  water sloshed over your shirt is not a good look. Maybe some can pull that look off…..but I cannot. ( I did survive giving my talk at the retreat. I found that with a tic tac in your cheek and God …..you can do anything!)

A few years later found Jennifer and me again at the retreat. She was in charge of the speakers and I was in charge of workers the weekend of the retreat. I went to her home to help plan.

I sat at her kitchen table and confessed that I was incredibly intimidated by her. She looked at me with big eyes, walked to her counter and came back with a pan. There was lots of crumbled brown cakie pieces in it.  I ventured to ask what it was and was told they were box brownies she had tried to make. (They did taste wonderful.) I learned from this woman that we all have our own God-given gifts and the gifts we are given, are good enough.

Back to the book launch – I did get two chapters read before I became sick and knew this was a book I needed to read. I do have to grin at how many times during those first weeks, when the launch was taking place, I looked at the cover, read, “It’s All Under Control” and wondered about the message God was clearly giving me. (Due to West Nile impacting my vision, I was not reading, doing screen time or much of anything!)

I have, on hand, a spare book and workbook that I would love to gift a woman. I specify, woman, because this is a book written by a woman for women. So, if you are a woman and would like this set please put GIVEAWAY in your comments. If you are a man and know a woman, a wife, a mom, a sister, a daughter, a daughter in law, a neighbor that you would love to give this book to, please feel free to also put GIVEAWAY in your comments.

You do not have to be a regular reader to participate, you do not have to have your own blog to participate. This is open to anyone. I have never done this before so I will give it a couple weeks for comments and then figure out how to do a fair drawing and also how to get the books to you!

May you have a blessed weekend. May you find that letting go is okay and may you find freedom in that letting go. And may you echo the words I have said often these passed weeks, “It is what it is.”

 

“Bravery is letting go
when you want to hang on.”
JDLee