Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

Okay, so I don't have gills, yet, but I'm watching the webbing between my toes very closely. Ha, ha! Also waiting to see if a ginormous boat with a bunch of animals will float by...yeah, it's getting real around here. Seriously, though. Hurricane Harvey has been a bit nasty. The south and west sides are being inundated by the rain, it hasn't let up since Friday night. Creeks and bayous are cresting and over-flowing their banks. For a select amount, for about two hours yesterday, parts of the Houston area had no rain, and the sun tried to come out. Then the clouds passed over and it has been non-stop since then. Right now, I have the television on, and in the background I'm hearing the newscasters tell people to not go into  their attics, but to go to the roof instead. This is serious. One has even gone so far as to ask for prayer for Houston. You could hear the hesitation in her voice, but she said it. And we need it. Me? We're on the Northeast side, and

As I sit down to write this, my heart is breaking for a young mother who made her way back to Mexico. So many times we lose our minds over the small stuff. I remember my Dad always telling me when I was a kid, in fact, just about all of my life, to not sweat the small stuff. Sometimes I can do just that...let it all roll off my back like water on a duck, other times, just look at me cross-eyed and I'll eat you for lunch. I won't lie, this has been a year that the small stuff would be a welcome relief. After Mouse and I having pneumonia, and her landing in the hospital, my Cousin going into the last stages of small cell carcinoma and ultimately passing away Easter Monday. Then my Uncle, who had fought Alzheimer's, and emphysema, and then passing away, and not one but two memorials in L.A., not to mention all of the stuff that has to be done to get Mouse on an airplane, I thought that this year has been a pretty poor one. Never mind that financially we've been doing wel

Today, I listened to a pastor take on a "pastor" who preaches the world and not the Word. I won't name this particular man, but suffice it to say that he and his wife are Nationally known as the "pastors" of one of the largest "churches" in the Nation. This man is a great motivational speaker, if you're not looking for spiritual guidance, because he doesn't give it. Sure, he throws in God's name, and even Jesus's name for good measure, but the concepts he uses are the "name-it-and-claim-it" type of methods. If you speak it out loud, and believe it, then it will happen. That God wants you to have an abundant life, that it was preordained before you were created. Oy! Seems to me that this happened in history once...In the book of Luke, and of course other of the Gospels...Luke 4 tells of Satan's temptation of Christ: Luke 4 New King James Version (NKJV) Satan Tempts Jesus 4  Then Jesus, being filled with the

I had the unfortunate experience of being on the butt-end of one of those this last weekend. My youngest daughter was involved in a conversation in a forum about the transgender in the military issue, and came against a young man who, let's just say, was not gentle with his words. This is America, he has a right to his opinion, as foul as those words might be to others. **shrug** My youngest daughter, bless her heart, also is very opinionated and commented on his attitude and the hopes that he doesn't pass it on to his progeny. Apparently this young man didn't like her come back and went digging on her Facebook page to find "dirt." The dirt he found was a picture of my Mouse from last Christmas, and put in text that reflected his opinion on those who have Special Needs. This is where I became involved. Regardless of whether or not the initial post was private, the fact that it involved Mouse made it very relevant to me. No one, and I mean no one, will use my M