Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

For a good portion of friends and family, it has been a very rough couple of weeks, and for some on the East Coast, it's looking to be a rough row to hoe for them, as well. I have friends and family in at least two of the States that are experiencing the wildfires...friends and family have been affected by Hurricane Harvey, and now I have friends and family about to be impacted by Hurricane Irma. To top everything else off, now Hurricane Katia has formed in the Gulf of Mexico. Hopefully she will poop out where she is and not cause any trouble. All that to say this... love is being found in the little things. Homes that are being or have been devastated, people losing all of their possessions. Its heartbreaking to watch the news right now, when a person who is covered in soot watches what is left of their home disintegrate with the flames before their eyes. Or another person, on a rescue boat, blanket draped over their shoulders, turns and sees their home totally flooded, only the...

I'm going to start straight out of the box with Scripture...just a heads up.                                                            *** Matthew 24: 3-14,32-38 3  Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what  will be  the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” 4  And Jesus answered and said to them:  “Take heed that no one deceives you.   5  For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.   6  And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all [ a ]   these things  must come to pass, but the end is not yet.   7  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestile...

On August 25th, the Gulf Coast of Texas had a deluge of Biblical proportions. Harvey, a category 4 hurricane, took aim and smashed into Rockport, Corpus Christie, and then made it's way north. Fifty counties, and over 150,000 properties were destroyed or severely damaged according to FEMA. Countless numbers have had their homes swamped with muck, water and mold, rendering the home unfit for living. Entire lifetimes have been washed away...rich, poor, black, white, yellow...it didn't discriminate as far as devastation was concerned. Interstate 69, going from downtown Houston toward Kingwood had their concrete barriers moved blocking all lanes, north and south, by the waters that ran over it. Homes that never, ever flooded, did, and on grand proportions. Livestock had to be herded down the middle of a city street...Horses were evacuated from stables by Cypress Creek. Along with the scores of now homeless men, women, and children, were homeless pets. Some left behind, some washe...

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...