Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

By now, all of us world-wide are familiar with this phrase, or something similar. The world has been watching as first China was hit with this killer disease, then Italy, all of Europe, the Middle East, the US, Canada, Mexico, and ultimately, the entire world sans Antarctica. The Arctic and the Arctic Region have been hit with cases in Iceland, as have Alaska (which, while it is counted in the US count, it is considered part of the Arctic Region), Canada; the Northwest Territories, excluding Nunavut, the Yukon, and Labrador, Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and 23 Oblasts in Russia. Antarctica is the only continent that has zero cases of COVID-19. In many countries, the stay at home order was strictly enforced, after the virus went berserk. Italy is the most well-known of these countries, with deaths numbering in the thousands, and still rising. Spain is right on it's heels. The US is, per capita, doing better than most, if you can call a death c...

I know, I've been rather scarce as of late...no really good excuse for that, and I will try to do better. That said, I have something for you to ruminate on.   “Now learn   this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer  is  near. Mt 24:32 I have a bit of a confession to make. When something is newsworthy, I watch as much live stuff as I can. That way, when the pundits and MSM come on and spin it their way, I know what I watched and heard. I know the truth without it being dissected  and mutilated, and fed to the public like so much pablum, and I can that way argue with the best of them...mostly.  When COVID-19 hit China, I watched the news...very carefully. When it landed in Italy, it piqued my interest, when it hit Seattle, COVID had my full attention. Then here comes an earthquake.  In the last 30 days, there have been 29 instances of a quake 5.5 or higher throughout ...

You know, I've been reading posts from friends and family...some are worried, others are not. Some are barely getting their essentials, and others are prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse. Me? I'm tottering right smack dab in the middle. I have some stuff socked away, but not like a couple people I know, and yet, I'm still trying to figure out how to get more toilet paper (I'm good...for now) without giving up my hermit status or my first-born's birth certificate. In case you don't know, two of us here are technically in the risky category, Mouse more than me.She's at risk because of Stage 3 lung disease from infancy, and even hay fever can turn to bronchitis or pneumonia on a dime. Me? 60 here and have had pneumonia and bronchitis in the last 5 years. Smh. It is what it is. That said, as far as panic is concerned...even with possible cuts in pay, yeah, I'm not there. And I've wondered about that until tonight. As I was mulling over the posts...

I've been thinking, I need to take more pictures. I mean, landscapes, sunsets/sunrises, fun things, they're all awesome, but what about the mean streets, so to speak? Thinking back, I remember seeing many, many pictures chronicling my Grandmother's lives. Most are reflecting happy times, but there are a few that aren't so happy...weddings, funerals, births, times of prosperity and times of want. My Grandmother on my Mom's side had more of these than the other...Grandma on Dad's side were pretty much good times, even though some of the people in her pictures were ones that she wasn't quite cordial with afterwards. And that got me to reflect on my chronicling. Most of my pictures show happy times, fun times; sunsets, landscapes and animals. But, I have noticed I have a few that show more than I am comfortable with. One picture shows me noticeably thin, dark circles, but a smile nonetheless. I tried to look happy, but the camera captured what I was trying t...

Have you ever walked a straight line? I'm talking about walking on a painted on the pavement type straight line here. Unless your balance is tip-top, you waver every once in a while, if you're me, you look like a professional drunk. My internal gyroscope just can't stay centered. Every day we as Christians walk a fine line. Some days we can walk that puppy with no problems, other days, we have toe-dips here, foot faults there, and ultimately we look back and give a sigh of relief that the line you were walking has more than a few scuff marks, and maybe a stray fingernail or two that you bit off, but it is thankfully, part of our past. But consider this. In this world, we walk a fine line every day. Whether it is listening to music that isn't encouraging or uplifting, having a bit of road rage as you are blocked in on all sides, behind someone who is doing ten miles an hour below the speed limit...in the left lane. When you finally get up beside them, you find it was...

Yesterday, a collaboration project that has taken five years finally hit the market. Evelyn is a survivor/abuse victim fictional story, but there's a twist to it. Evelyn, DB, and Sarge are all fictional, created by a woman with an uncanny way of painting a picture for you. The other individuals are all real people, with real abuse backgrounds, and stories of survival. All of their names have been changed, the stories altered for their protection, and you want to know what frustrated me the most? They can't be credited in any way for their contribution. They deserve to have the world know that they are survivors, and have risen above and gone beyond anything they ever thought they could have once upon a time,  but because there is someone out there who put them there in the first place, they can never be revealed, at least by me. The woman who is the main collaborator with me, the one who created the three fictional characters, had to prioritize things because of family...

Whenever I see those words, "Mission Impossible,*" I remember Peter Graves and his weekly mission. "If you should accept it," well, that was always a given because he always did. Jim Phelps was always the best at what he did. Which brings me to another mission, impossible...or so it looks on the outside. The Bible is rife with examples of impossible missions, starting with Noah. So...tell me just how impossible it is for a vintner to build a boat? The interesting thing is, up until that time, the earth didn't have rain, so boats weren't needed, much less known. Now, if this isn't impossible enough, Noah was right about 500 years old when God told him to build the Ark, then told him to gather all the animals of the earth...two by two, except the 'clean' animals, of which he was to gather by sevens. He endured the ridicule of the people around him, but he also did what God told him to do. At the end of his work creating the Ark, the animals we...