Hello Friends, I know that this week I am changing it up a bit from my usual Video Blog If Oak Trees Could Talk. The reason is simply because I live in a virtual golden and russet forest this time of year and I love it! I’ve included a video of this rainy autumn morning in Georgia and I hope a little inspiration for you today!
It is a rainy Monday morning in Georgia as I am writing this! I simply love my times out on my front porch, in my wooded jungle of sorts, sipping my morning coffee and simply listening and watching as I spend time in His presence!
Autumn leaves are swirling around in the current of the wind until they slowly make their way to the ground! However, I’ve noticed one leaf this morning that seems to be rebellious, out into a current of its own, golden in color, swirling and dancing in the wind! It seemed that it too would hit the ground as it came swirling downward. Then suddenly it would catch another current and soar up into the air again! I couldn’t take my eyes off of that leaf until finally after what seemed like the longest while of it dancing and prancing through the air, it finally swirled down and around and around until it lay down so ever gently on the only bear place on the ground!
I thought how weird that leaf was but then I felt as though the Lord was speaking to me in what I had just witnessed. He has made us as unique as this beautiful swirling leaf. He has called us to come out from among the crowd and do something uniquely designed for us to do, that we alone have been created to do! What I thought was rebellion, was simply obedience, one seemingly out on its own dancing and catching the wind of His breath and Spirit as He directed the current! It was a precious moment for me this morning as I seem to struggle sometimes with the fact that I’m out here feeling very alone sometimes with my hopes and dreams. It’s not like I do not have supporters and those that cheer me or encourage me, but what the Lord puts in your heart of hearts sometimes seems allusive at times and the self-doubt as to whether you’re chasing a pipe dream kicks in!
Ah…… I breathe in a peaceful sigh as the Lord always sends the little assurances like only He can to encourage me! This morning was a great pick me up as I am soaring high under the power of His breath!
Thank you for spending this time with me! Be encouraged that you’re always under the watchful eye of the One who created you! Blessings to you my dear friends! As always I would love to hear from you! If you have recently began reading along or have found my video blogs and would want to hear more please Subscribe to my Youtube Video Blogs!
It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted a video of If Oak Trees Could Talk, so for those of you who have been faithful to follow my video blogs, I am grateful that you’re hanging in there with me.
My family and I had a wonderful vacation to Panama City, Florida and had lots of fun in the sun. The trip was a celebration of sorts as my husband’s and my 35th wedding Anniversary is in this month!
I am back home in Georgia and I once again am so glad that you are spending this time with me as I read the rest of Chapter 11 The Escapees and go right in to Chapter 12 There Is No Place Like Home!
Chapter 11
The Escapees
“Are you coming back to us Henry?” Helen shouted up.
Henry just continued to chuckle.
“Well Momma, how do you propose we get him down from there?” Amelia asked while trying not to look up at such a view.
“He’ll come down when he’s ready, dear! Don’t worry, he’s not ready yet!”
“Well thank God it’s not cold outside!” Amelia whispered. As both she and Helen began to chuckle to themselves.
“Okay Amelia, go inside the house and get me a blanket and dig in the pantry closet for that old picnic basket. I bet your Daddy is starved as it was probably early today when he left Glenview. I am sure he missed his wonderful bland meal that he was getting on a regular basis. Do me a favor and have Robert run and get us some hamburgers and fries from Speedy’s Grill and Shake. They’re your Daddy’s favorite. Make that onion rings as Henry loves him some onion rings. Also there is a radio in our room on the dresser, get it too. You might have to check if the batteries are good. If the batteries are dead, look in the drawer beside the refrigerator, there should be some good batteries in there.”
“Momma, are you serious? You seriously want Robert to go get food so that you can have a picnic out here under this old Oak tree with Daddy’s bare bottom shining brighter than the moon itself! What if he is more ill than we think? Momma, what if this little excursion of his has made him worse than before!” Amelia drilled.
“So what if it did, Amelia, what if it did?” Helen calmly said as she looked up with her tender smile and her eyes full of nothing but love for her husband.
Chapter 12
No Place like Home
Although Amelia did not always agree with her mother she knew that no one knew her Father like her mother did. So she immediately left her parents to tell Robert what her mother had ordered. Robert obeyed and backed the car out of the driveway and sped off to Speedy’s Grill and Shake.
Amelia then began to fulfill her orders that her Mom gave her as well. She walked up the side yard and stood in front of the huge Victorian house that was built by her great grandparents in the 1800’s. Since that time, her grandparents and now her parents lived in what was once her home. The home was beautifully designed with ornamental columns and cornice boards that had intricate scroll work that framed the home. It was always such a wonderful, safe and happy place. Memories flooded Amelia’s mind as she stood in front of the old house with its deep family history and its gorgeous exterior. She sighed deeply as she felt the house was as lonely as she was for her parents to return home. Amelia felt homesick. She stepped onto the long winding porch that stretched the entire length of the front of the house and proceeded to wrap around to the side where there was a beautiful set of French doors. In that brief moment of hesitancy before opening the door to her parent’s house, Amelia remembered all of the grand parties that her mother and father threw every year in the summer. The French doors at the side of the house opened onto a beautiful patio and garden area where her parents practically lived. Gorgeous beds of roses and Camellias lined the ornamental rod iron fences and white wooden trellises were laden down with gorgeous green vines.
Henry and Helen loved to entertain in the garden area. It was the perfect place. Henry, again being a Southerner took pride in himself at being a great Southern Chef. He knew how to smother ribs in some of his own famous Barbeque sauce that he made and sold in his Hardware store. Yes, her parents were quite the entertainers! There were many times that Amelia would cuddle up in the hanging swing on the porch and fall sound asleep to the sounds of crickets, tree frogs, soft music and adults laughing and talking. Amelia smiled at such pleasant memories, but was saddened by the thoughts that she may never get to live any of them again.
As always, thank you so much for taking the time to “tune in” or read along today! I hope that you continue coming each week until you read or hear the entire romantic story!
If you are interested in obtaining your own copy of If Oak Trees Could Talk or any of my other books, please visit my Amazon Author Page here! Also If you are new to my Video Blogs and would like to catch up on the story from the beginning please check out the archives in this blog or simply subscribe to my Youtube Videos as they are numbered and in order! I am also a weekly contributor to The Lakeview Times. All of my videos are published each week at http://www.lakeviewtimes.com
Hello from Georgia! Just as I welcome the Sunshine on this beautiful sunny fall day, let me extend a hearty welcome to ya’ll as well! Don’t you just love the change of the seasons? There is something about the changing of the seasons that excites me to know that changes are occurring in our lives as well! Frankly that is why I began doing the Video Blogs of my latest Romance/Suspense novel If Oak Trees Could Talk because I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and experience something new! I am so grateful I’ve ventured out to do these Videos as I have loved the interaction and response I’ve gotten!
Please pull you up a comfy chair, pour you a sip of tea or coffee and join me today as we continue reading in Chapter 10 The Escapees and on into Chapter 11 The Return!
Chapter 10
The Escapees!
Nurse Wanda watched Mr. Hodges’ eyes narrow and his angered expressions come upon his face as he told her the story of Mr. Tyler. Because she knew Mr. Tyler so well, the story of why he escaped became clear. Mrs. Tyler knew if anyone told Mr. Tyler that she was getting out of Glenview before he was allowed to go home that he would not stand for it.
“Mrs. Tyler told us that this would happen!” Nurse Wanda stated
“What would happen, that two old mental cases would run off into the night and put all of our jobs at risk!” Mr. Hodges barked.
“Well Sir, I know you won’t understand this and probably won’t even try to understand it, but Mr. and Mrs. Tyler are unlike any couple that I’ve ever met. I seriously think that if you cut one of them that the other would bleed. They are that close and that much in love. This is where you went wrong Sir, because Mrs. Tyler asked all the nurses not to say anything to Mr. Tyler about her early release, because she knew that he would not be left behind at Glenview without his Helen. That’s the reason he came to Glenview to begin with because Mrs. Tyler left him when she had her stroke!”
“Well that is ridiculous and crazy! Is it any wonder that Mr. Tyler is mental? Yes this just leads me to think that Mr. Tyler is crazier than I thought. So medications will be justified! Thank you Nurse Wanda, you have enlightened me more than you can imagine!” Mr. Hodges said with those same narrow eyes and that evil smirk!
“Oh Lord, what have I done?” Nurse Wanda whispered as she realized that she just made things worse instead of better. She went quickly behind the nurse’s station and began looking for Ms. Amelia’s phone number. She knew that she probably would not be at her home but she felt so desperate to let Amelia know that Mr. Hodges was not going to help her parents. Instead he was going to keep Mr. Tyler medicated to where what memory he had gained would be lost forever! As she dialed the number, the telephone rang and rang, but no answer….
Chapter 11
The Return
“Hello my Little Darlings how are you?” Helen said rather calmly when she got into the car. She was always thrilled to see her grandchildren.
“We’re fine Gramma. Did Gramps escape from the Home?” Dylan asked, as he was the one most like Henry. He found humor in so much of life as Henry had.
“Yes Dear, I’m afraid he has, but no worries, I am sure he has made it home by now!” Gramma answered.
“Way to go Gramps!” Dylan cheered and so did his brother Robbie.
“Well at least he knows his way home, right?” Robbie asked rather concerned.
“Of course he does, children, don’t fret, I am sure he is just fine!” Gramma reassured. She seriously was at total peace as she somehow knew that this was the way things were going to work themselves out. Amelia on the other hand was typical Amelia, who was trying to keep herself from having a panic attack.
“Can’t you go any faster, Honey?” Amelia pleaded.
“It’s okay Amelia, your Father’s okay. I know him. He is just going back to find what he has lost.” Helen stated rather calmly.
“Mom, you sound so sure that he’s okay, what if….”
“Now, now Amelia, we do not want to alarm the boys now do we?” Helen interrupted as Amelia’s voice was becoming more excited.
“Okay, we should be home any second. I just pray that you’re right!” Amelia stated still not convinced of her Daddy’s safety.
As Robert turned onto Eastman Street, the boys shouted, “Do you see him? Do you see him?” They hollered again.
Robert pulled the car up into Henry’s and Helen’s driveway. The boys bolted out of the car first, they proceeded to run toward the house, but Amelia helped her mother out of the car who proceeded toward the Oak tree! When they drew close, the swing that hung from the Oak tree for years was gently swinging. It could not have been the wind because in the South, in the middle of July, a stiff wind is hard to come by. A gentle breeze was blowing, however, Amelia and Helen was sure that it would take more than a gentle breeze to move the swing this hard.
“Henry, Are you here?” Helen called. “Henry, do you hear me?” Helen called again.
Just as she was going to get upset, suddenly she and Amelia heard a loud thrashing sound up above them.
“Oh my Lord,” Amelia shouted!
“Hush Daughter, he has climbed that fool tree a million times! Just don’t panic. Just act as though you’re not the least bit afraid!” Helen stated rather calmly.
Henry chuckled like he was nine years old again as he was seated on a huge limb that he sat on when he was younger. Maybe he had not climbed up that tree and sat on that limb a million times, but it was truly so many times that he knew every little crevice and every protrusion to grab onto so as to get up there fast and be seated safely. He was a site to behold as he dangled his long naked legs over the side of that limb. He had his back toward Helen and Amelia and all they saw was Henry’s backside shining brighter than most moonlights! Obviously he was in quite a hurry to leave Glenview because he didn’t take time to find clothes or maybe he didn’t remember that he even had clothes. Did he care that he was streaking like a teenager at a football game, heck no! Henry honestly could have cared less even when he was completely sane, but now all shame was completely gone. Helen wasn’t at all surprised with what she saw. It reminded her of the old Henry.
Thank ya’ll once again for letting me share my Romance/Suspense with you! It is my hope that ya’ll come back each week if you are enjoying If Oak Trees Could Talk!
If you are interested in obtaining your own copy of If Oak Trees Could Talk or any of my other books, please visit my Amazon Author Page here! Also If you are new to my Video Blogs and would like to catch up on the story from the beginning please check out the archives in this blog or simply subscribe to my Youtube Videos as they are numbered and in order! I am also a weekly contributor to The Lakeview Times. All of my videos are published each week at http://www.lakeviewtimes.com
Welcome back to Part 13 If Oak Trees Could Talk! Once again it is my pleasure to bring my story to you each week! I am excited as I do these blogs each week as I am working on another Inspirational Romance Novel along with a sequel to a Juvenile fiction entitled Caleb’s Cereal. I would love to complete at least one of them in time for Christmas! In the meantime let’s read or listen to Chapter 7 A Father’s Love!
Chapter 7
A Father’s Love
Once Henry was alone he looked at the journals that Amelia had left him. He then stared at the old Oak tree hanging before him and with pencil in hand began once again to fill pages with memories. This time the memories of his Dad came to life.
Henry’s father, Russell William Tyler was a very hard worker. His philosophy was if you’re going to do a job, do it right or don’t bother. He sometimes come off very rough and short tempered and so Henry felt like he wasn’t pleasing unto his father. However, there was an event between Henry and his Dad that changed Henry’s life forever.
Both Henry and his Dad were driving to Crawford County one afternoon to pick up some automobile parts for Henry’s Dad’s car, when a deer came barreling out of the woods and stood right in front of the car. Henry’s Dad was driving and before he could steer the car in any direction, the deer lunged right into the windshield. Henry wasn’t hurt; however Mr. Tyler was knocked completely out and was bleeding profusely. Henry tried to wake his Dad with no response. He then realized that he had to get help, so he was able to scoot his father over enough for him to get into the driver’s seat. Henry drove his Daddy’s car for about two miles to the nearest house to summons help. Henry was only nine years old at the time and acted very mature and responsibly. Mr. Tyler suffered a concussion and had several stitches in his face but was fine because of Henry’s quick response. Henry remembered the gentle way that his Dad patted his hand as he was being loaded into an ambulance. He smiled at Henry in a way that Henry had never seen or never noticed before. Henry had the assurance that he needed from that afternoon that he was well pleasing unto his Dad.
While Henry penned the memories of his Dad, he found himself once again exhilarated. He stared intently at the picture of the old Oak tree hanging before him and a floodgate of memories came back to him.
“It’s out of here!” Henry yelled, as he recalled hitting a baseball completely over the fence when he was only seven. He was on the Tigers pee wee team where he had a baseball glove that seemed entirely too large and a cap to match. He remembered the proud look upon his Dad’s face when he looked up in the stands.
“It wasn’t at all what I thought it was! My Dad was always pleased with me wasn’t he old friend?”
As Henry sat alone in his room it was as if he heard his old friend saying “Yes, Henry, your Dad was always pleased with you!”
As one event after the other played in Henry’s mind, the memories of Henry’s Dad smiling at him flooded Henry’s heart. It was as if Henry could feel those gentle pats of assurance from his Dad once again as in the evening of the deer accident. Henry gently smiled as he penned every emotion and tears stained the journal’s pages.
As his fingers stiffened to the demand that Henry placed upon them, he felt almost as desperate as he felt that night that his Dad hit the deer. He felt that the freedom he was trying to achieve challenged him to do things that were scary but necessary, as in the time he drove his Daddy’s car in the night to get help for his Dad. In Henry’s thoughts he was even more desperate to get help for himself and his dear Helen. As another page was completed and the tears seemed fewer, Henry tenderly closed the journal. He then found himself giggling as joy of discovering that his Father loved and was pleased with him seemed to free him even more. He could feel guilt and condemnation of the past loose it’s hold and roll away. Henry took a deep breath, while winking at his old friend. Placing the journal back inside the bedside table, once again, he closed his eyes in sweet sleep.
Thank you for reading or “tuning in” today. I have so enjoyed sharing If Oak Trees Could Talk! As you can tell I have quite the imagination so it is not difficult to imagine myself sitting across the table from you my readers as if we’ve been friends for a long time!
If you would like to comment on this blog or Subscribe to my Youtube Videos, I would love to hear from you!
I also wanted to personally thank a great friend Greg Hetherington who allows me to be a weekly contributor to http://www.lakeviewtimes.com an Online Newspaper that he started and uses to reach out to his community and to Authors, bloggers, etc ! Check it out if you get a chance!
Well here we are almost at the end of January, I was just wondering if you’ve made any resolutions at the beginning of the year? If so are you still working on them or have you already grown discouraged and gave up on meeting them this year? I know how exciting it is to make New Year’s resolutions during such an emotional high! However, when all of the celebrating and partying is over the real work must begin. For many of us, we totally regret ever making those resolutions during the hype of all of the emotional clichés.
I am not writing this to try to discourage you further. I am writing instead to encourage you to do the work. Yes it is hard and grueling, but it is well worth every effort! Do you know why? Because when you made the resolution, emotionally or not, there was something that you wanted or desired on the inside so much that you said it out loud! I am here to celebrate with you again! Let’s pretend like the “ball” just now dropped at Time Square! Do you remember the power you felt inside as the ball had dropped less than a month ago? Well feel that power again! It is what will spark your hope that you could make changes, dream new dreams or set new goals? It is still with you, you haven’t lost it! I am here to help you fan the flame as it were to cause the spark to erupt into a full blaze! Come on you can do this thing!
Just wanted to give a brief update, my number one goal or resolution was that this year I wanted to do something with all of my stories “books” that I’ve written and left buried in my computer document files for many years? I had to ask myself “what are you waiting for?” So I began editing three of my stories and decided to do a little short story book entitled Mazy’s High Flying Adventure! I am so excited to say that I finished the book and it is already available on Amazon, etc. NO this is not a sales pitch where I am trying to sell my books, but I wanted to simply share that in order for our dreams to come, we have to put in the work! Even though I had already worked hard at writing the stories, to turn them into an actual book meant some long nights of editing, cropping pictures, etc. Whether we feel like it or not, we must dig inside and find the reason that we desired to reach the goal in the first place. I’ve just begun, but wanted to start my year off with success as soon as I could so that I could encourage myself to continue on!
I just wanted to encourage you to shake off all of the doubt and discouragement and go forward! Finish one of the goals that may take the least work so that you can see a measure of success! Prioritize! Maybe you’ve been trying to do something to reach your goal that isn’t quite working! Hey I’ve been there and done that many times, but the main thing is that you don’t give up on your dreams because what you tried didn’t work. Go for it at another angle, or a different way! The old adage “where there is a will, there is a way” applies here. Come on my friend you can do it! I can hear the fireworks of celebration can you?
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