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Blog“Just Over the Hilltop”

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Stuff happens. And when it does, how do I react? Well, first I should say hello from the overcast hilltop where the colors on our maples are vividly brilliant today. Dick has always said that the colors of fall are best displayed on a cloudy or drizzly day. He is right.

(Before you read further, this journal was from October of 2015.  So everything here happened back then and I stumbled upon this post yesterday and have been thinking about it and my journal writings ever since.  I hope you enjoy a six-year-old journal!)

Okay back to the stuff happens. By this I mean that life has its ups and downs and like a ride along the back roads and over the mountains of southern Vermont, it can be winding, straight up or straight down with hairpin turns along the way. A steep embankment to the river or the high ridges of the Green Mountains. It’s best to drive accordingly and that way you are not caught off guard and can usually maneuver obstacles or changes in the travel. Life is similar. But occasionally it throws more than a hairpin turn and it can be sudden.

drive accordingly and that way you are not caught off guard

That happened to me last week by way of my laptop. Suddenly, my laptop had been cleaned of all my pictures, folders, documents, and downloads. I thought I had hit a button that wiped out my “stuff.” Nope. It appears that I may have opened an unknown and unidentified e-mail which in turn, encrypted all my stuff and is holding it ransom. $500 by a certain date or $1000 after that. They will then release my information back to me. Yeah, right. Bullies don’t stop if you give in to them. So, Pete is trying to clear out the virus (bully) and retrieve any or as much as he can of my “stuff.” If not, that’s okay. We tried and I’ll just get a new computer (when the budget allows) and start over again. I still have my camera cards, my journals can be located and maybe returned from the facebook page, and other work will begin anew. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be better. I am amazed that I don’t feel it was personal. But I am angry and if I could trace and find this bully, he’d wish he hadn’t tapped into my laptop and stolen my work.

Changing gears and on a brighter note, wasn’t the lunar eclipse amazing? We watched it with Eric, Andrea, and our grandson, Matthew. Just amazing. I wondered how many people were also standing outside that night looking up and marveling at the wonders of God’s creation. Everything was set in place by Him and He sustains it with just the word of His mouth. Truly awesome.

He sustains it with just the word of His mouth

Did I tell you we have a Dollar General being built across from the Nice and Easy that should be opening this fall? The construction and landscaping is moving right along and I find it exciting to see growth in our little village.

Talking about growth, there is a large mushroom that has pushed its way up through the hard soil under one of the evergreen trees. There was still dirt on its top and rolls of dirt around its edges. I couldn’t help but think of the saying “bloom where you are planted” and my eighth grade class motto which said, “the doors to success are labeled push.” Maybe this mushroom wasn’t planted, but somehow the seed was there and push and bloom it did. No matter my surroundings, I desire to bloom and grow where planted plus push on the doors to success. Anyway, that was what a mushroom reminded me of last week.

bloom where you are planted

Thursday the writers outdid themselves once again. One of the reasons I enjoy and appreciate this group is the variety of style and subject written. There are only so many words in our dictionary or vocabulary and yet so many different stories, essays, poems, and thoughts come from those words. Keep writing!

Dick and I went for a Sunday afternoon drive Saturday. I love those times with him. We don’t know where we are going as we just take roads we aren’t familiar with and see where we end up. This time we traveled the side roads of Lisbon, Ogdensburg, Heuvelton, and Rennselear Falls. We enjoyed the slow changing autumn scenery, the hundreds and hundreds of geese, and discovered new roads to travel. Sometimes, even those “less traveled.” We ate supper at the Asian Buffet in Canton – a delicious ending to a beautiful day.

(Back to the present).  This was written six years ago and I recently found and read it. I thought to myself, “why did I stop writing?” I discovered I was encouraged by this journal post and have determined to get about journaling again. Please pray I will schedule my time once again to purposely take notes and write weekly, if possible. Until then and in the meantime, be careful as you travel the roads of your life. Stuff happens! Love, Sharon

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