Expecting God’s Wonder – A Holy Invitation

My third and final post in a three-part review of the new book “Wonderstruck” by Margaret Feinberg.

Have you ever prayed this prayer?

What would you expect if you did?

I have enjoyed every chapter of my sneak peek of Wonderstruck, but reading Margaret’s comments, insights, and experiences about prayer in chapter 5 resonated with me in a special way. Here are a few examples:

During a process of making changes to her prayer time, she said:

“Though I never outwardly admitted to such practices, my new time with God exposed a deep-seated belief that if I just prayed long enough or was more articulate or heartfelt then God would answer.” Wonderstruck, page 78

“I’d lost sight of God as a loving Father—whose favor I didn’t need to earn, whose attention I didn’t need to procure; God’s eyes were already on me, his hands already extended to help.” Wonderstruck, page 79

It’s difficult to wait a long time for God to answer a prayer, or sometimes even to wait at all when we’re in a hurry and God isn’t. Whether I’m being impatient or insecure – praying longer, more eloquently, or thinking I need to earn God’s favor, God’s time frame doesn’t change. Or change how much He loves me.

“God sits enthroned, ready to listen, to help.” Wonderstruck, page 85

“We do not cry out to an unknown God; our petitions are not sent “To Whom It May Concern” but are addressed to a father who abounds in love.” Wonderstruck, page 86

God is our Loving Father. He extends a holy invitation for us to spend time with Him, talk to Him, and expect Him to reveal Himself as wonderful.

Using an illustration about artisans, Margaret’s thoughts about prayer challenge me to look even closer at how I approach prayer. Or actually, how I approach God:

“Even the simplest items take on artisanal flair when someone cares enough about the process of creating the product. The image of the artisan illustrates much of what was taking place in my prayer life: namely, moving away from rambling, mass-produced prayers that cost me next to nothing to a richer, handcrafted prayer life. Like the artisans, I knew prayer was more than just the end product—receiving an answer from God.” Wonderstruck, page 80

We can do a lot of talking and still not say anything; but we don’t have to try to impress God either:

“How often have I rattled on with God and said nothing at all? Relying on clichés, throwaway phrases, and high language I’d never use in everyday conversation, I took prayer for granted and lost sight of the wondrous opportunity to draw close to God.” Wonderstruck, page 89

Wonderstruck releases on Christmas day; these questions would make a great New Year’s challenge (or resolution) that could change our prayer lives, infusing them with God’s wonder in 2013:

“How much are you really saying to God when you pray? Where has “nonversation” replaced conversation in your prayers? What slight shifts in your own prayer life could reignite your relationship with God?” Wonderstruck, page 89

I want my prayer life to be wonderstruck by God, and to see God revealed as Wonderful.

“The wonder of prayer is rediscovered in who we’re speaking to. Prayer is a mystical event by which we get to talk to the Creator of all—the One who fashioned our world with a few words—knowing that God not only listens but answers.” Wonderstruck, page 89

This has been an unusually hectic Christmas season for me; a schedule crammed full of obligations and responsibilities, plus several funerals in the space of a few short weeks. That was in addition to my ongoing battle with a very painful cancer, fighting a bout of the flu, and health issues with both of my parents that required surgeries. I’ll admit it was a struggle to remember to look for and expect moments of God’s wonder in the midst of it all. But God is faithful, and I saw His hand in many ways, even as one exhausting day seemed to blend into the next.

The graphic below from Margaret Feinberg sums it up well. When I took time to pause and look up, whether it was morning, night, or in between, His wonders were displayed in the Heavens; a beautiful sunset, brilliant stars on a clear night, and shooting stars (a meteor shower). Many other moments of His wonder were displayed in the form of His grace, mercy, strength, and encouragement.

And most importantly, the wonder of the Reason for this Season – celebrating the birth of God’s Son, Jesus.

Immanuel – God with us.

God.

With.

Me.

Seize every opportunity to encounter Him.

Margaret recently posted a great warning on her site that those who have read Wonderstruck have experienced the following symptoms:

– An inability to stop smiling

– An uncontainable desire to pray

– A loss of interest in judging others

– A quiet, unshakable confidence in God

– A renewed ability to see the wonders of God all around

There’s only a couple of days left to take advantage of the wonderful pre-pub offer and order the book for $7.57 ($14.99 retail) at Amazon, and get some great free downloads. Find out more about Wonderstruck and the incredible promo offer of up to $300 of free stuff by visiting www.margaretfeinberg.com/wonderstruck

Follow Margaret’s funny and inspirational posts on Twitter, Facebook, or her blog.

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Expecting God’s Wonder – With Holy Anticipation

The second in a three-part review of the new book “Wonderstruck” by Margaret Feinberg.

Have you ever prayed this prayer?

What would you expect if you did?

As I continued to read the pre-release of Wonderstruck, this excerpt from page 17 caused me to reflect on what I really expect from God on a daily basis:

“Though God had been at work in my life in countless ways—revealing so many wonders—I realized that deep down inside I still backed away from living each day with holy anticipation.”

I wondered if I’ve also backed away from “living each day with holy anticipation.”

Do you live each day with holy anticipation?

I mentioned in my first “Expecting God’s Wonder” post that I’ve been a fan of Margaret Feinberg’s books for the last few years, so it was exciting to receive the insider’s scoop recently about her new book. Here are some highlights from the interview:

Q:  “Where did the inspiration for the Wonderstruck book and Bible study come from?”

A:  “Have you ever had one of those seasons where everything goes wrong, and when you think it can’t get worse, it somehow finds a way? Most people who have worked in ministry have experienced those seasons—some may be in one right now.”

“My husband, Leif, and I had just gone through one of the roughest years of our lives. In the aftermath, as we processed the pain and loss, I had an unexplainable desire in my heart. I began praying for the wonder of God. In essence, I said, “God reveal yourself, your whole self to me. I want to know you as Wonderful. I want to know you as I’ve never known you before and see you in places I’ve never recognized you before.”

“God did not disappoint.”

Q:  “What do you mean by “the wonder of God”?”

A:  “Sometimes talking or writing about wonder feels like tying kite strings to clouds. It’s ethereal, and you can never quite get a grip on it. But if you look in the dictionary, the two main definitions of wonder are: “being filled with admiration, amazement, or awe” and “to think or speculate curiously.”

“Those definitions come together beautifully in our relationship with God. That’s why I define the wonder of God as those moments of spiritual awakening that create a desire to know God more.”

“In other words, the wonder of God isn’t about an emotional experience or having some cool story to tell your friends, but the wonder of God makes us want more of God—to go deeper and further than we’ve ever been before.”

Q:  “Why are you calling people to #LIVEWONDERSTRUCK?”

A:  “If you look in the Gospels, what you’ll discover is that those who encountered Jesus were constantly left in wild amazement. They were awestruck by the teachings of Christ, the healings of Christ, the mind-bending miracles of Christ. Within the Gospel of Luke we see words like “awe” and “wonder” and “marvel” at every turn. If this is the natural response to encountering Christ, how much more should it be for you and I—who are invited to live in relationship with Christ as sons and daughters of our God Most High?”

“We’ve created a free PDF that looks at some of these Scriptures. For a free copy, email us at wonderstruck@margaretfeinberg.com and we’ll send you one.”

Margaret Feinberg‘s new book and 7-session Bible Study called Wonderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God  is a personal invitation for you to toss back the covers, climb out of bed, and drink in the fullness of life. What if you could:

• Recognize the presence of God in the midst of your routine
• Unearth extraordinary moments on ordinary days
• Develop a renewed passion for God
• Identify what’s holding you back in prayer
• Discover joy in knowing you’re wildly loved

Where has God revealed His wonder in your life?

Do you want to live each day with holy anticipation?

This is the second of three posts I’m writing in my review of Wonderstruck. My next and final review post will be on December 23. If you missed it, you can read the first “Expecting God’s Wonder” post by clicking here.

Since I love a bargain as much as I love reading Margaret’s books, I’ve already taken advantage of the wonderful pre-pub offer and ordered the book for $7.57 ($14.99 retail) at Amazon, and I got some great free downloads. You can find out more about Wonderstruck by visiting www.margaretfeinberg.com/wonderstruck where she’s offering some incredible promos right now with up to $300 of free stuff.

Follow Margaret’s funny and inspirational posts on Twitter, Facebook, or her blog.

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Where Is Jesus In The Christmas Frenzy?

‘Tis the season to ask this question…

Expecting God’s Wonder

Have you ever prayed this prayer?

What would you expect if you did?

I recently had the opportunity to read a few pre-release chapters of a new book by one of my favorite authors.
As with her other books, this one also captured my attention in the first few pages. On page 4 she writes:

“I offered up a silent prayer to lay hold of the wonder of God, to find myself once again awed by another facet of His nature, another glimpse of His presence in our world.” And, “God delights for us to cup our hands in prayer and scrunch our faces against the vault of heaven in holy expectation that He will meet us in beautiful, mysterious ways. The Creator desires to captivate us not just with His handiwork but with Himself—displaying facets of His character, igniting us with His fiery love, awakening us to the intensity of His holiness. Often such incidents occur when we least anticipate, leaving us wonderstruck…”

My friend, Margaret Feinberg, has a new book and 7-session Bible Study called Wonderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God (releasing Christmas Day)—a personal invitation for you to toss back the covers, climb out of bed, and drink in the fullness of life. What if you could:

• Recognize the presence of God in the midst of your routine
• Unearth extraordinary moments on ordinary days
• Develop a renewed passion for God
• Identify what’s holding you back in prayer
• Discover joy in knowing you’re wildly loved

I’ve already read enough to know I want to read the whole book, and I’m very particular about what I read. As a long time reader of Margaret Feinberg’s books, I’ve always enjoyed her engaging writing style that keeps me turning the pages in anticipation. Her passion for God and thirst for experiencing more of Him in her life is inspiring, and reading Wonderstruck challenged me to pray to “lay hold of the wonder of God.”

God has most recently revealed His wonder in my life in the middle of a restless, sleepless night. I looked out the window just as two young deer wandered into our front yard and started grazing just a few feet away. It was a dark, cloudy night, but I could see them very well in the light from our neighbor’s outside Christmas lights. A few minutes later their mama joined them, then after a while she gracefully leapt back up the bank and disappeared into the dark. The young ones stayed behind, content to nibble on what they could find under the fallen leaves.

It was such a peaceful scene, and deer are such beautiful examples of God’s creation. I stood very still and watched them for about ten minutes, fascinated by their graceful moves and sharp senses. A couple of times they seemed to know they were being watched and would stop and look directly toward me, their gaze intent as they searched for signs of danger. I gently closed the blinds and went back to bed, leaving them to enjoy their grazing without fear.

God used my peaceful time of watching the deer to calm my mind from thinking about to-do lists and busy schedules, and to draw me into restful sleep. I went to sleep thinking about the wonders of God, instead of everything else that had been on my mind. Oh, and our neighbor’s lights are on a timer and would normally already be off long before that time. But that night they were still on.

Where has God revealed His wonder in your life?

This is the first of three posts I’m writing in my review of Wonderstruck. My next review post will be on December 16, and the final one on December 23.

Since I love a bargain as much as I love reading Margaret’s books, I took advantage of the wonderful pre-pub offer and ordered the book for $7.57 ($14.99 retail) at Amazon, and got some great free downloads. You can find out more about Wonderstruck by visiting www.margaretfeinberg.com/wonderstruck where she’s offering some incredible promos right now with up to $300 of free stuff.

Follow Margaret’s funny and inspirational posts on Twitter, Facebook, or her blog.

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[Slightly] Extreme Makeover

If you’ve been here before Thanksgiving, you’re probably noticing the design has changed since then. It’s still somewhat under construction as I learn my way around this theme, but all of my posts, photos, and other content are here. Someplace. The layout is different, but if you get lost you can click on “Home” or the header title “Hearing His Voice” at the top to get back to the main page and menus.

I didn’t brave the crowds to go shopping on Black Friday, but I did catch one great Black Friday deal. WordPress offered a “Free Custom Design with a Premium Theme Purchase on Black Friday” that included “a free one year subscription to our Custom Design Upgrade, a $30 value, when you purchase any Premium Theme.”

I was offline so much lately that I almost missed it, but I happened to log on and see the offer before it expired. It was hard to choose one theme from all the ones I like, and so far I’m happy with my decision. It’s loaded with features and options, and I really like having the free upgrade to change fonts and colors. And of course CSS when I get that figured out. I still like several of the free themes, but this is a nice change, especially with the combo offer.

Besides doing a design makeover, I’ll also be adding some new content soon. In the meantime, enjoy your visit, and don’t trip over any bricks 😉 Oh, and you have to climb over the pile of bricks to leave a comment. Not really! It may seem that way, since this theme puts the comment box at the bottom of each individual post, and you can only access it by clicking the title of a post. It’s not as complicated as it sounds, just very different from my previous layout.

Do you experiment with different themes?

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Coming Soon!

My review of Wonderstruck, a new book by Margaret Feinberg, due to be released Christmas Day, 2012.

“The Creator desires to captivate us not just with His handiwork but with Himself—displaying facets of His character, igniting us with His fiery love, awakening us to the intensity of His holiness.” Margaret Feinberg – Wonderstruck

If you’re already familiar with Margaret Feinberg’s books, or you know someone who is, or you just want to be one of the first to live wonderstruck, you can Pre-order Wonderstruck today from Amazon.

Subscribe or follow my blog to get updates of new features and content added here. Thank you!

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Life Happens, Blog About It

I grew up hearing about some guy named Murphy, who had apparently passed a law that mandates “if anything can go wrong, it will.“

I had no idea who Murphy was, but I didn’t like him because some kind of trouble or problem was always associated with him.

When we had an important appointment or event to attend, and left in plenty of time, yet ended up being late because a tire blew out, Murphy’s Law was quoted. The tires showed no warning signs of potential problems before we left, but because of Murphy’s Law there was some unseen flaw that presented itself at a most inconvenient time. It could just as easily have happened while my Dad was driving past the tire repair shop, with no pressing appointment or schedule to keep,
rather than where no help was available.

But really, does it ever happen that way?

As an adult, I’ve had plenty of Murphy’s Law moments myself, including the untimely breakdown of vehicles.  I had the unfortunate experience a few years ago of having the transmission on my SUV fail, about halfway into a 700 mile trip by myself, while pulling a fully loaded U-Haul trailer on the interstate. At night. In the middle of nowhere. On Friday night.

I had my truck serviced before the trip, and the U-Haul size and weight were under the maximum for that vehicle, which came with a factory towing package installed.  Towing wasn’t the problem, it just exacerbated a problem the transmission had that could only be detected by taking it apart, making it a prime target for Murphy’s Law.

The  nearest repair shop was miles away, not open on weekends, and of course did not have the parts needed to fix it.
I had all weekend in a roadside motel to contemplate Murphy’s Law while waiting for Monday morning to get a diagnosis, then another day to wait for parts and the rebuild.

There were better, more convenient places to break down a couple of hours before, or even farther down the road where it was ultimately fixed.  There were certainly better motel options, such as not having to drag the dresser in front of the door because it barely closed and had a flimsy lock.  A lock that wouldn’t keep the night manager out if he decided to be more aggressive about trying to change my mind from my NO! answer when he propositioned me as I checked in. Or when he stopped by later to “see if I needed anything“. I didn’t move the dresser to open the door.  I just needed him to leave me alone! Creepy guy!

Some of my recent experiences with Murphy’s Law have revolved around the laws of Murphy concerning computers.  There was the laptop issue that I blogged about last August – Black Screen of Death Claims Another Unsuspecting Laptop, which was my last blog post until Saga of a Neglected Blog on May 23.  That post included my determination to “start from today and blog on ahead”.  In the past 5 days since posting that challenge to myself for the whole world to read, Murphy’s Law has given me plenty of material for a blog post about the frustrations of Murphy’s Law.

Murphy’s Law related to computers struck again earlier this week when the DSL modem stopped working, with no previous indication it had any problems.  The computer connected fine the night before, then the next morning it wouldn’t connect.  No software or hardware changes had been made, no settings changed, and no updates or downloads to the computer.  After running diagnostics and trying the suggested fixes to no avail, I called our DSL provider’s support line.

More than an hour and many “go here, do this, now try to connect” attempts the tech concluded that the DSL modem was bad.  And informed me it was not still under warranty.  I’m sure “items will need repair or replacement soon after the warranty expires” is one of Murphy’s Laws. 

The question now was, do we want to buy a new modem from them, which would ship out for overnight delivery?  Or do we want to buy a compatible one from a store?  Here is where Murphy’s Law of decisions comes into play, and if the wrong one is made, your day goes from bad to worse.

We made the wrong one.

Our choice was made by following this reasoning:

1)   We could be back online the same day, instead of having to wait for a delivery the next afternoon,

2)  We were already planning a shopping trip to an electronics retailer later that day, and in store purchases are easier to deal with if there’s a problem with the product.

3)  And said retailer had a compatible modem for $25 less.

Recap:  Same day vs. waiting 24 hours, buying in store for customer service, and save money.

We chose to buy our own, fully believing that was the wise choice, not realizing that Murphy’s Law was just waiting to spring a surprise on us that would make us regret our decision.

We followed the steps for ‘quick installation’ and everything went smoothly until we tried to connect to the internet.  It would connect if plugged directly into the computer, but not when plugged into the wireless router.  The manual said they have 24/7 support, so I called them and went through all the steps again with him. 

Once he verified that the modem would work when directly hooked to the computer, he said they don’t offer support for connecting to routers other than their own, and that I would have to call the router company’s tech support.  He didn’t do anything that we had not already done, or make it work any better than it did before the call.

The most annoying part about that call is that I told him at the beginning of the call about the problem only being with connecting to the router, not the modem itself.  That was a half hour wasted.

Oh, but it gets even better!

By now it was 11:00 p.m., but our router company also has 24/7 support, so I called them and had to go through the whole spiel again about what the problem was.  The tech told me it was probably just a matter of configuring the router to communicate with the new modem, something that only takes a few minutes.  That sounded too good to be true at that point, and it should have, as it turned out.

He had me check some settings on the router software and said he can easily get it connected, unless the router is bad.  The router is a couple of years newer than the modem, so we’re thinking it just needs configuring.  I’m waiting for him to start the configuring process when he informs me that our warranty has expired on the router.  I foolishly thought that just meant that if the router is bad we have to pay to replace it. 

Wrong!  It also means no tech support unless we pay for it.

The choices were $29.95 for him to fix it, then warranty the fix for 14 days, or $39.95 for the fix and a 6 month warranty.  If the router is bad, or goes bad in that time, they give us a $15 rebate toward a new one.  It was worth $10 more to get 5-1/2 months more of warranty to us, but there went the money we saved by buying the modem ourselves, plus another $15.

That is an example of Murphy’s Law of money; if it’s going to cost you, it’s probably going to cost you more than you expected. Also, if you save money, you will probably immediately have an unexpected expense that costs at least the amount you saved.

As it turned out, it took the tech an hour and a half to configure the router and get a working internet connection.  Everything he had me try kept failing, and he had me trying the same things over and over, with the same results.  Finally, I heard someone talking to him in the background, then he asked me to change the PPPoE setting to Automatic detection, save changes, and try to connect.  It did.  Maybe Murphy’s Law of tech support was operating on his end that time; he told me it would only take a few minutes, but a few minutes turned into 90 minutes.  And the tech needed his own tech support.

Charging for tech support for their own product is one way to sell an extended warranty, and to continue to make money after the warranty runs out.  But the probability of an issue just after the extended warranty runs out is actually greater, since the item is that much older. 

Maybe that’s Murphy’s Law of Warranties.

Now we know that our DSL provider would have configured the whole connection if we had purchased the modem from them. Is that Murphy’s Law of Hindsight?

In hindsight, mine, not Murphy’s Law, each of these experiences could have been much worse.  That can always be applied to what happens in life, whether we realize it at the time or not.  Things can always go wrong (or even more wrong) but that does not mean they always will, regardless of what Murphy’s Law says.

I think Murphy’s Law experiences can also be referred to as life happening, or as some say, “that’s life“. Good things and bad things happen to all of us, but it seems like we tend to remember the bad things more clearly, and longer.

Life is full of surprises, and many of them are worth blogging about.

As I finished this post and scrolled down to put the post tags in I had yet another Murphy’s Law experience.  The ‘Related Articles’ area has a whole list of blog posts about Murphy’s Law that I did not see until now.  I suppose this isMurphy’s Law of blog posts; that the very same subject a blogger decides to blog about on WordPress will have already been blogged about by several other bloggers on WordPress.  But since it’s already written, I’m adding my Murphy’s Law post as one more to go into the selection. 

I’m including a link at the bottom of this post to a website I found that has an extensive list of Murphy’s Law sayings on a variety of subjects.  It’s entertaining reading, and a humorous take on many of the frustrations of life.

Speaking of entertaining and humorous, could this be Murphy being chased by angry chickens?

“Murphy’s law is a popular adage  that states that “things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance,” or more commonly, “whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” A number of variants on the rule have been formulated, as have several corollaries.” WikiQuote – Murphy’s Law

Murphy’s Laws Website

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Saga of A Neglected Blog

Time has flown by since my last post more than nine months ago. Many things happened in my life that I could have written about; happy times, sad times, painful times, and regular, everyday life times. But as the dates of my posts will quickly reveal, those potential blog posts remained relegated to the “I’m going to write about this in my blog” or “I should write about that in my blog” corner of my mind.

The last thing I wrote about was my computer crashing, which was an annoying and expensive experience by the time I got a new one and transferred my files and programs. I did learn from the experience though, and invested in an external hard drive which is set to do regular backups. That wouldn’t have kept me from having to replace my computer, but it would have saved me some lost files, and a lot of frustration. I’m very happy with my new HP laptop and Windows 7, so it’s all worked out for the best in the long run.

Back to the saga of my neglected blog. I really have no excuse for not turning those blogging ideas into written posts. It only takes a few minutes to write a post, and with the added features and improvements on WordPress it’s now easier than ever. I’m using the full screen Just Write feature for this post, and if I had to vote on it I would count it as one of the single best new WP features. It wasn’t that it was difficult to blog on WP before, it’s just much better now. But WP features were not the reason I neglected my blog.

The reason I neglected my blog has been procrastination, and procrastinating about writing a post leads to a neglected blog.

Procrastination turned days into weeks, weeks into months, and here I am almost a year later with all of those still-unwritten posts floating around in my head. I may never get around to writing them because new things happen almost daily to blog about, unless I run short on material. If I do, I have a collection of blogging ideas just waiting to be written into posts.

The best I can do now is to not dwell on the past, and start over today blogging into the future.

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Screen of Death Claims Another Unsuspecting Laptop

I’ve heard of the Blue Screen of Death, but apparently laptops are prone to a condition called ‘Black Screen of Death’ when the graphics card processes it’s final image and goes into permanent retirement.

After the screen goes black during start up,
this is what used to be my Windows Vista logon page:

A few minutes later, the screen changes to this:

I used my computer all morning that day with no problems, when all of a sudden the screen turned bright green in the background, and began to scramble into multiple colors of lines.  I could still see the taskbar at that point, and clicked the menu for shut down options.  The menu was solid black, and the taskbar disappeared into the scrambled colors.  I tried ctrl/alt/delete, then tried powering off, but it was frozen on the scrambled screen.  Since I had been online when the problem happened, and my wireless light was still on and refusing to disconnect, I was concerned about being hacked. 

I finally had to do the unplug/remove battery option to shut it down.

When I tried to restart it could not complete the boot process and would loop into the option to run repair.

After running system repair (which said it could not repair or restore with system restore), hard drive diagnostics (which said my hard drive passed), and trying all the recommended fixes I found by researching it online from another computer, I called the manufacturer’s support line.  I told the agent that I know my laptop is out of warranty (she’s coming up on her 4th birthday, which is OLD in computer years!) and I just had a question about a failure to boot issue.  When I told him how the problem started he said it was a software issue, which could be resolved for a $50 fee and a few minutes on the phone with him.  That sounded great, but I asked what happens if that doesn’t fix it?  He said then it would need to be sent in, which would be an additional $400.  If it was the motherboard they would replace that, and any other parts it needs.  The repair cost would be open-ended, and I knew a 4 year old computer could easily cost me as much as a new one.

I didn’t want to pay $400. to ship a computer well on it’s way to being outdated to the manufacturer.  So the next day I took it to a local qualified repair store, and was told what I already suspected from researching online:  the graphics card cannot be replaced separately in a laptop, the motherboard has to be replaced as well.  The high end of the repair cost estimate put it at the price of a new laptop.  I left the store with 2 laptops; my old one, and a new one that has more features, and more importantly, a warranty!

I’m still learning my way around the new one, and having Windows 7, instead of Vista (which I loved!)  But so far, I really like the new features, both in hardware and software.  This laptop has come a long way from my first one that ran Windows 3.o and used floppy discs.  I still have to figure out how to get my old files from the other one, but I’ve been busy setting this one up and getting programs reactivated, and all the fun stuff that goes along with logging in from a different computer.

I realized too late the importance of using an external hard drive for back up, it would have made the whole process of retrieving my files much faster and easier!

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A Vacation To Dream About

Plinky said, “Describe your dream vacation.”

I can in one word, “Waterfalls!”

I love waterfalls! A dream vacation for me would be to visit waterfalls all around the world, especially those that can be accessed up close. The beautiful waterfall above is Gullfoss waterfall in Iceland.

The closer I can get to a waterfall, the better. The higher or wider the waterfall, the better.

I love to watch a waterfall.

I love the sound of a waterfall.

I love feeling the spray from a waterfall.

I love seeing a rainbow or moonbow over a waterfall.

My dream vacation would include standing behind a waterfall and watching it fall in front of me, to walk through it, and sit under it.

Pictures of them are beautiful, but a picture just cannot do them justice. Listening to a waterfall soundtrack is peaceful, but still not the same.

The best way to experience a waterfall is up close – to see it, hear it, and be drenched in it’s spray.

Waterfalls are among the finest of God’s magnificent, breathtaking creations on Earth. And they’re even more magnificent when He crowns them with a rainbow or moonbow.