Rapunzel

So, here I sit for the third day in a row in front of daytime television. I think I can actually see my IQ points floating away. Do I care, really, really, with every fiber of my being care which dress the 20 year-old bride on TV picks out? Not one iota. I think I might be a tad cynical right now, but all I can picture are my 2 very expensive wedding dresses carefully packed away only later to be thrown away, and I sigh. How am I really this cynical?

I believe in love; I believe in partnerships blessed by God, I believe in healthy marriages that can stand the tests of time and trials. My glass is normally half-full. This morning, however, I must’ve run out of OJ.

I blame it on the heat. I might have already told you this, but the heat intensifies the migraines. Once the temperature hits 100°, I become Rapunzel locked away, blinds drawn, curtains closed, cut off from most of the world; Rapunzel just had better hair. You’d think early morning or night time the heat would relent, leaving me feeling better, but you would be wrong. During the day the asphalt and concrete absorb the heat. So, even after the sun goes down, the heat remains locked into this concrete jungle. (Remind me again why I moved back here from Virginia.)

Even as I recognize that I am in a bit of a funk, I am so eternally grateful to God that I have a home in which to live, and even better, it’s air conditioned and safe.   I have friends who love me and whom I love, and I have my family. I have clothes, I have a car that runs, and I have food on my table. The summer in AZ will end in, oh, 4 months, and I’ll be back to running outside through the Phoenix Mountains, Eddie (my Yorkie) will be home, and all in life will feel as it should. And these are the things I remind myself of every day.

Our society tends to focus on the negative, creepy, evil, and weird as the norm, and it’s so very easy to get sucked into that darkness that sometimes you aren’t even aware your subconscious is lapping it up. Day after day we are bombarded with images of tarry, inky blackness that, whether we realize it or not, those images stick to us even as we think we’ve gotten away clean. Have you ever sat in a movie theatre through previews of horror films and felt your breath pulled out of you, something reaching towards you and know, absolutely know, you must pray for protection from the evil that surrounds you at that very moment? (If not, then please ignore the entire previous paragraph.)

We’re told to be cautious about what we put in front of our eyes. As with everything, the rules/suggestions in the Bible are for our own good. Not everything that bothers me is going to bother you, but how do we know what settles into the neurons in our brains? His rules are simple; they equal Love.