This is about the great adventure I have been on here. The great melting pot of culture and blessed souls I have met along the way has been a greater experience than I ever could have imagined when I got here. This is true even if some of the souls here are cultured in buttermilk biscuits, heavenly mashed potatoes with gravy, and fried chicken. Just like Charlie and Cryssa wrote about in their book, "The Gravy Queen," a story about their beloved mother, and the legacy of love she left them. I greatly enjoyed reading it.

Check out www.piggyink.com for more info.

This is my delicious story de jour, to satisfy my hungry soul. I hope you like it too.

My heart is bursting right now with love. I must share it. This whole Author's Den experience is liking walking down a path and meeting people along the way, each one of us with a different story to tell each other, about our journey's down the road to where we met. Any power in my writing is from the Master; I am perhaps just channeling it a little better these days.

Read my story, "A Reason for Living, and see how this whole thing fits so perfectly into the life Christ had planned for me all along. You won't be sorry!

I posted my last bio picture here the last time I was able to able to get a haircut, shortly before my mom died last year. It was a rare day that I could get away to do it. I have a friend here who suggested I show my baby blues the next time I post a new picture of myself here, and yet another friend who made an additional suggestion. Please, allow me to elaborate using the following story:  

My old friend, Ron, who ironically used to work for Eastern Airlines for 30 years, right before former astronaut Frank Bohrman brought the company into bankruptcy, emailed me from the retirement community he and his wife share together. They have TWO golf courses there! Enjoy it Ron and Renay, you guys earned it!

Anyhow, Ron lost all of his retirement benefits right before he could get them and use them, and had to work 10 years with the State of Georgia before finally affording retirement. The State of Georgia, Toll Plaza at Georgia 400, is the first job where I met and worked with Ron, as Electronics Technicians to maintain the place. He helped me to get that position and my subsequent State of Georgia job too. What a guy, huh? 

Finally, I needed to quit to take care of loving Bridget my wife full-time. Bridget became increasingly disabled from her Myotonic Dystrophy she began to notice with weakness in her hands at the age of 17. A few years later, due to complications from a hospital medication error, she suffered massive and unrecoverable muscle loss and nearly died.

 She walked into the hospital with an upper respiratory infection, and was sent home to die 69 days later, with a wheelchair, a tracheotomy tube, a ventilator to help her breathe, and a feeding tube in her stomach and jejunum, as she could no longer eat, drink, or even talk anymore. Bridget’s condition has gotten no better, but has grown even worse over time. Additionally, she is in great pain constantly. She loves to hear all about you guys, and your comments and writing. I wrote a poem about her here called, The Bridge.” Others of you, like my friend Carol Surber here, wrote a poem about us both entitled,

Dance..Always and Forever

 http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewpoetry.asp?AuthorID=88830&id=245976

Bridget my loving wife is my life’s greatest blessing!

Nevertheless, back to Ron, remember him? He told me upon seeing my biography picture online, "Next time, how about a great big smile too!" Therefore, I got that going for me coming up as well! Baby blues and a great big smile on my next bio picture, to go along my soaring spirit right now.

What do you think about that, huh?

I wrote the poem, "Eli's Brain," with joy over my newfound treasure of friends here. I had to write about it.

I will explain my statement by example found in the Gospel of Luke. Here Jesus, spoke to his disciples as they approached Jerusalem on what would become Palm Sunday:

 After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

When he had come near Bethpage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples,
saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here.  If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.' "

So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them.
 

As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?"

They said, "The Lord needs it."

Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.  As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.

As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." 

 He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."  Luke 19:28-40 (NRSV)

I want to praise God in a loud voice for all the miracles I have seen: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

So you see, I had to write about it.

I love you all,

Starman