My brother walked into the room, breathless with laughter, a beer in one hand and his mobile in the other. Accompanying him was Sue, his wife and Best Friend. She was my Best Friend too and we had grown very fond of each other before they were even married. It was storm season, when the thunder and lightning came with the rain.
“On the following Friday, we packed our bags and planned our escape,” he was saying to someone on the phone.
“What’s that?” I asked, all ears.
“Oh, Belinda, didn’t you hear?” Sue’s eyes popped as she spoke with me, surprised I hadn’t kept up with the gossip.
“No, Sue. I have been snowed under with lots of work to do. Haven’t even had time to look at the News let alone keep up with family business.”
Sue stared at me in silence, as I felt great guilt for not keeping in contact. They had been away on a camping trip, while I had stayed home to catch up with the extra workload my Freelance Writing Business had generated that month.
But my brother, Troy, who was still laughing, hung up the phone.
“Well, Belinda, the river came up after the massive storm last week. Water flooded the camping grounds where we were staying, turning it into a temporary island. Only 4WD vehicles could get through. Not even our little tinny was useful, as the flood wasn’t high enough for it.”
I closed my mouth, becoming aware that it was open as I stared at him in disbelief. Normally, the camping grounds where he and Sue frequented, didn’t flood at this time of year.
Sue took up the rest of the story, as Troy stopped long enough to gulp at his beer.
“But then, on Friday, the river flooded even more, and so we had only a small window of about 2 hours to escape. We packed up our camping equipment and stashed it in our sedan. Then, we threw all our important possessions into the tinny, before heading back to dry land. The river was high enough during that little bit of time to use the tinny.”
Troy was nodding. “And both Sue and I had our daughter’s birthday party to get back in time for.”
“Lucky…” was all I could manage to say in response.
Abundance
Abundance. The truth is that we are always experiencing this.
Think this is a lie? Or New Age fluff?
Well, if there’s not an abundance of, for example, money, in your life, this means there is an abundance of poverty.
This can be turned around.
The first step is acknowledging that you have the ability to change your financial situation. Self belief is key.
Yes. You can do it.
It requires thought, perseverance and commitment.
It requires creativity and maybe reaching out to loved ones for strength, support and inspiration.
And then it requires taking the steps, doing the tasks, walking the path.
What holds back most people is not that they can’t do this. What holds most of us is fear. In Nelson Mandela’s speech, he said that it was not our darkness that we were scared of, but our light.
So, if you’d like to gain some abundance, reach to your source of courage, be it your loved ones, your God, or a book, and gain a grip on your fear.
Then, explore the possibilities.
I’m happy to brain storm and research.
Just email me on lizseverest@gmail.com
Gun
Hi. I’m Bruce, and I have a tale to tell.
Something extraordinary happened to me a little while ago.
I was minding my own business, sitting on my front lawn with my brothers and sisters.
Then suddenly, a light appeared on the horizon.
Being an adventurous type of Gnome, and having been given to my owner as a joke, I stood my ground while the other Gnomes all ran my away and hid.
Now, Gnomes are known to be peaceful creatures. We’re often depicted holding flowers and watering cans.
Not me. The joke was that I came with my own gun. My own pathetic excuse for a gun.
Being made out of clay, it was useless.
Now, this night, I was abducted by aliens. Little green guys came rushing out as the light revealed itself to be a space shuttle.
I was dragged into it’s depths.
Then, I was held in a laboratory and prodded and poked.
I didn’t know how to escape. I was held in outer space in a space shuttle with no way of going back to Earth.
Finally, in a fit of temper, I did something that no Gnome had ever done before.
I threatened them with my gun.
Then, my fingers slipped and hit the trigger.
A beam of light shot out and nuked a little green guy.
The rest of them all ran and hid.
I grabbed one as he ducked to hide, and said to him,
“Take me back home and no one will get hurt.”
He jumped up and down, calling something out in a strange language.
The alien must have understood me, because next thing, I was standing back on my own lawn.
It’s a true story.
Who would know my little clay gun would have been able to work in outer space.
Liz's Everest 