About Me…

I just started writing about 4 and a half years ago, and it has become such a big part of me it seems rather amazing that I have not written for a longer period of time in my life.

 I was brought up in a super conservative religious household in Kentucky. My father was an Independent Baptist preacher (Jerry Falwell was considered “liberal” to my family) and our life revolved around the Baptist Church and doctrine.

I never really had a chance to rebell….we were always busy! My sister and I counted 132 sermons that we had heard in ONE MONTH when I was in high school. We were completely controlled but we had fun!

I was brought up that girls get married and serve their husbands. I didn’t need to go to college, or get a job, or learn to drive (unless my husband wanted to teach me) and lots and lots of other rules that were nonsense. However, it was my life and I accepted it…it was all I knew and so it was right.

And so I got married! That was what I was supposed to do, right? On my honeymoon I knew I had made a mistake, but there was no out, I had to stay married and it was a vow before God that I could not break.

Over the next 5 years I was lost and overwhelmed with life. I had always been controlled - but no one had ever been mean to me. And that made me look to my parents way of life as “better” than what I was experiencing.

In 1990, I took my 2 small children and left for Kentucky to go “home”. I soon found out that my parents plan was to completely take back control over me and by any means that they could. My mothers motto has always been “All’s fair in love and war” and through the months that I was there I began to see that this was not what I wanted.

As I lay in bed totally depressed and overwhelmed I began to pray and understand that my life wasn’t about any one else…it was all about me! I needed to find out who and what I wanted to be in my life. So I determined to go back to Florida and change myself…no matter what my husband did and see what would happen.

I made it back and as I began to pray about who I wanted to be God lead me to the Bible and three chapters in Matthew….chapters 5-7. As I read them the first day I began to get excited….this spoke to me as truth! As what it really meant to be a Christian, and so I read those chapters every day for 30 days! It totally changed my life.

And so I have journeyed from that place….7 years later I went through a very painful divorce and for the past 11 years (coming up in May 0 I have been learning and growing and progressing…living as closely to my beliefs as I can. Not taking the easy way, but choosing to follow my convictions and my gut in what is right for me.

It has been very difficult and yet I feel very successful and I feel ready to reach out and share the blessings and beauty of life lived in this way.

I hope that I will be able to make as many friends as I can along the way!