Can I Predict Natural Disasters?

I’m seeing strange numbers everywhere. Last week when this happened, they had that big snowstorm in the northern states the next day. It reminded me of when I used to work lots of disasters each year. My psyche somehow got connected to disasters so I could often predict them.

I was out in Florida when Hurricane Frances made landfall in 2004, in Jensen Beach. 3 weeks to the day and in exactly the same place, hurricane Jeanne made landfall. I had been in South Florida for several months. But of course, all emergency workers were evacuated.

I can still recall driving by homes and buildings that had been hit by Frances. Half the building would be gone. Then after Jeanne made landfall, the entire building was missing. There was this really old structure down near the beach. They had been renovating it. It was a lovely old building. Then it was just a big slab of concrete. Just like that!

You never get over the shock and awe of seeing boats on top of houses and dumpsters floating down the highway.  I grew to love Jensen Beach and always told myself I was going to move there. Imagine living in a town that was hit with 2 Cat 3 hurricanes within exactly 3 weeks of each other. That would have been cool!

I made lots of friends in that little beach town. It was great. I was there for about 4 months. Then finally hurricane season ended. We finished up the work and returned to our homes.

Check out my website for more great storm stories. 

www.carolynsorrell.com

A Fish With Gold Coins in Its Mouth

 

I asked the Lord about that time he was asked about whether he was going to pay his taxes. Now my taxes are due pretty soon. I usually wait till the very last day to send them electronically to the IRS.

So, I says, “Lord, I’m gonna owe the IRS this year and you’re supposed to be my husband so it’s kind of your responsibility to pay my bills. Where are we are going to get this tax money from? We can’t just run down to the lake, catch and a fish and pull gold coins out of his mouth, now can we?”

I thought my words were clever. I was making a good point. So, guess what? God DID go down to the seashore, catch a fish and pull gold coins out of its mouth, then he handed them to me. It was $741—just enough to pay my taxes with a little left over.

Every single time, I think I’ve got something clever on the Lord, He outfoxes me. He is much more intelligent than I am and this is such a hard thing for me to accept. I always want to be right but He just laughs.

What kind of husband just laughs at your misery? Still, I am always surprised by how clever He is.

Imagine having ALL resources ALWAYS at your disposal. Well, at least, I have a husband who gets my sense of humor. That’s so important and hard to find these days.

The Midnight Food

 

Last night I didn’t get to sleep until 7am that morning. So I slept for 4 hours then got up and made breakfast. I stayed up and worked an hour then went back to bed and slept for 3 more hours. I got up and made lunch and worked another hour then I crawled back in bed and slept 3 more hours.

Every time I’d fall asleep, I would continue the same dream. In Dream #1 I meet up with a bunch of friends and family members at this large restaurant. They serve lobster and lobster rolls with French fries and onion rings. It was delicious! Really, I have to order that soon.

We have the best time and stay at that restaurant for over 2 hours. One of the groups of people who met there for this family reunion was driving the biggest green and white RV you’ve ever seen! I mean, it was massive. When the guy parks the thing, he accidentally bumps into a guy’s motorcycle, which is parked outside the restaurant on the street. You can see the cars because the café has tall, wide windows all around. You can see the outside very clearly.

In the center of this spacious café, there are men’s and ladies’ bathrooms.  The counter runs all the way across the front of the building and there are usually about 4 servers working these counters. They stay really busy because the food is good.

After a couple of hours, the meeting breaks up. People say goodbye and hug. We talk about how we will get together again soon. So finally, each of us goes our own way.

That’s how the dream ends. But then each time I go back to sleep (I slept 3 different times), that same dream takes up again.

We’re all in this large restaurant with a counter that runs across the front and bathrooms right in the center of the building. And we are ordering food and drinks. We are laughing and talking. We are having so much fun. And throughout the dream, we remain there in that place. Then the dream ends.

But the next time I go back to sleep, the dream starts right back up again. There are lots of us there. We’re standing at the counter, placing our food orders. We're talking. We’re laughing. We hug a lot. And it’s wonderful.

Then I woke up and had to begin my day. It was around 6pm. I watched Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune then Big Brother came on. I ate dinner. Now it’s time to go back to sleep. My day is over. It’s 2:43am. I’ll brush my teeth in a minute. I check all the door locks. I close the door to the laundry room then I peek out the patio door to see if it rained. It didn’t.

I have to make the bed. I have clean sheets. Then I’ll turn out my bedside light and close my eyes. I wonder if that dream will return. Where will we go and what will we do next? Maybe we’ll meet at a Mexican restaurant and eat enchiladas and chili. My favorite!

But maybe I’ll dream something else. Those times when I sleep each day are my favorite times because I always enjoy an adventure somewhere. Well, it’s time for what I call, “The Midnight Food.”

When my schedule was more normal, I would eat a snack at around midnight each evening then be in bed by 3am. That was a good schedule for me. So I call that “the Midnight Food.” Right now it’s 3am and I have no idea what I’m gonna eat for the Midnight Food. I don’t have anything.

I have canned soup, canned pineapple and Keebler cookies. I have some yellow squash and an avocado that may have gone bad already. I’m just stumped about what to eat.

What's It Like to Be God?

Yesterday, I had a profound experience. I’ve been helping my neighbor as much as possible because she’s an old black lady who doesn't get enough social security and she has no way to earn extra money. Lately though, I’ve tried to make it clear that I CAN NOT pay her light bill each month. I want to help people if possible but I’m not rich. Usually, I will pray for someone and ask God to meet their needs.

She knew that I was at the point where I was NOT going to buy her food, medicine or pay any bills for her anymore. I’ve done that for the past few months because I am a caring person. But I’m not wealthy.

She put a brace on her arm and knocked on my door telling me that she’d gotten into a car accident and needed me to buy her dinner. So I ordered Panda Express for her and they delivered it to the wrong address. When I called her about this, she started yelling and saying that someone had stolen the food.

I tried to get her to calm down. I felt like the driver just delivered the food to the wrong apartment. But she kept screaming and yelling, forcing me to try and yell over her to make her calm down and listen to me. Finally, I just hung up on her.

 She claims to be a Christian so I believe her conscience got the best of her. She knew that it was wrong to lie to someone to try and get them to buy dinner especially since I’ve been so nice to her.

Later, when I was praying about this ordeal, God gently showed me something powerful about what it is like to be God.

People cry out to God all the time for help, healing, money etc. They yell at him and blame him for everything. They never listen when He’s trying to tell them what to do.

Constantly, for ages, God has had humans doing this. They get in trouble, need help, pray, scream, cry, blame Him—they behave so irrationally that they do NOT get the help from Heaven that they need.

We must stop flailing and carrying on. We must stop screaming at God. We must stop blaming him for the horrible mess we’ve made.

Did God tell us to build nuclear reactors? Of course not! Because He knows that if one of them ever has a leak or blows up, it will poison our entire planet. If we had prayed about energy needs and waited on God, He would have told us about Solar, Geothermal, Wind and other natural ways to make energy.

But if one of those reactors blows up, we’ll all scream that God did it and that God doesn’t care about humanity.

This is one of the reasons why God stays up there in his heavenly place and doesn’t come down here very often.  It’s like those poor children in India. There’s no birth control so thousands of kids are born each year that no one wants. They wind up on the streets begging and stealing to survive.

If they see an American, they run over and beg for money. But if you give a dollar to one of them, suddenly, there are 50 of them grabbing and pulling at you, trying to get your money. The needs of human kind are now so great that one organization or even one country cannot possibly do it all.

We must get every woman on this planet on birth control. People can’t be allowed to just have as many kids as they want with no way to feed them. That is stupid and cruel. A society that does this way cannot think it will survive for the long term.

God is like that American in India. He gives a dollar to one person then suddenly millions are grabbing at Him trying to get money or food. They get so frantic and emotional that they can’t even hear His voice or see what He’s trying to do.

It makes you just want to lock your front door and never answer it again if the neighbor knocks. That’s my plan at least.

Quell the Night Birds

Sometimes I get poems that mean something. They provide instruction for my life. This one had a huge impact during a time that I was completely lost:

Quell the night birds
The Silence must be honored

Finish the Seeking
Wandering, Lusty Ways.
Give them back their Dime
For they do not deserve you.

Get instead your Soul
Who has lost its way.

Subdue the Lioness lonely, hungry Hunter
Fix your stare much higher than she.

Quell your fears you lonely, Angry Mortal
Arise to your Rightful God-given Destiny.


Copyright © March 2005 – Carolyn L. Sorrell – All Rights Reserved

"Look Rabbit! There Ain't No Carrots in My Fridge!"

We have about 4 little rabbits that live on this property. At night, they come out and hop around the courtyard. I usually go out and throw carrots and celery to them. So tonight I went out and sure enough, there was a little rabbit sitting about 20 feet off the patio. 

So I said, “Sorry dude, no carrots tonight. May have some old bread though.”

I went inside and sure enough, there was some old Italian bread on the microwave. So I took it out and threw it to the rabbit. I threw it about 10 feet on the other side of where he was sitting, but he never moved. 

I waited and watched and the rabbit just sat there staring at me as if to say, “Look, I’m not budging till I get carrots!”

So I said, “Look, I know its smelly old bread but it’s all I’ve got. You can look in my fridge if you don’t believe me. I swear…all that’s in there are 4 To-Go Boxes from area restaurants. That’s it!”

So that rabbit just kept staring me down. Finally, I said, “Okay, you got about a minute till the ants come take that bread away!”

He still sat silently watching me waiting for his carrots. “Well, it’s too late now! Your window of opportunity just closed. Those ants own that bread now.”

So I finally gave up and went inside the house. That rabbit is still sitting there staring at my patio, waiting.

“LOOK DUDE! THERE ARE NO CARROTS IN MY REFRIGERATOR!”

He's still there. Now I have to go to the grocery store.

Life in the French Quarter

Living in the French Quarter

Spoke to a girl and potential new client in NYC yesterday…she’s an event planner looking for help with her marketing campaign... “I’m your girl!” I said, naturally. She told me some other stuff about how it is to live there. She says one night her and her husband came home from a party at 8pm and he had to drive around till 11pm looking for a parking spot…so 3 hours looking for a parking space!!!

That reminded me of New Orleans. I had a little upstairs apartment on Royal, next street over from Bourbon Street. And there's no parking around there except on the streets. So, if you get off work and get home by 5pm, you can usually find something. What I always did was go upstairs to my apartment, take a shower and lie down for 20 minutes. We always worked 12 or 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. Lying down for 20 minutes, you can kind of catch your breath and relax all your muscles for a few minutes.

Then when you wake up, you’re starving so you got 3 choices:

*Soup warmed in microwave.

*Walk somewhere around the neighborhood and find a café.

*Get in your car and drive somewhere.

The problem with that last one is that, say you leave at 6 pm and drive to a good restaurant. I know where there’s a really amazing Mexican place. Also, there’s Café Dumond... that place! It's 3 blocks down Royal and over to Decatur. The café faces the Mississippi River, an amazing area where you’ll find lots of good jazz musicians, open porticos that serve jambalaya and crawfish pie. They have plenty of seating, like picnic tables and those old tables with chrome metal legs and Formica tops - retro-looking!

So, you get seated by 6:30pm, eat then get back home at 7:30pm to find NO PARKING AT ALL!! Every possible place to put a car is gone. You drive around and around. Finally, you park down close to Verti Marte. That’s only 2 blocks from where I lived, not bad. If you drive out of the neighborhood to eat, it’s a hassle to park when you get back home.

Miss those days! Don’t miss Katrina at all.

One night I walked to the store, Verti Marte. They have ready-made sandwiches, a few small round tables with cheap plastic chairs. Not a very clean place but busy. I ordered my dinner and sat down across from a strange man and his cat. The guy was dressed like a cross between a clown and a homeless guy. 

The cat was scruffy, dingy white. He was sitting in a chair at the table like a real person with a plate of food sitting in front of him on the table. The cat and the man were eating dinner together and everyone pretended it was normal for a guy to take his cat out for dinner.

I ate at the next table and enjoyed polite conversation with the man and his cat. They were nice folks. It was a pleasant evening and I didn’t have to worry about losing my parking spot. Plus, I got a relaxing walk. It's very common to see strange things and strange people in the French Quarter. I enjoyed my time there.