For some reason that I can’t explain, or even understand, lately I’ve been feeling compelled to start writing my life story. I really don’t have great expectations that a great number of people are dying to read it. I just have this sense of needing to leave something of a mark that I was here, like a name or initials carved into a tree or wet cement.

There is an old saying: “Truth is stranger than fiction.” So many times in my life this has proved to be true.

Also, as the years slip by, memories begin to fade. Sometimes I think there are so many things I want to be able to say, memories I want to share, some of which may even be very interesting. Maybe through this blog and through writing out some of these stories privately (for now), I can begin to record the noteworthy memories.

Once again I found myself surrounded by people, yet alone with them. They were going about life as usual. I was with them, yet in my own world.

I’ve known some of these people for years and years, yet, I hardly recognize them. Did they change, or did I? When?

Maybe I just need to rest . . . .

I’ve learned this year that silence is not always a good thing. Sometimes it is detrimental. Sometimes it is downright dangerous.

I am here, and I am not silent! I know I haven’t done much of anything with this blog for months, maybe more. I hope to write again . . . soon . . . !

I have had the same computer for the last 4 years, almost. It has served me well. During the last 6 months or so, however, the computer and I have had a few disagreements. Because of that, and because of the age of the computer, it seemed time to purchase and break in a new one. So, here we are, using the new computer! I am very thankful for the opportunity to get a new one before the old one dies completely!

Time seems to fly by even faster than ever! It’s hard to believe that we are already 10 days into the month.

Zeke is doing well at school. The “little child” he came to live with so many years ago is now a preteen. They still play together and share a bedroom, along with several other zebras and many other animals. Still, there is none like Zeke the Zebra from SZeged!

Sometimes I think I have actually achieved invisibility . . . but now I’m not sure I really like invisibility . . . .  Sometimes I want to shout my thoughts from the rooftops . . . but then they would not be private thoughts any more.  I enjoy having them, keeping them, pondering them.

I write this to one who will never read it. Why I allow you to hold me hostage to the past I do not know. Every time I believe I am finally free of you free of you I discover more bindings. This time it is because I discovered you are like the rich man in a story told by Nathan (in 2 Sam. 12:1-4) about a rich man , a poor man, and the poor man’s ewe lamb.

You had your pick of the land. You could have chosen any place among the 237,500 square kilometers of land mass. Yet, the only place you wanted was precisely the place we had already inhabited for over a decade. Somehow the desolate “backwater” place that no one else wanted was so appealing to you that you evicted the only ones who loved it. Once it was empty, you could have moved there, but you never did! You changed your mind. It wasn’t such a great place after all, so you moved on to “greener” pastures further south. Before too long, you left the region altogether!

Your selfishness appalls me! The cowardly manner in which you connived to take the poor man’s ewe lamb is shameful! The fact that you didn’t really even want the lamb, the fact that in all practicality you sacrificed it on your man-pleasing alter makes me cry. I don’t know who to mourn for most, the poor man or you.

You have forgotten all about the poor man and his ewe lamb by now. Unfortunately I have not. Fortunately for the poor man, God cares for the broken and abandoned and wounded. God is taking care of the poor man. I just wish I could have continued to be a part of the picture.

Zeke pressured his parents into letting him get his own Facebook account. He has one now.

Ok, I love the snow on WordPress.  What I love most about it is that I don’t have do drive in it or shovel it.  Snow all you want, on here anyway!

I’ve reorganized the blog posts a little.  When I began relating the story of Zeke the Zebra from Szeged I forgot to label the posts with a category.  Since so much time has passed and since I have written posts about other subjects, the Zeke stories were somewhat hard to locate, especially for those new to the site.  So, I added a category to all posts relating to Zeke:  “Zeke’s Adventures.”