mysilentscream.com

Angry, depressed and lonely describes most of my teen years.   If I had given up as a teen I would never have known most of you.  I would never have come out of the basement.  I would never have come to enjoy my parents, made lifelong friends, found hope or gotten to know God.

I felt so unworthy.  Ever felt that way?  I was smart but “stupid”.  I was gifted but misguided.  In my anger and angst I would make foolish and hurtful decisions.  Those decisions would make my life harder.  Leading, of course, to more anger and angst.  Building one upon the other anger became bitterness and angst became depression.

Last night as I sat in a TreeHouse support group I was awed with the humility and accountability of the teens present. They listened patiently and compassionately.

Directly and indirectly each teen reminded the other that “this is a safe place.”

Each teen who wanted caring support received it. And, remembering previous concerns, teens asked one another about issues and concerns that were mentioned in previous groups.

Without breaking confidentiality, similar questions include “How’s it going with…?”, “You said that…?”, “Wait, did you…or didn’t you?”

Loving God includes being willing to allow the bright light of God’s word shine in your life. While, from personal experience I know how scary that can be, it truly is freeing to live with integrity. It’s scary living in the fear of God, but it’s amazingly freeing to rest in an awareness of your own imperfections without pretensions. It’s then that we can truly experience the wonderfulness of God’s love.

Yesterday I extolled the virtues of six of my favorite Firefox Extensions.  Here are are seven more.

Evernote Web Clipper – While creating curriculum or planning ahead for an unwritten article or an as-yet unplanned message I save nuggets I read online with Evernote.  Evernote Web Clipper let me copy and save the article I want.

Extended Copy Menu – My apologies to the author of Extended Copy Menu, but I really only use it for the “Copy As Plain Text” option, but I love it.

I love that you can modify Firefox to serve your unique needs by adding search engines, themes, and extensions.

Extensions

1-Click YouTube Video Downloader – I like to save & play my favorite videos on my computer.

1 Password – Some of you only use one or two passwords, not me. I use 1Password to keep track of them on Macs. I primarily use free programs, but like 1 Password so much it’s one of the few programs I am willing to spend money on. Use a Windows computer? See RoboForm.  Technically 1 Password and Roboform are both toolbars but I think of them as extensions of my browser’s productivity.  So there!

I feel like I’ve been in a hole for a month — under the groundhog. Looking out and seeing my shadow would mean I’ve seen some daylight.

Trying to find an appropriate word for being underground, under the groundhog, I reached out to my browser.

“My browser”?

Yes, I love the dictionary.com search engine. If you’re using Firefox I hope you have the dictionary.com search engine, if you’re not and want to here’s how to get it:
left drop-down arrow
Manage Search Engines
Get more search engines takes me to: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:4/cat:all?sort=name
Click here or just cut and paste: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9227
Add to Firefox

Do you like surprises?

When was a time you were surprised? Really surprised?

If you asked me when I was a teen if someday I would want to read the Bible on purpose I would have said no. If you said later in life I would want to read it, read it everyday, and then want to help others to understand it I would REALLY have been surprised!

I read my Bible almost every day because when reading it:

What Will Our Future Look Like?

For hundreds of athletes this is an exciting day. Today at “National Signing Day” young football players will reveal at which university they will transform from boys to men. Millions of dollars will be spent on indirectly paying young men to play football as a fundraiser for the university.

Fans of the chosen universities will celebrate at their good fortune. Hopes will rise for the winners and hopes will be ravaged for those left wondering what their favorite university will do without this or that teenager.

The Future Is Uncertain

A month of writer’s block & busyness be-gone!

While trying to shake free from my malaise I read what other writers did when enveloped in writer’s block. A google search led me to this quote by Maya Angelou:

“What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’” ~~ Maya Angelou ~~

Today when asked to describe me in one word Jocelyn “Jozey” Wichterman described me as passionate. While I humbly smirked when I read it, she’s right, I am passionate.

Yesterday’s tragic death of Avenged Sevenfold’s drummer The Rev [James Owen Sullivan] drives my passion into a flame.

Chains

Several years ago while having lunch with Heather Crimmins she introduced me to Avenged Sevenfold. Over the years I realized that Avenged Sevenfold’s lyrics spoke to people; they touched wounded souls:

“Tormented young with no souls, haunting me
Pain in their lives all they know is misery
Take these chains away that are holding me down” [Eternal Rest]