The Real Story
Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Libby Baker Sweiger
Weaver of Everyday Tales
Archive for the category “Writer”
What I Love About Father’s Day!
What I most love about Father’s Day is our Father God choosing the love of a Father to show us His love for us and sending His very own son to this earth to show us how much He loves us!
Secondly, I have and always will be a daddy’s girl so from the beginning, though I love and loved my mom with all my heart it is also my father’s love I sought. He was my hero, mentor, the one I followed around on Saturday mornings, went for hikes with ~ and on whose every word I dwelt.
Has this served me well in life? After all no father is perfect! Of course! Dad’s don’t have to be perfect to be good people to emulate and want to be like. Father God is the only Father who is perfect and who we should study and want to copy in all things. But Dad’s teach us lessons and show us the way in all aspects of their personalities.
I love my dad’s laugh. His witticisms, his personality, his work ethic, his outlook on life, his twinkle in his eyes, both of them, his stories, oh his stories! I love his way of laughing at himself. Laughing at my quirkyness. Our laughs together. Our conversations. His art of conversation. His tales of his young life, mid-life, yesterday. And of his tales. His writing. His speaking. His love of life. His love of his wife. His love of his children and his adoration of his grand-children. She has a really good heart, he’ll say of his generous wife. He’s a good driver he’ll say of his grandson on his latest job parking cars. You’re a good worker, he’ll say of me on my 102nd job. She’s so capable, he’ll say of my sister who is always on top of the family situations, so good with her children. He’s a worrier like me, but he doesn’t let that stop him from always asking what’s happening and keeping tabs on just what is happening. He cares so much for all his children and grandchildren. He must, but now have found a way to give things to God, or he wouldn’t still be here at 85-1/2!
We’re going for pancakes on Father’s Day. I tried to rally the troops and was unsuccessful. So many families. So many people coming in and out of time. We laughed together about it. He knows he’ll see all his children in and around Father’s Day. He’s not uptight about gathering all the chicks! I love my dad. His laugh. His ready smile. His laid back nature, he’s developed as he’s aged. He’s a wonderful Father. No matter how many Father’s days we have left. I will spend them all with him. My dad. My favorite first best friend. Love you dad!
Evil’s Destiny
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
― Mahatma Gandhi1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 NIV The Bible:
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
These two passages, one a quote from Ghandi, one a passage from the New Testament, the Word of God, have two strong things in common. Everything turns out all right in the end. Good triumphs over evil. Life over Death. God over evil.
We who believe in the Bible as the Word of God then should not be living without hope no matter how dire the circumstances. Right? And true students of history should all know the end of the story whether they believe the Bible and have read the book of Revelations or not. Like Ghandi they should have observed that good triumphs over evil and rejoice. Obviously! They should be living without bitterness, hatred toward an unfair and unjust universe and be filled with hope.
Why then are so many people living with despair, hopelessness, depression, doubt and disillusionment, then. Where is the gratitude? Where is the optimism? Why all the heartache? Why is everyone so down?
The answer hit me as I was driving home in the dark down the freeway tonight. It’s because of EVIL. Palpable, Out-To-Get-Us, destructive, human-hating, despicable, LYING, wanting-us-down, dead and defeated, anti-God, anti-good, anti-life, joy-sucking evil.
That is the answer!
For many years when I have been seriously depressed one thought that plagued me was the biggest lie of all. I have a life insurance policy that when I die my beneficiaries get a lump sum to settle my affairs. It’s a pretty good policy. I got it when I was young and it’s going to help out should I die before my husband and obviously I will before my dear daughter. Now we have always seemed to struggle financially. So when I have suicidal lying horrid thoughts, the taunting I will hear is, “You know you are worth more dead than alive.” “You don’t even work, your family is better off without you, look at you, you’re a depressed, crying mess, why not end it all?”
What a horrid, evil, hideous lie!
But it wasn’t until today, driving home that I tore that lie to pieces and expunged it from my psyche for good. I was listening to KTIS Christian Music, as I often do, and I started to turn it down because I was praying louder than they were singing. I was suddenly thanking God with deep gratitude for all the wonderful blessings and richness in my life. Everything big and small, well they’re all big. I felt grateful for everything, even the challenges, because I just kept talking to God and using the word gratitude, my heart was getting more and more tender and I was starting to cry, but in a good way.
I started to thank him for making me and for all He had blessed me with. All I could do, write and paint and talk and share with people and pray and love and give and laugh and love my family and my friends and I began to see my worth to him, as a human, and with Him. I began to realize the infinite worth of one human life to God and to the world …so much that God send His son to die for that one life. There are Infinite things one life can accomplish in this world and the next! Then I got really angry at the evil for the LIE. I began to shout at the evil in this world to stay behind me then and always and never trouble my mind again or risk again getting kicked out of my thoughts ~ because it was so ridiculous to compare the worth of one human life to money.
I realized compared to a human life, money was refuse, garbage, worse than nothing, of no value to eternity and of little impact on this earth compared to what a human life can do. And I started to laugh at the silliness of the lie and the ridiculous premise of it. And I laughed and praised and thanked God for a long time, all the way down the almost empty freeway.
Wow! Evil. It is insidious. It had a hold on me. No longer. Not on that subject. What chased it away? Gratitude. A grateful heart put everything in perspective, God back on His throne and me where I belonged: worshiping and praising Him for the many blessings He has brought into my life always.
I’ve had my share of heartache, sure. I have also had double the share of comfort from my God. My Father in Heaven. My Savior Jesus. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Three in one. The Triune God. Always with me. He goes before me. He goes alongside me and as always: has my back. What can evil do unto me? Nadda. Nothing. Can I laugh in its face? Evidently. I just did. Hey, no room for despair. I know how the story ends. Love and blessings, Libby
Musical Talent Extraordinaire: Author Sam Wesst
“Music is a total constant. That’s why we have such a strong visceral connection to it, you know? Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in your or the world, that one song says the same, just like that moment.”
― Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
This quote reminds me of the music of Sam Wesst. He is a newly discovered talent. His first album should be released this fall, hopefully around the first of November. I talked to him yesterday about the experience of recording it. It’s titled, “A Lifetime of Lessons”. Like the quote, Sam’s music takes you back to deep feelings with his ballads, visceral experiences with his lyrics and storytelling, soulful renditions of life’s lessons, experiences deeply felt. This album he says is bluesy, and includes moving ballads that may make you tear up like the one “Ocean Blue” which is dedicated to his wife’s father now passed. Add in some country rock and it sounds great to me! I can hardly wait to hear it. I have heard a couple of the songs. I love “Six O’Clock In The Morning” a blues rendition and “Cotton Jenny” a wonderful ballad based on a true love story told to Sam when he was biking (we’re talking Harley’s here) in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. It’s very moving like all of Sam’s music, delivered in a smooth, deep gravelly, yet very appealing voice, accompanied by his guitar, so at home in his hands.
He is a new author as well, having published his first book last year, “Wounded Warriors” with Tate Publishing. You can read more about that on his website. I’ll cover that more in another post. Sam is a prolific writer and is working on a couple of other books now. Today I’d like to talk about his music.
When last Sam and I spoke he told me songs are coming out of him at the rate of about 3-5 per day! They aren’t all “keepers” ~ but many of them are!
While as I said his first album is being produced by Tate Music and should be out around the first of November, he is already hard at work on his second!
The amazing this about his first album “A Lifetime of Lessons” was that he recorded it in the Studio in one hour and a half! Only three glitches had to be corrected! Tate Recording and Publishing had never experienced this before with any artist. A quality crew assembled ~ including musicians who record with successful artists in the industry ~ in their studio in Mustang, Oklahoma. Nothing about Sam says novice. He picked eight songs for the album and Tate took all eight. He planned out how he wanted each song to sound and which type of musician should come in when, they emailed his suggestions around and when it came to recording, everything went like clockwork.
Because it did, they had an extra day so they shot a Music Video!
Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Enjoy this first cut of Sam West singing Shovelin Coal, from his very first of many Albums to come! “A Lifetime of Lessons”
Coal Proof 1
Libby Baker Sweiger 