Memoirs cont. with current notes

"Memoirs" cont. (Is anyone interested in this? It may be interesting and informative...for those who are a seeker and/or founder . . . with lots of twists and turns, yet a straight run amidst--TO GOD--and life in this "mortal" realm. . . . ? Ha! ....and,  Well, I might just carry on anyhow, regardless, fwiw.  AND will keep chiming in with some commentary on the grabbley stuff going on in geo-politics that I've already laid out, but is now pretty much fully in play.....???

Yeah, would be nice to hear a "yes!" ... but if not, no worries, I'll carry on . . . as usual. . . .fwiw.

God Bless!  God blesses YOU... every second!  Every nano-second! EVERY! :)

bro t

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(Memoirs cont.)

But that certainly isn’t the end up “supernatural” occurrences and tales that I heard and experienced growing up and through the years.  The next one, which I DO have memory of occurred not too many years later, and again, involved my mother.  More on that in a bit.  This is where the "ghosts" entered the fray.

Anyhow, as far as I understand and recall, my parents met in high school.  My mom, Bonnie, went to East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah.  My dad, Tom Sr., went to Highland High, several miles away up a little further on the foothills that surround Salt Lake Valley.  The two schools were main  rivals in those days, the "50s"--the time of "sock hops", thunderbirds, Presley wanna-be's . . . and in my mom's case Doris Day wanna-be's (who she idolized, and who looked and could sing just like!)

My dad, Tom, was a top athlete in high school who went on to become a star track runner and point-guard at BYU, THE "Mormon" University in Provo, UT.  He was also an artist, a loner and eccentric--one of four children (with a sister twin) born to regional "celebrity" figure Lewis H. "Dude" Larsen.  

I love history.

(to be continued, eh?)

Station break***for God.

Station break--

GRATITUDE is one of the best self-defense weapons you can employ at this time.

Well . . . ANY TIME . . . during The Fall. . . . Which is ongoing. . . . THESE times are no worse than any other time under the sun.  There is nothing new under the sun.  If you fret about the perversions of the day being foisted on the children . . . recall "ancient Greece" . . . "ancient Rome" . . . and then recall the many, many massacres and macabre public circuses and wars and displays that so many (wanna be) empires have imposed upon the people . . . through the ages. . . . Fed to lions, put on spikes, flayed, inquisitions . . . all manor of torture and genocide have occurred throughout time, through the decades and centuries. . . .

Because Evil . . . is Evil.  And the Devil lurks . . . sorry loser that he/she/they/them is. . . .

It is nothing new.  Buck up.  Be strong in your FAITH!  Faith in God!  Love Of GOD!!!

Gratitude and Faith. . . . .

Figure out what those two concepts/realities mean . . . and are . . and then actively employ them . . . . and . . . then . . . you have a mighty, mighty spiritual weapon . . . to defend yourself . . . against the "principalities" and demonic swirling gnats . . . at this time (and/or any other "time").

We've got some serious weaponry (spiritual) at our disposal.  And by "disposal" I don't mean, dispose of it. . . . USE IT!  BELIEVE!  HAVE FAITH! BE GRACIOUS and have GRATITUDE for ALL that THE LIVING GOD GIVES YOU EACH AND EVERY MOMENT!

And if you don't know what that means . . . THEN seek it out!
Because it's real.  HE is real!
He is LOVE
And He is Good!
And He is All!
Praise God!

Memoir (ch1 cont) rough draft

Some other memories from those early times. . . . Driving up some sort of semi-hill/mountain--, curling roads with lots of tall trees, forest.   Very hillish, California-esque, what with the artsy stands along the way . . . me in the back seat of an early 60s cool car.  I heard them (my mom Bonnie, and father, Tom Sr.) discussing how great the fruit was, the vegetables, worth the drive . . .  and finally. we arrived at the top of the hill, amidst tall pine trees, and bought some veggies and fruit at some sort of hippie stand.  This would have been around 1964-65, age 2-3.

Quickly on the heals of that, or amidst, I became aware that my dad was a cop.  I recall being taken to the police station with my dad, driving in his police car, pulling into the parking lot with all the other police cars parked there, and then walking through the precinct.  I could feel that it was "official".. . . I felt special, the officers noted and acknowledged me, walking by the lockers, seeing some guns about--and that immediate smell and sense of an "institution" . . . something "official", "authorized" . . . but it was cool.  Nothing weird happened.  I was a little toddler, with my cop dad, going to his job one day. 

Somewhere in this same time-frame . . . I remember a day where my dad took me on a walk around the block where we lived.  This was Palo Alto, California.  I remember him lifting my on his shoulders . . . walking down big tree-lined streets . . . and noticing how magnificent those trees and houses were, on that day, walking along.  Among those days, I remember him taking me around art houses and pointing out paintings, describing them, their importance.  That line of the family, were artists, some a bit famous.  (So was the other side, my mom's, but not ever really noted.)

I also remember one time . . . well, I was obsessed with cars.  I loved cars.  And I apparently must have had some Matchbox Cars already, because, I recall being so excited that we were going to a local small town store . . . that had a rack of Matchbox Cars I'd seen before (little miniature replicas of the current and classic car models that came each in a little "match box" type and size packaging.)  I was thrilled, looking up at the counter and the display of a slew of Matchbox cars, to pick out one of my favorites . . . which I think was a Mustang . . . OR . . . could have been a Corvette.  I might have pleaded for, and got, both! (Later, just a couple years later, I became quite locally famous in the neighborhood for being able to recognize and call out the make and model of the cars that drove down our street!  The local older kids got a kick out of it--that would be after my parents divorced when I was 3 or 4 and living with my grandparents back in Salt Lake City, up on the "high aves".  (I was one of the leading-edge urchins of the Baby Boomer broken family, "latch-key" brigade.)

One other interesting story from this time, which came much later was this, as related. . . . In my mother's last years, approximately around 2008?-ish, out of the blue, my mom told me a strange thing, the likes of which I had never heard her talk about before.  I was visiting her, checking on her, and she brought up an odd memory.  She said that back in those early days, (back there in Palo Alto in that same house where I remembered the marching soldiers in my ears, in the crib, during the storm previously described) . . . . Anyway, in that same house, she said that one night she was going to bed, looked down the hallway, and . . . well . . . she said she saw an "alien--looking" creature carrying me in its arms, going into another room.

Honestly, I didn't know what to make of that story at the time.  I was well down the path of so-called "conspiracy theories" and Whitley Strieber's and others' take on that subject, by that late date (2008) . . . . But I was still rather shocked and surprised she offered this tidbit of memory.  She was not into conspiracy theories and didn't really know much about the stories of so-called "alien abduction".  She was pretty superficial in her day-to-day life in 2008.  Just getting by, with all sorts of real and (I believe) imagined medical crises. 

Anyway, regarding "alien abduction", I will have more to say.  But for now, I am just recalling things as I can.  I remember that strange information she offered that one time, which, although I pressed her one or two more times again about, there was not much more she could remember.  She did reiterate that she looked down the hallway, and saw some kind of creature, which later she determined looked like what popular culture now calls "the greys", carrying me in its arms, into one of the bedrooms of that early, first home I remember.

Honestly, I don't know what to make of this story of hers.  It is certainly not the gist of this tale.  I am just relating it as part of . . . this memoir . . . .

Chapter 1 Memoirs

Well, if AI is gonna record stuff... WE ought have our say.  And get it in the System... So here we go....

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First memory . . . . I was in a baby bed. Facing south, I believe (I've always had a good sense of direction)... Would have been about 2 years old, if not less.... Palo Alto, California.. My dad was a cop in the local precinct.  It was storming outside.  Me, laying in the crib... and hearing the pounding... a thunk thump thump... Somehow, even though I was only a year and a half old . . . . in my mind, I got images of marching British soldiers. . . . .  Marching along with the thump, thump, thump.... Somehow, I knew this was the blood pumping in my head, my ears (which I hear now just as much as then) . . . . . . I saw lightning out that window in front of me.... Athletic, I crawled out of the crib and ran out of my room, down a hall and then to my parents' room.  And jumped in their bed.  My original mom and dad.  Bonnie and Tom Sr.  I was scared, and . . . as I recall . . . my dad kinda just rolled over and slept and my mom comforted me for a second, then I went to sleep. 

Whew...! Now, keep smiling!

Whew! ... what a few weeks it's been! ..... I do believe, and have seen time and time again . . . that when you connect with God, Jesus . . . the demons fly, they get stirred up . . . and especially now where technotronic mechanisms are also reinforcing the mayhem.

The god of mayhem. . . . He is NOT the God of order and love and wisdom and Truth. . . .

So, yeah, . . . as soon as I proclaimed I was going to start "streaming" . . . "podcasting" . . . etc., getting back into the front-line game ( of the battle of Good vs. Evil) . . . well, as you might expect . . . all HELL breaks loose! . . . .. . . . . . . Like, . . . on all fronts, lol.  Like it does.  So predictable . . . the evil.  And boring.  And pathetic.  And loses. . . .

Meanwhile, . . . . . .

Ha! ....Nevertheless . . . (interesting word "nevertheless" . . . btw. . . . . hmmmm:)
I like to keep a sense of humor about it All.... GOD, My Lord--THE Lord OUR LORD . . . is . . . well . . . He's got a sense of humor, thank God!!!  And He's loving . . . and a friend . . . and in control . . . and the Lord of Lords . . . and THE GOD OF ALL!!!! (So . . . in Good Hands:) . . . . . .

anyway..... yeah . . . so .......

TIMES ARE bizarre . . . to say the least! . . . yet, not unexpected, haha...

We stay strong in The Lord!

Back asap!!!
God Willing, more to follow......
:)

Multiple Fronts

multiple attacks on all fronts.... I know WE'RE gettin' hit on all sides. . . . Fightin' through! No fear! No despair! Not for Believers, nope! But yeah, things are ratcheting up (obviously) on ALL sides.....

It's ain't easy (to quote an old song that both Three Dog Night and David Bowie covered).... BUT He gave the heads up "they hated me first" . . . so, don't expect (or want) rainbows and lollipops . . . til this b is done!
God bless

some reminders...

[Just looking back through some things... stumbles across this old post from 2014...see below... Because The Spirit is coming on strong, yet again... :) take care and God blesses you!]
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"Those who are in fellowship with their Lord are no longer veiled from Him by the claims of this world and the afflictions of the worldlings, for they enjoy always the delight of being close to Him and the joy of having abandoned the visible for the things of the invisible world, the temporal for the eternal. . . . There is nothing to be despised in him who has refused to lay up treasures on earth, in order that he may secure unto himself the treasure of entrance into the presence of His Lord in the life everlasting."  --derived from a desert saint

It really cannot be repeated and recalled enough--the call to maintaining daily, constant adoration of the living God.

Ah, but so many things get in the way!  The whole world is in the way.  The other is in the way.  The self is in the way. . . . And here is where the temptation to pantheism steps in to give some reprieve and solace.  For if everything is God--if the universe itself (and thus all that is in it, which includes the world, the other and the self) is God merely disguised in multitudinous and changing forms, then by adoring, even worshiping that "everything", we think we are being holy and need not employ the difficult work of discrimination, of judging.

The pantheist says "all is God, so who are you to judge whether this or that is good or bad?  All is good, adore it all!"

But the Word of God says we are to discriminate, to judge; and we are commanded not to adore or worship the creation/creatures.  And thankfully, God has given us a sure, unchanging standard by which to judge things; which is why the worldlings hate and attack it constantly.  They want to be worshipped and adored, and play a game of taking turns worshiping and adoring one another . . . but God's Word forbids it, and the Truth seeker is amidst incessant spiritual warfare, whose main characteristic is to be either deadened or distracted from the supreme holy purpose of glorifying (adoring) the one, true and living God.

There should be nothing so alarming to the seeker/believer . . . than to realize he or she has gone days . . . without really remembering the purpose of life (which is to glorify God).  It is bad enough (and something we all do) to forget God for hours at a time, distracted by self and worldly concerns, but when days go by, let alone weeks, months or years, where we are caught up only in temporal, material, worldly and selfish interests . . . the remorse and fleeing to repentance ought be swift, fast and deep!

Is there anything more difficult, however?  Not only do we suffer from the mind-swirling noetic effects of sin (of the Fall), but our hearts, bodies and very souls are shot through with perversity and corruption.  Not to mention that the whole world is under sway of the evil one--art, religion, civil culture, science, technology, entertainment--the general thrust of secular society . . . are nearly all being used by the nefarious spirit to assault God and His people continuously, relentlessly, violently, occultly. . . . It is astounding and an apparent miracle in itself that any of us are able to break free to some small degree to genuinely Hear or See the Truth!

But even with God's grace, Who reaches down to shake us awake, and clear the scales from our eyes, it is virtually impossible to stay mindful of Him, His sacrifice, our purpose for longer than moments at a time; and most of the time we are woefully distracted, spiritually sloven and given largely to vain and selfish, animalistic pursuits.

There is one thing you can always do, though, even if you are not feeling it, to show your true, spiritual, Godly intent, which every righteous soldier in this battle should do . . . and it is to stop . . . in the midst of the malaise or confusion . . . and turn to God.

So, let's say you startle out of the worldly trance and realize you have been drifting, getting far from Him, and you are sincerely alarmed.  Turn to Him and repent for your unmindfulness; ask that He help you remember your purpose.  This is a means of grace.  He wants you to want Him; He wants you to yearn for relationship with Him; for this you were made.  Just in showing Him that you care about this issue is pleasing to Him, whether you are presently feeling it or not.  Do not worry overmuch that your heart is not in it if it isn't, but let your mental assent lead the way.  You know you should be serving Him, glorifying Him and tell Him you know this, despite your falling short.

Just in this turning, this reorienting towards Him, however meager it may, is, in a sense . . . worth more than all the treasures of the world you could amass.  Here is the seed of your glory, for one day He will perfect you in this purpose and there will be no end to the joy it will entail . . . as you fully and completely reside in the purpose for which He made you.

Yes, now it is a faint thing, a dim light, a barely trifle moving. . . . But even this small thing--the awakening to the desire to please and serve and glorify Him in its tiny seed form . . . is bigger than the universe in its ultimate ramification!

Strive to be mindful, conscious, purposeful toward Him, amidst the noise and deflection, for this is what He wants to see in you.  Take comfort that you even care enough to try, to work out your salvation in fear and trembling.  He turns none away who do this, as He has promised, as His Word is true!  God bless you, saints-in-progress!"