Never question an internal command to pray...

Yesterday, near the end of the late afternoon mass at the church I attend on weekdays (because of my schedule and I like that they have a communion rail so I can accept Our Lord on my knees in humility and reverence), a darkness fell. It wasn't the lights. Rather, there are big sections of window, and the sun's light had been diminished.

I looked to the window and felt a catch in my chest.

Not again.

Ominous clouds loomed in the sky, blocking the sun. We've had nasty weather two other times already with tornadoes and it was a 100 F day yesterday (not unusual for July, when we usually get the nastiest weather). Seeing dark clouds concerned me.

After mass, I prayed that I made it home before any bad weather hit.

I made it with plenty of time. In fact, the radar showed nothing coming for us, yet I had a sense that I should be praying my Rosary.

I didn't.

I came to regret that.

A severe storm formed out of nowhere on the radar only about 15-20 miles away to the southwest and quickly headed right for us, but I hadn't checked in the time since before it formed to when it hit, so I didn't know it was there, much less barreling towards us. I was trying to write while ignoring that little voice that was nagging me about praying the Rosary. I wanted to do things my way.

I did that until the first "THUNK" hit on the house. And it was loud. A few more hit and I looked out the window to see large white balls of hail. Not the pea-sized we normally see. These were golf-ball sized (as seen in the sampling below with my hand, hail balls which had already melted down a bit).

When I realized what was happening with the hail, I ran upstairs and grabbed my Rosary. No sooner did I start than the hail turned to pea-sized and soon quit. However, there was more red on the radar. I continued through two sets of mysteries because there was another system to the north that refused to move and had been expanding towards us with a tornado watch included in that. The worst of it dissipated during my prayer.

After the storm from the southwest was passed but before the one from the north was known to be a threat, we went out to check the house and yard (between my praying a few decades of the Rosary). Fortunately, the golf balls were few and far between and our garden, trees, and my new roses were all untouched. Unfortunately, they were enough to leave holes in a few pieces of siding on one wall and likely the roof, as well as a couple nice dents to the youngest kid's car roof, but I'm not worried about her vehicle because it's old (2009) and had some cosmetic damage when we bought it two years ago and also because all the windows were fine. After all the nasty storms we've had in the last month, insurance adjusters are busy; they'll get to us when they can.

The picture above was taken after the rain was no more than a few drops here and there but the clouds still loomed over us with a clear sky to the western horizon. I went out and took pictures of the hail and the perfect shot of my first rose blossom. This is now my iPhone wallpaper, minus the watermark:

My first rose blossom of the three rose bushes
I planted less than a month ago!

After I had finished the Rosary prayers, the storm passed and merged with the north storm, but they grew along the western edge and dropped more pea-sized hail on us. No sooner did I start praying a single Hail Mary to ask her intercession to keep any large hail from hitting than the hail stopped altogether and only rain fell.

The moral of the story is to listen to that nagging voice when it's telling you to pray... To put it simply, when you're told to pray, obey. It was likely my guardian angel, and I am humbled by the consequences of not having listened when I should have.

Next time, I won't hesitate to grab my Rosary. I won't question any message from the Lord (who speaks through others, like our guardian angels, who are always with us). I will listen. It reminds me of Moses having to keep his arms up for the success of the battle of the Israelites in Exodus.

God bless!

Rosebuds

I've had a lot on my mind lately, and it's a mixed bag of emotions.

Family matters:

It's been rough for us since Friday evening. My father-in-law (and I love him and my mother-in-law dearly) is dying. Since he was checked into the hospital Friday, he's lasted longer than originally expected, but we know there will be a funeral very soon. I get teary thinking of the situation. I've known my in-laws for nearly twenty-five years; although at that early stage they were only potential in-laws since hubby and I weren't yet even engaged at that point. They accepted me readily and have always been welcoming. FIL was a farmer most of his life and always had a lot of advice about any construction projects for the home or for gardening issues. He loved to woodwork, and we have some of his handy and/or decorative projects, including a paper towel dispenser attached under the kitchen cabinets and stained to match the color perfectly.

It's been difficult and I try to stay busy or I get choked up like the sisters-in-law. It must be a woman thing. Hubby and his brother are keeping it together, although so is my mother-in-law, but she's had a long time to prepare for this. It wasn't unexpected, but it did progress suddenly quite fast.

Writing:

I have been getting writing done and am down to the final two scenes now of the story. Yay! The story came together perfectly with an ending that ties into the opening fun scene but is very serious by the end incident. There's a discovery that will add to understanding the Issan a bit more, and the Inari get more involved, especially since one of the discoveries is an abandoned, hidden Inari outpost similar to Kurtuz but set up so that it has remained undisturbed. It wasn't intended to be abandoned and bears a grim reason.

The book is currently 47K words, so past the point I thought I'd finish. Now, I'm guessing it'll be closer to 50K words in the first draft. The writing is somewhat keeping my mind off of FIL.

Progress is being made towards the final series ending.

Roses:

And just as my FIL is dying, my first rosebud is opening. I don't doubt he would have enjoyed seeing this, being the gardener that he was. I planted three bushes in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity (She is the child of the Father, spouse of the Holy Spirit, and mother of God the Son).

The first plant with buds developed three buds, which is perfect. All three buds are developing and all three plants are taking off with leaves; two plants actually have buds, including the one now blooming. The first one started budding within a week of being transplanted, which is miraculous, but I don't doubt Our Lady of the Rosary had something to do with that.

That's my life right now. I am writing, and it's helping me to take my mind off the death of someone special.

God bless you and your loved ones! Treasure every moment.

Thanks for reading.

the next gardening challenge

I finally have asparagus! It seems to be hard to start from seeds, so this year, I bought crowns from Gurney's and nine out of the ten are growing in my garden. (Strawberries are growing like weeds this year. I'm getting a handful of fresh strawberries every day now! I don't even want to mention the rhubarb; those plants are like weeds too. I need to harvest again already (3 weeks and probably a week overdue) before we get aphids like last year.)

Since I managed that, I chose my next challenge (after watching a talk by Monsignor Rossetti, whose mention of the Blessed Virgin Mary being shown with roses (hence, the Rosary) inspired me).... ROSES! In my devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary and because it's perfect for an area near the house that gets lots of sun and has been an eyesore of nothing, I decided to try growing roses as my next project.

Now, we live in zone 4 for growing, so finding the right plants can sometimes limit us, but I found a beautiful variety from Heirloom Roses called Prairie Harvest. It's a faintly yellow color that would look perfect next to our green siding. This shrub rose is supposed to endure winter, so I hope the money I spent and the time that we'll put into establishing them will be worth it.

This is a new challenge, but I'm up to it. I only hope the plants are too, because a full bloom of rose bushes would look beautiful near the house where there is nothing else to see on that side, which faces the road when you approach our house. So, it needed something more than the trellis with the grapes, which is about twenty feet away.

I'll post a separate update on the writing.

God bless!