Category Archives: Personal

03.13.14
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One Month Later

A month ago tonight, I was still traumatized.

I had gone from being euphoric to being absolutely terrified. I had survived sliding off Route 460 in the beginning of a nasty snowstorm. I wasn’t hurt and my car didn’t have a scratch.

As I sit here on my futon in my warm, cozy apartment, I listen to the wind and rain outside as another cold front pushes through the 757.

Although I was stranded for a day and half and out around $315 for the tow and the hotel room, it could have been a whole lot worse.

I’m counting my blessings tonight.

I have a much greater respect for the weather and the power of a vehicle. I am far more cautious now when I plan any drive in my car. I always check the weather and plan accordingly. No drive or trip is worth my life.

All of this happened for a reason. I know, without a doubt, that God and my guardian angels were by my side on that cold, miserable Wednesday. And I will never forget it.

I’ve been impacted by this experience forever. I occasionally shudder at the memories of that day, but I keep putting it into perspective.

  1. I wasn’t physically hurt.
  2. I did not damage my car.
  3. I didn’t hit anyone else or cause injury.
  4. I had everything I needed for my hotel stay because of careful planning.
  5. I had the resources available to afford the tow and the room.
  6. I had loving, caring friends and family who supported me through the ordeal.

And for all of that, I’m grateful.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

03.08.14
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Right Here

I love music. Like most of us, I have certain genres that I love (country, oldies, rock and roll) and ones that I detest (rap, hip-hop, metal). But there’s one genre that I’ve had a love-hate relationship with for many years: Christian music.

I grew up in a United Methodist church about 10 miles from my house. My parents and I moved to Chesapeake in the fall of 1992, and Mom & Dad proceeded to “shop around” the churches in our area – and there were plenty to choose from. I was 4 years old at the time, and we all easily fell in love with Aldersgate from the first visit. Someone remind me to tell the church bathroom story later 😉

When we became members, I grew to love singing the hymns in worship. Then, as I reached middle school in the early 2000s, our youth group had stacks of CDs (and some cassettes) of contemporary Christian music. See examples below:

Avalon – Testify to Love

Casting Crowns – If We Are The Body

MercyMe – I Can Only Imagine

Newsong – The Christmas Shoes

Steven Curtis Chapman – Dive

Switchfoot – Dare You to Move

There are so many more I could list, but I’ll spare you.

As I journeyed through middle school and high school, I developed the love-hate relationship I mentioned earlier. I loved certain songs – Case in point, all of the YouTube links are some of my absolute favorites.

And then there were periods of weeks or months that I couldn’t stand to listen to any of it. The hymns in worship kept me grounded, but the contemporary stuff drove me nuts for certain periods.

Part of the problem was me – when I found out the local library carried a ton of the contemporary music. I remember grabbing up to 10 CDs at a time and working my way through them for each two-week loan period. Once I received my iPod halfway through high school, I filled it to the gills with full albums of easily 20-30 different Christian artists. The “Christian & Gospel” genre was by far the biggest group in my iTunes.

Fast forward to starting college at Longwood, fall of 2007. I still had a high number of Christian artists on my iPod and iTunes from all of those CDs, but I found myself skipping over 95 percent of the songs. I fell back to the small list that are still my all-time favorites, especially Avalon, MercyMe, and Steven Curtis Chapman.

I was also struggling with my faith in general. I was very homesick for the first several months, having moved 150 miles away from my parents and my church. Add to that my boyfriend, who became more and more abusive over a long and arduous 4-year period from 2006 to 2010, and the love-hate relationship continued to evolve.

I don’t remember when this happened, but one day at Longwood I found this song embedded in my iTunes:

Jeremy Camp – Right Here

I had heard a few of Camp’s songs before, and I wasn’t particularly impressed. I felt he was straining in the songs, like he was trying too hard to get the message across.

However, seconds into “Right Here,” I was taken. I was overwhelmed. For the first time in what seemed like forever, I had a few moments of peace.

This instantly became one of my go-to songs. I have it on my iPhone now, and whenever I’m feeling stressed, I know I can go scroll through my artists and find that song. It has an incredible calming effect on me.

Another song I love by Camp is an oldie but a goodie – “Walk By Faith.” It has similar effects on me as “Right Here.” They both make me well up with emotion a little bit, and I have to become acutely aware of my surroundings when listening, because I am known to break out into spontaneous singing.

I’ll leave you with an excerpt from both “Right Here” and “Walk By Faith.”

All the world is watching

All the world does care

Even when the world weighs on my shoulder now

These feelings I can bare

Because I know

That you’re here

Chorus

Everywhere I go

I know you’re not far away

You’re right here

You’re right here, yeah, yeah

———————————————–

Well I will walk by faith
Oh even when I cannot see it
Well because this broken road
Prepares Your will for me

Help me to win my endless fears
You’ve been so faithful for all my years
With the one breath You make me
Your grace covers all I do
Yeah, yeah , yeah, yeah, yeah

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

03.02.14
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Hot Topics: Return of the Blog

I have returned! I can’t believe it’s been almost six months since last I wrote. One of my best friends has been putting my writing to shame with her brave, fearless endeavor into the blogosphere – Against The Pull of Gravity (http://againstthepull.wordpress.com/). Please check it out and comment!

Anyway, this amazing friend has inspired me to return – So, thank you!

For months (may be closer to a year now), I have carried around a mini spiral notebook in my purse with my black-Sharpie-cursive writing on the pink plastic cover:

Inspiration. Brain Sparks. Light Bulbs. Bingos. Ideas. Writing. Musings. Thoughts.

Most of the time, this notebook has been my place to jot down reminders and shopping lists. However, I recently started to fill the pages, front and back in orange gel pen, with topics. The top of each new page emblazoned with the underlined “Hot Shot Headlines.”

Here’s the list, thus far:

1.  On The Road with Steve Hartman

2.  ”I Will Sing and Not Be Silent” – Allen Pote

3.  ”Will You Come and Follow Me” – Kelvingrove

4. “Walk by Faith” – Jeremy Camp

5. Frozen

6. Pastels / Art / Potters’ House @ HPC

7. Arriving at Hidenwood

8. Elisabeth Von Trapp

9. Jennifer Lawrence

10. “The Paris Wife” Book Review

11. Tiffany Truitt Trilogy

12. Dear America Book Series

13. The Project for 15

14. V.C. Andrews & Her Books

15. An Attitude of Gratitude

16. Lesson in Leadership (President of AST)

17. My Quest to Get on Jeopardy!

18. Walking Around My Building (The Week of January 13th)

19. My Accident (February 12th)

20. The Impossible Command of Love (Pastor Bill Lamont Sermon, February 23rd)

21. NaNoWriMo

22. Forensic Files

23. Medical Terminology / Coding

This is just a taste of what’s to come :)

Until the next headline, Laura Beth