A Purpose Driven Life

It is times like this, when we are under spiritual attack, that I like to myself with the comforting words of some of the best Christian writers out there. I did the Purpose Driven Life workshop many years ago and find myself falling back on its teachings.

Most of you know the trials and tribulations that we have gone through since we began our new life here in Arizona. What should have been a time of enjoyment, adventure, peace and security, literally turned into a nightmare. We sit back and wonder why we came all the way out here to live in the situation that we have lived in. We thought that it was to make our family stronger. Well, it certainly did that. We are a very strong and secure family. We thought that maybe our purpose was to teach those around us the errors of their ways and to help them develop a walk with the Lord. We aren't sure how well that one worked out. Mark and I usually try and surround ourselves with others that have the same beliefs, ethics and morals as us. We don't turn away people's friendship if they don't have the same beliefs that we have, but we also don't set out to find people who live below the law. It used to be that you could take someone who said that they were a Christian at face value. Now, it kind of makes you want them to show proof that they go to church or read the Bible!! Whatever happened to human kindness and generosity? Whatever happened to the moral fiber of our society? We have been challenged and attacked from so many sides since August that we were starting to feel spiritually depleted. We talked to our pastor about what we were going through and he really helped to shed some light on the situation. He told us that people who are unhappy with themselves or their living situation will attack those who have what they want. You would think that if you weren't happy with who you were or who you were with that you would embrace those around you that could possibly help you. Our pastor also told us that people who are hurting, hurt others and sometimes don't realize they are doing it. But in most cases they do. It's that old saying, "Misery likes company". Mark and I have st rived very hard to have a marriage based on faith, trust, honesty, respect and love. This is something that we will not compromise. We aren't going to lie, cheat, steal, attack or harass others because that is what is being done to us. We don't stand in a place of judgement against anyone. We merely want to live our lives in peace and not have to constantly be looking over our shoulder. But the lack of human decency really gets me. I had a really bad fall in the house back in October. I am still waiting to find out if I need surgery or if the physical therapy is going to help. You would have thought that the PO (property owner) would have shown some kind of concern for what occurred on her property. Nope, not a word. No concern, no compassion, zilch. Should I be surprised? Well, I kind of was but had to be reminded of what kind of people we are dealing with. Am I saying that they are bad people? No. Just very misguided. We honestly thought while we were moving out here that they were going to be really good friends for us. The PO even wanted to take my daughter under her wing and treat her like a little sister. I'm very fortunate that this wasn't allowed to happen. It would have been nice to foster a friendship with these people, even though they live a lifestyle that is a complete opposite of ours. Still, it would have been nice. I don't see that happening anytime soon, but God does work in mysterious ways. Is it wrong to just want to be left alone and allowed to live our lives? Apparently so, but we are doing it anyway. The sellers of the new house are such wonderful people. We felt kind of gun shy after the experience that we have been through, but we were treated so well!!! We found the house completely by accident. It's almost as if God put that house right in the middle of other houses we were looking at and said "This is the house I have provided for you". We look forward to sitting in front of our fireplace and drinking a cup of eggnog or hot cocoa (since Andrea can't and doesn't drink alcohol). It is so nice to not have the wind whistling through 2 inch cracks around the door frames or around the windows. It has been really cold here the past week and my babies have had to pile the blankets on top of their beds because of the cold air coming in through the cracks and crevices. And the PO flat out refused to put on the weather stripping!! Again, no compassion. Be mad at us, but don't take it out on my children. My children are innocent in all of this. All they did was bust their little bottoms to help finish the work on the house. They wanted a home and we tried to provide that for them. They are so excited about the new house though. The neighbors have even come over and met us and we haven't even officially moved in yet!! We are so anxious and excited about getting to know the new people. The neighbors that we have had here are great. We've spent many nights either over at their house or them over here, just sitting back and talking and laughing. We know that we will miss them when we are gone!! But we also know that they were brought into our lives for a reason and this is a friendship that we want to continue to foster and watch grow.

God brings us people into our lives for a reason. Sometimes that reason is clear. Sometimes it takes a long time to figure out. Sometimes we never do. But whatever the reason, we need to give Him thanks. I know this sounds weird, but it is true. God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't make errors in judgement. Every person that you encounter, every single day, is there for a reason. That meeting may be fleeting, or it may turn into a life long friendship. But there is a purpose behind everything. I thank God everyday for the people that he has put in my path. I pray that I can be of some support, comfort or friendship. If I can't, then it isn't from lack of trying. I don't pretend to be anything I'm not. I'm just me.

In the meantime, after we are settled in to our new house, after the holidays and after Mark finishes tax season, we are putting most of our effort into our non profit. Since I was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis in 2006, I have helped to write legislation to get more funding for research for my disease. My non profit in California did really well and I know that out here it can really take off. I've already met a few people that have Sarcoidosis. I sit back and wonder why God would give me this disease, but again, I know my life has a purpose. I know that I can reach out and comfort and educate others. We will keep you posted as to when our non profit is up and running. I've already got our first fundraiser planned, again with help from a very unlikely source. Something else to be thankful for. If the situation here wasn't what it is I never would have met this wonderful man. Believe me, you haven't heard the last of us!!!

Oh, and we've acquired a few "intriguing" books that Mark is dying to list. So we will also be getting our book business back off the ground as well. We just haven't had the time or energy with everything else going on to devote to our book business like we had wanted. But that doesn't stop us from looking through the stacks whenever we pass a thrift store or a book sale!!! More to come from the Timmons clan.........

New author discovery!!

Andrea has found a new author that she absolutely loves!! Since her accident in the house on 10/15 she's had a lot of time to read and she began reading an author named Richard Paul Evans. He has written quite a few books, some set in Italy, where he resides part time. The latest book Andrea read was "The Perfect Day" and it's about a man who loses his job and decides to finish the novel that he's been writing for the past 4 years. He based it on his wife's relationship with her father and the final months of his father-in-laws life. Needless to say, he sells the manuscript, becomes a New York Times best selling author, and kind of forgets his promise to never leave his wife. In fact, he promises this to his father-in-law on his deathbed!! Well Rob, the main character, starts getting this visits for who he believes is an angel and is told that he has until New Years Day to get his life in order. Basically, he believes that he is dying and has to make amends in his life. The book has a really good twist, so I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might want to read it. Let's just say that I wish some people would get hit with the same attack of consciousness that Rob got hit with!!!

On a non-literary note, the Timmons family is moving!! The exact date is still up in the air but we have found an absolutely beautiful house to buy and we jumped on it!!! We wish we had found this house from the beginning. Then we wouldn't have had to go through what we have been going through with the house we are in now. This house is everything we could have ever DREAMED possible. Thank you for all your prayers and your messages of support. We could not have gotten through this horrific ordeal without you all. Keep checking back for pictures of the new house!!!

The Old Post Road

We have acquired a 1st edition, third printing (1962) of this book by Stewart H. Holbrook, edited by A.B. Guthrie, Jr. The book is part of the American Trails Series, and is the story of the Boston Post Road.

From the dust jacket cover:

"A superb exploration of the most famous of all post roads, its exciting and colorful history - from the first rider in 1673 to the present day - told in a fascinating excursion into Americana."

The book is in excellent condition, and the dust jacket has only slight wear and a few small tears to the edges of the dust jacket.

I found the following biographical ionformation on Wikipedia.

Alfred Bertram Guthrie, Jr. (January 13, 1901 – April 26, 1991) was an American novelist, historian, and literary historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1950 for his The Way West.

Stewart Hall Holbrook (1893 - 1964) was an American lumberjack, writer, and popular historian. His writings focused on what he called the "Far Corner": Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. A self-proclaimed "low-brow" historian, his topics included Ethan Allen, the railroads, the timber industry, the Wobblies, and eccentrics of the Pacific Northwest.
He wrote for The Oregonian for over thirty years, and authored dozens of books. He also produced a number of paintings under the pseudonym of "Mr. Otis."

We are offering this book for sale for $18. oo. No website yet, so conatct us if you are interested.

Mark

Mystery Book

I'm counting on the knowledge and expereince of fellow bibliophiles for help with this one. I have a book titled The Charm of Venice, an Anthology. It was compiled by Alfred H. Hyatt, with illustrations by Harald Sund. The publisher is the Musson Book Company, Toronto. There is no copyright date. The book has green covers with gold lettering.

The mystery is that I cannot find this edition of this book in my usual lookup sites. It's not on addall, Alibris, Amazon....and I also can't find much information on the publisher. I do know that the publisher existed in the late 1800s.

Can anyone shed some light on this title, the publisher, and when it might have been published?

Mark

Yesterday's Finds

Andrea and I went bookhunting yesterday, and we picked up a couple of nice finds. Not antiquarian mind you, but the prices were oh-so-right!

Emily Bronte, Her Life and Work, a biography by Muriel Stark and Derek Stanford. This is the First American Edition, published in 1966 by Coward-McAnn, Inc., New York. The book is in near-fine condition, and the dust jacket shows a little wear.

The second book we found is somewhat ironic, given the fact that we recently moved to Arizona from Salem, Massachusetts. The book is titled The Peabody Sisters of Salem, and it was written by Louise Hall Tharp. This edition was published in 1950 by Little, Brown and Company, and is dedictaed to the "Hawthorne descendants."There is no dust jacket, and the purple cover shows slight fading. Inside the front cover, and again on the title page, evidence that a bookplate was removed, but it was done without tearing the pages. Other than that, this book is also in great condition.

Mark

My Dream Library!!!

I have seen this circulating on various blogs for the last couple of days. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out here!
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all

This is the library of Jay Walker, the Internet Entrepreneur who created, among other things, Priceline.com.

The library is over 3000 square feet!

This is exactly how I want my library to look. How about you?

"Spread the Alarm, To Every Middlesex, Village and Farm"

This, of course, is borrowed from Longfellow's Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, written April 19, 1860 and first published in 1863 as part of "Tales of a Wayside Inn."

We need this blog to circulate. Ideally, we need it to reach as many people with connections to Prescott Valley as possible. You may not know anyone in Prescott Valley personally, but who knows who your friends and relatives know? We need this to circulate because we need help. Read this blog for the month of September and you'll see the nightmare we are in. Andrea, the kids and I just want a place to call home, a place to MAKE our home. It is my hope that someone will read this and be able to help us find "our home." We thought we had found it when we moved out here, we honestly did. We were basically scammed from the beginning.

What we want is what we thought we moved out here for: 4 bedrooms, an extra room for an office, a little bit of land to play on and to garden; a quiet, safe neighborhood. Even an old farmhouse with the right amount of space we could consider. We have solid, reliable income, but shaky credit related to actions and events in previous marriages for both of us. We would like to keep payments at or about $1200 - $1300. And we want a lease with an option to buy situation, with a property owner willing to work with us.

So please, spread the word....to your relatives, friends, coworkers, business associates.

Thanks,
Mark