Those Thorny Thorns

This appendix is a post-script to my blog, "The Fifth Folks: April Fool's"*

Those Thorny Thorns

Presented tiny, because that is what they are. A decade of thorns is insignificant when compared to the beneficial lessons learned and God's mercy, grace, and goodness. 

One day, all was peaceful in Homespun USA. When suddenly, life took a combination of fluke turns for the worse in the lives of some "good ol' folks" ...

• The crazy mash-up of only-daughter's college graduation and paternal parents' decision to move to Homespun. That alone is not unusual, but the overall confusion and timing of the parents' move unexpectedly speeds up Dad's Alzheimer symptoms. They need regular emotional support plus tight financial decision-making advice for 3 1/2 more final years with the ever-confused one
• On the very day of daughter's graduation, minor Breadwinner's workplace USA tension builds. A seething fellow employee's 6-week disciplinary measures include weekly high-drama meetings. Not unusual, except that Minor Breadwinner is asked to be present in those meetings to transcribe. With discussions so crazy, a sharp Ginsu knife could not cut through the tension
• →Don't mess with Mother Nature, and don't mess with our only daughter! The 22-year-old departs healthy to Bolivia for a 6-week summer missions trip, and experiences, just 1 day into the trip, appendicitis symptoms, with fretful overseas emergency appendectomy and recuperation
• Close-knit Homespun Church issues arise and escalate. Not unusual, but mystery friend abandonment makes facing those issues as one of its Board Members personally heart-wrenching...

 ... the events above began to swirl together just 2 months after a Bolivia souvenir took up residence in our home office... and 11 months later more surface...

• Soon after, sibling abandonment is felt, with a tame, yet below-the-surface Hatfield/McCoy sibling rivalry that fuels, germinates, and lingers (co-attenders of Homespun Church). Not unusual. But when car wreck #1 occurs on the way to meeting them at a restaurant, plus their child's wedding reception is almost peppered by a nearby catastrophic EF5 multiple-vortex tornado, with a particle- and dust- filled haunting double rainbow afterward, the rivalry makes this Thorny Thorns list
• False allegations to one's character at work surface. Very unusual and very unexpected, because the false allegations are totally out of character and opposite of character
• Maternal father's out-of-state drawn-out deathbed time and funeral. Not unusual in itself, but its timing is potentially indirectly deadly for yours-truly. The distracting sadness months-delays the diagnosis and treatment of the next deadly bullet item

Exactly 12 months later, crazy-cray heightens, with perplexing days and months to come...

• Breast cancer is finally diagnosed. That alone is not unusual, but it is diagnosed after an age-50, First.Ever.Mammogram. It is the fast-growing variety. The oncologist basically states: If it returns, it will be virulent, with most certain death. Peculiarly, before hearing that and until surgery, it feels like a dark villain is housed within. Also known as terror. Cancer is prayerfully faced with the support of close friends and the provision of skilled doctors, including → Oncologist Dr. Carolla (note the punctuation dart)
• A tornado's close path follows parallel behind "good ol' folks" home USA. That is not unusual, but its nondestructive closeness definitely is... just 3/8 mile away as the bird flies → it occurs the same weekend that cancer is diagnosised, AND at the same moment Spouse is in-flight, re-directed to an Arkansas airport, returning from where? his second spring break Bolivia missions trip
• Chemo and Tamoxifen side-effects, with unconsidered brain-fog, remain for at least 5 years. Not unusual, except that slamming into 1,000 mph menopause brings with it bouts of severe hopelessness

On another day, more random continues...

• Multiple Corolla car wrecks occur with the same new 2007 vehicle. That is not unusual, but when 5 occur within a short 18-months time frame, and 4 of them are the fault of invisible black ice and others' rear-ends and side-swipes (other cars and our slick driveway's mailbox seemed to have a magnetic attraction to us), early head-scratching begins. Enough so that others encourage a trade-in, claiming the car is "jinxed." We continue in denial because it is a newer, low gas mileage, dependable Corolla. And, maybe brain-fog played a part. We later learn that a thing might be hexed; however, ours and our daughter's Corolla mainly receive punctuation darts →
• → Our daughter's Corolla is wrecked states away. Not unusual, but this punctuation dart begins to burst our appendixes. Her months-owned Corolla looks just like the 'folks jinxed Corolla. Exact same color. It is totaled while her hubby is innocently and safely stopped at a signal light. What??? They washed their hands of that Corolla, but we still kept our Corolla, for its #5 accident
• One single event of multiple tick bites. That ticks us off, but is not unusual. Then, more random tick bite events occur, with headaches and residual maladies for months (maybe years? helping to fuel mid-50s hopelessness?)
• Minor Breadwinner's workplace USA down-sizes and re-organizes, with dead-end projects that particularly effect her IT department, causing stressful shake-ups for everyone. After 17 faithful years she chooses to leave, with no desire for another job soon. Not unusual, but when half of the Corolla car wrecks occur driving to and from work, this makes the list. It is income hit #1. Other family income hits will occur

The events above could be attributed to bad luck muddled with cancer. But when more occurs, in the form of crazy-cray nature and Homespun Neighborhood USA, something's up...

• → Effecting @ a 4-mile radius around 'folks USA home, 45-minute record precipitation occurs during one unending hailstorm and downpour, on Father's Day weekend. Not unusual, except for its on-and-on-a-thorn feel, and no other areas in town receive the Saturday hail-a-thon. The Weather Channel says its magnitude scores a century record in our area. The storm is damaging enough to require complete shingle replacement on our 10-year-old roof and all similar-and-less age roofs within the radius. Link to:  June 15, 2013 storm report
• Lightning strikes a backyard tree. That strike is clearly seen, a short 5-yardstick distance away, equidistant between 'folks USA home and Neighbor USA home. Not unusual. But when the strike occurs while the two neighbors chat on the phone together, hairs raise and cell phones drop... literally 
• Deer droppings. Actually, a summer-long drop-a-thon. Neighbor USA in tandem experiences a pee-a-thon that wipes out large patches of their grass and a most lovely backyard garden. Not unusual, but... (a couple of gulps of stiff caffeine might help to "get" the punctuation dart in this bullet item) it is the fellow cell-phone chatter whose backyard corner basically points → to the home office souvenir 
• Homespun USA neighborly neighbors move. Not unusual. But all houses except for 1 (8 out of 9 of them), whose front, back, or side yards either touch or closely face 'folks USA's home, have new or newer occupants. 

And then, financial straws finally figuratively break the camel's back 

• We manage to slough off salary hits #1 and #2, for 5 years. All the while, major work shake-ups and personal disappoints occur regarding Major Breadwinner's career aspirations...
• A dental crown's disputed insurance coverage on-and-on-a-thon is not unusual. However, when 5 previous years' crowns are covered with no question, 2015's payment denial is totally unexpected, and yet another stressful financial hit. So it, too, makes the list...
• Then, a most recent, salary hit #3, occurs...
• And, what??? Major Breadwinner's career is knocked off course. 

These are only the major on-and-on-a-thorns that occurred. Others were woven in, but mentioning them is too much information. Those final four bullets finally encouraged us to deeply search for answers, before homelessness and naked repentance with dust and ashes came upon us. Not to look outward for blame, but to look inward. Not to permanently move backward, but only for a season. To then make headway forward... into our 60s.

I believe that two unexpected discoveries are actually critical awakenings.* And they provide a deep peace. Savior Jesus did not deserve to wear a painful crown of thorns, but He wore it so we could face our thorns. Challenges are an integral part of life, and awakenings are, too. In faith, it is time to move on.

Conclusion

Now, with hopefully final, final, final blog edits added, on a slick and slippery Sunday morning, this whimsical conclusion is called-for:

God's love on this Valentine's Day is noticeably noted
With neither punctuation marks nor darts

But rather

With punctuation hearts

We anticipated hearing love-topic sermons, but rather, synchronized thorny verses

Not one, but two messages, lauding resilient responses to

Career whammy's. Storms. Thorny thorns. Emergency room nurses

YIsaiah 55 - Harvest Church Online Y
(On-and-on-a-thorns)

&

YMark 4 & 5 - James River Church Online Y

(Overwhelming storms)

*The thorny thorns began with a vengeance soon after a souvenir entered our home. What sort of power, if any, did that souvenir have? We'll never know for certain. Admittedly, the unusual theory is unproveable. Various, curious factors did precipitate, and one followed as well. Insightful family ancestry information is the second awakening, and it just might play into my theory.