by Kathy Brasby | May 14, 2025 | Humor, Newsletter, Stories
Having lived in the Great American Desert all my life, I get excited when I see water.
Here on the plains of northeastern Colorado, we use an eyedropper for our water breaks. Tumbleweeds carry canteens. Fish have to adjust to breathing sand part of the year.
That’s why, on my vacation to North Carolina, I was busy making googly eyes at the enormous Tar River (it looked like the ocean to me) and all the boats at the docks.
I nearly missed the day’s highlight.
My friend didn’t miss our highlight. She lives in North Carolina and so was more jaded about water and fishing boats. (She and her husband celebrated our tumbleweeds when they came to Colorado, though. Just sayin’.)
We were on a boardwalk on the water’s edge when a man stepped out of a sailboat tied at the dock and called to us.
I Almost Missed Our Highlight
My friend stopped. I was shooting photos of boats and water and I almost missed the big moment.
This man had a crushed white shirt and equally rumpled khaki shorts. He pointed to a furry ridge on the eastern horizon. “See that island? It’s Goat Island. Privately owned.”
“Woo hoo!” I figured we were going to get some great insider information.
He studied the island for a moment. “You can’t go out there anymore. But I have a documentary about it coming out on Netflix next month. The guy who bought the island is a friend of mine.”
This was getting more interesting. A surprising gold mine for my curious tourist brain.
I Was Fascinated
“There used to be a tunnel out to it, but that collapsed.” He looked back at us.
“Oh, who built the tunnel?” my friend said.
“Blackbeard. We had to use submersibles to get to the island.”
Wow, the ancient history of the East Coast is fascinating. Blackbeard. A movie on Goat Island. This was better than the names painted on the fishing boats.
Then the man leaned out a bit and pointed at me. “You have an amazing glowing spirit around you. It’s so strong that I can see things about her.” He nodded at my friend. “She’s Pocahontas, you know. And she has a very important life decision to make today.” He stared at her. “Be sure to take that seriously. It’s life-changing, what you need to decide today. Very important.”
Then he waved his hands in the air. “Well, after all that, I need to go smoke some more grass. Maybe two.” He turned and disappeared into the cabin.
Big Decision Time
We both gawked at the boat for a moment. “So what’s your big decision going to be?” I said to my friend.
“Hmmm. Big decision.” She twisted her mouth to the side.
We never found out about the Netflix documentary on Goat Island or the collapsed tunnel built by Blackbeard. But my friend’s big decision found us a place that served tasty fish for lunch.
Water adventures are amazing!
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by Kathy Brasby | May 14, 2025 | The Listening Project
Plan a day to walk in my sunshine.
The days lengthen, and the sun sends warmth. Winter’s snow is gone and buds pop in bright colors. Today, the air wraps around you like a tender embrace.
Walk in the sunshine and sing our songs together. Sing of love and mercy and strength.
Step forward with courage. Smell the crisp air of spring. Of newness and of life.
You begin the walk into this year without Matt. It’s a new year for you, though.
Let the sunshine kiss your cheek and let the wind brush back your hair. Lean into a warm embrace. My loving embrace.
Plan a day in my sunshine and my love.
“For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken,” says the Lord, who has mercy on you.
Isaiah 54:10
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. All rights reserved.
Another a grief resource for Christian women. God wants to comfort us in our grief.
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by Kathy Brasby | May 6, 2025 | The Listening Project
My child, you often think that your purpose fled when your loved one passed away.
You assume new purpose must be grand to mirror what your loved one gave you.
But … don’t my sparrows have a purpose?
They sing with joy.
They protect their young.
They fly freely.
Does anyone write a memorial to their legacy? Yet I see and know each one. I treasure their purpose.
To live is to have value, my child. Grief doesn’t have to extinguish joy and purpose.
Let me do work in your spirit, and you can be like a sparrow, safe with me. Treasured by me.
Sparrows sing with joy. So can you.
What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. Matt 10:29-31
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. All rights reserved.
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by Kathy Brasby | Apr 29, 2025 | The Listening Project
The mist before you swirls and obscures your path. You can’t push it aside, but you can walk through it.
This mist of grief hides the path which you’re on, but it thins as you take more steps.
I have never left you, as I promised from the start. You never walk alone.
You persevered–even when you couldn’t see your feet below you. Healing comes even when the path is obscured, because it truly is there.
Grief teaches truths you did not know before. You’re finding that you are changed forever by loss, because you risked love.
You loved, so you mourn. Don’t let go of that love, even in your pain. Allow grief to teach you to love more expansively and exuberantly.
You know the pain, and it can be endured. You know the cost of love, and you have survived.
This is a lesson of grief: you can love, knowing you could survive a fall.
In the mist, healing can happen. Transformation occurs.
Embrace each step and learn each lesson.
I am with you always, to the end of the eternity..
Take the steps with me, even when you can’t see your path.
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
Isaiah 41:10
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. All rights reserved.
Another a grief resource for Christian women
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by Kathy Brasby | Apr 18, 2025 | The Listening Project
Note: this post is a little different from the usual Listening Project posts because it’s from my perspective. But I think God directed these words and maybe they will give you hope in your grief.
For Christians, today is often overlooked–the day after Jesus’ crucifixion and the day before Easter. The in-between day.
But then I thought of the grief that the friends and followers of Jesus felt as he lay in the tomb.
I understand the numbness, the finality, the cold, hard grief that descended on them like an unexpected hailstorm, devastating their hearts and faith.
It’s easy to forget that those people faced searing agony. That in-between day had to be one of crushing loss of a beloved friend and the apparent shattering of the dreams they had about Jesus as the Messiah.
They had been slammed against a jagged wall of loss, and I understand their deep pain.
Their grief directly correlates to our grief.
But here’s the crucial part: their grief ended with the unbelievable joy of resurrection.
Our pain of losing loved ones is not the final word, but only a temporary state. We live in that in-between time now.
It is crushing at times. Searing and empty. Like for those friends of Jesus.
But resurrection is coming for us as well.
As his body was taken away, the women from Galilee followed and saw the tomb where his body was placed. Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to anoint his body.
Luke 23:55-56
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. All rights reserved.
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