Brave Enough To Be Bliss

people? For me, any religion that provides the guidance someone needs to be a caring, kind, giving, loving human being is great. Because what is most important to me has nothing to do with religion, it has everything to do with humans treating other humans humanely (Merriam- Webster definition of humanely is “ marked by compassion, sympathy, or consideration ” ). What if our understanding is just so limited that we are all wrong? But what if God loves us ALL so much that he doesn’t care about all the human fears that drive us to separate instead of coming together? What if He is rolling His eyes at us wasting our time arguing instead of loving each other and helping each other through this painful life? Kylee’s junior year of high school, she and Danielle started watching the television show The Voice . On Monday nights we would watch the show together and have turkey sandies, as the girls referred to the grilled turkey sandwiches I would make. And since I can offer no other cooking tips at all, I will give you the instructions for turkey sandies. That way if you don’t get anything else from this book , you’ve got a little something to take away from the investment of time reading. GB’s Turkey Sandies In a skillet use a spatula to break up a pound of smoked turkey (makes three sandwiches). While it does make it a little messier to eat, I break up the turkey into pretty small pieces because once I tried bigger pieces and the girls said it wasn’t as good. After the turkey is grilled enough where some pieces are starting to get a little brownish on the edges, move it off the burner and separate the meat into three sections within the skillet. Place one slice of provolone cheese on top and cover the skillet so the cheese melts, which also helps hold it together better. Lightly toast sourdough bread on the bagel setting so only the outside is toasty and the inside stays softer. Use the spatula to lift the meat/cheese pile onto the toast, slice diagonally, and that’s a turkey sandie. Enjoy! We started recording the show once Kylee went to college and even though Danielle wasn’t there to watch with us anymore, we still had turkey sandies like the old days when we would binge watch episodes to catch up. In the spring of 2017, contestant Chris Blue sang Take Me to the King . It was a great performance and he ended up winning the show. At some point a few years later, I heard his performance of the song again and added it to a playlist. While at Table Rock Lake writing, several days a week I would go into town to exercise at a fitness center and listen to music with my earbuds while working out. Most of the songs I share in this book are ones I listened to at the time I was going through whatever I’m writing about. But I didn’t have a song for the especially phenomenal night with John and wanted one to really help readers have a sense of how that night felt. I had been listening to Shivers for a week or two, just to make sure it was the right one. Listening to that many times and allowing the playlist to continue, I started feeling like the two songs in between Shivers and A Glimpse of Us also had a place in the book, but I wasn’t sure where. So every once in a while, I would go to that group of songs and listen again, thinking maybe it would come to me where the other two fit. On my fourth to last day writing, I scrolled to this chapter because it was one I hadn’t marked as final yet. But when I read through it in the morning, I really liked what was there. I hesitated just slightly because there really wasn’t a transition between the two parts which at that time was only the first page and what will follow this section. I found a great quote from my file, added it in between and was relieved to mark this chapter as final. I was so happy I even told Kylee about it in a text because that eased the pressure I felt about how many chapters were left to work on. I hadn’t felt very well when I woke up, so it was great timing. “If your religion requires you to hate someone, you need a new religion.” Unknown

I didn’t think any more about it, but in the afternoon when I took a bathroom break, it hit me. One of those two songs from the playlist, Chris Blue’s performance of Take Me to the King , was perfect for this chapter. I pulled it

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