Stranger Than Fiction

To the untrained eye, I may appear as a wanderer in the desert.  I do admit there are many times in my life when this is exactly how I feel.  It's when I look in the rear view that I can see concrete patterns.  Upon closer inspection, the hand of God becomes visible in the intricate design.

I rarely speak about my family here or in social media out of respect for their privacy.  In fact, when I wrote my first book, "God's Black Sheep Squadron," a memoir about our dad's return to us after a long absence and his thirty-five day journey during his bout with cancer, some family members felt I crossed the line.  I vowed that all future writings would either be fictional accounts or stories about my own life's journey.  "The Caveman in the Mirror" is fiction.  There may be some characters in the book who resemble real-life people because that's how writers write.  They draw on real life experiences from all their personal encounters.

Here's the stranger than fiction part of my story.  If you have a copy of "The Caveman in the Mirror," humor me and turn to chapter 37, the chapter about Thomas Morgan's mishap on I-80 while driving to his new home in Iowa.  Now go back and look at my accounts of the accident I survived last week on February 5.  Do you see the similarities?  The real accident was nearly identical to the fictional account I wrote in my novel years ago.  Deja vu?  You bet, right down to the christian radio station playing in both situations during and after the accident and the main character not being able to speak.  The extraction from each vehicle was even identical.  I could go on and on about other similarities from other chapters but that would involve crossing the privacy line I promised my family I will no longer cross.  The reality is I don't really write these chapters – they come to me, usually in the middle of the night during a deep sleep.  I believe they're sent by the One who resides outside our boundaries of time.  My connection to Jesus allows me to perceive things outside our linear timeline.  This accident is just one more chapter.  These blog stories are the tendons and ligaments that attach other body parts which are all connected to the heart of Jesus.  I hope that when they're stitched together, you get a glimpse of the One who created me in his image.  That's really what all my stories are about.  Even the number 808 I use in my blog name has a special significance.  You see, when I was "nudged" to use the number when I first started blogging in August, 2009, I had no clue the number 808 would foretell the exact time and date (8:08 AM, 8/08/16) of my surgery to repair a sports related hernia. 

My life is stranger than fiction.  My next book may seem so far-fetched that some may think I'm writing fiction again.  I promise you the next story I share will be very real and the supporting characters in the first seven chapters are real life volunteers who agreed to share their personas in a public manner.  Have a great day.