Holidays are Coming, Will You be Stressed or at Peace?

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

The holidays are coming. Here it is October and it will fly by just as the summer whose temperatures hung on tenaciously. But Fall seems to have finally arrived. With it will come all things pumpkin, changing of the leaves, crisp air, and . . . stress.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. While we always look forward to those joyful events, they bring along unwanted baggage. We scurry around trying to prepare everyone’s favorite foods. We clean, even though we will have to do it again once everyone returns to their own homes. And, if you are like many families, you wonder if, and pray that, everyone will be on their best behavior.

Holidays are just stressful. Thanksgiving is bad enough, but then comes Christmas—

that season which proclaims joy, peace, and goodwill. But sometimes, Christmas is anything but. Insert heavy sigh here. I know you know what I mean. We’ve all been there one year or another. But there is hope and help.

Got Plans? I Know Someone Who Does

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

My children will tell you, the verse I quote to each of them most often is Jeremiah 29:11. I know you know it, but for those who may not be as familiar here is what it says—For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. (NASB)

Every time one of our kids is going through a rough patch, a time of critical decision-making, times of uncertainty, I quote this to them. Just this week, I’ve quoted it to two of our sons, the eldest and the youngest. If you read my blog posts regularly, you will likely see that it is my most-referenced scripture verse.

What Mask Are You Wearing?

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

I know what you're thinking. But, no.  In spite of the title, this isn't about Halloween. 

Last week I told you about some scenic drives we like to take, especially once the leaves begin to change. The colors are vibrant, and the mountains seem to beg us to come and share in their beauty.

One of the places we enjoy visiting each year is Gorges State Park. Not only are there vistas at which to take gorgeous photos, but there is a waterfall there, too. And they have picnic tables at which you may share a meal with your family or traveling companions.

The visitor center is very nice. It is equipped with clean restrooms and they have a gift shop, too. It is part of the state park system. Be sure to see the displays inside the center. They are all very good and informative, and they change with the seasons.

One of the displays on our visit last year showed a photo of a yellow leaf. The information surrounding the leaf explained that while we only see the bright colors of the trees in the Fall, those colors are present within the leaf year-round. Those bright colors we drive so far to see are masked behind the more dominant green pigments called chlorophylls. The beautiful colors we wait all year long to see have been there all along, but we couldn’t see them.

Many Masks

This made me wonder how many of us are hiding our potential behind a mask. There are many masks—fear, self-doubt, anxiety, shame just to name a few. You could probably add your own word/s to this list.

Here is the good news. Whatever it is God has called you to, He has equipped you with all you need to see it to fruition. And He is a gentleman, He not only opens doors, He stands and holds it as you walk through. He doesn’t leave you. He’s with you through the entire journey, no matter what it is or how long it takes. There is a saying that has been on the internet in recent years, If God takes you to it, He will get you through it.

Remove Your Mask

Whether you’ve been called to be a writer, musician, artist, teacher, member of our military, a first responder, stay-at-home-mom, or anything you can imagine, God has placed within you what you need to accomplish your goals. Maybe they’ve been hiding out for a while as you prepare for your future. At the perfect time, you will remove your mask and let your light shine, like the Fall leaves, hiding beneath a layer of chlorophyll until the right season arrives.

God is amazing . . . your true colors have been there all along.

Are you ready to remove your mask and let your true colors shine? Share your thoughts with us.

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Fall-Time For a Beautiful Drive

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

A view from the Cherohala Skyway

Fall. It’s finally creeping in on us here in the mountains of Western North Carolina. While some of you, two of our sons included—one in Austin and one in Tampa—are battling temps hovering in the nineties, our high today and tomorrow will be in the mid-seventies at the highest. Our lows? A nice, comfortable mid-forties to mid-fifties range. Believe me, I know. I feel your pain.

My sweet hubby pulled out our Fall décor this week and we got that placed around our home. I don’t go over the top. Simplicity is the operative word here. Besides, it’s about all I have time or energy for. One thing I’d like to do is add potted mums to our front porch. I love Fall colors and potted mums make one’s home seem so warm and inviting.

But God-It's All About Trust

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Last week I shared a bit of the publishing process with you. You can see why it takes so long for a book to become a book and not simply a manuscript. The publishing process is long and there are many steps involved in bringing that book to market.

One thing that has happened in recent weeks is the publishing house I signed a contract with has recently been acquired by a larger company. My original house was Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas and the imprint I was under is Firefly Southern Fiction. None of that has changed. I will still be under the Firefly Southern Fiction imprint. 

The Birth of a Book

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Something a little bit different this week. I thought I’d catch you all up on what’s going on with my soon-to-be-published book, Grave Consequences, A Charlotte Graves Southern Mystery.

I appreciate your patience as we await the birth of GC as I affectionately call it. Believe me, I realize it seems like forever ago that I began talking about this book. Well, the publishing process is long, y’all. Longer than most of us realize, I think. Any of you authors out there want to chime in, please feel free to throw in your two cents. Or a dime’s worth, if you have that much to say.

Every Family Has a Story

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post in which I asked the question, who do you think you are?  That question had never been more relevant than in the weekend I wrote about last week about attending the Nansemond Indian Nation’s Pow Wow. https://www.facebook.com/NansemondIndianNation/

As I looked around and spoke with people there, it was quite apparent that we had all come from descendants of Bass-related persons. In other words, we were all cousins, no matter the color of our skin. And our skin tones varied from very dark, to those like me with blond hair and blue eyes. Yet, we can all trace our heritage back to one or two people from whom we descend. My family’s story is old and rich. And it is multi-ethnicity.

DNA Testing

As DNA tests become more prevalent and as more and more people are tested, I think it will become even more apparent just how closely related most of us in these United States are. This is even more so for those of us whose ancestors weren’t born here, but who came on one of the earlier ships. We are part of those people who came from all corners of the old world and left a Europe who refused to allow freedom of ideas and freedom of worship. My European family came very early in the 1600s. That was one side. Another side was already here.

They were the indigenous people of these lands. People who were forced from the lands they had called home for generation upon generation. That they managed, somehow, to find common ground (no pun intended) and to get along, even marry and have families with one another, to me is nothing short of a miracle.

Learn the Truth

We must read again the histories of how this country was formed. The story we’ve long held to be true, the one we were taught in school about Pocahontas, has now been proven to be false in great part. How many have bothered to learn the true story? And this is just one story. How many others must there be?

Just this past week, the descendants of The First Twenty and Odd, celebrated the four-hundredth commemoration of the arrival of their ancestors. How many even know who the First Twenty and Odd are? I must say, I didn’t know until about two to three years ago. Again, part of our history never taught in our schools. How many of us are descendants of those people? How would you know if you’ve not been told? https://www.facebook.com/1619GenealogyBank

Find Your Story

What is your family’s story? Were you a part of the indigenous peoples? Were your ancestors on one of the early ships to arrive on these shores? Did your first ancestors here come in the great wave of immigration in the 1800s? Unless you delve deeply into your lineage either via a DNA test, a paper trail, or both, you may never know of your rich heritage.

Not everyone will have come early. Some are recent arrivals, and they have a story. They have families and histories. We all came from somewhere.

Have you traced your ancestry? Did you find surprises? Share your story with us. 

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