May 4, 2017

Greetings My Friend, As we ended April we were treated with a very hot couple of days here in Virginia. My goal was to see if I could deal with the heat now that our extended porch and carport surrounded our home and windows. I decided to see if I could manage without the air conditioning and I knew about 4:30 in the morning that it was time to turn on the air when both Junior and I had drifted into the TV room to sleep in our recliners, the dogs were outside and the heat in the house was unbearable. I found myself saying "enough" then went over to the air conditioning unit to turn it on. At that early hour I remembered in order to keep the house cool the doors needed to be shut during the heat of the day and I had kept them open. The heat was so bad that when I made peanut butter cookies the batter was melting before I put them in the oven and they melted more in the oven turning into bar cookies instead of regular separated cookies. My lungs complained loudly, my body reacted by being sluggish and I knew that as much as I love summer my body struggles in the heat. I find myself thinking back to past generations that lived with the heat wearing long sleeves, long skirts and marvel at how they managed. I have found wearing sundress' to be much cooler, pulling my hair up helps even more and I still struggle with the heat. My lungs rebel in the humidity, the heat and the pollen. Once the air conditioning is turned on I am able to do a good days work, my lungs aren't struggling to breathe and I am grateful that God has given man the ability to create air conditioning. I find myself wondering how generations of people lived without air conditioning and my thought is they were better able to manage because they did not have the air conditioning. They had cotton and linen fabrics that was able to keep them cooler, absorb the heat and wick it away. They knew how to shade their homes and keep the coolness in. Today I see we would be unable to sustain ourselves as our ancestors did in the past because we have become very dependent on technology. I remember being in awe of all these gadgets, having bought into the idea of it all only to find myself wondering if we are that smart. A power outage now becomes life threatening and makes us unable to function. We no longer know how to grow our own food, put food up for winter or even how to cool our homes without air conditioning. I am grateful God has challenged me to learn how to live a more simple life not relying so heavily on all that is provided by technology. I have come a long way but I may not be able to go completely off the grid of technology unless God provides a healing in my body. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet