Cheryl Mendoza

Ok, so I love my hubby.  Why?  Not sure.  That is how God made me or something to that effect.  One thing that I love about him, is that he pushes me to do things that are not comfortable for me.  He is finding the balance of how to motivate me and not just make me mad.  One of the things that he pushes me to do is travel.  I love to be at different places, but I am not a great traveler.  I hate mountain roads, excessive traffic, crazy drivers, airplanes, boats, you get the point. 

 So a couple of weeks ago we had to take my son his tires that he ordered for his truck.  Who knew Fed Ex would deliver tires?  He lives in the mountains east of Fresno near the town of Dunlap.  So of course my husband says, if we are so close to Kings Canyon National Park, we have to go visit, and so we did. I just snapped a few pictures….

I was thinking of this trip since we will be going the same way tomorrow to visit the Cat Haven.  It is a park that is home to a number of big cats, and it is basically the same route to get there.  Which means I had better be prepared, as I am sure we will make it up to Kings Canyon again for a short visit. 

So I was thinking about weeds this morning.  Not sure how it came up?  Maybe it was because I was sitting in my backyard and the entire thing is dirt right now because of weeds. Or it may have been because weeds, when they grow, will bring up nutrients and other minerals from deeper in the soil.  Some of the things they bring up are good, but if what is in the soil is bad, then that is what the weeds will contain.  That is exactly how I feel.  I have some weeds growing and they are bringing up some junk that needs to be dealt with.  While that in itself is not a bad thing, the means of my realization has for lack of a better word, sucked.

I was feeling better this morning after a rough day yesterday.  It was hard for me, as I hadn’t slept well the previous night.   I know I have stated this fact before, but sleep is paramount for my state of mind.   It has been alluding me because I have been having some attacks at night.  I will wake up feeling hot and I feel like I cannot breathe.  Feel being the operative word.  I am totally able to breathe.  It is just the overwhelming anxiety that builds in seconds, that causes me not to be able to go back to sleep.  They were bothering me in Paso a week ago and the night before last, it happened again.  So yesterday as I googled various information, I wondered if this was a physical response to something that is happening in my brain? (Either that or hormones or both)

I am not sure what it is, but it got me thinking about my fears.  Why?  Because at this point I started to ask myself some questions.  Why would not breathing frighten me?  Well, the whole dying thing scares me.  While that may scare anyone, I am a Christian and so the whole dying thing for me is covered.  Right?  I have to admit though, I am not acting like it.  I started to think again of the fear I have of heights, travel and airplanes.  It seems to me that the fears are really a fear of death.  Even my fear of rodents.  I mean really, they carry the plague?  And that can kill ya!

I can tell you that the couple of nights where this has happened to me have been brutal.  While I have not enjoyed these nights, I do now see them as the weed they are.  Maybe these attacks were to bring this fear stuff back onto my radar?  I think I knew that these fears all were connected to death, but I had never really owned it.  I have known and fought my fears for years, but maybe I have only dealt with them in a superficial way?  Maybe God is directing me to address them in a manner so He can finally eradicate them.  I know that God has not given me a spirit of fear and timidity, so I know these character traits are not supposed to be in my life.  So instead of fear and timidity, I am asking God to replace it with power, love and self-discipline.  How will that look?  I am not sure, but those three attributes are what God says He does give us, so I am thinking that is the best place to start.

I apologize to those who will get two posts in one day, but I felt like I had to split this up.  So yesterday I spent part of the morning in Cambria trying not to freeze on the foggy coast, and then the rest of the afternoon/evening trying to stay cool at the Mid-State Fair.  So while the Central Coast has been a destination for my family since I was young, I can say that I had never been to this fair.  And after last nights visit, I know why.  We went to go see Don Henley in concert.  We had seen the Eagles in the last year and so my hubby and I were pretty stoked to go.  I had not been feeling well that day, and at one point my hubby asked if I wanted to go home.  I told him no.  If I had made it this far, I was going to see the concert.  Since we had been in Cambria earlier in the day, enjoying the cool coast, when we got to Paso Robles we melted.  It was a good 30 degrees hotter, and all of the walkways at the fair were in the sun.  We were able to find some chairs inside, got cooled down and drank some water. All this helped to get me to a place where I was good.  It was then that I got excited about the concert, and was ready and eager to go in when the gates opened. Continue reading “Getting hot in Paso” →