And then listen to good music.

“You were wearied by all your ways, but you would not say, ‘It is hopeless.’ You found renewal of strength, so you did not faint.” - Isaiah 57:10

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” -2 Cor. 12:9

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Cor. 4:16-18

“‘What is the Lord trying to teach me?’ we ask. ‘I’m a willing learner! Can’t we just get beyond the mess I’m in and get on with life?’ No, we’ve got it all backwards. First we have to unlearn our whole way of thinking which is directed by our deceived hearts.” - False Intimacy, Dr. Shaumberg

Not because of the blog, but because of life.
The things going on with me, which must be censored, make it too difficult to find alternative topics.
MamaNeedJava will be on a summer vacation for awhile. I might pop on to share things I come across, but by and large this blog won’t get a lot of new content for awhile.

I hope to re-launch by the Fall. Thank you all for your prayers, support and encouragement.

Sometimes, the good ol’ BEE-EL-AYE is all I have to say.
Rare, but it happens.

“We need to be loving each other.” - Lil’ E (my 3 year old)

“Surprise us with love at daybreak; then we’ll skip and dance all the day long.” Psalm 90:14 (The Message)

“I think I can.” - The Little Blue Engine that Could

“Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it.” - Tori Amos

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” - Dr. Suess

While the details of some parts of my life I seem to share with the general public with a complete lack of bashfulness, there are other parts which I cannot disclose in great detail. To address this conundrum, I feel it is at least appropriate for me to use this blog as a platform for airing my thoughts, but with great care for allusive, covert references Forgive.

Life, as we all know, or should by now, does not always go according to “plan”: That amazing business that you throw your money and life into goes belly up, natural disasters tear apart your home, loved ones move on to the next life — sometimes in unexpected and painful ways, families fall apart from a gazillion issues under the sun, or friends betray our trust.

We all go through somewhat similar experiences when these things happen. Shock, denial, anger, and grief take their turns at us. Hopefully, and usually, healing does too. We begin to eat again, work again, laugh again. The loss itself might not ever be painless, but the heartbreaking helplessness of the loss will ease, (interesting, how similar this pain of loss is much like the pain of childbirth).

Perhaps the greatest piece of it all is when something that fell apart, went out of business, and broke into little pieces is ready to be restored: the start of a new business, the rebuilding of the next house, the birth of a new loved one, the healing of marriages, the reconciliation of friends. Grace upon grace is given to us by the One who made our hearts, and it never ceases to amaze me at just how that all works; How joy can fill up empty spots, left barren by disappointment.

It is the misadventures of life, the plans that went haywire, that tend to make up our story, as individuals, and as a human race. Painful as they are.

• Who’s in the coffin? The man in the coffin is referred to as Jeremy Bentham through-out the two hour finale. It was obvious this man had been visiting the Oceanic 6 recently in order to tell them to go back to the island, and that Sayid believed that with him dead (he suspects foul-play, though it was determined a suicide) the Ocreanic 6 were in danger. In the end, we see that the man in the coffin is none other than John Locke.
• Does Jin and/or Claire die? I am holding out the Jin is NOT dead, despite how it looked in the finale. We saw people jumping into the water and we did not exactly see Jin get blown up in the explosive, so I am hopeful that in the end, he is still alive. Nothing was really answered about Claire, except that she appears in Aaron’s bedroom 3 years later when Kate burst in on them. And just as quickly as Claire warns her, “Don’t you dare bring him back to that island!”, she disappears. The whispers on the phone in Kate’s flash forward dream, when played in reverse, say, “The island needs you. You have to go back, before it’s too late.”
• How do the “Oceanic 6″ randomly bump into each other (as at the moment, they are more or less scattered) and hitch an exclusive, one-way ride off the island? — We all know how they end up together and how Sawyer sacrifices himself so that the other 6 can get a little further with a low tank of gas. Ah, sigh. Wondering about what Sawyer whispered to Kate before the kiss and jumping out of the helicopter? Check this out.
• Why are the Oceanic 6, in flash-forwards, keeping the true story about the island from the rest of the world? This reveal wasn’t very convincing to me. In Jack’s opinion, Locke is a flake. So why did he decide they should all lie at the last minute when they see Penny’s boat? And why do the other Oceanic 6 so easily accept this is the only way to do it? I get it, that if people know about the island, then every one else is in danger, sure, but the willingness to make up a fake experience seems a little unrealistic.
• What is the deal with the time difference between the island and the freighter? I think the only thing that touched on this concept was the delay from the dead man’s arm signal on the island and the detonation of the bomb on the frieghter.
• Who is the ageless Richard? Do do do do… still a mystery. Though, he may not be agless — he might just be time traveling, a ghost, or on an island that has been “jumping” time.
• many, many more…

By the way, some of us over at my house were totally annoyed by the preview for alternate endings to Season 4. (Not a great move by ABC, in my opinion, as most casual viewers thought, “I KNEW they don’t have a real plan about what is happening on this show!”) Turns out, from what I am reading, these alternate endings were created in order to fake out any spoilers- if anything got leaked or any cast member knew the one and only ending, it could ruin it for people, so they made a few fake ones.

There’s so many theories about so many unended mysteries that I don’t even know how to begin, but here’s some of the good one’s I have come across today:

- DocArzt theories (which are more like additional questions?)

-ABC’s Lost message boards theories

- Lost-pedia theories about this episode

With a long 8 months til next season, I’ll try to do some more reading

So, as we ALL know, this season was cut a wee bit short because of the writer’s strike. We’ve been intrigued by flash-FORWARDS, introduced to new characters (Freighties!), seen some time-travel, learned who the “Oceanic 6″ are, witnessed the tumultuous return of Michael, and seen several characters die. The short season has been interesting, certainly, and has taken a bit of a dark turn, if you ask me. No longer do we bop our heads to some acoustic tune while we watch slow close-ups of our beloved characters in the last few minutes of the episode. Nope. Now we’ve had to stomach some pretty gruesome and intentional crud, perhaps most significantly, the death of Ben’s Danielle’s daughter, Alex — mercenary style.

As I gather the spread of goodies for tonight’s 3 hour (total) event, I’m thinking about all of the questions I still have (wouldn’t be “lost” without them!) and the things I expect to find out a little bit more about in tonight’s finale.

Here’s a few:

• Who’s in the coffin? Last season’s finale included a funeral scene, in which only Jack was in attendance. He tells the parlor that he is “neither” friend, nor enemy, to the deceased. He later asks Kate if she went, and she replied, “Why would I go?” This episode shocked everyone when we realized it was set in the future, the first of more to come for Lost. My speculation is on Ben or Michael being the coffin’s mysterious dweller.
• Does Jin and/or Claire die? Last we left off, Jin was in a room on the freighter with Michael and Desmond — and a whole bunch of explosives. We know from a flash forward that Sun, his wife, delivers their child back in Korea, alone. She also tells her father that he is one of the men responsible for her husband’s death. Claire, the aussie mommy, has wandered off in the middle of the night following her (presumed dead?) father, Christian Shepperd (who, coincidentally, is also Jack’s father), leaving her newborn behind with Miles the ghost-whisperer and Sawyer. Later, John Locke seeks and finds “Jacob’s cabin”, but instead of the invisible and allusive Jacob being there, it is Christian Shepperd and Claire. Are they both dead? Are they both alive? WTF? All we know is that the baby winds up with Kate, who raises him as her own after she finds “rescue” with the other “Oceanic 6″.
• How do the “Oceanic 6″ randomly bump into each other (as at the moment, they are more or less scattered) and hitch an exclusive, one-way ride off the island?
• Why are the Oceanic 6, in flash-forwards, keeping the true story about the island from the rest of the world?
• What is the deal with the time difference between the island and the freighter?
• Who is the ageless Richard?
• many, many more…

Well, you east coasters don’t have to wait very long (hopefully) for some of the answers, while I am stuck over on the Pac NW with 3 hours to go!

So I’m gonna go stay busy so I don’t hyperventilate.