#WednesdayWordswithFriends Welcomes @FayFaylamb Fay Lamb!

Good Morning Dear Friends,

Well I drove back from Nacogdoches yesterday and ran errands before even setting foot in my house. Alas, the life of a traveler LOL! My son's dance teams did rather well in the two national competitions they competed in. I'll share more on that later. But now, let me introduce to you a brand-new-to-our-blog guest, Fay Lamb!

Fay Lamb is the only daughter of a rebel genius father and a hard-working, tow-the-line mom. She is not only a fifth-generation Floridian, she has lived her life in Titusville, where her grandmother was born in 1899.

Since an early age, storytelling has been Fay’s greatest desire. She seeks to create memorable characters that touch her readers’ hearts. She says of her writing, “If I can’t laugh or cry at the words written on the pages of my manuscript, the story is not ready for the reader.” Fay writes in various genres, including romance, romantic suspense, and contemporary fiction.

If you’d like to catch up with Fay, visit her at her website, on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter @FayFaylamb. Also, Fay has become a “novel” gardener, and she shares her adventure in her newsletter, Tales from the Azalea Garden. You can sign up for her newsletter, Tales from the Azalea Garden, here.

So nice to have you share with us today, Fay!

The Solitude of the Garden

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.” Isaiah 35:1

In July of 2021, I came out of the coma that had beset the world. I peeked out of my front window, and I was horrified at what I saw. What I found was a long-neglected front yard of which an azalea garden comprises seventy-five percent. Virginia Creeper, a foul phrase in my opinion, had climbed atop the struggling and dying azaleas. Oak trees towered unchecked amongst weeds large enough to be shrubs. The whole yard was a disaster of my own making.

I pushed open my front door and stepped outside to the beauty I had abused by not keeping evil—yes, pure evil—in check. Starting at one end of the garden, I began to pull weeds and to tug off of plants and up from the ground vines that Tarzan could use to travel from tree to tree.

I began to spend many hours at a time getting to know every nook and cranny of my garden. With every azalea I could save trimmed and the dead and dying shoveled up, the vines pulled, and the weeds taken care of for the moment, I turned my eyes upon the gardens in front of my house and then to the grass itself. I never sought help from family. I worked in solitude.

This solitude brought me into the presence of God where the desert inside of me began to rejoice and blossom like a rose. Oh, I can be in solitude with God anywhere, and I have since learned to seek out that time with God in order to bloom in other places. The garden, though, is where my relationship with God was renewed. God didn’t begin talking with me in the garden, but I began to listen to Him there. His Word came alive in my heart as He taught me many lessons such as how sins can grow and overcome me like the weeds and vines of my garden. As I toiled and gave love to the garden that had seen only indifference from me, I began to draw closer to God, to begin to nourish the relationship I once treasured but to which I had grown indifferent.

And another miracle occurred. I forgot to tell you, that prior to July, 2021, the plant world knew me as a serial killer. While I walked and talked with God in the garden, He blossomed in me the heart of a gardener, someone who loves the plants, nourishes them, and protects them, as God loves, nourishes and protects me.

Today, when I look out of my window, I see the fruit of my labors which were directed by God, and I see the fruit of what God brought to me in my garden where the Master Gardener and the novice gardener meet almost every day.

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What lovely sentiments, Fay. We can all learn from regular solitude with God. THANK You for sharing! Now please share with us a peek of your book, Storms in Serenity which is available on Amazon....

How can one man save the town he loves when he’s the reason for the destruction?

Serenity Key, Florida, has seen its share of hurricanes, but this time, one foul weather system is about to collide with another storm, and this one has nothing to do with atmospheric pressure.

David New has guarded his secrets for years, but when two brothers, John and Andy Ryan, arrive in town and he gets news that the daughter he’s never told anyone about has disappeared, possibly the victim of a heinous crime, and the lives of many of the town residents begin to unravel in the gale force consequences of David’s past, he has nowhere else to turn.

God is the only one Who can calm the storms, but can David and the good folks of Serenity Key survive until He does?

A tempest has been brewing for thirty years, with only one island town in its path.

Sounds like a great read, Fay. We certainly wish you the best of luck and God's blessings with it. One thing you should know, Friends is that Fay donates 100% of her royalties to Christian charities so if you love to read and give, you can do both by purchasing one or more of her books!

That's it for today, folks. Tax deadline is barreling down upon us so I'll be wrapping up mine and getting them filed. So until Saturday....

Take care and God Bless

PamT