My Spiritual Memoir: My Prayer for the United States

"My Prayer for the United States:

A Prayer Journalkeeper’s Reflection on History From Historic Jamestowne to Today

(And What It Means to Faith and Life Today)"

Are you a Christian? Do you pray? Do you prayer journal? Are you an American? Do you like history or want to learn more about it? Do you pay attention to current events? Do you like to read spiritual memoirs and/or want to write your own? Do you like to read about the stories of families and learn about family trees? If you answered yes to any of the previous questions, this book is for you.

This book is my prayer journaling about current events and is a reflection on the history of the United States from Historic Jamestowne to today. I reflect on what the current events and history mean to my faith and life today.

My prayer for the U.S. is a very personal one because I had family members come here through Historic Jamestowne in 1607 and I can trace my family back to Nero, Emperor Charlemagne, and Joseph of Arimathea, never mind the Plantagenet and Tudor families or several Presidents of the USA, along with founding fathers, and writers and signers of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Moreover, several were of the House of Burgess and some even signed and wrote the Magna Carta.

I’ve had men in my family tree serve in every single war of the United States of America. This includes a father and his twelve sons who served in the American Revolutionary War or War of Independence.

The current events happening as I write this, and the history of my nation, along with faith, make me quite passionate about this topic and book. This is a spiritual memoir because as I prayer journal, I’m growing in faith and patriotism as I learn and reflect more on history. It’s how all of this shapes who I am today.

What is happening today in current events in our nation, through the lens of history, is something every citizen and every Christian needs to be aware of, think about, and pray about. There is too much at stake and it impacts each of us right now—where we are. We can keep burying our heads in the sand or we can help make this nation a Christian one again—and it all starts with you (and me, of course). It starts through awareness, thinking, and praying. This book is my spiritual memoir about how I do precisely that and how it impacts me and my life.

Current Events Change Things: A New Book Title

I've written 6,714 words so far of my spiritual memoir, but have put that material at the back of the book as bonus material.

This marks a new book. It's in light of current events, of the USA and in my own life that is causing me to change this book. I will return to the idea of writing a spiritual memoir about living a life of simple faith, but today is not it.

I will now write a spiritual memoir in which I prayer journal about history and current events and what it means for me and my life today as a Christ follower and as an American.

Family Tree Journaling (History Journaling)

Family Tree Journaling (History Journaling) 

A NEW BLOG POST SERIES: FAMILY TREE JOURNALING
This will become a new blog post series, by the way. So, stay tuned.

FAMILY TREE JOURNALING IS REALLY HISTORY JOURNALING
Family Tree Journaling is learning about history through your family tree.

NOTE FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW YOUR FAMILY TREE:
First of all, let me apologize if this brings pain for any of you who do not know your family tree. It is not my intent.
Therefore, please, think about making your own history of your possible family tree through journaling.
How? You can do this through learning about history.
Learn about your national history and the world history of each time frame, for as long back as we have a recorded history. Your life has been shaped and influenced by this, whether you know your family tree. So, please, still read and do these blog posts and journaling suggestions. It still applies to you.
You can use the family history of the family who adopted you, if you desire. After all, their tree is your tree. Blood doesn't make anyone less part of a family. They chose you for a reason. However, if your adoptive situation was not very good, then look at the next suggestion.
Otherwise, I suggest you use the history of a famous person from that time period and answer/do the following Family Tree Journaling.
Or, here is another suggestion. Check out this blog and you can use my family instead and do your own journaling: http://lhtmft.blogspot.com/

WHY DO FAMILY TREE JOURNALING?
It's important to know where you came from and the vents that shaped who you are today. The events of history has shaped who you are today and who you will become.

FAMILY TREE JOURNALING INSTRUCTIONS
1 Pick a family member, if you know one, or a famous person from your nation at the time. If your nation didn't exist in the time period, pick a nation from a nation you know you came from then, and had an ancestor from them, or pick a famous individual from that time period and from the place you could have been from.
Write the name in your journal.
2 Get to know everything you can about the individual from #1. Journal about them.
3 Learn everything you can about the history from that time. Learn the national and world history. Journal about it. Get down the facts in your journal. Focus on the facts that jump out at you for whatever reason--and make sure to write why those facts jumped out at you.
4 Take 2 and 3 and combine them. Imagine you are a person living in this period of time in history. Write what their life must have been like in your journal. Use your imagination.
5 Now, answer these questions in your journal:
A What did I learn?
B How does this apply to me and my life today?
Never answer that it doesn't. After all, the reality is, it does. History has shaped who you are today and your life story. Period. End of story. All stories connect and link. Each story is sacred. Every story we learn about or here impacts our lives today and it does so in a personal way. Every story shapes our story today. We can learn what to do or what not to do through them. We can learn how God worked in, through, and around the past person's lives and see similarities, as well as differences, in our own story.

Updated March 05, 2014 1322 p.m.

Researching the Island of Roanoke

When I was on vacation last month, one of the places we went to see was Roanoke Island, North Carolina. That was where my relatives Sir John Arundell and Sir Richard Grenville went in 1585-1856 in an effort to find the ideal place to set up the first permanent English settlement and colony in the North America.

I wanted to go there for research for the book I am writing, THE STORYKEEPER OF ROANOKE (THE FAMILY TREEZ OF THE USA SERIES, BOOK #1.) 

I had no idea how emotional it would be for me. It is very different to see the first place that started the United States of America as a relative of two who were there. (And Sir Walter Raleigh, who was the mastermind in charge of this expedition, was a relative as well, by the way.) It moved me to see and experience. It helped me with the passion I have for this book.

My book cover is a picture of the earthworks at present day Fort Raleigh. It's where there was a fort back in 1587-1590.

Here are more pictures:

 
Photo from inside the earthworks:

(Photo Credits: Stacy Duplease Oct. 2012 at Fort Raleigh).

Stacy Duplease
Thriller Historical Fiction Writer

The Storykeeper of Roanoke: The Family Treez of the USA Series, Book #1

Email: familytreezusa@gmail.com

NaNoWriMo: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/familytreezetc

Bookstore: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hisfiction

dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Family Treez USA

The Writing of Roanoke 1584-1590 (News and Info)

Status of Roanoke 1584-1590: The Family Treez of the USA Series, Book 1: 

Writing. (Not planning, plotting, editing, or final publishing.)

Word Count: 6665 of 210,000 words (I started writing this book on 17 September 2012, Monday.)

Word Count Goal for 19 Sep. 2012: 5000 words

So, I am ahead with my writing. So far. (Whew.)

The Writing of This Book

There is something magical about going to a time different than our own. I do not care if it is time-traveling to the past or future. It is a different era and that brings a touch of imagination. Writing ROANOKE 1584-1590: The Family Treez of the USA Series, Book 1 is magical as well. But, it is also mind-boggling.

When I think that I am writing about actual family, it is pretty difficult to fully grasp. It makes the history take on a deeper meaning.

Then, to think of my patriotism and love of the United states of America, then add this lens of family history, and I am even more patriotic. I was patriotic before I learned about my family. Quite, actually. But, add the family dimension and it has grown a million-fold. 

I cannot look at anything in this country without feeling even more passionate than previously.

Writing this book has kindled even more of a passion for this great nation.

It has also added to a passion of history. I still cannot believe how little of a passion I had for history prior to moving here to Virginia. History was always my weakest subjects in school. My father sure tried to make me informed, though. He was successful in that endeavor. I learned far more about history from him than I did in all my 20 years of schooling combined. But, it was here in Virginia, in July 2011 that kindled my passion for U.S. history. To walk where America was founded, here in this part of Virginia, is humbling. Mind-boggling. Remarkable. Touching. Meaningful. To know that just up the street, so to speak, was where Cornwallis had Gates surrender to George Washington in the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War... To think that, sure, there were smaller battles after that for the next couple of years, but it was at Yorktown that we turned the tide of the war, is amazing. And, I had a family member who was a Colonel who was there at the surrender--at Surrender Field... It blows me away.

Therefore, knowing about my family history makes me more passionate about, well, all of it--and surely writing about it.

I have always loved to play the "Imagine Game," where I imagine what it was like to be these historical figures, doing what they did, at the time they did, and what they experienced, thought, and felt. Writing this book on Roanoke is no different. Except, it is personal as well as part of my patriotic act.

I want to write my family's story to help all of us learn about the true history of the United States of America, without even realizing it. That is my goal for this series. 

Can you imagine? I am sure trying. Hence, I write. 

Can You Imagine?

The story I am writing about Roanoke is about what happened before, during, and after the voyages to Roanoke. It's about the colony that was not lost and the colony that was. I am trying, and will try, to delve far more than any other book, about what it was like to be those who planned for the establishment of the first permanent English colony in North America--and what they went through with the great expectations before going to Roanoke, then finding out about the troubles of the colony, and not being able to get to the colony for three years. Then, when they got there, they discovered the colony was lost. There was no trace of them. Then, because of a storm, having to leave before you can do more of a search... Can you imagine? 

That is what this book is about.

It is the story of three men who dreamed of Roanoke, their families, and the temporarily lost dream. It's about how they got out of bed, and continuing with life, in the morning knowing about the lost colony. 

Can you imagine? I am sure trying. Hence, I write. 

And, what a story it is to tell!

Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer

The Family Treez of the USA Series

dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Family Treez USA

Family Treez Blog and Website: http://familytreezusa.blogspot.com

Email: familytreezusa@gmail.com

Bookstore: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hisfiction

My story from 9/11

SEPTEMBER ELEVENTH: REMEMBERING

On 9/10/2001, I watched as a beloved Broncos player, Ed MacCaffrey was hurt. He was given a life-changing break to his leg. It was horrible. It was an injury you had the feeling ended his career. I tossed and turned that night.

When I drove to work that morning, across town, I could not help but think of him. The radio talked about it as well.

Then... Everything was put into proper perspective.

846 a.m. Eastern Time (It was 646 in Denver, where I am from and will return one day.)

I heard the radio announce: "An airplane has crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City."

I remember saying out loud, "WHAT?" That sure caught my attention.

Was it a Cessna or a commercial jetliner? Was it a terrorist or an accident? I could not help but wonder. Then, the guy on the radio speculated the same questions over the radio.

A couple of minutes later, he announced again, "A second airplane has struck the World Trade Center." There was a pause. "It is now safe to say that this was a deliberate act of terrorism."

"War has been declared on the United States of America," I said to myself. Hearing those words, and speaking them, were rather mind-boggling and stunning. Never mind what just happened in NYC.

We were at war.

How many people just died or were hurt? How many fathers, mothers, children, friends were not going home that night? I thought as my heart went to my throat. How many people were in the towers? How many people worked in the towers?

They radio program, a music station which played the 80's to today music, had a guest who said over 50,000 people worked in the World Trade Center's two towers.

I knew someone who would most likely be going to war. (My future husband.) The thought hit me pretty hard.

I thought about the two most important dates in U.S. history, according to my father: 04 July 1776 and 07 December 1941. Both days were marked by the shedding of American blood for freedom. 12/7 was a day of infamy.

My dad made sure I knew all about the events on 12/7, those that led up to it, and the aftermath. I knew the costs of that day.

My dad was too young to know 12/7 personally, but I could tell it impacted him and his life. (It still does today.)

Any day when THOUSANDS of Americans die is a terrible day. (Never mind any other nationality across the world.)

I knew September Eleventh was most likely going to be worse than Pearl Harbor. The numbers, and airplanes, only cemented this reality.

"It has been confirmed that it was two commercial jetliners, folks." The guy over the radio shared with us.

I had just pulled into the parking lot at work. I turned off my truck and said a prayer before I headed into work.

The radio was not on. It was always on. But, it was not on yet. This struck me.

"Turn on the radio," I hollered across the print shop to the gal closest to the radio.
"Why?"

"Two commercial planes have hit the World Trade Center in New York City. That's why." I shared the simple truth with them. I heard my voice quiver a little as I spoke.

The guy and gal looked at one another and then LAUGHED at me in disbelief.

I remember feeling furious, but I bit my tongue. This was not something you joked about or made up. Ever. "I am serious. Please turn on the radio." I requested and headed to the back to punch the clock.

When I got back up front, they stood there, mouths hanging open.

I immediately called our supervisor and he brought in a t.v. He was getting ready to leave his house.

937 a.m.

I then called my dad, and woke him up, since he worked nights. This was something you wake people up for. We just heard how the Pentagon was hit. (That was yet another declaration of war. How many more would we get today?)

Then, I called my mom.

959 a.m.

The moment our supervisor got to work, and plugged in the t.v., the first tower fell.

I will never forget a group of us standing around watching this. Two were former military. They said it would be a matter of days before we responded. I agreed. How could we not? They both said they would want to re-enlist that second if they could, but they could not. One had physical problems. One had too many obligations at home. He was also a single father and the mother was out of the equation.

1006 United 93, southwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1028 The second tower fell.

I will never forget how we could tell when customers walked into the print shop--whether they knew or not about what happened this day. Those who heard, said something, and were somber. Those who had not heard were loud, happy, continued on with life as normal.

Since I was the one who ran the counter, along with A/R, I was the one who told them.

"I take it you haven't heard." I knew not to ask if they had or not. It was obvious.

"Hear what?" All of them asked.

"About how two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City."

"No!"

"Yes..."

The moment I got in my truck to drive home, I listened to the radio. The moment I got home, I turned on the t.v. I saw all of the images again... Heard stories...

Just as I did a couple of days ago.

My husband and I drove home from a Presidential rally when he turned on the radio. They were replaying the sounds of that day.

For 45 minutes, my husband and I drove in silence.

Today, I have been peeled to the t.v. again... as I am every year.

One day, we will have a child. They will know about the three dates in U.S. history to never forget. 04 July 1776. 07 December 1941. 11 September 2001.

Our future child will know how many military men and women we have personally known who have fought and fallen since.

Freedom costs. It is not free.

We will never forget.

We will not falter.

The land of the free, the home of the brace.

God bless the USA.

(Image Credit: Microsoft Images Online.)

Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer of:

Inspirational American Historical Ancestry Romance Fiction

 

Maybe because it's Tuesday

The pain from 9/11 is quite raw to me today.

 

I am weepy. It started last night.

 

Is it because it's another beautiful blue sky Tuesday?

 

I realize, if I am honest with myself, I do not intentionally think of 9/11 as much as I should. This reality hurts.

 

My life, however, cannot help but reflect it every day. I support the U.S. military every day. They are still fighting for our freedom today. Even when the wars are ended, they still fight every day as they pay attention to current events all across the globe.

 

The military is my absolute passion. They fight for me, and my freedom, so I do not have to. This is never taken lightly by me.

 

But, the feelings from 9/11 are still with me.

 

9/11 was a day that changed everything for the United States of America--and for the world. But, it also changed for me. And for all of us individually.

 

9/11 was another day of infamy.

 

9/11 was when terrorist struck CIVILIANS at home. At HOME.

 

No. May we never forget. May it always be raw with us. May we ensure no one then or since has died, been injured, or fought be in vain.

 

I press the keys on my keyboard a little harder, and with more passion, now.

 

Today is another beautiful blue sky Tuesday. And, it still hurts.

 

You are remembered.

 

God bless America!

(Image Credit: Microsoft Images Online.)

Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer of:

Inspirational American Historical Ancestry Romance Fiction

 

Where were you?

Where were you when you first heard about 9/11?

(Image Credit: Microsoft Images Online.)

-- Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer
Sent from my cell.

Living history

We are living history today.

And not just because it is 9/11.

Every day, we are living history. After all, when tomorrow comes, today is history.

Are you living with this knowledge every day?

(Image Credit: Microsoft Images Online.)

-- Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer
Sent from my cell.

The Right Place at the Right Time

I still cannot help but count my blessings for being at the right place at the right time. That's true personally and professionally.

 

I know I have shared this with you before, but I want to bring context to this blog post. Please bear with me.

 

Virginia is not a place I would have ever said, "I want to live there." But, God had other plans. Through my husband's job, we moved to July in 2011. We fell in love with the history in the area well before I ever learned about my family treez here in Virginia and my genealogy. Hence, when I found out about my family history, it only added to the passion I feel for the history in this area. That is why I am writing the Family Treez of the USA Series.

 

Yesterday, I could not help but think again how I am at the right place at the right time. I needed research about sailing and boats for the book I am writing now and for the one I will write next. This book is set in 1613 and the next book is set in December 1773. Therefore, I needed a wealth of knowledge. That meant thinking about where, besides the Internet, I could gain such knowledge. Then, I remembered. There's the Waterman's Museum in Yorktown and the Mariner's Museum in New Port News. My husband and I Had not been to either, so we made a day of it yesterday.

 

What a blessing to live in the right place at the right time so I can gather research material with my own eyes--and not just over the Internet.

 

Oh! The perfect kicker to our day yesterday. We walked outside to view the outdoor exhibits of the Waterman's Museum in Yorktown--right of the York River and near where the original pier was in 1691 for Yorktown. We saw a couple of people taking pictures near the river and decided to see why. They asked us if we had any idea what they were seeing. My husband and I looked where they pointed and saw immediately. "Dolphins!" We both exclaimed and explained at the same time. God showed us his glory and blessed us in a whole different way.

(Image Credit: Microsoft Images Online.)

Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer of:

Inspirational American Historical Ancestry Romance Fiction

dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Family Treez USA

Family Treez Blog and Website: http://familytreezusa.blogspot.com and http://familytreezusa.tumblr.com

Email: familytreezusa@gmail.com
Bookstore: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hisfiction   

Presidential Elections

I just had an ephiphany when I spoke to my husband a couple of minutes ago and wanted to share it with you.

Vote in the Presidential Election in November.

Why?

This is probably the most important election of our lives. 

(Image from Microsoft Images Online.)

-- Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer
Sent from my cell.