A huge enthusiastic spring "Hello" to all 1611 of you awesome folks who have dared to sign up for this ride. Welcome to the train all of you first timers. I trust this trip will help move you closer and closer to the greatest love of my life - Jesus Christ. Whether it has been God The Father, or Jesus, or God's precious Holy Spirit who is responsible for giving me all of these songs I don't know, but I am truly thankful for them because they first encouraged me at various times of my life. I continue to pray that they encourage you profoundly. :) Yes, Spring has finally arrived at our house, and yes - there really is grass in front of the house. lol The basement renos are also still awaiting attention from my industrious hands. LOL I got thinking the other day why songs affect each of us as they do. After all, when you think of it, why in the world should we be thinking of somebody like our dads when the song is about fishing? Crazy, right? After all of the pondering that I could stand, I think I finally came up with an answer, if not the answer. Besides the many other rabbit trails that I investigated, I think I will present this trail to you. I believe that it is the way that God created us; the way that our spirit is connected to our mind. I believe that our minds are always operating; like a computer that never shuts off. It is constantly trying to process the data to make some sense of it according to the program that is running. I recently experienced yet another one of these moments; just before I wrote my latest song "Lord, I Miss Him So." I was at work this time, not thinking of my dad at all, when a very slow pleasant "searching" kind of a song came over the radio. For the strangest reason, in my mind I pictured myself as I was at 12 years of age; breaking into and going through my dad's big travel trunk. (Who hasn't ever done that?) ;) To me, it was filled with lots of unexplained "stuff" that held absolutely no relevance to me at all; though intriguing. I remember being curious as to why he would keep all of this stuff. Suddenly, I came to the realization that he was no longer with us, although he was born again and I know that I will see him again when I get to heaven. A wave of sadness momentarily washed over me as I once again realized that I could not count on any more opportunities to tell him that I loved him dearly . . . to joke around with . . . or hear him say that he loved me. hmmm/groan The song pretty much says what I would like every heart to be encouraged to do; to tell your father regularly that you love him - if he is still alive. If you did not have the best relationship with your earthly father, please forgive me for bringing up some bad feelings. However, may I encourage you not to transfer those feelings of anger, fear, or mistrust on to our heavenly Father. He absolutely loves us to death (the death of His own Son) so that you can experience what a true loving Father/son/daughter relationship should and can be. Well, enough of me for now. Enjoy your life in Him. May the Lord God continue to shower you with His amazing grace, unfathomable love, never ending forgiveness, and the biggest and best hugs around. See ya in a couple of weeks, Trev :)