By Right of Conquest, or, With Cortez in Mexico

I've been thinking about my life and how many unplanned turns I've been taking in the last few years, and G. A. Henty's book By Right of Conquest, or, With Cortez in Mexico came to mind.  Roger was living in England and had his life planned out. He was taking a short trip to the New World, at which point he would return and settle down in England with the girl he had picked out.  However when he got to the New World he ended up in a lot of unexpected adventures that tossed him about and spun him around until he could hardly remember the life he had planned out.  And he began to wonder if maybe he had made his plans, but God was directing his ways.  While in the New World for much longer than he had planned, Roger met another girl in Mexico whom he admired.  And after a great many years longer than was his original intent, Roger and his wife returned to England, where the English girl as well had married someone else, causing everything to work out in the end.  And of course it is a Henty book, so they end up with a nice piece of land, Roger's wife get some jewels, and they have lots of children and grandchildren to whom Roger likes to relate his adventures.

I've been feeling a bit like Roger.

Those of you who know me well know that I have always had my entire life planned out to the smallest details twenty years in advance, although I'm not that good at planning the immediate future.  In the past few years, with none of my plans working out the way I'd planned, I have been asking God what He would have me do while feeling strangely lost without my 20 year plans. 

Sometimes the things that are meant to be temorary, God chooses to make not so temporary.

I recently took a very temporary, as I thought, break from my plans, which I have continued to modify to my situation regardless of how difficult or ridiculous that may be.  However it seems like God is really leading me in a complete opposite direction right now, which is incredibly confusing to me, because it is not at all where I thought God wanted me.

I don't know how coherent that last paragraph was, but it results from my personal confusion over the turn of events.  I don't understand how this fits into my plans, or how it fits into God's plans.  I think maybe I was mistaken about God's plans.  I just really hope that He makes it clear soon, because I would like to have a plan.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll end up with a nice piece of land, some jewels, and lots of children and grandchildren to relate my adventures and God's providence to someday soon. :)

Roses and a great post

First, the "poem" I mentioned, written years ago when I first read L.M. Montgomery's "Anne's House of Dreams."

Roses
Roses, Roses, a gift from above.
White Roses, white roses, forsaken love.
Pink Roses, pink roses, love expectant,
Red Roses, red roses, love triumphant.

I liked that each color had a meaning! 

While speaking of L. M. Montgomery,  I was reading The Story Girl and found a reference to a Henty book!  The children are going to go pick berries or something, but the oldest brother prefers to stay home and finish reading his new Henty!  I enjoy finding references like this in my books.

I only just read this, but there is a wonderful post on Romance and Literature that everyone should read!  It's on the Ballantyne the Brave blog.  Here is the link:

http://www.ballantynethebrave.com/blog/romance_in_literature_1/

And the best sentence (with the previous sentence for context) to get you started...

"Be careful, though, that you don't fill your mind with unrealistic ideas about who your spouse should be. Mr. Darcy is much too busy answering mail from his fan club to think about marrying you."

And by the way, how did Mr. Darcy get to be the poster child for every girl's ideal?