The Little Stuff (Part 1)

I've been away a while. Mostly I've been at my other blog site: www.EvaMarieEversonsSouthernVoice.blogspot.com ... if you want to try to catch up. There, on Monday-Thursday, I write about Southern things. Tunes. Recipes. Books I'm reading. And on Fridays, I tell a little more about our story of faith during one of the most difficult periods of my life.

This site, 1 Writer, 1 Day, was originally meant to talk about my journey as a writer. But even I didn't find it interesting. Then it became about walking out my pain after losing my mother suddenly and unexpectedly. Then, this really awful thing happened (see above) and even that stopped.

So, now ... with my life back in some semblance of order (at least for today), I'm going to start something new. The Little Stuff.

This is about The Little Stuff I find while in the Word, the Bible. While studying to teach or while studying for class (I'm determined to get my Masters in Old Testament Theology before I die!).

So, here's the first thing, thus the Part I:

I'm studying the book of Exodus for my class entitled (you guessed it) Exodus. In my notes I wrote:

     The Frogs
     The Gnats
     The Flies
     The Boils
     The Hail
     The Locusts
     The Darkness

This is not a complete listing of the curses raining down on Egypt when Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go, just the ones with only two words. The two-worded curses. Sounds like a category in Jeopardy.

It will be so dark, the Lord said, you will be able to feel it.

Now, that's dark.

I've never liked the dark so much. I slept with a nightlight on as a child and I continue to do so to this day. I don't like walking into a dark house. I don't like being in a dark room (unless I'm flat on my face on a massage therapist's table, there's some soft music playing, lavender candles flickering, and I'm draped in a sheet). Feeling darkness would, for me, be a really, really bad curse.

Darkness & Fog Fall On My Old Neighborhood
c EvaMarieEverson 2009

I remember the first time I spent the night with a childhood friend who lived "out in the country," as we called the rural parts of our Southern community. There were no street lamps, like in my neighborhood. And, that night, there was no moon. Or, at least none we could see. I'm sure it was still out there somewhere. Tina didn't sleep with a nightlight like I did and I was too proud to tell her how scared I was without one. So, when she flipped her bedside table light off, the room went DARK. I held up my hand to ascertain if I could see it. I could not. I wiggled my fingers, hoping for a glimmer of movement. Nothing. This was darkness so dark I could feel it. I would say I could smell it, but that was pure fear I sniffed.

Now, looking over the list above, I thought: I hate frogs, I hate gnats, I hate flies, not real fond of boils, really okay with hail as long as I'm inside the house and it doesn't hit my car, and I'm not scared of locusts but they sure might eat up my crop, had I one. But darkness ... Darkness isn't hated by me. Darkness is something I'm afraid of (okay, not the darkness itself, but what might lurk inside).

What about you? Which of these two-worded curses would you hate or fear the most were you in Egypt at the time of Moses' return? Tell me about it. Tell me why.