I'm Katya and I'm the relatively new owner of Bridgesite Books and I'm happy to welcome anybody Samantha recommends. He was the very first person that I met in the book world and I'm so thankful for that. So, Samantha Colbert is the owner of Bridgesite Publishing, which is based right in Montpelier. So this is a hyper local event. Vermont authors, Vermont publisher, Vermont Buster. And I will let her introduce the authors. Thank you. So I'm also a new owner of Rootstock Publishing. I took over last year, one year ago actually. That's very exciting. Happy to have you. Thank you. The press was founded by Stephen MacArthur and Ricky Gard Diamond in 2017. They started by publishing two books. And now when we close out 2023, we will have almost 60 books published. So I'm very thrilled and honored to keep growing Rootstock Publishing. At the end of our reading, if you have any questions about publishing, I'm happy to answer them. I also hope you'll have questions for our authors. As Katya said, these are three Vermont authors. They've all published their books this summer and fall. We have a July date, October date, oh excuse me, September date and October date. So these are all recently new, super new as the reason to run which we'll hear from first. So maybe I'll just go right into my book intros. And I want to thank Korka Media for filming today. We are being filmed just to let you know. And then if you want your face on camera or not, you'll have to be aware. So first, as I said, we'll hear from Mike Magluello. He'll be reading from his debut novel, A Reason to Run, which Kirkus Reviews calls a gripping, highly nostalgic dive into a decade and a high school sport. And it's not a spoiler alert, but I'll let you know the decade is the 1980s. So it's really fun getting to relive, there's a lot of music. There's a lot of pop stars from that era mentioned. And so that's, it is a fun, highly nostalgic dive. Mike Magluello is a writer and recovery finance professional, father of three, and husband of one. His work has appeared in zigzag lit mag, cold lake anthology, and flash fiction magazine, where his story, The Golden Boy, took first prize in its 2023 summer writing contest. He lives in the Middlebury area. And one of his inspirations for writing this book was to share life lessons with his young sons, who, it turns out, Mike says, enjoys story, they enjoy stories more than speeches. So please help me welcome with his story, Lake Magluello. Thank you. Great to be here, thanks. And I just want to thank Bridgeside Books for putting this on. They're doing so much great things to make coming into the bookstore relevant and so much more satisfying than going online to buy your book. So thanks for, thanks for being a great example of a local bookstore. Yeah, as Samantha said, Mike Magluello, I live in Cornwall, Vermont with my family. I write long and short fiction about growing up. My main characters tend to work through relationships with siblings and parents. I like to say, you know, I write about tragedy, recovery, and hope as a result. The book I wrote today is my debut novel, Reason to Run. It's a fictional coming-of-age story set in 1980, Chicago, about a teenage boy, his bike, a devastating accident, and the healing power of running. I started writing the book in 2020. Really, I got the idea back in seventh grade, however, after reading The Outsiders. I read that book and thought, you know, wow, there's something powerful about being able to capture life on paper and bring some sense of control to your life at an otherwise chaotic time. I am originally from Chicago, hence the setting for the book. But as of this past weekend, I do consider myself a Vermont author. Anyone curious as to why? Sure. Well, on our way to my launch party this past weekend, I made my family stop at the town dump to drop off for garbage. And I am pretty sure that doesn't happen to authors outside of the Playville State Mail. So good to be here tonight. And maybe if there's questions, I'll take any questions after reading page or two from my novel. Great. So the setup to this short reading is this is the first page of my book. And the scene is the 1989 Illinois High School Track and Field Regional Finals. And this is minutes before the start of the 3,200 meter race. So that's eight laps around a high school track. And you can't see the font with the font sets off this selection as a flash forward to a climactic scene later in the book. So this is kind of how it starts. Nine months ago, I was dead. That's no excuse if I fail today. I need to place in the top four to make it to state next weekend. Before rehab, I never ran continuously for more than 10 minutes. Today's race will be over in nine. I toss my warm-up here behind coach rep and slip through the carnival of athletes crowding the grass infield on my way to the starting area. The buzz from the stands makes it all so real and confirms I have nowhere left to hide. Family and friends look on as I join my competition in a final shakeout of pre-race jitters. Lots of people helped me get here. Many are everyday heroes.  The taste of iron in my mouth triggers a fear of what awaits, like in the minutes following my accident. Questions of survival have become questions of identity. I began running to recover. I kept running when I discovered I was good at it. I'm running today to slay the self-destructive flaws that led me to the sport in the first place. The starter takes his position and calls us to the line. On your mark, I lean forward, draw a deep breath, and smile in the torturous pause between the starter's command and the firing of his gun. Bang. So that's page one. How are we doing on time? Should I read another page? I have more minutes, and I think we should hold all questions until the end. Oh, OK. Go over. Sure. I'll read one more short excerpt. It'll just take a minute. This is maybe a quarter of the way into the book, and it's the introduction of one of my favorite characters to write. I think I'll just let it speak for itself. So here it goes. The background noise in my head has tormented me since childhood. An inability to ignore my thoughts kept me awake at sleepovers long after the lights went out. And my wandering mind earned me a slow learner badge and that seat in Sister Kenneth Agnes' remedial reading class in grade school. At some point in an effort to manage my restless mind, I created an alter ego and called him Bad Gorilla, a fanatic play on my last name. The main character's name is Sam Bagliorello. So Bad Gorilla. I feed Bad Gorilla all my negative thoughts. Worry, fear, insecurity, anger, envy, you name it. While this helps quiet the chaos in my head, now and then Bad Gorilla busts out of his cage, following with all the negative energy I've sent his wet and forces me to grapple with him on the wrestling mat of my mind. Clearing my head while tearing down the narrow two lanes of Spirit Hill is one way to calm Bad Gorilla when he throws his weight around. The noise in my head tonight is an endless loop of negative thoughts about Charles O'Toole, my family, and where I fit in the world. As usual, Bad Gorilla is no match for the hill and the ride to the bottom leaves me with a temporary feeling of freedom and detachment, like a little kid enjoying the simple thrill of a bike ride. Oh, there we go. I'll leave it there until there's any questions later. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. I love the names. There's a lot of fun nicknames in the book. So next, we'll hear from Chris Lincoln and his debut novel, The Funny Moon. Funnily enough, there is one thing in common with a reason to ride, and that's golf. There's a caddy. My major. His main character is a caddy, and one of his main characters is a golf player. So a little bit, but other than that, they're very different. And so it's going to be exciting to hear next. So herself. What's that? I'm not a golfer. Can you tell? Yeah, so I'm not a golfer. Halloween, so. Are they now called golf players? No, they're called golfers. Just golfers. I get it wrong with my husband who's a fly fisherman, and I don't know if I say fly, fisher, or fisher. He makes flies, and he catches fish. I got that for him. So let's talk about Chris Lincoln. He's a graduate of Middlebury College, and he also studied at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. He's an award-winning copywriter and creative director who was recognized with a clio, which is known as Advertising Oscar. He's the author of Playing the Game, Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League. And he originally wrote the first draft of The Funny Moon as a birthday gift for his wife. And I'm so happy he did because here it is as a gift to all of us. Let's welcome Chris Lincoln. Thank you. Thank you, Samantha. And thank you very much for hosting. It was just great to be here. We drove really fast because I was a little late, but now I think I'm settled and all is good. I'm going to read from a really section of the book. The book is about a, Mike's is a coming of age story. This is a coming of middle-age story. I'll put it that way. A long-married couple, their relationship. You're supposed to write what you know about. So this features a lot of what I know about. The hero of the book is a copywriter. He's burned out. His wife is a massage therapist. That's what CeCe's done for a long time. And her family has actually got some psychic abilities. So I know about those. And in this particular scene, the wife, the massage therapist, communicates with somebody from the other side. This scene takes place shortly after the couple has decided to split up for the summer. They've had a tough time. So they decide to separate. And I will say at this point, it is a novel. It's not a memoir. People ask me, I didn't know you guys were separated. No, it's a work of fiction. It's a vagination. So in this particular scene, Claire is going to speak with this visitor from the other side who happens to be her grandmother. And this is Claire. Frustrated. She looked up at the leaves shivering in the late morning sun and suddenly saw an image of her grandmother, the indomitable Mama Betty, the source of her ability to communicate with the other side.  As if she had grabbed it off a hat rack on her way out the door. Stolely built with the jowls of a bulldog, she wore a mottled mix of pancake and rouge. And her lips were covered with a thick coat of bright red lipstick. Behind her cat eye glasses, her deep brown eyes smiled at Claire. Looking mighty blue there, sugar pie, her grandmother said in her sweet southern drawl. Why the long face? I don't know, said Claire.  Claire knew she could never fool her grandmother and said, do you remember the time we were driving in your car and you were mad at Papa and I asked if you were ever thought about divorcing him? Sure do, sweet cheeks. Sunny day, right about noon. Smell of dogwoods in the air. You were driving on low road or road. Claire recalled the scene like it was yesterday.  Mama, you had a pair of titties.  No sir, but you were the baby of the family and been through enough already losing your mama. What was leaving your bra off going to do? Turn you into a holla? I don't know, said Claire. The sense of freedom was pretty liberating. When I was younger, they showed women out of the television news burning their bras.  We'll have a three-long fire. Mama Betty threw her head back and laughed. How is Papa Claire asked? Oh, he's cooking away. You know how he is. Chitlins and gravy, sweet potato souffle, chicken with giblets, peach codla, homemade vanilla ice cream. He feeds 20 people every Sunday just like always, finds the strays and fills their bellies. Mama Betty nodded, are there strays in heaven? Ask Claire. Oh, there's strays everywhere, Sugar Pie. Not everyone has a big happy family. Claire considered her single friends, the people who were estranged from family members, the clients who were closer to their pets than to their adult children. She thought of Wally and said, I've been thinking a lot about what you said about Papa that day in the car. Oh, I remember Mama Betty said, and pointed a finger at the sky. Divorce, never, murder, yes. Did you really need it?  That man would drive me so crazy I could plead insanity and win. Well, Wally's driving me crazy too. What a poison Papa's food, but he did all the cooking. I don't cook much either, said Claire, thinking about how she would miss Wally's dinners. These days women can leave a marriage just like that, Mama Betty snapped her fingers. Was it like that in my day? No, sir, you had to work at marriage. It was for life. Well, it shouldn't be a life sentence. Fair enough, honey child. That Wally, he's going through his trials no matter what you do.  And with that, Mama Betty blew her a kiss and vanished into the ether. Fool. How am I doing with the time? And we got five more minutes. Do you wanna do another? All right, well, so Wally's moved out. He's with his friend Bear. But there's another scene that I think might be a little more fun. It's one of the things that Claire can do is communicate with the animals. And I don't know if any of you have experiences, but her sister can communicate with the animals. So if people are having trouble with their dog, or their cat, I'll whisper. Yeah, basically, and she can do it over the following, so you can do it for Wally distance. She's kind of a shaman, really. So this is a little bit based on T-she's sister, yeah. So, let's see. Okay, so in this particular scene, Claire, she's helping with this dog rescue place and there's a dog that needs to get, we placed it in another spot. So, she's trying to help solve this problem. She took another sip of water and thought of Gus, that's the dog. She had taken Roz's advice today before it had driven the dog to her studio for a chat before dropping him at the turnbills. She asked Gus what had happened at his previous home, posing her question telepathically, while beating gently on a drum to induce a hypnotic state in both of them. Gus laying out his side on the wide pine floor of Claire's studio. He looked up at her with one brown eye, peeking through a tuft of his long black rasta hair. Totally dysfunctional family, relayed the dog blinking once. How so? They had a boy and a girl, both addicted to their screens, video games, texting, social media.  The kids never went outside, never threw me a ball or took me for a walk. They tried to feed me Cheetos. I don't want cancer. What about the parents? If the mom wasn't in front of a mirror, she was at yoga, buying new clothes or going to the hairdressers. Totally vain. She left me locked up in the house. There was no outside run or electric fence, which I've heard will fry your nuts by the way. That's not true. Well, I don't want to find out. Was there a dad? Yeah, total workaholic. Classic case of winning his family. We dogs see that all the time. He'd show up late after work and his wife would bolt, saying it was his turn to have the kids while she went out with her girlfriends or who knows where. He'd put the kids to bed, pour himself a big scotch and take me for a walk. Finally, some fresh air. But then he'd dump all his promos on me like I'm some freaking shrink. Sorry to hear that. He was buried in debt. His wife didn't like sex. His kids hardly talk. They just stared at their screens. He'd scold them about that and do the exact same thing. He made more eye contact with his phone than with his children. That's sad, Gus. Yeah, they had all the trappings. Big fancy house, big car and their lawn would've looked even better if they let me do my business on it.  But everyone scoops it up like it's poison and drops it in plastic bags that don't decompose. Humans, I swear. So what got you in trouble? Oh, I needed to get outside that they never let me out. So I barked. I pissed. I pooped. They didn't want a dog. They wanted a Christmas card. Happy family in front of the roaring fire with faithful Gus, the imprisoned dog.  I'd rather be the main course at a Chinese restaurant. Gus, cancel that. It's true. Give me liberty or give me death. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. I do realize we were getting impersonations and then character voices. Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Marilyn. This is going to slow things down, I think, a bit because this is a lyrical memoir, a different style. I don't know if we'll get different voices from Marilyn of the Spun. It's a lovely memoir called Attic of Dreams by Marilyn Webb Negli. Bill Schubert, the author of LaMoyle Stories and Other Novels, calls this memoir a very compelling memoir written in a unique style that covers Negli's fascinating life. Marilyn served as president of Shelburne Farms from 1976 to 1988. She is the author of two previous books and co-editor of another. Her 2007 book, Walking Through the Seasons, received an icky gold medal for best northeastern nonfiction, excuse me. She has been a Vermont public radio commentator and has written essays for her local newspaper. Raised in a Scutney, Vermont, she currently lives with her husband in Shelburne. Please welcome Marilyn Webb Negli. Welcome. Thank you very much for the introduction, for arranging this and for a bridge side. Bookstore for letting us be here. It's a wonderful opportunity for us to be here. It could be said that writing my memoir began about 40 years ago when I recorded memories of my childhood on index cards. That was before we had computers in everyone's homes. But I never found the courage to write it until my husband Mark and I invited a foster child to live with us for about three months. It wasn't a long-term thing. It was just giving respite to the home that she was in because the people were not getting along. Her mother, like mine, suffered from alcoholism. And so I took her to Allen on an AA meetings. And we saw people telling their stories that were untrained speakers. They were just regular human beings and telling their stories. And one man, in particular, was sobbing at the fact that he had let his children down so many times. And he went into the list of Memorial Day and Fourth of July at Thanksgiving and Christmas and how he described their faces, looking up at him and their disappointment. And there was something about that moment that gave me the courage to then think about writing my story even though I didn't start for several more years because I just didn't have time to focus on it. And but what happened in that moment and with that story was it told us that it wasn't because of us that our mothers were alcoholics. It was that they couldn't help it, that they were sick. And so that just made me realize that every single person, everybody has a story. And I've come to believe also that everyone should tell their stories, especially around the kitchen table or write them in journals, because stories are one of the things that really bind us together as a society and we're becoming more and more separated and generationally more and more separated. So I'm just making a plea for storytelling. So Attica Dreams is written in three parts. It's the first part of my life, the middle, which is the courier phase. That's the Shelburne Farms part of it mainly. And then there's the part I mean now, which is a very short part of the memoir. But it deals with the aging process a bit. The reader will notice that there's a change in voice from a child's voice, a simpler language in the beginning of the book. And then it becomes a little more developed and more complex as we go along. And short chapters in the book are written as vignettes. And I came to realize that when you remember something, just picture some time when you pick strawberries or apples or something, and you go into your memory vague, you kind of see it almost as though you're looking through a telescope. It's almost a shape, like a round shape. And I just realize that really vignettes are more the way we remember. We don't remember in whole episodes. We remember scenes. And so that's how it was written. But there are other reasons why I did short chapters, which I will go into right now. So my story begins in the village of a Scutney, Vermont, where my parents had a restaurant. And it was a lively night spot called the Toppat. But at home, we just referred to it as the club. I think that's because when they bought it, it was called the Casa Club. And they just kept that name. So because those earlier memories that I had recorded about my childhood were there, I began to assemble them as time went by. Created a timeline first. But then I assembled them the way one might create a quilt out of scraps and bits and pieces.  So I will now just read a few short chapters. But I won't read all of it up. I'll read the entire chapter in the beginning because it's so short. And then the others will be excerpts. The first chapter is called Spring Peepers. And you can see how short it is. And also attention spans are shorter. And also that's another reason why short chapters. I'm five. It's my bedtime. But mom and dad want to take me for a walk. They say the restaurant isn't busy, so they can leave for a while. We cross route five and turn toward a dirt road that has no name and no lights. The road is wet and spongy. The air is full of steam. My whole world seems soft and safe. Listen for the spring peepers they whisper. At first I hear nothing. Then as we near a pond, I show, I hear them. I hear the peepers. We stop to listen. My parents' quiet sounds tell me they are smiling. I inhale their happiness with one big breath. We walk a mile or so, hand in hand. It's dark. Even the stars are hidden. But I feel safe and happy. We turn toward home, there again, their head. I'm sorry. I see our restaurant's neon lights. A mist has lifted their red glow to warm the blackened sky. I'm only reading from part one because I don't want to give the whole story. So this is just to give a sense of the restaurant, this lively nightclub. It's really a restaurant that had a five piece band on weekends and that kind of thing, playing jazz. The club is a buzz. Customers are pouring in, dressed in their best clothes. The dance floor shimmers with color as the band begins to play. Now that everyone has arrived, I sit near Monk to watch the show. And MC steps up to the mic. He tells off color jokes. One of the waitresses covers my ears before each punchline. That embarrasses me, but for only a minute, there's so many other things to think about. The magician confuses everyone with his tricks. The fancy dancers finally appear. Everyone, especially the men, claps and hoots. The show has ended. Everyone has eaten. The band begins again. Couples swarm the floor like dancing bees. Women step out of their high heels. Some dance so freely that they tear through their seemed stockings. This kind of pleasure is beautiful to see. As midnight approaches, the dancers stop to hold hands. They encircle the dance floor. At exactly midnight, the band begins to play all langzang. Everyone sings along. As the music ends, couples kiss, enveloped by the warm, bubbly light. They're wishing each other a happy new year, and they mean it. Mom whispers, a lot of complicated things are happening out there. I don't know what she sees.  And this one ends darker. But I want everybody to understand that I felt like I had a really good childhood. Even though there were sad and imperfect parts to it. Somehow there was a richness because of all the people in my life. Dad had made a long rope swing for me behind the club. I find myself standing there next to a clump of sumac. Time slows. I blindly stare toward the neighbor's dairy bar below. My hand reaches for a sumac branch. I shave its leaves with one downward movement. The leaves gather into my hand. I let go. They fall somewhere. I sense a shadow. My quiet Russian grandfather is standing next to me. He has come from Springfield with Grammy. She must be tending to mom. Tears stream down grandpa's rugged cheeks and jawbone. His lips quiver against the ruthlessness of grief. What has become of his beautiful daughter? He says nothing. He does nothing. He simply stands there trying not to sob. I look over my shoulder toward the house. Mom is being lifted into an ambulance. She is lying on a gurney in a straight jacket. Dad tells me that she is going to Waterfairy, the state mental hospital. I don't know what that means. I'm simply relieved that others are helping us. Mom will come home in two and a half months near the end of summer vacation as I enter eighth grade. I sometimes wonder why no adult ever holds and reassures me with everything will be all right. Although my grandfather did stand with me. He offered all that he had in that moment, his presence and his own vulnerability. This is called oil leather, it's in honor of books. Wednesdays are the best days. The Bookmobile arrives with new books for our library. Friends and I hurriedly bike there to get first pick. Our library has an air of dignity causing us to whisper inside. I love the scent of its waxed floors and oil leather. Whenever they are with all of these books, I feel a sense of importance. Biographies of Claire Barton, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver and others enlarge my world. Nancy drew mysteries and novels like Lana Dew or Little Women, Uncle Tom's Cabin carrying me to new places and ideas. On our way to the library, my girlfriends and I keep our ice peel for returnable bottles. Loose change comes in handy at Marston's store. For a nickel or dime, we can buy a comic book or candy bar. We can sit outside on the edge of the porch with bikes dangling over the sides. I looked down at my young girl's legs. Shins are scraped and bruised from playing hard. Today, we and a few boys have just played a game of touch football on the village green. And Polly doing tons. I've got one more short, we could do one. Marston's store, I thought since I mentioned it. After climbing several steps to a broad porch, I entered Marston's store. I entered Marston's store through a large screen door stepping inside onto wide, unfinished floorboards. I'm greeted by a mixed aroma of canned coffee and spoiling vegetables.  Granny Marston is also napping behind the wood stove. When up and about, she fusses with the merchandise, slowly moving from hair to there. Her figure is slim and stooped.  Rimless eyeglasses slip down on her nose. Her son is seated in the far corner wearing a green visor and glasses. He's sorting and placing mail in postal boxes. The black and brass postal boxes are the fanciest part of the store. I once paid Granny Marston a dime for a comic book, classic comic book. Halfway home, I remembered that classic comic books cost 25 cents. I turned back to give her the extra 15 cents. She wasn't known for her friendliness, but with a slight smile, she handed me a small paper bag and said, choose any candy you want. It's safe to say that we young people regard this old general store as the heart of our village. Nobody wants it. Well, it's such a cozy, like, Vermont feeling. Thank you. We've heard from our authors, and we were going to do, like, a Q&A. If anybody has any, we can also do book signing, and I also have a few prizes for the audience. I don't know if I should do it, but if you ask a question, you get a prize.  What do we do? That's the best question. Maybe we'll do it that way. If you ask my question, you'll get a prize. I have T-shirts. They have a little, whoops, something in my bag, a little Publish Indie T-shirt. This is from IngramSpark, which is what we use to publish our, they're called POD books, or Print on Demand. So T-shirts as a prize, and then I brought, she said, two books that are arxed, known in the business as Advanced Reader Copies. This is by Nancy Stone, and she's from Williston, and this is a book of poetry and art, and this is by Michael Pavarnik. This is True Cry. Michael Pavarnik is a retired DEA agent for Worcester Mass, and so this is about a 1994 drone case that he worked on for a year that really cleaned up that town. So two arxed, or T-shirts for prizes. You'll get to pick one that you'll want. So it's open for questions. Ask a question, get a prize. A bit odd. My question for all of the audience would be, I once saw Pat Conroy in Miami Beach, had topped with him, and I said, how much of your story is true? And he said 125. He said it. He said all my stories were true, and I had to weed it down because it was so unbelievable. So I always ask Gossers, how much of your story comes from true life, do you think? What percentage of your stories comes from true life? Do I start? Because yours is prime. Oh my God. That's tired of writing memoirs. Totally. I've been over that. I mean, one of the rules of writing memoir is to tell the truth. Right. So it's my truth. And you know, people remember things differently if I had siblings, which I don't. Right. Your sister would say, it's my time. I would say, your sister would say 75%. Exactly. So I just say it's my truth, but I really have worked hard at honesty. And then, oops, okay. So Wally, who's the character that Claire's all upset about, is an aspiring writer, and he does write. And at one point, he's in an interview situation, and he's asked the same thing. How much of this is you? And he says, well, it's actually what I do is I lie to tell the truth.  But it has to be true. If it doesn't reveal truths, if it doesn't share insights, if it doesn't capture emotions, it's not going to resonate with the reader. So that would be my answer. It's all true, but it's also made up. Yeah, I'd answer it slightly differently. Consistently, but differently. In my case, a lot of it's true, but it's exaggerated. Writing your first novel, writing one that takes place in a fictionalized version of my hometown. The internal narration of my character very much on point with how I perceived, how I remember I perceived life as a 17, 18-year-old kid, but also kind of a range around that, from probably middle school through college. And that feeds into the internal narration, but again, exaggerate it to make it more interesting as a work of fiction. But then the events in the book, in my case, a teenage boy who discovers an exceptional talent for running after a tragic accident on his bike, that part of it's all fictionalized to make it. Now, I like running, and that's why I wrote a story, a love letter in a sense to running, but as opposed to my character as talent, I end up kind of bringing up the rear in those group runs. But a lot of the scenes are based on my experience, riding bikes, running, swimming, that sort of thing. So it's, like I said, it's inspired by real life, exaggerated. Great question. Great question. What would you like? Do you want to say the word about that? Oh, the Haiku book said it in Harris' name, this word. This one, actually the release date was yesterday, so wow, it was, okay, great. Yeah, thank you. I'll be not in need for it.  I was in free Maryland. What was it like to be writing about your life, knowing people you knew would be reading it? I'm always very obsessed with that. Like were there things you were like, ooh, do I really want so-and-so to know this? Or were you just like, I'm just gonna put it out there? That's a very, most difficult part. But my parents are no longer the thing, so they're the main characters, and it's so much of the early life. And I did reach a point where I got so nervous about, I've been married three times, which is what I think is partly because I lived in an alcoholic household. And so, one of the scary things was, what does this husband think when I'm writing about the eyes and what do those husbands think about me writing about my life now and all of that? So one day, I just tell you quickly that one day I had emailed my first husband who was married to for four years and just sent him a rough draft as the earliest part. I heard of this and the clock was a terrible one. We could see that. He didn't know. Yeah, we could. But anyway, and then I didn't hear from him, and normally we communicate once a year, once every two years or so, and then, but when we do, he responds quickly. That's usually because I'm telling him somebody we knew died. That's it. So he wrote, he didn't write back, and I thought, I said to Mark one day about walking into the house, gosh, Jerry hasn't gotten back to me. I'm really worried that, you know, I was offended him somehow. I stepped in the door and the phone was ringing. I ran over and looked at the phone and there was his last name and I'd call her ID. And I picked up the phone, I said, Jerry, I thought I'd given you a heart attack. Your feet are getting heavy. And he said, Marilyn, I couldn't email this to you. I had to call and tell you this is the most beautiful thing I've ever read. And he meant, not my writing, he meant the way he showed up in the book. And so that sort of pushed me forward to the next stage, you know, there are rough spots all the way along, but that was one of the big ones. Really beautiful. No, but the pot's ideal over there. But I wanted to add a little thing, just as a reader, a publisher of memoir, you know, you talk about how hard it is to be true and be honest, but there's also a way to treat your story so that it's yours and you're not assigning, you know, attributes or feelings or emotions or blame to other people in your life. And I think Marilyn does a fantastic job of that where it's her lens. You're right there with her and it's her lens.   And yes, if people treat you badly, you have a right to your story, but I think there's a way to do it through your own lens so that it comes out as a beautiful story as your ex had said, so I just wanted that. The name's Jake, the name's Chris Sandlin. T-shirt. He he he. Ha, ha, ha, the name. I only got one size, they're all extra, but they're comfy to sleep, I was just gonna say it. Any other questions? Pen. Ask a question. How did the three of you actually get started in writing and how long have you been doing? Yeah, what you said, how did that matter? I don't know, I guess my father taught English that he could talk writing and he published a best-selling textbook on college writing and so maybe I was born with it. I wanted to be a writer from the time I was in college. I worked as a journalist for a while, then I worked in the advertising business for a very long time, writing copy, short copy, law copy, all kinds of it. This is not my first novel, it's my first published novel, but it's my fifth novel that I've written and so I've been a writer for my whole life and I sold an option to the movies on another novel that was never published and the movie was never made, which is usually what happens. So it's just been what I like to do and have done it all the way through and then I did publish a nonfiction book 20 years ago, but nonfiction didn't really, it wasn't gonna be my thing. I mean, I could have published many other nonfiction books, but it just didn't excite me the way the challenge of writing fiction does. So it's a process as Cece knows that can be pretty all-consuming when you're in the midst of it and you kind of go into your own world and then I'm perfectly happy there. Yeah, look, I'm happy that he's there. I'm happy that he's there. I'm happy that he's there. Thanks for your life, Easy. That's right. In my case, I guess to expand upon what I was saying, earlier about being inspired to write after reading The Outsiders in seventh grade, I wrote through high school, including being on the school newspaper. And then when it came time to choose a major in a career, I passed on the creative arts and chased the paycheck and put to the side this dream of writing a novel. But every couple of years, I'd sketch out a scene or a character or send myself an email with a snippet of dialogue. But then you get off a plane and family and work and life would kind of collide with self-doubt and I'd file it all the way.  And I spent the summer on my front porch taking Zoom meetings while my two sons who at the time were seven and nine spent the summer literally beating the tower out of each other in front yard. I'm like, you know, I better write these guys a letter. And it was a love letter about growing up. And later that year, I decided, you know what, I'm not, I have no interest in returning to a career that requires me to travel three, four days a week. And that letter snowballed into what became a story, a reason to run. And the more I worked at it, the longer it got, the writing became more fictional, but the words became more heartfelt and honest. And so that, I guess that's how I got into writing, if you will, it was, right, I rediscovered it three years ago. I would say I like the name, the title, a reason to run, because it makes you want to read the book to fight out the reason, you know? So that was a clever title, I think. Nice. Now I had 80s. And from five. The little, the racing strategy. Yeah. That's right, right, a hack seat. Yeah. Did you want to mention about, well, you're writing for your couple? Yeah, well, I had to write quite a bit during my job when I was president of Shellware, as far as I was doing newsletters and essays and that sort of thing. And then, when my children left home, I just, I remember there was one day when I was driving to the Lincoln Gap and the river was rushing, it was a march. And I was thinking about how everything is about water. You know, it's a sap in the trees and this and that. And I got really excited about water. And I ran home and wrote a little short piece about March and the waters. And then I submitted it to the local newspaper. And actually my first book, Walking Through the Seasons, was a compilation of all of those nature columns that I sent to the town newspaper. And that's one thing led to another. And it got that little gold medal. And so it encouraged me to keep going with writing. That's basically it. I didn't have a kind of background. He's so happy. Yeah, but like you said, I truly believe this also. We all have a story to tell.  You can perfect it, right? You keep doing it. Reading a lot is also a way to perfect your craft because you're taking in words and voices of writing styles on the craft. So it helps you to put that out, too. You get a prize. T-shirt or the true crime? I want the true crime. Yeah. I don't know if they knew that. Browse. It's truly fascinating. I learned a lot. You learned how? No, I learned a lot about the hiding places that drug dealers use in the cars. There's a whole cast of characters. We had to make a chart. We had to make a map. I mean, you're like in it. You're like, you're in the drug deals. I had to laugh. It's a very good deal. It's intense. And it spans. He travels to, so he's in the Worcester Mass, but he ended up going to Puerto Rico. He ends up, I think, out in L.A. He's in Brooklyn. There were so many moving parts to this one case. And it turned out that Worcester Mass, too, was like the biggest heroin trafficking town of the whole Easter Seaboard.  So it's pretty fascinating. Thank you. Questions or maybe we'll do book signings if anybody would like to get a book? Please support British Side Books. Anyone? And oh, yeah, writing.  Right, I was. Oh, my middle name. I, Marilyn Webb Nagley. My last name, Alice Nagley. But it's the same family. That's why. That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, cool. The connections there, which, so when you get to it in the book, it'll make sense. OK. Fantastic. Well, thank you. Very good. That's it. Come on.


Welcome to the Williston Development Review Board for October 24th, 2022. My name is Pete Kelly, I'm the chair of the DRB. If you are a Zoom participant, please make sure that your name, designation, reflects accurately on the participant toolbar. This is a hybrid meeting, taking place in town hall and virtually on Zoom. All members of the board and public can communicate in real time. Planning staff will provide Zoom instructions for public participation before we begin. All votes taken at this meeting will be done by roll call vote in accordance with the law. If Zoom crashes, the meeting will be continued to November 8th, 2022. Let's start the meeting by taking roll call attendance of DRB members participating tonight. Paul Christensen. He's not on. He's not on, okay. John Hammelgarn. Here. Scott Riley. Dave Turner. Here. Nate Andrews. Here. And the chair is present. Five in attendance, we do have a quorum. Okay, next up is staff to walk us through Zoom instructions. Okay, Andrew's going to take this one. Zoom and no one in the room either request and speak. Okay. Great. We'll go on to public hearing portion. Tonight there's two items on the agenda. There's DP 22-01 and there's DP 23-02. Both are pre-apps associated with Trinity Baptist Church. They are both strictly for growth management. So we will not be reviewing the project in any additional detail. It is solely to advance the project into the next phase of growth management. So first up is DP 22-01. Staff goes next. Applicant, thank you. If you would state your name and address for the record, please. David Burke, go Larry Burke. And Randy Boardman, 115 Webster Road, Shelburne. Great, welcome. Simon. Okay. So this is a request for pre-application review for DP 22-01 to participate in March 2023 growth management. The sole purpose of this application that we're hearing tonight is to meet the requirement of WDB 11.4.1. This bylaw standard requires a project to have pre-application review from the DRB before it can move forward to growth management review in the subsequent year. Now just by way of background, the project was reviewed at pre-application stage by the DRB in November 2021 and allowed to proceed to growth management in 2022 with recommendations. At that growth management meeting, it was allocated 14 dwelling units. So it does need a further 43. There are no changes to the previous pre-application recommendations requested and the site plan remains essentially what was previously seen. So just to summarise matters relating to the other chapters of the bylaw such as traffic access and so on were previously discussed by the DRB at that meeting and the recommendations made to the applicant. What follows here is a recommendation to move the application onto growth management in March 2023. Right. Thank you. OK. To the applicant, anything to add to that summary?  A little bit may repeat what Simon said, but I'm sure you all know where this is. The Trinity Baptist Church is on the north side of Mountain View Road. It's a 47 acre parcel of which 19.9 acres is to the east of the red line again, plan hasn't changed from when you saw it last year. So out of the 47 acres, 19.9 acres is looked at for residential development. The main purpose is to support the Trinity Baptist desire to add a gym addition and also add a few staff housing units. The since your hearing last year, the staff did reach out to the town attorney. The town attorney clarified a couple of things, clarified that the faculty housing is commercial and accessory to that use, so that's not part of the growth management. Also, there was a question on is the density based on the 19.9 acres or the 47. It was clarified that it's based on the overall parcel. So nothing there. At growth management, we did, from the time you saw it, we did add the small parking lot and the trail had off the end of the cul-de-sac. During that process, the cul-de-sac was changed to your standard teardrop feature. And as Simon said, it did score 35 points in March and was granted 14 units of which six are affordable units out of the 14. The reason to come back is solely for growth management to hopefully get a little bit more growth management. There's a fair amount of infrastructure to get going. So really just hear if you have questions. OK, great. Thank you. DRP members. Any questions? I mean, this is strictly for growth management, so that's right. We'll see you at DP later. OK. You're good, Scott? Paul, any questions? OK, members of the public, any? Can you hear me? No. Any members of the public? Any comments or questions? Hello? Can you hear me? Yes. Yes, Paul. Yes. OK. OK, let me repeat the question then. So to the public, any questions? Please raise your hand if you do have a question. So there's no questions in the room and there's no raised hands on Zoom. OK. DRP, are we comfortable making a motion or approving this at this point? Yeah. OK, Scott. Do I have a motion for DP 22-01? Yes. As authorized by WDB 6.6.3, I, Scott Riley, moved that the Williston Development Review Board, having reviewed the application submitted and all the accompanying material, including the recommendations of the town staff and the advisory boards required to comment on this application by the Williston Development by-law. And having heard and duly considered the testimony presented at the public hearing of October 25, 2022, authorized DP 22-01 to proceed to residential growth management or to proceed to residential growth management allocation in 2023. Thank you, Scott. Is there a second? I'll second it. Second. Dave Turner beat you, Paul. So Dave Turner seconds it. Any further discussion? No. Hearing none, I'm going to go individually. Please indicate yay or nay, please. Paul Christensen. Yay. John Hemmelgarn. Yay. Scott Riley. OK. Dave Turner. Yay. Nate Andrews. Yay. The Chair is a yay. Six in favor, none opposed. Motion carries. OK, next up is DP 23-02. This is also for Trinity Baptist Church. It's the smaller two-lot subdivision. Staff goes next. So this is a request for a pre-application review at 425 Mountain View Road for a two-lot subdivision. The parcel's already occupied by mobile homes, so this would result in one additional dwelling. Staff is recommending that this is a new pre-application, although it is very similar to one you heard earlier last year. Staff is recommending that the DRB close the hearing and allow the project to proceed to growth management with recommendations as drafted. So we didn't get any public comment on this application. The pre-app layout does show two lots, both of which meet the minimum lot size of 1.84 acres, and we guarantee them being able to comply with the dimensional standards because the subject parcel is less than 10 and a half acres. It's not an open-space development and is not required to set aside open space, and there will be limited to a half-acre building envelope on their new property. So the project would be heard at growth management in 2023, where it would need to score a minimum of 30 points to compete for allocation, or it would need to be granted a minor exemption by the DRB. By way of background, a three-lot subdivision that the parcel did compete this year and scored 20 points, but it wasn't granted an exemption by the DRB. The new lot will share the existing drive with the existing property. It will have on-site wastewater. At the moment, the existing property is served by municipal water as a non-conformity, and the sort of ultimate connection to that for the new dwelling will be at the discretion of DPW. Bit about density there. They are two units, which is less than the three units that are allowed under density. We do have a requirement for landscaping. So it's anticipated that the north and west boundaries would be formed by existing vegetation, perhaps supplemented by some additional planting on the west, and then we'd have new landscape buffers on the east and the west side of the access drive. It is within significant wildlife habitat area, and the Conservation Commission have requested a habitat disturbance assessment, which is included as your recommendations. And then lastly, the applicant will be completing a wetlands delineation for this, and the adjoining property, which will define those wetlands. And they will be required to keep out of them and their buffers. So we do have a recommendation for you to allow it to proceed to growth management. The recommendations are very similar to what you decided to apply on the previous application. We've only some minor changes. What are the changes? So the previous pre-apperts for the three-lot subdivision showed some lot sizes that didn't meet the minimum requirement. So now both lots do meet that minimum requirement, so I've simply deleted one of the recommendations that was previously included. If that makes sense, we had a recommendation on the previous one. I don't see the point of making a recommendation that someone should comply with the bylaw. If that's fairly standard. Anything else? No. OK. OK. To the applicant, what else do you have to add to that? Not a whole lot. It's an 8.7 acre parcel in the ARZD district. It's a separate parcel from the other parcel. And as Simon mentioned, has on-site septic served by water. The change from when you saw it last year was it was three lots last year, now it's two lots, one new lot. The existing unit that's on the parcel is occupied by faculty currently. And that would be retained on lot one. Lot two would be the new lot. There's a building envelope shown on lot two. Last year, we had estimated the wetlands for the density at 2.5 acres, which resulted in three units. We have had the delineation completed on that side. Our estimate was a little bit conservative. There's 2.3 acres. Still rounds down to three units. But two units fits this parcel better. So that's what's being shown is two units. I don't know whether it's appropriate for tonight or not. But last year when this got to growth management, we were a bit surprised. Staff was supportive. Staff continues to be supportive of the exemption. Section <IP_ADDRESS> minor subdivisions includes why is there a minor subdivision exemption. Basically, there's one set of rules. And the set of rules were set up for large projects. They were not set up for these small projects. This exception is not a waiver. This exception is needed to allow the town to adopt evaluation standards that are stringent enough to encourage positive performance by larger subdivisions without penalizing landowners who wish to create only one or two lots from a relatively small parcel. So it was always considered that it would be difficult for small projects of less than 10 and a half acres to conform. And that's why the exemption is in the rules or the exception, I should say. I guess I just wanted to get that on the record. I don't even know if that's appropriate tonight or that's more for the growth management part. But the change is that the access would still be upgraded to serve one additional home. And that's about it. OK. Now, I appreciate those comments. And I'm aware of them as is the board. What I would encourage you to do is when you complete your growth management application, is to meet with staff and try to maximize the number of points that are applicable to this project. And I will be, because it's not germane to tonight's meeting, I will disclose that I don't recall why it only scored, why this project only scored 20 points. That's not relevant to tonight's agenda. But I would encourage you to meet with staff. And what we are really looking for is a good faith effort to maximize the number of points for applications that are looking for exemptions. And staff will be happy to have that conversation with you. They're very accommodating. And I encourage you to do that. That's also in the staff report, and you will certainly do so. Right, yeah. Right, OK. So, DRB members, any questions? I just have one question. Your property that you're, your other property that you're against, you've given the town a easement along the road for sidewalk, trail, or whatever. Is there, could you possibly give an easement at the end of this driveway so it's continuous? It wouldn't be a continuance because there's a property between us, but we can absolutely give an easement on this property. That will actually help with your points too. Yeah, yeah, that would. You're right. Any other questions, DRB members? I've had that in there before. Don't lose the ball. OK. Members of the public, any questions or comments? So if you'd like to ask a question or make a comment on the two lots subdivision, please do raise your hand. So there's no raised hands in the room or on the scene. All right, DRB members, is there Mr. Riley? Would you please make a motion? As authorized by WDB 6.6.3, I, Scott Riley, move that the Williston Development Review Board, having reviewed the application submitted and all accompanying materials, including the recommendations of the town staff and the advisory boards required to comment on this application by the Williston Development Bylaw. And having heard and duly considered the testimony presented for public hearing of October 25, 2022, accept the recommendations for DT23-02 and authorize this application to move forward to growth management. Thank you, Scott. Is there a second? Second. John Hemmelgarn seconds. Any further discussion? Hearing none, yay or nay? Paul Christensen. Yay. John Hemmelgarn. Yay. Scott Riley. Yay. Dave Turner. Yay. Nate Andrews. Yay. Chair of the yay, six in favor, none opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. OK, next up is a discussion about the specific plan. Can you speak to that? We're just going to do this entire meeting and open session. Might as well. So can you speak to that plan? And there's a request for a DRB volunteer to participate with the Planning Commission, correct? Correct. So the Planning Commission has received a specific plan application for the, what is known as the Glaser Parcel, which is 97 acres at Old Stage Road and Mountain View Road for a 100 unit subdivision. So as part of that, they are proposing that there will be 53 acres of open space, which will be their substantial benefit. That includes 11 acres by Mountain View Road, which is in the view shed. And then the rest is wetlands, which is sort of centrally located, and then also down near the horse farm. So I'll just share the image. I don't know if you can see that, but. Oh, thank you. Yeah, so up here is the view shed. That's 11 acres. And then down here is sort of the wetland. And there's some area of wetland in here as well. Everyone probably knows that's the windswept farm. So it will be two sets of residential homes. At this stage, this plan is sort of a starting point. So it needs to be developed. So on October the 4th, the Planning Commission did vote to hold a community meeting to discuss the post-substantial development and the substantial benefit and the development and decide whether to move it forward to appointing a citizen advisory committee. That meeting is scheduled to take place on November the 15th. But as notices have gone out, along with a newspaper legal adversement and site notices, this information solicits sort of initial opinions from residents and also seeks whether anyone would be interested in serving on that advisory committee from a residential. So we're looking at the neighbouring communities and probably one from the community at large. So at that meeting, if the Planning Commission does decide to form a citizen advisory committee, staff would like to establish it as quickly as possible. I'm sure you know what Emily's like. So we would want to get a board member in advance so we can progress it swiftly. So the purpose of that advisory committee essentially is to work with town staff, the applicant, to define the substantial benefit, to define the development itself and then write the textual changes to the bylaws and any updates to the town plan that are necessary to implement that development. It would then be subject to a discretionary permit. So the citizen advisory committee is broadly representative of local interests. We do anticipate it being sort of seven to 10 people and we would like a member of the DRB to be on that advisory committee. At the moment, if the Planning Commission decide to move it on, we anticipate them defining their charge for the advisory committee at their December the 6th meeting. I'll provide guidance on what's expected of everyone and I think from a DRB point of view, we'll be looking for the member to provide guidance on sort of how it might be administratively determined, how the development will comply with the bylaws using your expertise there and the town plan and then probably also what's important to remember is that this development in order to be approved as a substantial benefit sort of needs to go above and beyond what we would normally secure as a discretionary permit. So I think your expertise in sort of knowing what we normally get out of applicants would be really helpful from that. So in terms of time commitment, it would be between one and two meetings per month. We're provisionally thinking they'd be on a Thursday between five and 6.30 p.m. And that would last for between two and three months. Okay, great summary, Simon. Okay, DRB members, is there a DRB board member who has interest in serving on this advisory committee? I'm happy to do it. Are there any other volunteers or do we just, are we happy with Mr. Riley? Thank you for doing that. I think probably. My schedule doesn't do that one, it's like it. I did the last one. Yes, he did. Okay. Okay. Did you? Yeah. I did do the last one and I have a potential conflict on this one too, so I was willing to do it. I'm curious about the process, which is why. It's an interesting process. I would be willing to just, I don't know if this is even an option, but to shadow, I wouldn't want to be the primary because they don't have the experience to do that, but if there is. There'll be public meetings. So anyone can attend. Right, just show off as public. Yeah. Yeah, show of course. We'll get some real points for them like when you bring two board members out. I thought it was like a safer bet. That's great, and yeah, I would encourage that. And I may zoom in as a member of the public as well. But Mr. Riley, you are nominated. Yes. Thank you. I will almost certainly be zooming in to those meetings. Okay. Great. That was easy. Next up on the agenda tonight are the meeting minutes of October 11th, 2022. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? Yes, I'd like to, I moved to approve the minutes for the meeting of October 11th as written. Thank you, John. Is there a second? I'll second. Okay, Scott seconds it and a discussion. Hearing none, individually, yeah, or nay, Paul Christensen. Yay. John Hemmelgarn. Yay. Scott Riley. Yay. Dave Turner. Yay. Nate Andrews. Yay. The chair is a yay. Six in favor, none opposed. The minutes are approved. Is there any other business to bring forth tonight? Hearing none, is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. John, makes a motion to adjourn. Is there a second? I'll second it. Dave Turner seconds it. Any discussion? All those in favor to adjourn, indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion's adjourned. Thank you.


Welcome to morning prayer on this beautiful Wednesday. We have the honor and the privilege this morning to come before our sovereign King, to seek Him, to pray, to worship Him, to exalt Him, to extol Him, to bless Him, to stand in the gap on behalf of other people all around the world. And before we do that, I'm just reminded that regardless of the day that we're walking into, this is the day that He has made. I didn't make it, you didn't make it. The conversations that you're going into with the people that you have to have them with, they didn't make it, the Lord made this day. And so we as the people of God, we get to choose to rejoice and be glad in Him. We're going to make the intentional decision to walk into this day with rejoicing of our hearts and with the joy of our minds. In Psalm 105, the psalmist says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him. Sing praises to Him. Tell of all His wondrous works. Glory in His name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord in His strength. Seek His presence continually. Remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles and the judgments He uttered. Lord, we come to You this morning and we just thank You. Lord, we start off this morning of this day, this Wednesday morning, October 18, 2023. And Lord, if we just say we begin this day, we mark this day by saying we thank You for this day. We thank You for this day, Lord. We thank You for the breath in our lungs that we are even able to say thank You. We thank You, Lord, for this day that You have made. And Lord, right now we call upon Your name. But whether we are in this room right now or we're in our car or we're at our office or we're at home. Lord, we call upon Your name and we ask that Your presence would fill the spaces that we are gathered in right now. Lord, I pray today that we would recall to mind the wonderful things that You have done, the incredible deeds that You have done among Your people and for Your people and with Your people and to Your people. We recall them to our mind, Lord God, the miracles that we have written down in Your Word. We recall to mind the miracles that You have done in our lives throughout the days, Lord God, whether we recognize them or not. Oh, Spirit within us, Lord God, would You recall the memories and the miracles that You have done. Spirit of God, would You resurrect them within us that we may not fear what we're walking into, that we may not have trepidation in our minds or worry within our hearts, Lord God. Because we recall how good You are and how great You are and how powerful You are in the midst of everything that we've already been through. So Lord, here we are and we seek You. We seek You, Lord. We have come to seek You in Your presence continually. We seek You, Lord. We love You. We remember Your wondrous works. We remember Your miracles. We remember Your judgments, Lord God. We remember that we recall them to the forefront of our mind, despite the schedule that we have today, despite the opposition that we might have today. We remember, Lord. We recall, Lord. We recollect Your wondrous works, Lord. Oh, we thank You, Lord, for You are good. We thank You, Jesus. In my head, I know that the articulation of awesome falls incredibly short of how truly awesome and spectacular and extravagant and marvelous You are, but Lord God, it's our best. So Lord, from right here, right now, in this moment, in this place, with every ounce of belief and faith within us, we just say, God, You are awesome. You are awesome. With our ability to comprehend, You are awesome. You are awesome. You are so awesome. Lord, I pray that Your awesomeness would overwhelm us, that the grandeur of Your awesomeness would shake us at our core and that a holy fear would arise within us, that we would not just settle for goosebumps, but, Lord, that we would truly be shaken by the awesomeness of Your glory and Your splendor and Your holiness. Shake us, Lord. Shake us. Cause the walls that we have erected and built up in the rooms that we have erected and built up in all of the spaces that we have erected and built up of ourselves and by ourselves and for ourselves. Lord, I pray that Your awesomeness would cause those walls to shake and to crumble today and that we would truly be overwhelmed by who You are. The way Moses was overwhelmed. Would You overwhelm us? The way Joshua was overwhelmed. Would You overwhelm us? Overwhelm us with Your presence, Lord. You are awesome. And every battle that we have, whether it's in our mind or in our hearts, whether it's at work or at home, belongs to You. And You are king. You are victor. You are undefeated. You are unrivaled. You are unmatched. Battle belongs to You, Lord. And so even in the midst of the valley, even in the midst of the war, Lord, we know and we trust and we believe that victory will come because You are king. You are Lord. You're not Lord of some. You're Lord of all. You're not Lord over some. You are Lord over all. Lay ourselves down at Your feet. We say, Holy are You Lord. We want more of You. We need more of You. We want the world to know You. So Lord, in the goodness, would You shake us? Would You rattle us? Would You cause us to crumble? Would You cause us to not have words but only groans? Because we're so overwhelmed. Would we be like John in Revelation 19 when he saw a glimpse of You come returning? He said, Oh, a white horse and a rider. Oh, a white horse and his rider. Oh, Lord, would You overwhelm us with Your presence? Would You overwhelm us with Your awesomeness? Would You overwhelm us, God? Overwhelm us. Strike us with the Holy Fears. Struck Isaiah. Strike us, Lord, with the Holy Fears. Wake us up for our slumber. Wake your church up, Lord. We are slumbering. We are sleeping. Wake us up. Wake us up, Lord. Your church up. Wake husbands up. Wake fathers up. Wake wives up. Wake mothers up, Lord. God, sound the alarm, Lord. Wake us up, Lord. We've been sleeping for too long. We've been worried about the wrong things for too long. We've been stressed out for too long. Wake us up, Lord. Wake us up. Wake us up, Lord. Wake us up. Over the last week with everything that's happening in the Middle East with Israel and with Palestine and just everything happening over there. And I think one of the things that the Lord is doing right now is opening our eyes to Israel and His heart and His love for Israel. So I want to shift us in this moment to stand in the gap on behalf of Israel to intercede to war in spiritually high places for Israel and in Isaiah chapter 49 starting verse 25. It says, for it thus says the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken and the prey of the tyrant be rescued.   Then all flesh shall know. They shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. Lord, we declare and we will, Lord, first of all, we know that Israel belongs to you and Lord, as much as anger as we have and frustration and hurt that we are feeling in the midst of this moment that we find ourselves in watching the news hearing stories on social media reading of arguments back and forth between this whole thing. Lord, we know that you are more upset about it than we are. We know that this upsets you more than it upsets us, Lord. And so right now, Lord, we stand in the gap on behalf of Israel and we ask, Father, that you would contend with those who contend with Israel, that you would save the children who have been held captive and taken hostage, Lord, that, Lord, just like you did with Peter and with Paul, Lord, in different moments, you opened up prison cells, you loosened shackles, Lord God in a powerful move of your spirit, Lord God, your people. So, Lord, I pray that right now you would release the children that you would open up cells or the cages that they are being held in, Lord God that you would open them up and they would walk out freely, Lord. Would you save the children? Would you contend with those who contend with Israel, Lord? Would you save them from the hand of the tyrant? Would you rescue them, God? Lord, I pray that even right now that those who are attacking and conspiring against Israel that just like you did with the Philistines, God that you would do with them, that they would turn on each other, Lord that you would cause such a confusion among them that they would actually turn on each other, Lord to cause them, Lord, to turn on each other those who contend with Israel, Lord God would you step in and contend with them to save them, Lord God would you redeem them, would you let the world through this moment in history know that you are gone that you are Lord would you save in this moment, would you restore in this moment would you set captives free in this moment would you cause this war to cease in this moment, Lord God Lord, just like you did with Daniel would you do with Israel when he was thrown in the lions, he was surrounded by lions a place in that den but what we do know is that Daniel wasn't touched that Daniel wasn't harmed that the lions backed up that the lions were scared of him we don't know what happened, Lord God but Lord, I pray that that same thing would happen in Israel right now that as they're surrounded by the lions of the enemy looking to devour set on wiping your people off the face of this earth, Lord God Lord, I pray that you would shut their mouths that you would silence their mouths that you would close their mouths, Lord and that they would not have any forward progress on Israel that they would have no, there would be no more death in Israel, Lord God an only life Lord, would you turn their enemies against themselves, Lord would you rescue them and redeem them in Jesus' name you are mighty to save would hope arise in Israel not in and of themselves but in and of you that you are mighty to save Lord, even though they may have forgotten what you have promised we know that you you do not forget we know that you have them engraved on the palm of your hand we know that the walls of Israel are continually before your eyes the land of Israel is continually people of Israel so Lord, I pray for a resurgence of hope to return to your people that remembrance who you are and what you have done would come to them that the floodgates of remembrance would flood back to Israel and that they would not forget that you are mighty to save and that you are their healer you are their rescuer you are their savior you are their Lord you will never forget them it takes my eyes to Calvary and every season of introduce me to walked with me for every month and every shaking or storm this is where I call my home where foundations have stood the test of time oh, take me back and every shaking or storm this is where you say to this is where I cry your head oh, this is solid this is where I'm found just looking at the this is holy where you say to me oh, this is solid ground every time this is where I'm found just looking at the oh, this is holy where you say to this is solid the noise of social media the noise of our schedules and our appointments the noise of our affections and our desires the noise of worry and uncertainty Jesus, it's really easy to get caught up with all that noise Lord, we silence the noise and we remember your cross captivate us with the cross Lord, captivate us with the cross even though the noise continues but you captivate us with the cross that we would not just go from 60 minutes here and 60 minutes there or 30 minutes here and 30 minutes there or Sunday to Sunday but Lord, captivate us with the cross daily in the midst of the noise in the midst of the schedules in the midst of the arguments in the midst of the tension in the midst of the uncertainty in the midst of the problems in the midst of the pain Lord, would you captivate us with the cross cause our eyes to become captivated with the cross captivate us, Lord Lord, I'm just reminded of what Paul said in Colossians 2 starting verse 13 and you who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh God made alive together with him having forgiven us of all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside nailing it to the cross he disarmed the rulers and authorities and he put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him Jesus, we thank you for the cross we thank you that the cross speaks a better word, a different word that it's all cancelled in and through you Jesus, you paid it all Jesus, you paid it all you paid it all and I pray right now that I say that you paid when I say, Lord, that you paid it all that weight would fall off his shoulders that shame would fall off of shoulders that fear would fall off of shoulders whether in this room, Lord or listening online Jesus, you paid it all and we, right now in the authority that you have given us and the reality of what that means that you paid it all that whoever is being attacked by shame and doubt self-condemnation Jesus, you paid it all I pray that that weight would fall off now in the name of Jesus that the cancer of shame would fall off of your people wash the doubts I'll sign this over Israel right now this is the apostle Paul and he's speaking of his brothers sisters he's speaking of his very people the Israelites, the Jews he says, my desire is that they would be saved Lord, I pray right now that you would give us your heart for Israel not our heart not man's heart not a political party's heart not an agenda's heart but your heart Lord, would you give us your heart would you give your church your heart for Israel that we would pray for them that they would be saved that they would know the blood of Jesus that they would see the cross and not despise it that they would see the cross and fall before it and cry out for the blood of Jesus Lord, give us your heart for Israel that they would be saved I pray that we would not just go for an hour thinking and interceding and praying for Israel Lord, God, but that you would cause us to remember Israel all day long and that we would truly be watchmen on the wall standing in the gap on behalf of Israel and cry out to you on behalf of them Lord, would you save Israel would you save Israel Lord, we love you we thank you for this day that you have made we go into it rejoicing with gladness in it Amen, thank you for joining us this morning whether in the room or online right now we are going to continue in a posture of worship and intercession and adoration with a devotional set so if you are in the room I want to invite you if you want to talk with anybody or I want to invite you down to go down to match head and continue a conversation maybe in match head but if you want to stay in the room and continue to seek the Lord seek His presence continually to cry out to pray I want to invite you to stay in the room as we continue to seek Him together