Hello and Happy Easter!

I picked up those pretty, painted wooden eggs at the market and just couldn't resist all the bright colors. I'm sending a big package home with some of the treasures I've collected during my time in Greece. It's been so much fun to add to my collections of arts and goodies when I find something unusual or an exceptionally good deal. My Christmas shopping for the year is almost complete and I know that my loved ones will really enjoy the items I've selected. (Let's be serious - can I really hold onto all the pretty things until next December?)

This week has been another one of silencing and censorship, and I have to be honest: it wears on me.

You may have noticed that the websites have been down or very slow lately. Our servers are continuously being overloaded, so we've had to ramp up security. We're about to make the move to a larger server to be able to handle the load, and it's not cheap.

As well, we've had to institute a much more strict moderation strategy as the comments section of OP has been targeted by bots. If the comments put in were allowed to post, they would cause strife among readers and put the site at risk of even more censorship. They're deliberately geared to cause maximum anger in our audience. So, if your comment goes into moderation, please be patient. I'm the only one clearing comments right now, and I'm not always at my computer. I promise, I'm getting to them as quickly as I can.

Of course, all this comes after a three-year onslaught on our streams of income. The income of the website drops dramatically with each attack, but still, we persevere.

It hasn't been easy.

We're running a sale this weekend on The Prepper's Interactive Book of Lists to help raise money for the move to a new server. We are largely reader-funded now and your assistance means the world to us.

Please make a purchase here if you can.

Situations like this always make me think of one of my favorite poems, Invictus, by William Ernest Henley. I memorized it years ago, and when things get hard, reciting it helps me to face head-on the challenges that are occurring. I thought that you might enjoy it, too.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

We'll get through this, my friends. We're Americans, and we are unconquerable.

Easter is a huge holiday here in Greece. It began 40 days ago with the week of Lent and will end tomorrow after a week of Easter. Parades, fireworks, ceremonies, church bells and food are all a part of the celebration.

Yesterday, women went to churches and decorated empty coffins with spring flowers. Then, dressed in black, they walked through the streets carrying the coffins to mark the grief of Mary, the mother of Jesus. I didn't take photos because it felt disrespectful to do so. The customs here are very different and really quite beautiful.

Stores and businesses will reopen on Tuesday after a long weekend, and then we'll be launched into tourist season. I'm working on another piece of short fiction that I hope to be able to share with you by next weekend. Its got a very timely theme that I think you'll enjoy reading about. (Although it will probably scare the daylights out of you if you believe, as I do, that the scenario is likely.)

I hope you have a beautiful, peaceful, and blessed Easter.