Words from the Heart

Having been brought up Roman Catholic, I can never travel Life's Path on October 31 and November 1 without thinking of all my loved ones who have moved ahead on the Path and entered the next existence. This past year, I have created my own Memorial Altar...a kind of "Day of the Dead" memorial on which I have pictures of my loved ones, some of my brother's ashes and a candle burning. Each time I pass, I pray...prayers of thanksgiving for their being part of my life, prayers for peace of spirit and mind, prayers of love. When I was a child, it was creepy to think of people's spirits hovering close to us after death. As an adult, older and I hope wiser, I take great comfort in this thought. I have felt the presence of my mother and father over the past year during different times when I needed a bit of guidance or when I wished I could share a moment with them. I have felt my brother's spirit lingering at home, finally at peace, with my beloved and I. I ha...

Photo Credit: Microsoft Clip Art After years as a writer, I am still shocked/amazed/dumbfounded by some of the stories found to be newsworthy today, as well as society's lack of understanding for the term private. To begin with, when did "private" become the new public? I am old enough to remember that when a public figure asked for privacy it was respected. Now, as I heard on NPR this morning, you can attend a class reunion and your "private" comment can make national news! Don't get me wrong, I love NPR. I listen to them every morning on my 45 minute drive to the college at which I teach. I enjoy the music, the intellectual commentary and find their news, for the most part, to be trustworthy and to the point. So, it was with great surprise this morning that I listened to the NPR reporter discuss a matter our new Supreme Court Justice commented on during a "private conversation" (so stated by the reporter) at a college reunion. Why was ...

Today I'm participating in a mass blogging! WOW ! Women On Writing has gathered a group of blogging buddies to write about family relationships. Why family relationships? We're celebrating the release of Therese Walsh's debut novel today. The Last Will of Moira Leahy , (Random House, October 13, 2009) is about a mysterious journey that helps a woman learn more about herself and her twin, whom she lost when they were teenagers. Visit The Muffin ( http://www.wow- womenonwriting.com/blog.html ) to read what Therese has to say about family relationships and view the list of all my blogging buddies. And make sure you visit Therese's website ( http://www.theresewalsh.com ) to find out more about the author." ~~~~~~~~ The older I get, the more I realize that I had one crazy mother! However, her form of crazy was more of a tool for coping with a world that during her life had gone from WWII to the brink of nuclear war, from prohibition to race riots and from the heal...

It has been the wisdom of many humanitarian groups that, "If you give a person a fish, they eat for a day. But, if you teach a person to fish, they eat for a lifetime." Teaching others to care for themselves not only enables them to have pride in their accomplishments, it also allows their dreams to come true...possible dreams. Those who work at Possible Dreams International (PDI) understand this not only on the intellectual level but also from the level of action. The following pictures are from PDI. They show how the team at PDI helped a community to build a water tank for clean drinking water. The community was intimately involved in the project. With Possible Dreams, the Mambane community went from drinking this: To drinking this: The Community celebrates clean water: Clean water ...something we all take for granted, yet for the people of Swaziland and other Third World countries, clean water is the difference between life and death. To learn more about Possible Dre...