Words from the Heart

  From Color to Black and White - the first real snow of 2012 Those who know me, know that I am not a big fan of winter.  After all these years, the cold does things to my body, that do not allow me the flexibility of my youth.  That said, I do love how the snow looks when it is fresh and newly fallen. We have had a very dry winter.  One freak snow storm in October, which took down many of the trees, but very little after that.  This concerns me in that the plants, flowers and trees here in western Massachusetts need the snow to grow properly.  Then, today...Snow!  The first flakes were tiny and hardly noticeable, rather like the way the Blizzard of '78 began.  I will never forget that blizzard.  I was 8 months pregnant and the whole of Massachusetts came to a standstill!  I went for a walk, after things were plowed...I looked like a penguin waddling down the snowy, deserted roads. Thankfully, my evening classes were cancelled, so I...

A bit back, I introduced Amy Souza , an amazing woman who encourages collaboration between artists and writers through a project she developed called SPARK.  SPARK came into being in 2008.  Since then, Amy has been bringing artists and writers together four times a year with results that are just inspirational, to say the least! Personally, I have participated in several such collaborations.  This session, though, I took up the challenge to work as an artist, rather than a writer.  The results have been wonderful!  Today I will share with you the work that Heidi Mordhorst and I have done together.  She sent me a poem she wrote for inspiration and I sent her a photo I had taken and digitally enhanced.  The results, I think, were wonderful! Here are our mutual shares:  First, Heidi's inspirational poem with my response picture: Side by Side in the Outhouse One night late I’m brushing my teeth when my dad says, “You know, son, we’re poor. ...

Asking For Forgiveness (Photo credit: hang_in_there ) In the last post, my guest blogger, Margaret Norton, began a dialogue on the Gift of Forgiveness.  Since that post, several people have emailed me to say, "How can I forgive?"  "Why forgive? They only keep hurting me."  "If someone hurts someone else that I love, they hurt me, too.  But, it's not my job to forgive them." To these readers and others of like mind, allow me to repeat a truth that I can testify to wholeheartedly - Forgiveness is the greatest gift you give yourself!  What does this mean?  The gift you give yourself when you forgive someone, is the ability to go through life without carrying around a bundle of hate, despair, fear, outrage, anger, disappointment and so on.  An old wise man once asked me if I would carry around a bag of excrement.  I, not surprisingly, was appalled!  "Of course not!" I stated most vehemently.  "That is totally disgusting!" "We...

Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves... my guest to the blog today, Margaret Norton, shares her thoughts on this subject.  Margaret is a writer, speaker, personal life coach, and It Works! distributor. She is running a blog comment and Twitter contest in February to coordinate with the re-release of her book, When Ties Break, and turning 60! For more information and to enter the contest to win a free life coaching session or copy of her memoir, please see the end of this post. W ords from the Heart. What a wonderful name for a blog! Like Linda, I too am fascinated by words. I’m amazed at how careless we are when speaking to others – especially those we love. The spoken word has the power to help or hurt – all too often it is used to hurt. Relationships are damaged and lives are changed as a result of the words we speak. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Sometimes, all you need to do is offer an apology. But for many individuals, this is as difficult as the thought of do...

Image via Wikipedia I love words, but, unfortunately, the English language is sorely lacking when in comes to ways to express feelings and attitudes that all get clumped together under the single four-lettered word - love.   Think about it.  We love our spouse, our car, our job and our best friend.  However, each of these forms of love is dramatically different.  For instance, we feel romantic, soul-connecting, physical attraction type love of a spouse.  On the other hand, the feeling we have for our car comes from the fact that we find it dependable, comfortable and easy/fun to drive.  As far as our job goes, if we feel passion for what we are doing and when we feel appreciated and valued, then we use love in an entirely different definition.  Finally, the feelings we have for a best friend come from a shared understanding of each other, an ability to trust and care for that person as well as shared experiences.   As you can see, th...