Words from the Heart

Today, I am delighted to have as our guest blogger, Barbara Barth, author, blogger, sometimes antique dealer, dog hoarder, bedazzled by life.  Widowed eleven years ago, she writes about finding a creative path back to happiness. Her recent move to a 1906 historic cottage brought many surprises, including discovering the Monroe–Walton Center for the Arts where she started the monthly Walton Writers group and is on the MWCA Board as Literary Arts Chair. Barbara is a contributor to Walton Living Magazine and a former blogger for The Balancing Act, Lifetime Television’s morning show for women. Currently, she lives with six dogs, rescue dogs that rescued her.  Barbara is sharing with us the ins and outs of publishing an anthology. ****** “Let’s publish an anthology!” The thought crossed my mind the minute I saw a premade cover for sale in late 2014. I was bored, the holidays were approaching, and the cover made me dream of possibilities. Since I know many writers and have starte

All Souls Day - Church Cemetery - Bangladesh - Wikimedia CC The words "in memorium" often grace the cards they hand out at wakes in New England. When I was a child, we called them Holy Cards and collected them much like the way some people collect baseball cards.  Collecting them served two purposes, although I am not sure any of us kids were really aware of them. First, having a cared that memorialized someone assured the family that this person would not be forgotten. Second, the cards often displayed classic religious paintings and poetry, both of which we ended up memorizing after so many times of staring at the cards. One of my favorite pictures was that of a Guardian Angel guarding over two children as the crossed a rickety bridge of a swollen stream. This was a card from the funeral of a child who died of pneumonia before we had penicillin.  Today is all Soul's Day - a day of remembrance - a day to offer a prayer or light a candle for those who h