Words from the Heart

I am so excited to have my friend and fellow writer/minister, Teal Gray here on Words from the Heart to introduce her new book Shades of Angels . Teal, what drew me to your book, before I even opened it, was the title. Can you explain how you came up with the title and what it means?  That’s a great question Linda that nobody has asked before. I had interactions with angels throughout my life and they were never the same. There were definite and subtle differences. In life, I believe everything can’t be divided into either a black box or a white box. People, entities, situations, whatever you are dealing with has its own unique traits and perspectives, shades of who they are, if you will. Some are darker shades; some that are more towards the light, would have shades of that end of the spectrum.  I believe we are in between an unseen battle between angels of light, darkness and other entities between those extreme polarities. Some are battling to protect us, wh...

I love to write and have done so professionally and academically for years.  But, not everyone knows that I also am a photographer. Back when my daughters were young, I worked for the York County Coast Star in Maine, covering local events as well as providing the photos to go along with what I wrote. Recently, I have combined my two loves - poetry and photography - and have created memes for my Facebook pages.  What a delight to marry these two art forms into something that others can see instantly and enjoy! The idea of marrying passions isn't new.  When I decided to finish my bachelor's degree several years ago, I enrolled in the University Without Walls (UWW) at UMass Amherst.  In the process of creating a portfolio of the work I had done, my professor pointed out that I had three different, yet overlapping, interests - writing, spirituality and health. Eventually, after spending almost a year honing my portfolio and culling through all the evidence of work ...

Today, I am pleased to have as a guest blogger, Elaine Drennon Little, who is taking part in a Women on Writing (WOW) Blog Tour.  Elaine is a writer and educator.  She writes as passionately as she teaches.  Her new book, A Southern Place , tells the story of a young woman and her search for connections and her fight for life. But, Elaine isn't writing about her book, exactly.  Instead, she is sharing her thoughts on Creative Arts Programs in Schools as an educator, as well as a writer. Welcome, Elaine! The Arts Education Network has the following sentence at the top of their website: Learning and participation in music, dance, theater, and the visual arts are vital to the development of our children and our communities. This topic is paramount to me as an educator, but also as a student of the arts.    I was one of those nerdy kids who was always the last chosen for sports teams; I often feigned illness on “field day.” However, my chorus...

When my daughter, Elizabeth, handed me the star that she drew at age 5, something told me to save it - it was special.  This past holiday, when my granddaughter handed me her star at age 5, I realized why I had saved Elizabeth's star all those years ago.  As you can see from the photo below, they look incredibly similar, yet, my granddaughter had never seen Elizabeth's star, nor had any of us asked her to make one.  She simply presented the drawing to me as a gift.   Elizabeth, from the time she was very small, loved to draw, create, and design.  After many years, she is doing just that as a designer from a local company with high fashion clients.  Her wish became her reality. My little granddaughter, also, tells us she wants to create things.  She loves drawing and, since very early in life, has created some of the most beautiful works of art, one of which my daughter and son-in-law had made into a necklace for me this Christmas. My Family...

November is the Poem-a-day challenge. This will be my third year in the challenge, but this year there is a twist.  This year, for each poem I write, people will be pledging money that will go to the Center for New Americans (CNA), a non-profit organization that supports and educates immigrants and refugees and their families.   I am excited for two reasons: one, this is where I teach and I love my students.  Two, the money will be going to continue our family literacy program, which allows children of our adult students to be taught in a pre-kindergarten literacy program, while their parents are learning English.  30 Poems in November was conceived by Northampton Poet Laureate Leslea Newman , who challenged the poets and writers of Northampton to write their poems during November 2009 to raise funds for CNA.  The idea caught on like wildfire and the fundraiser not only was a success, but it became a yearly event that has now grown into a community c...

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. ...

aya Image by MLHS via Flickr Within the last few months, several local establishments have closed.  The first to go was just down the street.  The local video store that provided what Hollywood had to offer, along with a few specialty sections.  The latest, Pleasant Street Video in Northampton, MA, leaves a huge hole in the fabric of our community after 25 years of faithful service. Pleasant Street Video wasn't your common variety video store.  The folks at Pleasant Street were the purveyors of hard to find documentaries, classic film noir, as well as films by the great directors such as Bergman, Fellini, Ozu, Wenders, Ford, Tarkovski, Buñuel, Scorsese, Varda and the mother of American avantegarde films, Maya Deren.  Also available at this little corner shop in downtown Northampton were films from around the world.   The staff, especially Bill and Dana, both of whom Roger and I saw the most, were aficionados of film, who could recommend films tha...