Words from the Heart

**** ADDENDUM **** After I viewed this film, I did what I normally do - surf the web for information about the director, the movie, the actors, etc.  Unfortunately, I didn't do this before I wrote my blog. Had I done so, I would have said that while this is a "true" story, there is a certain amount of question as to some of what we are led to believe.  Many thanks to Meghan Fitz-James for her comment and head's up. I bring this up, not to discourage anyone from seeing the film, which is truly breathtaking, but so that those who do see it are aware that Aisholpan is not the first eagle huntress in the history of Mongolia. She may be the first in her own family, but eagle huntresses have over a 2,000 year history, according to Adrienne Mayor, Stanford University History professor. I wish that the promoters of the film had done a better job at telling the truth behind the history. Women's history has been negated, twisted and ignored for far too long. C...

"Mizen Head, County Cork, Ireland"  Photo Credit: Licensed under  Creative Commons Attribution- Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons Today begins a new adventure, one that I will no doubt write a great deal about in the future.  Today is the beginning of an inner journey - an epic journey - an odyssey - back to the beginning of "me". Here are the two poems that began me on this quest. GRANDMA Grandma was short  like Mommy with blue-black hair cut pixie style and wild green eyes that you could never forget because they twinkled so! She laughed a lot - told funny stories from old Ireland - Mommy would laugh as she told me  the crazy things they did… Funny, she left this world long before I came -  but, Mommy’s words paint a Grandma to hold deep within my heart.  ©1983 LMRN O’Riordan – The King’s Poet When I was half-past six years old, the world still filled the 5 by 10 space of my room. Momma said the ...

   There is so much in the media today about how when we visualize what we want, we draw it to us.  Many people are creating vision boards.  They cut out pictures, words, quotes, etc., hanging their creation where they can see it daily.  Does it really help? According to scientists, a vision board re-programs our brain to filter out whatever is deemed unnecessary and focus on what is important.  This is done in the reticular activating system (RAS) located between the medulla oblongata and the mesencephalon.  This tiny part of the brain is what allows parents to sleep soundly as trains rattle the house, yet wake immediately if their child calls out in the night.  The vision board, when viewed daily, focuses what consciously a person has deemed important in their life, thus drawing it to them. Words are powerful tools in the Law of Attraction.  A poem written by Dorothy Law Nolte, Children Learn What They Live , was popular b...

  We found Joy visiting the Peace Pagoda with our Bridget over the holidays. New Year's Day 2014 is nearly over.  I find myself restless to begin this new year.  There is this feeling of standing back stage waiting for your cue to be given - part fear and part anticipation.   I don't do resolutions, as such.  I believe they are traps that cause us to think less of ourselves because, almost always, we cannot accomplish our resolution. Life gives us enough opportunities to struggle, why make more? So, I dream or wish and my dreams have come true, as witnessed this year when I published another book and became an ordained minister.  This year brought friends from near and far to visit, gave me time with my growing number of grandchildren and allowed Roger and I to escape for an overnight to a lovely Bed and Breakfast in Vermont. What to I dream of this year?  My biggest dream is to go to the Provence with Roger.  We are nearly there....

When Adam Shepard contacted me about his book, I was cautious.  After all, here he was contacting me out of the blue.  We had no connections - that I know of then, anyway. So, I did what any cautious writer would do, I researched him.  What a surprise!  I learned that Adam is a young man, who has taken life seriously enough to live his dreams without apology, risking comfort, the familiar and security to learn about the world around him as well as to discover who he is. I, also, learned that we did have some common ground.  Adam Shepard attended Merrimac College in Andover, Massachusetts, graduating with a degree in Business Management and Spanish. (OK, I can claim this as a slight connection - I have relatives that attended Merrimac and I was on campus, once.)  He was also a basketball player, which I must confess is the one sport I enjoyed in my high school/college days. (Another connection!) Shortly after graduation, he set off with literally $25 ...

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...

It was 1963. I was ten years old with a mind that questioned everything. Momma has spent a few dollars on corsages for herself and me. Mine was red; hers was white. Of course, I wanted to know why the difference. Momma explained that white indicated that her mother was in heaven and red meant that my mother was alive. Being ten, this news did not have much impact on me. However, for the first time, I will be wearing a white carnation on Mother's Day. Suddenly, the signifigance of this simple tradition has great meaning to me. My mother is "in heaven" as Momma once said. Where did we get this tradition? Would you believe the Greeks? Yes, the ancient Greeks were the first to celebrate a special day for mothers, actually, it was a specific mother, Rhea, whom they called mother of the gods. Later, Christians began to observe a holy day for Mary, the Mother of God. The early churches crowned statues of Mary with flowers and held long processions carrying her statue ...

It is not often that I watch a film that resonates with my heart and soul, so, when it happens, I want to shout from the highest mountains to let all know. My highest mountain is this blog. Hear me shout! Whaledreamers ! I watched this beautifully crafted documentary last night, becoming overwhelmed with emotion. Kim Kindersley directs this epic about indigenous peoples (in particular an endangered indigenous group from Australia, the Mirning) around the world who gather to share their connections to the whales and dolphins. If you have ever hoped for Peace in the world, connecting all peoples at the very center of our many beliefs, this film is a must see! Julian Lennon, as the producer, continues the legacy of Peacemaker handed down to him by his father. Among the last slides of the film it states, "The people of the world are awakening. We are the ones we have been waiting for...Do something, anything...The Time is Now!" From my highest mountain I shout! Peace! We ...

She was a little under eleven years old when Martin shared his dream with her. As with all children, she took it at face value, believing in the possibilities like she believed in pixies in the garden. While she was not the only one he had shared the dream with, somehow, she felt she held a special place in its becoming reality. As a child, she could talk of the dream in realistic terms without the practicality of the adult world raining on her. Then the unthinkable happened, her innocence was stolen by the crimes of adults who lived on fear. Martin’s dream was shattered by a hate so real she stopped sharing it. The dream became a secret she kept locked in her heart, only to be taken out when she felt safe, or most often, alone. Others did not understand the need to make the dream real. The few times she felt brave enough to even mention the possibilities of such a dream she met with ridicule. Childish sentiment, utopian imaginings, illusions of grandeur…all terms given for he...