Words from the Heart

I am thrilled to welcome back a dear writing pal, Madeline Sharples to be a guest on my blog. Madeline has just released a wonderful work of fiction, Papa's Shoes , which I have had the honor to read.   Papa's Shoes is a wonderful story of immigration, feminism, families, and forgiveness. I have thoroughly enjoyed every page.  I asked Madeline to share something about how she became a published author of a fictional novel. Here is her story. ~~~~ How I reinvented myself  from a technical writer and editor to a creative writer –  and at my age.   I fell in love with poetry and creative writing in grade school. I studied journalism in high school and college and wrote for the high school newspaper. I graduated from UCLA with a degree in English and had no idea what I would do professionally with it. I had wanted to work as a journalist and actually completed all the course work for a degree in journalism at the University of Wisconsin. But fami...

Today, I am delighted to have a fellow educator and writer as a guest blogger for the Women on Writing Blog Tour of her new book.  B. Lynn Goodwin, author of Never Too Late: From Wannabe to Wife, shares her honest, and often, humorous thoughts on relationships, marriage, hope, faith and most of all, Love! I hope you will enjoy reading her post.  Please feel free to leave a comment. Those who do, will have an opportunity of winning a copy of her book, Never Too Late: From Wannabe to Wife.  Compromise and Acceptance       In my memoir Never Too Late: From Wannabe to Wife , I wrote,    “I never believed that opposites were attracted to one another until I met Richard. Part of the allure was that we got along so well despite our differences. Part of the fear was that I might be on a pink cloud.    “He wanted to marry me as soon as possible. I wanted to wait. He said he needed the influence of a good woman. I avoided the...

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) When I was young, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was one of the icons of children's TV. While he entertained, he also taught.  His teachings were simple and after awhile, too childish for me...or so I thought. Over the years, I have come to realize that many of the adults that I thought to be silly, weird, and dopey have turned out to be pretty amazing humans, who had so much to share with a young person.  I guess it is the bane of the young to write off their elders.  But, thankfully, many of us learn to listen, eventually. After yesterday's tragedy at the Boston Marathon, someone posted this quote from Fred Rogers.   " When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that the...

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 It never ceases to amaze me how a few kind words can heal even the most grievous wounds.    "I'm sorry."  "Forgive me." "I'm here." "I love you." Simple phrases, easy to say, that sometimes, we say them without thinking.  However, when we take the time to look into the eyes of another human, saying with all our heart these phrases, healing happens. Take for example the healing that Nelson Mandela brought to his country through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which gave South Africans a tool to forgive; thereby, giving them the opportunity to create a new life in South Africa. Interestingly, the words, "I'm sorry, forgive me," and "I love you" are seldom said to the one person who needs to hear them the most...ourselves! When was the last time you looked in the mirror and said, "Forgive me," or, "I love you?"    It's not easy.  We feel foolish.  We don'...

It never ceases to amaze me how a few kind words can heal the most grievous wounds.     "I'm sorry."  "Forgive me." "I'm here." "I love you."    Simple phrases; easy to say.  Sometimes, we say them without thinking.  But, when we take the time to look into the eyes of another human and say with all our heart these phrases, healing happens. Interestingly, these same phrases are seldom said to the one person who needs to hear them the most...ourselves! When was the last time you looked in the mirror and said, Forgive me , or, I love you ?    It's not easy.  We feel foolish.  We don't see the need.      It's a shame, really, because when we are not able to love or forgive or care for ourselves, we cannot truly be there for anyone else. It took me many years to forgive myself for not being the perfect daughter, the perfect wife, the perfect mother.  Once I was able to understand that it was OK...