July 28, 2014 Gallery

Daughters of the Soil–My New Novel

Daughters of the Soil

  • Cover is ready(?), but getting there took its sweet time.
    • ISBN is assigned!
    • LCCN is assigned!!
    • Front and back matters are ready!
      • What’s the hold? Editing/revising!!!

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Prior to 2013: Toying with the cover: At the time, the title was A Very Smooth Murder.

 

Stethoscope--Huse--large Stethoscope--Huse--small 2 Very Smooth Mortar--compressed for web page Very Smooth Mortar--dark and big hue saturation  wooden mortar--small

 

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2013 Cover Progression for Daughters of the Soil: Notice all the nuances: font type, font size, color changes, background color, dropping the plural letter, putting back the plural letter, piling images on images, peeling off images, superimposing images. Phew!

 

Heather McCorkle is patient!! I give her all the respect in the world for her professionalism. Once I saw this image, I knew the woman was Emelda dead on! She had to stay.  There were times when I wanted to find another Emelda because I did not receive internal validation for what my intuition was saying to me.

Young beautiful pregnant african woman   Daughter mock cover 2   grunge  ??????   ????????????  ??????  ??????   ??????   ????????????   ??????   ??????

 

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Fast forward to 2014. Repeat the process:

2014 Cover Progression: I tried Fiverr. 

Daughter_of_the_Soil_Fiverr_Cover    Daughter_of_the_Soil_Fiverr_Cover2 

 

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Still fastforwarding into 2014. Repeat the process: 

2014 Cover Progression

Notice all the nuances: font type, font size, color changes, background color, dropping the plural letter, putting back the plural letter, piling images on images, peeling off images, superimposing images. Phew!

Betty  Gunn is patient!! I meet all these wonderfully patient illustrators. I am lucky! I give betty kudos. She worked on the cover for weeks, never tiring. I give Betty a lot of respect for her professionalism.

 

blue_background2   blue_background3    blue_background   Glass broken shot bullet   134178443_Bullet_hole    Emelda_in_purple_and_hat     Emelda_worried_DollarphotoNigerian police cap   Daughters_Soil_3_moved    Daughters_Soil_rev_police_uniform2   Daughters_Final_M&P_in_front   Daughters_Blood_Drippping_white_had    Daughters_Final_RED   Daughter_Final_BLK_Kindle2   Daughters_Final_BLK    Daughters_Final_BLK_Kindle

Please post a comment below regarding the cover or the name. Feel free to ask me questions regarding my journey so far. I looking forward to bonding with you. Thank you for stopping by today. Take care.

June 25, 2014

Destiny’s Child Reunites for Michelle Williams’ ‘Say Yes!’ Video

This is not my regular post. I am still too speechless to write my usual fill.

HARO sent me a link about Destiny’s Child reuniting to sing Michelle’s song titled, ‘Say Yes!’

In HARO’s own words: “Destiny’s Child fans rejoice! The trio has reunited on the music
video for Michelle Williams’ latest single as a solo artist.
Based off of a Nigerian gospel song, “Say Yes” will get you
clapping in no time. We might have to steal a few of their dance
moves and outfit ideas for our next girls’ night.”

Did I hear “Nigeria?” Yes, I did.

Well said, HARO! I clapped and danced and sang, carried along by the beauty in the song, the Nigerian song.

Afterwards my lips searched for words, found none, but my heart said all there was. My heart is still singing and beating its own drum.

What an incredible performance by all three extremely talented ladies. Wow! Destiny’s Child is back! (Fingers crossed!)

You have to watch this video!! http://bitly.com/1lDjE0f

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/destinys-child-reunite-for-michelle-williams-say-yes-video-20140618#ixzz35cUsNMW9

May 31, 2014

“If You Get, Give; If You Learn, Teach”

I landed in America in the frozen month of January 1979, landed on the nick of time, landed to find out that Maya Angelou was coming to my university, Middle Tennessee State University, that month. I knew about her and her name, but I did not know exactly how I knew her and her name. I read voraciously, having read more than 130 novels in one year. I knew Maya Angelou. Our paths crossed on a landscape in our literature world.

Of course, whirlwind preceded her into Murfreesboro, a laidback college town. All was abuzz, all was aflutter, and I went about ensuring that I secured my one ticket even if I had to move all the numerous mountains in Tennessee.

For fear of being mugged, I did not tell anyone in my English class that I had secured a ticket for Maya Angelou’s visit to our then small campus. Armed with one of her books and having eaten an early dinner in the cafeteria, I arrived hours early, located the best seat in the theater, and waited.

The beams from her perfectly formed white teeth were enough to illuminate the entire auditorium. She smiled into every soul. I still remember those smiles and how she waited patiently to sign everyone’s book despite the lateness of the hour long after her serenade.

From that smile onward, I knew her, read her, tuned in to hear wisdom, to catch sunlight, to feel phenomenal, and to let her aura lift my hand so I could emulate her magic on paper. I sat spellbound at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration as Maya Angelou welcomed the entire earth, rejoiced as she and Oprah bonded, and mimicked several of her poems in my collection.  

Fast forward to decades later when my daughter bought and consumed several of Maya Angelou’s works on her own, boundaries could not contain my joy. When I found out Maya Angelou was only three years older than my mother, Virginia Ohanenye, who passed away in 1990, tenderness wound itself completely around my heart. When she wrote the poem in memory of my Michael, fondness for her deepened. When she paid a powerful tribute to President Nelson Mandela on behalf of America, speech left me.

Always trying to make the world better than she found it, Maya Angelou reminded us frequently: “When you get, give; when you learn, teach.” I want to believe that I have paid forward the numerous benefits I received. I want to believe that I have taught my thousands of students and others the immeasurable insights I have learned.

Maya Angelou passed away on May 28, 2014.That focused, high-powered smile from January 1979 still transcends my literary and physical worlds. I hope she becomes a sister-friend to my mother who gave so much and taught so many. 

July 4, 2013

How Costly Should Branding and Packaging Be?

Today, the 4th of July, marks the anniversary of our inherited freedom. Today marks the display of many symbols of that most cherished civil liberty, products displayed in our three national colors of red, white, and blue, a variation of the three, or others.

Investopedia wrote a detailed article on what branding entails. Companies spend millions to brand and package themselves and their products uniquely in attempts to vie for consumers’ money, affection, and trust. They ensure that the exterior of their products will drag buyers who are disinclined to spend belabored income.

A perfect scenario occurred this morning as I brewed my usual morning hot beverage. The same size of rectangular bags housed all tea leaves in my cabinet regardless of the manufacturer. I yawned at the colorful boxes staring back at me because, despite the colorful containers, the predictable interiors could not fool me.

I confess to buying the products, but the containers, that is, the book covers, misled me. Many rectangular bags dangled from strings, and I felt like a puppeteer. I yawned again. Oh, help!Image A sachet in a plain but unusual attire winked at me with confidence. It had no string and was not rectangular. It wore an unpretentious circular outfit. Talk about effortless packaging! How ingenious and distinctive can a circle be? The packaging was simple sophistication. Like our patriotic colors, it had its own unique three colors on the box: orange, white, and black.

The simple ingenuity of what I now call “tea discs” had my brain popping. Branding does not have to cost a fortune! The other manufacturers must have spent mined treasures on threads, colorful paper folded many times over to cradle each bag, words printed in color, foil caches, and other exorbitant branding expenses. (Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my tea ceremony.)

When I untied the strings and removed the colorful papers with the brand names imprinted on them, I could not distinguish one company’s tea from the other. Imagine the resources wasted in an attempt to look different only to end up losing the exclusiveness they sought.

The round bags stood unencumbered, proud, unique, and, might I add, FREE! The box that contained them displayed an artist’s light strokes of scenic London and her busy inhabitants. The container must not have cost that much to create.

Does packaging reputation and image have to run one into a poor house? Should reputation and image speak for themselves so they are not packaged? (Public relations executives are having seizures at the thought of images and reputation left to run rampant without proper supervision and channeling.)

Consumers2013-07-01 19.21.47_compressed judge a product by its packaging first. Readers judge a book by its cover first. How does a writer set himself or herself apart from the millions of past, present, and future writers? The competition is cut-throat even from babies in the womb who already know they are born writers. (Isn’t that what we say? “From birth…”)

How much money and effort should a writer expend on branding himself/herself? On packaging a book? The book should come first and should brand the author (as I wrote previously) and his/her reputation and image. Should a writer pour every available funds into the design of a cover?

What about the interior, the story? What if it sounds like every other story? What if the characters are as unmemorable as a bore’s equally mind-numbing routine? What if the peak rises no higher than balled dough without yeast? Therein lies the problem. Like movies, no one can guarantee success or failure of a literary piece until after its release. 2013-07-03 10.33.14_compressed

I would like to think that the story, the interior, captivates than the cover, which makes me an oddball. One should judge a book by its interior first. After readers sacrifice sleep to devour the interior of a book, that is truly when branding and judging should begin.

Like an impatient reader, I just want to get to the story/tea quickly and dispense with the frustrations of threads and unwrapping. The brew in the circular bag titillated my senses. Like the exceptionally suspenseful story it held inside the Camellia sinensis, I gulped every drop and wanted a second London cuppa! (This is not a paid endorsement or advertising.)

May 29, 2013 Gallery

Under the Cover of Cowardice

Mrs. B. Carter

Mrs. B. Carter

The recent incident of a fan degrading Beyoncé by slapping her buttocks has brought this unsavory topic into the open again. According to Yahoo.com, Mrs. Carter was performing in Copenhagen, Denmark, when a man slapped her derriere.The

 

New Zealand Herald reported that the famed singer chastised the reprobate with “I will have you escorted out right now, all right?” My situation was similar but different in a frustrating way.

My daughter and I used to go to Disney World every December (to avoid the spring break and summer exodus to Florida). Unwilling to deal with the hassle of securing a hotel room, I bought a time-share property. On one of those trips, we had just exchanged pleasantries with Mickey and Minnie Mouse. I turned to walk away. The pervert hiding under the Mickey Mouse cowardice slapped my buttocks.

Like Beyoncé, my initial reaction was disbelief that someone had the audacity to touch my body. Turning around instinctively and ready to deal the lascivious idiot a consequence, my trauma worsened when the Mickey Mouse debaucher began prancing with glee and laughing loudly. Myriad emotions chased themselves on my face.

Parents and children watched. I felt helpless to give in to my instinct of doling him what he deserved. My daughter watched petrified that I would deck Mickey Mouse, that (she told me later)  she would be known as the child whose mother beat up Mickey Mouse.

The anger that blazed in my eyes and my taut body that bucked threateningly at the leech seemed to increase his depraved joy. My inability to take any course of action elevated my anger. I sold the time share. That was the last time I took my daughter to Disney World.

Regardless of the word used to describe this criminal act, (“Eve teasing” in India), touching someone without invitation is offensive and invasive, what I call body trespassing. Like all trespassing crimes, the offended has the right to take suitable actions to protect body and self-worth.

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “It is unlawful to harass a person because of (that person’s) gender through unwelcome sexual advances… and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature…”

Perverts steal innocence and damage joy fast. No one can understand the gamut of emotions running through a person’s mind when another human violates the sanctity of his or her body.

The last of those emotions is regret. I should have sued Disney World for employing a miscreant, a deviant who not only violated my person but who violated children’s innocence and their belief in the sanctity of the (perceived) marriage institution of Mr. Mickey and Mrs. Minnie Mouse.

I should have sued Disney World. Beyoncé could sue the harasser, but he might be a penniless buffoon. Also, the legal demand on her time would steal the joy of spending valuable time with Jay-Z and Blue Ivy. Why bother with a riff-raff? 

March 6, 2013 Gallery

Does Lack of Education Kill?

That seems to be one of the findings of a recent study published on Monday, March 4, 2013, by two University of Wisconsin researchers, David Kindig and Erika Cheng.

It used to be common knowledge that women outlived men by several years, but that gap seems to be narrowing. Mike Stobbe of the Associated Press states that the average life span for a baby girl born today is 81, and for a baby boy, it’s 76. The gap has been narrowing. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows women’s longevity is not growing at the same pace as men’s.

This phenomenon of some women losing ground appears to have begun in the late 1980s, though studies have begun to spotlight it only in the last few years,” Stobbe explains.

http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=587Kindig and Cheng poured over federal death data and other information to discover that among the 3,141 U.S. counties over a 10-year span, mortality rates for women age 75 and younger is on the rise. These deaths were considered “premature deaths” because many of them are considered preventable.

What’s largely to blame? Lack of  education! As a veteran social studies teacher, I deciphered statistical data for many countries as recorded in the CIA World Factbook. I, Frances Ohanenye, arrived at this conclusion: Countries with low literacy rates have high adult and infant mortality rates. The studies by Kindig, Murray, and others confirm what I have surmised all these years.

A similar study undertaken by Dr. Christopher Murray of the University of Washington two years ago found that women in the South who did not finish high school were dying at a high rate.

According to Stobbe, other studies with a similar focus found that life expectancy seems to be growing for more educated and affluent women. Some experts also have identified smoking or obesity among women as factors dragging down life expectancy.

“The study is the latest to spot this pattern, especially among disadvantaged white women. Some leading theories blame higher smoking rate, obesity, and less education,” Stobbe explains.

Lack of education has been linked to increase in the HIV epidemic in the South and researchers continue to document positive relationship between high level of education and health. Other studies are throwing in the effects of recent recession and astronomical unemployment rates in the mix to determine the impact of these economic components on education and age on mortality.

January 5, 2013 Gallery

Confession of a Watch Lover

With the arrival of the New Year, everyone has a heightened awareness of time. People are making all sorts of resolutions with deadlines on how and when to accomplish those goals. I have all kinds of opinions about time because of my ambiguous relationship with it now. But more than those ambivalent connections, I still respect and admire time. Evidence of that admiration is my ownership of several watches.

I used to own many watches, 14 at one time, to coordinate and complement my outfits, but I must confess that, that relationship has gone awry. I have allowed my emotion for time pieces to fall by the way side. Time was when I used to race to the nearest store to buy batteries for my watches lest they failed to keep accurate time.

I confess that I have allowed time to steal away the importance of time from me. (Every fun intended here.) Time is ubiquitous now. Every appliance is equipped with the measurement for the passing of intervals. Every technological invention comes with an LCD heralding the stages of life slipping away without notice.

Frances' watches

Frances’ watches

I confess that my watches now sit expired. The hour, minute, and second hands are as still and as noiseless as a dead mouse. Granted, I still wear them, but they have lost their functionality. They just sit on my arm, an adornment for fashion only.

This laptop that is pounding away is equipped with time. My cell phone has an alarm and a clock built into it, my clock-radio has clock, the television has a clock on the lower right hand corner and across the chart that shows programs featured or forthcoming, the microwave, stove, big clock in the hallway, the car, printer, DVD player, and numerous other pieces have stolen the functionality of the watch as the keeper of time for those on the go.

I guess one could look at it as division of labor, but I look at the watch as a fashion accessory and no longer as a time keeper since I hardly consult it to keep me informed of my obligations since the one on my wrist is woefully silent. I do not know that I would use the word love anymore when I refer to watches. Once upon a time, I really had a huge admiration for watches because of their multi-purpose in making us feel important.

I admired a well-dressed man who twisted his arm with drama just to make the world behold the expensive specimen on his wrist. I still admire him for raising my temperature and for being fashionable, but the watch, alas, does not raise my eyebrow or temperature as it did once, not even the expensive Rolex, not anymore. My watches now serve as a second bangle or bracelet on my left wrist. Like Muhammad Ali said in a famous commercial, “My face is so pretty, I deserve two” (watches). I certainly deserve two bracelets: one of them a watch and the other a bracelet.

December 14, 2012 Gallery

Final Meditation Journal Entry

As school ends and my academic obligations with it, I am so relaxed that I feel compelled to finish what I started: the journal of my meditations with Dr. Deepak Chopra. Here are the last entries in that journal.

Finding Peace

Finding Peace

Entry 17: Today’s meditation starts out with tears, the left eye cascading down my face while the right eye comes down in droplets. I imagine an artist capturing these weird descents of tears as a theme for his or her art collection. Peace is so priceless. When you find it, you’ve found your bliss. Therefore, as they say, “Follow your bliss;” nothing else matters. Lack seems foreign because peace supersedes. I will move through today lighthearted and carefree knowing all is well. Today is a glorious day. I wake up grateful for all the promises it holds for me and for all. I move through today with grace in its gifts in smiles, kind words, hugs, lights that shine within, breaking bread this Thanksgiving day and sharing Earth’s abundant blessings. Bless us, oh Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ, our Lord. Amen!

Entry 18: I celebrate my unity with all life and nonlife knowing we are all one. The tears cascaded today and ran down my face into my sweater to be absorbed in unity as one. We are all one, indeed! If we would realize that and avoid the divisiveness that is making a mess of the human race, we truly would have the peaceful world we desire so much. We are all one. We need to be aware of that and take actions to restore peace in ourselves, in our families, in our communities, our counties, our provinces, our states, our nations, our continents, and in the world. What a beautiful life we would all have. We all live in ONE WORLD. The sad thing is that whatever we are fighting for and dying for and quarreling about will still be here when we all go to meet our maker. The earth will remain. Only humanity will pass away. The earth was here before we came. We need to love our neighbors—near and far—as we love ourselves. Then we shall have true peace. We all live in ONE WORLD. Namaste.

Entry 19: Dr. Chopra delivers such beauty in spoken words. Bliss is found in them. I am elevated to be and do better. I am centered in love and in life. Today, tears of love flowed in abundant drops without restriction. I will live from a state of love. Everything good is drawn to me. I will say, “I love you,” more often, one of the most emotional expressions in any language. Also, I have always lived love, but from now on I live love more profoundly. I know that at the core of my being, I have always been in tune with my heightened level of pure awareness, creativity, spirit, and love. I am in tune with my spirit, the one who feels, and the one who is love. Like the late Whitney Houston sang, learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all. Deepak Chopra says (and I have known this) the greatest gift you can give to anyone is love. I have never had the problem of loving myself. I am learning to love more people. Life is love and love is life, said an Indian sage to his followers. Love keeps the body together. Knowledge is the love of truth, adds Deepak Chopra. I love love; I love loving, and I love being loved because they all bring me closer to my inner self, the center of my quiet, the core of me, and the essence of my happiness and the happiness of those I love. Namaste.

Entry 20: I have known these little truths, but it helps to have them affirmed by Dr. Deepak Chopra today. I surround myself with luxury as often as I can because I am worthy of such luxuries. I like dressing up to have tea with friends. I make having tea in my house into a grand event with elaborate china; I like taking bubble baths, gardening, and plucking roses from my gardens, meditating, taking time to go within, getting in touch with my inner quiet, and connecting with my higher self. I have done these things routinely for internal peace, to heal within where no one sees the hurt, and to save my sanity. I deserve all the treasures the world has to offer, not material things, but the little things in life. When I was managing one of my father’s businesses, I coined a jingle for that supermarket, “Dealer in life’s little pleasures.’ Little things in life can give us so much pleasure, the little things that mean a lot. I don’t know when I realized that these little pleasures of life are the true essence, tiny bubbles of happiness. For that reason and many more, I call today’s tears, “tears of happiness” for my recognition of how valuable I am, a piece of gold, Deepak says, created from the love of the universe. I elevate myself always and value my life because I am a priceless human being. Namaste.

Entry 21: I am so grateful to Dr. Deepak Chopra and to Oprah Winfrey for introducing me and several thousands of people to this 21-Day Meditation Challenge which ends today. As I come to grip with its closure, I am resolved to continue this tradition as part of my self-discovery. I have accepted that abundance is mine to have, that it will flow readily into my life, and I resolve that “every moment of every day, I live my life abundantly.” I will continue to plant the seed of abundant consciousness. I stretch my hand to obtain the seeds from Dr. Chopra. As I plant the seeds, I water them with tears, today’s tears that came in droplet. I plant the seeds of abundant consciousness to grow more happiness, love, prosperity, anything else I co-create with my inner, higher self, anything I want while blissfully aware that abundance will flow effortlessly into my life. I trust that once I have planted these seeds, the sun, the rain from up above, and the rain from my eyes will cause them to grow and thrive into unlimited abundance. Thank you, Oprah. Thank you, Deepak. Namaste.

Entry 22: I logged into Dr. Chopak’s meditation website to recycle previous meditations. Imagine my surprise when I found a fresh recording titled, “Day 22.” The challenge concluded yesterday. It is so generous of Dr. Chopra to give generously of his time and talent. One who preaches abundance exemplifies abundance by giving an extra day; this is so, so fitting. Thank you for this surprising gift. Because you, Dr. Chopra, have elevated my awareness consciousness, I will do my part to heal the world in any little way i can. We are connected, all of us in this world, in this life. My tears today are dedicated to healing the world. It is my fervent wish that we find peace in our world and that we find that peaceable kingdom here on earth. Namaste.

Thank you for allowing me to share a profound experience in my life. I have grown within where it counts the most. Knowledge is love, and I have grown profoundly in both. Namaste.

December 12, 2012 Gallery

Together We Make a Difference in Writing

Anyone who knows me or who has been through this way (my blog) knows how intensely passionate I feel about writing. To sharpen my heightened interest in it, I participated in the National Writing Project, which has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a recipient of one of its i3  “Validation” awards. According to Elyse Eidman-Aadahl of NWP, “The ‘validation grant’ recognizes the performance of a particular program…The focus is on high need rural districts and work at grades 7-10.” NWP is among 20 organizations the Department identified as having the highest-rated applications (HRA) for FY 2012.

Eidman-Aadahl explains further that the goal of the validation strand in i3 is to produce the data that would recognize (essentially qualify) an entity or an approach for further investment. If NPW does well, it will pass a huge hurdle for future federal investment, and that is a very significant achievement.

This validation is conditional, that NWP raises its own funds to match that awarded by the USDOE. As USDOE puts it, “Potential i3 grantees under the U.S. Department of Education’s i3 program are responsible for obtaining private-sector matching funds or in-kind donations.“

Someone made a very crucial point. “It is absurd to imagine that any child will be able to earn a living, let alone contribute to resolving our world’s complex problems, without knowing how to read and write…” — Isabel Allende

NWP needs your help to sustain the different programs it runs for our nation. Please support the national and the local (Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project) sites that continue to provide vital resources to schools and higher education institutions across the country.  Click on this link to give generously.

Your contribution supports:

  • Student achievement in writing
  • Teacher excellence through high-quality professional development for teachers in all disciplines, early childhood through university
  • Leveraging the power of digital technology and the internet for use by teachers and young people
  • Writing instruction for teachers and students in high-need schools and communities
  • A national network of teacher-leaders and Writing Project sites building knowledge about writing and learning in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Referencing the USDOE information on i3 validation, “These grants will (1) allow eligible entities to expand and develop innovative practices that can serve as models of best practices, (2) allow eligible entities to work in partnership with the private sector and the philanthropic community, and (3) identify and document best practices that can be shared and taken to scale based on demonstrated success.”–Investing in Innovation (i3)

I am a member of the National Writing Proram, a journey that I was very lucky to be chosen to be a part of this summer (2012), a journey that transformed my life, view, and appreciation of all teachers and students of writing.

Although teachers know the intrinsic connection between writing and higher level thinking, it comes as a welcome reminder when NPW awakens our awareness of that fact. “Across the popular press, reporters and commentators have sounded the centrality of writing in the Common Core; the significance of writing in coherent, thoughtful curricula; and the clear connection between success in writing and success in college and career.”

Thousands of teachers are members of NWP, and I am one of such lucky people. When you visit my National Writing Program page, you will see my Knowledge Cloud, words that I have used in my postings on the NWP site collected together much like a Wordle. That’s how amazing the National Writing Program is.

Writing is a very beneficial aspect of humanity, the most significant quality that truly pits the intelligence of humans above any other species. I am growing in my connection to writing and to writing friends. Together we can make a difference in writing and in helping NWP continue its unmatched efforts.

Frances Ohanenye’s Knowledge Cloud

December 2, 2012

Hope for Humanity

Once in a while, I “drive” around to other blogs and never know what I will encounter. November, my birth month, filled me with gratitude for many things. I am grateful for my daughter, my brothers, my sister, my wonderful parents and all they gave me before they left me, and many uncountable reasons and people. This month I am hopeful for humanity. The blog has proven more than an outlet for writing. It is an outlet for us to link our arms around the globe and share our commonality, our oneness as occupants of this amazing universe that gives back so abundantly.

During my recent journey, I came across several posts that made me feel very good; hope sprung anew in me: http://professionsforpeace.com/, http://themysteryofchrist.wordpress.com/, http://godisabrowngirltoo.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/fifty-ways-to-love-yourself-by-cecilia-b-loving/, http://candidpresence.wordpress.com/ (Unity in Diversity), http://www.lynnewatts.blogspot.com/, http://hashhs.blogspot.com/2010/09/andrea-beland.html, and others that made me feel that we are all in “this” together. I truly have hope for humanity.

people around the world