“After work on Friday, I gave some food to the homeless people who hang out by Civic Center Station. With one sandwich and a croissant, I felt bad when I realized I didn’t have enough to feed everyone. But a kind, older man told me that seeing me happy was enough to brighten his day.
As I ran down the stairs, he called after me. I stopped midway and braced myself for the insult I was sure he’d spit out. He’d changed his mind; I was inconsiderate, lazy, privileged – or worse, he’d call me something derogatory, sexual.
But instead he said, ‘Young lady, don’t let nobody take your joy.’”
Meredith Jaeger, a San Francisco writer in love with women’s fiction, 9/1/13
Tag: everyday Americans (Page 7 of 7)
Yes, I admit, NCIS is my favorite TV show to date. Quite often this Navy based television series tackles real world military topics. Indeed, “Shooter” takes a look into the troubling subject of homeless veterans.
Hardly the poster boys and girls for public perception of what it means to be homeless in America, this episode strives to break the stereotypes of homelessness and joblessness. And while examples given in this article are pulled from the television show, there are countless stories of real vets in real situations clamoring to be heard.
This NCIS episode gives voice to the problem in a way that is easily assimilated into the mindset of our mainstream population; offering entertainment with thought provoking moments written within the scripted dialogue. Continue reading
Note: Yes, I do have a connection to each of these recently published indie books. In the spirit of artistic solidarity, I present this modest list of suggested titles. Representative of 3 different genres, content as well as individual style varies greatly among them. Let’s take a look. (click on book cover photo for more details)
- The Genesis Resolution by T.D. Freiberg
- The Quaker Café by Brenda Bevan Remmes
- Serving Up Memory: Stories, Poetry & Recipes by the Camden Writers Continue reading
Barn buddies: Joanne & Skipper & Me
I figured you guys needed a horse photo fix, so here’s one of us taken the end of May just minutes before tacking up the horses for the 2nd Annual Bethlehem Therapeutic Riding Stables Horse Show. My, don’t we look fresh and perky? It’s a far cry from how we all look and feel now during the dog days of this endless South Carolina summer.
I love doing horse therapy. Today I spent another Southern morning amongst sweaty horses and humans. All of us out and about focused on the task at hand. Humans enabling horses to enable Wounded Warriors who in turn enable us all to thank God for this gift of life. Truly, it is a privilege to be part of such a place.
I came home after four and a half hours of such enabling, drenched. Soaked to the bone with non-secretive sweat patches emerging over 90% of my clothing. Not quite a wet T-shirt display, but daringly close to one! Continue reading
Note: In keeping with the theme of this previously written Swimming with Swans vignette (2012), we celebrate in spirit with our daughter Hava as she receives her J.D. degree this weekend (2014).
Celebrations and Inspirations
from-Swimming with Swans: vignettes of our three journey between homes
May 2012 (Westminster, CO)
In honor of this time of year: a time of graduations, weddings and new beginnings. It is a time of celebrations and inspirations.
- Bobby is graduating College with a BFA in Studio Art this weekend.
- Our daughter Michelle is getting married in September.
- Our son Joe is in a few new bands and learning to balance work, play and school as a bachelor guy.
- My husband and I are faithfully walking the life-path before us regardless of its many mysteries.
- A colleague and friend Bill, has survived two years of intense cancer treatment and is entering into a new cancer-free life.
And there’s more, oh so much more to be thankful for and to celebrate… Continue reading
‘Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever.’
Brennan Manning
4/27/1934 – 4/12/2013
Triage by Lisel Mueller
from: Alive Together (new and selected poems)
“Bertolt Brecht lamented that he lived in an age when it was almost a crime to talk about trees, because that meant being silent about so much evil. Walking past a stand of tall, still healthy elms along Chicago’s lakefront, I think of what Brecht said. I want to celebrate these elms which have been spared by the plague, these survivors of a once flourishing tribe commemorated by all the Elm Streets in America. 
But to celebrate them is to be silent about the people who sit and sleep underneath them, the homeless poor who are hauled away by the city like trash, except it has no place to dump them. To speak of one thing is to suppress another. When I talk about myself, I cannot talk about you. You know this as you listen to me, disappointment settling in your face.”
At home: The family that geeks together, stays together
Three members of the Hart Family work at NOAA. Joan and Bobby are currently on ‘lock-out’ while Leslie is on ‘furlough.’