People are sooo… interesting. I love to listen to people and their stories. I talk to authors, musicians, play writes, , factory workers, and other people who inspire me. Sometimes I meet people through mutual acquaintences; some I meet in restaurants, standing in line, or taking a vacation. If you know someone interesting, please send them my way.
“For every subtle an complicated question, there is a perfectly simple and straightforward answer, which is wrong.” – H. L. Mencken
Maybe this is about health care; maybe it’s about health insurance; maybe it’s about parenting a mildly mentally disabled adult. Then again, maybe it’s just me trying to get my thoughts in order, because this is one bizarre story. One with a happy ending. I think.
Duckie at her happiest: Healthy and Active.
I remember when the whole thing started, as clearly as if it were yesterday. I flew in from San Diego, picked Duckie up from work and headed 2 hours north, into the next State, for a short vacation. That day was the first of the manifestations.
“My leg hurts,” Duckie said.
“Where?”
“Right here.” Duckie rubbed deep on the top of her left thigh.
“You did work an 8 hour day.”
Duckie is a courtesy clerk at the local grocery store. She bags your groceries, loads blocks of salt and dog food into your car, and brings all those carts back to the store. When the weather is nice, she walks the 3 miles to work and back. She enjoys the walk; it’s part of her weight management plan. Besides being a bit overweight, Duckie is in great physical shape. Her normal work schedule is 15-20 hours a week, in 4 hour shifts. Sharing Duckie’s life gives me a whole new appreciation Continue reading
English: Cape Coast Castle is a fortification in Ghana. The Castle was built for the trade in timber and gold, later it was used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, today it accommodates a museum operated by the Ghana Heritage Trust. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Grounded by her past, Charima Daoudi is poised to step into her future. It’s refreshing to meet a young woman, barely out of her teens, who has such a firm grasp of where she’s going and how she’s going to get there.
Statuesque beauty and soulful dark eyes attract me to the quiet intensity of Charima. She is apparently unaware of her charm as her words bring to life her vision of how she intends to use her life. She has a definite sense of destiny, which seems unusual for someone of her generation. Even Charima’s college choice demonstrates an appreciation for her personal history and responsibility.
As a little girl, Charima dreamed of writing for National Geographic. Her dreams were, at least in part, inspired by her talented and traveled family. Her Dutch grandmother is an author of books about the African Diaspora, the dispersion of Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Her mother and her Algerian born father told Charima stories, in foreign languages, of far away lands. Charima understands that her past helps define who she is today. Still, she knows it’ll take hard work to make her future happen.
Without the daily banter of her parents, the French that Charima learned as a little girl faded. But the lure of really knowing a foreign language is still alive. To sharpen her ability, Charima spent four months in France and immersed herself in the culture. In Paris, she found it possible to find tourist savvy French who could speak English. But during the time spent n the countryside and quaint villages like Dijon, where English is rare, Charima began to actually think in French. After her four months in France, Charima traveled on to Netherlands where she connected with some of her Dutch relatives.
Charima is a full-time student at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, ranked “Best Value College” and “Best in Midwest” by Princeton review. George Washington Gale and other strong antislavery Congregationists and Presbyterians founded Knox College in the 1830s. The liberal arts degree that Charmina seeks promises to focus on issues of our time and our ancestors. Her combined major in Anthropology and Sociology will prepare her for her life’s work.
Charima hopes to put her education to work in the field of emerging cultures. Coupled with her guest student study of journalism at National Louis University, Charima’s photo-journalism class rekindled her childhood dream. With her talent and dedication, I will be surprise to see her as a regular contributor to a well-recognized journal. Perhaps Charima Daoudi will be a featured journalist in National Geographic, just as she imagined not so long ago.
Did you ever buy something you just love and then can’t find it again? Did you ever get so delighted with a purchase that you had to tell someone? Did you ever meet someone who impressed you with his or her commitment to quality? All three things happened to me just before I went on my camping trip. (Spoiler alert: remember last week’s Photo Friday.)
I bought these great pair of flip-flops in Hilton Head. I was attending a conference and the flip-flop sandals were an end-of-season-great-price in the resort gift shop. The flip-flops were $30. On sale. It was 10 whole years ago.
What? You’re probably asking. $30 for a pair of flip-flops? I hate to shop; I’m not that woman who moans when she smells good shoe-leather. (That’s my sister, Deanna.) Still, every once in a while, I decide to treat myself to something purely unnecessary; something that makes me feel pampered; something a wee bit extravagant.
This year, one of the sandal toe-ribbons on my flip-flop broke. Oh how I love that gentle gross-grain ribbon between my toes; no break-in-my-flip-flop blisters to welcome me to summer. Okay, maybe it is time I gave them up anyways. The fabric is getting a little tattered looking.
My 10 year-old sandal; the one with the ribbon still intact. Okay, it IS a little worn out.
Yes, I was wearing the same sandals for the past 10 years. A quick trip in the washer, and dried in the sun, and I am set to go again. Good as new. Lucky for me, the leather Peanut still proclaimed loud and clear: Eliza B. So for $30 over 10 years, that’s just $3 a year. A pretty good deal. One I want to repeat. Continue reading
Did you ever meet someone, who immediately left an impression on you that you knew would last a lifetime? That’s what happened when I met Emerson Doering. Who wouldn’t be impressed? The lanky, young blond pulled a pear tree across a lot on a piece of cardboard. The tree was no sapling. Emerson dragged a tree with a 3” diameter trunk the length of a football field.
Holy smokes. I believe Emerson Doering can do just about anything. So, it’s no surprise that she’s impressed me again as an outstanding fiction writer. I jumped at the chance to talk with her about her new thriller, KNOCKDOWN. Her characters are so believable, they are with me yet, and it’s been a couple months since I “turned the last page” on my Kindle edition.
A few of Emerson’s writer friends challenged her about Continue reading
Judith Wright An old friend from high school. We’re both a long way from the self-consciously confident students we once were, “Judy” and I still keep in touch.
Judy Sewell, a bookish student involved in publication, orchestra, marching band, and student council, says she was a plain chubby girl searching for something, unaware what she was missing and unable to identify her dreams. The year Judy graduated from high school, at least one high school teacher, Bonita Ansbaugh, knew that Judy stood head and shoulders above her peers and recognized her for outstanding achievement in publication. Perhaps this small vote of confidence helped Judy have the self-assurance to put effort into identifying and pursuing her dreams. On September 20, 2008, Swartz Creek High School honored Judith Wright (Judy) with the Outstanding Alumni Award.
Judith Wright is a recognized and sought after personal coach and self-help expert. She appeared on over 50 television programs including Continue reading
