Lately, I’ve been hearing the call of nature. Fortunately, I decided to listen.

I’ve missed my dear friend. During the winter, when nature is in hibernation, I find it harder to make the connection. I still feed the birds, take walks and look at the sleeping trees, but it is harder to sense the aliveness that lies dormant, ready to return in the miracle of spring.

I continue to find both big and little joys in nature. My love for nature started as a child, playing in the yard, finding birds, butterflies, insects and other critters in attendance. I let this connection go fallow for much of my teens and twenties.

And then reconnected during my grand adventures traveling around the country in my VW Westfalia van. During this time, my passion for nature truly blossomed. I was so inspired and in awe of the beauty that I found in our…

Lately, I’ve been hearing the call of nature. Fortunately, I decided to listen.

I’ve missed my dear friend. During the winter, when nature is in hibernation, I find it harder to make the connection. I still feed the birds, take walks and look at the sleeping trees, but it is harder to sense the aliveness that lies dormant, ready to return in the miracle of spring.

I continue to find both big and little joys in nature. My love for nature started as a child, playing in the yard, finding birds, butterflies, insects and other critters in attendance. I let this connection go fallow for much of my teens and twenties.

And then reconnected during my grand adventures traveling around the country in my VW Westfalia van. During this time, my passion for nature truly blossomed. I was so inspired and in awe of the beauty that I found in our…

A late addition to our Friendship post from Juli 🙂

beacon
anchor
mirror
prop
my “you can do it”
and my trusted counsel: “stop!”

mi casa es su casa
as like family, you know you are

we share
we dare
we fight
we cry
we laugh
we scamp
we stride into the world
as lamps

and, whether it’s together
or by miles apart
always
the love of friendship is
a gift of courage
to the mind and in the heart

See Original

Goddess_of_Rain_artwork by_shadowgirl

Eudora, Goddess of the Rain

From throne of cloud and bird

Come and wash Earth free of pain

♦

Though nothing you will gain

I hope compassion stirred

Eudora, Goddess of the Rain

♦

With heart of love and not disdain

My plaintive pleas you’ve heard

Come and wash Earth free of pain

♦

I sing to you this sad refrain

With tears, my vision’s blurred

Eudora, Goddess of the Rain

♦

Man, with blood, the Earth did stain

Where hate and violence most occurred

Come and wash Earth free of pain

♦

In kindness we will retrain

I give to you my word

Eudora, Goddess of the Rain

Come and wash Earth free of pain

♦

~Melanie Blackwell

See Original

Goddess_of_Rain_artwork by_shadowgirl

Eudora, Goddess of the Rain

From throne of cloud and bird

Come and wash Earth free of pain

♦

Though nothing you will gain

I hope compassion stirred

Eudora, Goddess of the Rain

♦

With heart of love and not disdain

My plaintive pleas you’ve heard

Come and wash Earth free of pain

♦

I sing to you this sad refrain

With tears, my vision’s blurred

Eudora, Goddess of the Rain

♦

Man, with blood, the Earth did stain

Where hate and violence most occurred

Come and wash Earth free of pain

♦

In kindness we will retrain

I give to you my word

Eudora, Goddess of the Rain

Come and wash Earth free of pain

♦

~Melanie Blackwell

See Original

In the spring as the cotton flowers
flew in the wind
In the hilly lands of poets and pine groves
I witnessed a heritage past

Paying homage to the aspirations
of adventurers of inkhearts
Embracing legacy now only words remain
yet they remind of the writer’s pain…

Words paint a picture of infinite colors
strike the chords of thoughts in so many ways…
mortals of dust forever remain alive
in the yellow torn page

the vicissitudes of pen names
show not mere words but memories hidden
stirred is the soul by aching heart
loud enough to break the silence of wrongs apart,
for stabbed by the swords of a mighty pen
empathy rises following the shadow of thoughts

Tricia Somers enjoys watching her 8-year-old son play with Legos. She knows moments like this could soon be gone, not because her son is growing up, but because she is dying.

Somers, 45, was diagnosed with liver cancer last year. In March, she found out it was terminal. The single mother’s biggest concern was her son and who would take care of him when she died.

“He is the only thing I got and I have to leave him,” she said. “It is really hard and I feel bad that I am doing that to him and he says, ‘Mommy it is not your fault.’ “

Somers’ options were limited. Her parents passed away from cancer years ago, her brother told her he did not see a child in his life, and her ex-husband has not been a constant in Wesley’s life.

She was devastated until a nurse, with the…