tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31613166091519126462024-02-06T23:44:14.087-08:00The Beanstalk ChroniclesJhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-5159062358601661382015-05-17T21:11:00.000-07:002015-05-17T21:11:17.197-07:00Clapping my Hands & Rattling My Jewelry...*Will be Posted On Monday.Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-34210581244491163902015-05-10T20:41:00.000-07:002015-05-11T12:06:41.241-07:00Maternal Observance<br />
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<a href="https://youtu.be/GCyqhi55O-8">https://youtu.be/GCyqhi55O-8</a> ~ Gone Too Soon~Daughtry<br />
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“A flower bloomed already wilting. Beginning its life with an early ending...” ― R.J. Gonzales<br />
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“Some people say it is a shame. Others even imply that it would have been better if the baby had never been created. But, the short time I had with my child is precious to me. It is painful to me, but I still wouldn’t wish it away. I prayed that God would bless us with a baby. Each child is a gift, and I am proud that we cooperated with God in the creation of a new soul for all eternity. Although not with me, my baby lives.” ― Christine O’Keeffe Lafser, <i>An Empty Cradle, a Full Heart: Reflections for Mothers and Fathers after Miscarriage, Stillbirth, or Infant Death</i><br />
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I hate this day! It is my third, least favorite day of the year. The other two days are the days that I lost our babies, who, for me, would have made this day a joyous celebration. It is a day when the facade that I have carefully put into place, that tells the rest of the world that it’s okay most of the time for me, crumbles all around me, because it’s NOT okay, and it never will be. My truth is unearthed and exposed, once again! Seventeen and 14 years later, and the sting of their losses is still acutely felt.<br />
William David and Adrian Rae – my gifts of immortality, who unfortunately became immortal before their father and I did. It goes against the grain...<br />
This last week, I have tried not to venture out any more than I have to, because I cannot bear to see all of the various assaults to <i>my</i> senses that have no adverse affect for anyone who hasn’t lost a child through miscarriage or stillbirth or early child death – all of the Mother’s Day cards, boxes of candy, offers for THIS perfect Mother’s Day gift or that one! “Send your Mother a special bouquet of flowers; take your Mother out for a well-deserved lunch...” It’s ALL too much for the heart of a mother such as I, to bear! It’s like the scab that’s been covering this wound, is ripped off, once again and the pain becomes overwhelming, in the blink of an eye. It is a stark reminder of what we lost – what we don’t have – what we’ll never have. It is an un-welcomed admonisher that I am a childless Mother here upon this earth.<br />
I see pictures of friends with their children on Facebook and Twitter, and hear about the gifts given, all deservedly so, but it makes my heart hurt. It’s not jealousy on my part, because I could never be jealous of such wonderful blessings that my friends and loved ones share with their children and vice versa. It’s more about all the life-experiences that my husband and I did not get to share with our children, that is driven home on a day like today with brut force. <br />
Perhaps, this year is a particularly bad one for me, because this would be a milestone year in our household, had I carried my pregnancies to term: our son would be looking at colleges and our daughter would be entering high school. Oh....it makes you wonder. WHAT would they be like? What things would they be involved in at school? What, if any career indicators would be evident? {Everyone knew early on that I would probably be a writer in some capacity.}<br />
Then, Tom made mention the other night, after he came home from a local baseball game with some friends, that he glanced around at one point and saw a lot of fathers there with their sons. It made him acutely aware, in that moment, of a longing that crept out and made him sad, because he never got to take our children to a ball game – no ball park dogs, Cracker Jacks and ice-cream cone pig-outs to share with excited children. There was a sharp pain that came in that realization, then all the other short-changes, resulting from those losses, somehow began to fall out and tumble down like a set of dominos, after the first one begins that descent: graduation, college, mating rituals, et al. <br />
I listened to him, with tears in my eyes, because of what my body stole from him. I will forever carry a guilt that I, as the one of us who could not deliver these babies to term, bear. I, inadvertently, took a legacy from him in addition to me, because my body was not able to hold our children for nine months, before it delivered them to us.<br />
People, outside of this circle that we are in, never understand that burden that I, as the mother carry. No one blames me for this, but me. Of course it was nothing that I did on purpose. On the contrary, I was told that my body fought to keep my first pregnancy viable longer than it should have been able to sustain it {story for another day}. It was nothing that I WILLFULLY did, but my body was the betraying culprit, nonetheless. If one didn’t feel some guilt over that fact, I don’t believe they’d be human. <br />
Every year, as Mother’s Day rolls around, I start to feel the pall of FAILURE begin to move through me like a wildfire and depress my senses, like a coffin’s cloak, wrapped around this day. It is a day of personal sadness for me. I try to make the most of it – to find some joy in it. However, the tinge of sorrow will always be a part of it. Always....There is simply no way around it.<br />
I think the most difficult part of this day, is when people ask if we have children? I do not deny them. I respond as graciously as I know how, thanking them for the happy greetings and telling them that we have two angels in heaven. That response does not lend itself to further conversation, except for apologies, and “the look”, which can only be defined as one of pity. I don’t like pity. I welcome compassion, but not pity. It is my responsibility, thereafter, to say something pleasant or upbeat, for example, to whoever is tending to us at a restaurant for lunch, so that their experience with us in the aftermath of that Q & A, will not to be an awkward one. <br />
The good of this day is that I am still blessed to have my mother with me. I celebrate her everyday, however, so I don’t need a special day set aside to do that.<br />
And, as this day begins to wind down, I feel the gritting of my teeth lessening, and my endurance, the one I have mastered lo these many years, in my attempt to make it to the end of this day with my heart not completely battered and bruised, now almost at hand. Tomorrow will be a new day in which to begin again, and I won’t have to think about this annual display for another 3~65. For me, therein lies the blessing...<br />
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“Ann: How my heart has ached. How empty I have felt. How I’ve ached to hold my two babies.”<br />
― K. Howard Joslin, <i>Honest Wrestling: Questions of Faith When Attacked by Life</i>Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-80256117484199832842015-04-28T21:30:00.002-07:002015-04-28T21:30:28.901-07:00Twenty years....* Come back shortly for postJhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-57224866367062814752015-04-22T12:40:00.001-07:002015-04-22T15:45:48.447-07:00And, the World Keeps Turning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://youtu.be/ihhiSi_XnMM">https://youtu.be/ihhiSi_XnMM</a> - Convictions of the Heart~Kenny Loggins<br />
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“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.<br />
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The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.<br />
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Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.<br />
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The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.<br />
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It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”<br />
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot<br />
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Today is Earth Day. What exactly does it mean – that 45 years ago, it was decided that we needed to set aside one day in which to honor Mother Earth? I appreciate the sentiment that peace activist, John McConnell, first proposed at the 1969 UNESCO Conference held in San Francisco, California. Ah....yes. The next question many of you may be asking is, WHAT is UNESCO? It is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It’s purpose is to, “contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture, in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights, along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the United Nations Charter.” Whew! Wow! THAT is a mouthful! Plain and simple: let’s ALL respect Mother Earth~let’s all do unto others as we want them to do unto us! Live and let live....in peace....in harmony. Love IS the answer! Is this hippie, love-child rhetoric? Who cares! Is it too much to ask? I don’t think so, but then, I’m a dreamer, you see...and, for the recored, I think we should honor our mother daily, not just once a year. But that’s me...<br />
There has never been a more important time to respect the earth upon which we live. Climate change surrounds us – not for the better, I might add. Slowly, by greed that chokes her, and poisons–toxins which pollute her and strangle the life force from her, we are killing the earth upon which we live. It is a sad, immoral state of affairs. If you don’t believe in climate change or aren’t certain WHAT exactly it is, go to NOAA’s website, and research it for yourself. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/climate/Climatechange.pdf <br />
In simplest terms, climate change is a long-term shift in the statistics of our weather patterns – averages included. Images of the Northwest Passage are staggering – when one looks at images of the Arctic from thirty years ago, compared to now the changes are visibly stark; the Alps have been warming at three times its global average. Go look at pictures of the Alpine Glaciers and see for yourself the changes in recent years. Last year, Kiribati, a small island in the Pacific, became the first country to declare that “global warming is rendering its lands uninhabitable,” and it is now seeking aid in evacuating its 100,000 inhabitants. The waters are rising in some areas of the world, and disappearing in others. <br />
The Great Barrier Reef is another area that is feeling the impact of climate change. Here, an estimated 10 percent of its coral was lost to mass bleaching between 1998 and 2002. Our oceans absorb the carbon dioxide we produce. As a result, we’re shifting the PH balance of these waters. The first effected by such changes are sea life, namely, lobster, crab, mollusks and sea snails, etc, that use calcium carbonate to form their exoskeletons and shells. Bleaching is becoming a serious problem in this area. As these reefs vanish, so shall fish and other forms of ocean wildlife will follow in due course, like dominoes tumbling down. The clock IS ticking...<br />
Who’s noticed an increase in catastrophic-producing weather conditions, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis? Let me make mention of hurricanes: 81 billion dollars has been paid out in claims resulting from Hurricane Katrina and other storms that hit Florida during the 2004-2005 hurricane season alone. Storms hitting various places in the world are stronger and more volatile than previously seen or recorded in our history, because it’s a consistent intensity that we are now dealing with, not the sporadic intensiveness in days of yore. It’s not like a “Galveston” happens, then we have a 30-100- year break before another storm of that magnitude approaches and hits. The weather-trinity {Motherlode} of deadliest U.S. storms: Galveston in 1900, the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, and 2005's Katrina, {Category 4+ storms} are becoming more the norm than the rarity of predictions.<br />
The dying roots of Darfur are not solely a result of the ethnic discord and tribulations of that region. Decades-long drought has strangled the life force out of this belt, and slowly has begun encroaching into the areas of the Central African Republic and Chad. When the U. N. Security Council held its first-ever debate over climate change, the Representative from Ghana stood and loudly declared his hope that the “repeated alarm about the threats posed by global warming would ‘lead to action that is timely, concerted and sustainable.’”<br />
Climate change is here, and we’re living it – seeing the effects of it. I need no debate. I have eyes that can see and read. I have ears that can hear and listen to what others who are more versed than I in such matters state are very real issues facing us. I have intelligence that can understand and process the concerns that must be addressed and addressed SOONER rather than later! <br />
Earth is such a beautiful planet. She deserves to be respected and tended to properly, with loving care so that future generations will be able to see and enjoy the Rain Forests of Central America; The Australian Great Barrier Reef; the falls of Niagra and the Everglades of Florida in the United States; and the jungles and deserts of Africa. The time is NOW to protect her! It should NOT be negotiable! We should be doing EVERYTHING in our power to sustain the earth on which we live!<br />
Today is the 45 annual celebration of Earth Day. Dr. Maya Angelou said, “when you know better, you do better.” We know that we have not been taking care of our planet as we should. On this Earth Day, let’s all pledge to be better stewards. Earth is the only place we have, after all, that we know for a fact we can live upon. As we celebrate today, may we not forget the words of the Prophet, Kahlil Gibran when he gave each of us THIS to consider: <i>“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair...”</i><br />
Happy Earth Day 2015, Everyone! May you be blessed, and may you be a blessing...Peace out~<br />
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<a href="https://youtu.be/wlR0KElxxVg">https://youtu.be/wlR0KElxxVg</a> - I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing~The New Seekers<br />
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<b style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><i>“If you want to be reminded of the love of the Lord, just watch the sunrise.” </i></b><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><b><i> ― Jeannette Walls</i></b><span style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/GjcU25_mqDY">https://youtu.be/GjcU25_mqDY</a> Julia Butterfly Hill ~ Divine Mirror</span></span></span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">s</span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/SRxnIxs-4Fg">https://youtu.be/SRxnIxs-4Fg</a> ~ Gift of Breath</span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/3LpEBMlTODo">https://youtu.be/3LpEBMlTODo</a> ~ Ancestors to the Future</span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/Ykd20ladr8E">https://youtu.be/Ykd20ladr8E</a> ~ Power of Love</span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/Su8oVQ2aBt0">https://youtu.be/Su8oVQ2aBt0</a> ~ Manifesting Heaven on Earth</span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/_VnCgx-66f0">https://youtu.be/_VnCgx-66f0</a> ~ Respect, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rejoice...</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><b><i>My husband had Ms. Butterfly Hill speak to his classes at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, MD back in 2004. It was my high honor to have made her an unexpected lunch of Vegan Chili, Corn Muffins with Jalapenos and Vegan brownies, which she gave two thumbs up. Tom still speaks of this experience with great respect and awe of what this woman accomplished.</i></b></span></span>Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-87053385626315179962015-04-13T20:32:00.002-07:002015-04-13T20:32:36.151-07:00The Long And Winding Road...<br />
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<a href="https://youtu.be/YfQXkrwnaUI">https://youtu.be/YfQXkrwnaUI</a> - The Long & Winding Road~Paul McCartney<br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/iYuyar-rrNY">https://youtu.be/iYuyar-rrNY</a> - Yellow~Coldplay<br />
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come back later tonight for post.<br />
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<br />Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-90296720383704273022014-10-26T09:05:00.001-07:002015-03-07T23:58:58.795-08:00Butterfly<br />
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<span style="color: #c27ba0; font-size: large;">“I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.” </span><br />
<span style="color: #c27ba0; font-size: large;">― John Keats, Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne</span><br />
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<span style="color: #c27ba0; font-size: large;">Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne</span><br />
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<span style="color: #c27ba0; font-size: large;">What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. ~Richard Bachman</span><br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/stcdNj0SANw">http://youtu.be/stcdNj0SANw</a> <span style="color: #c27ba0;"> - Butterfly~Mariah Carey</span></div>
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<span style="color: #c27ba0; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-42877695866171712962014-05-03T21:31:00.003-07:002015-11-18T08:21:50.414-08:00 Pure YellowWarning: There are a few profane words in this entry. Sometimes, they are the only words that fit the sentiment. I stand behind them.<br />
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Pure Yellow<br />
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Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. ~C. S. Lewis<br />
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Courage is fear that has said its prayers. ~Dorothy Bernard<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/bgiQD56eWDk">http://youtu.be/bgiQD56eWDk</a> Here Comes the Sun~The Beatles<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/iYuyar-rrNY">http://youtu.be/iYuyar-rrNY</a> Yellow~Coldplay<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/qzZiDGmr9F8">http://youtu.be/qzZiDGmr9F8</a> Free Fallin’~Tom Petty<br />
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Today was a yellow day. Perfectly — brilliantly yellow! Good doesn’t begin to adequately describe it, and I felt good living it, and being aware of every moment of it. You might be wondering what I’m talking about, and I shall tell you: today, Tom and I celebrate a friend who crossed the first item off of her bucket list of things she wants to do as she begins a new phase in the journey of her life. <br />
To give you the back story so you’re up to speed: three weeks ago, my friend, Stephanie, was given a shitty diagnosis of terminal and inoperable cancer. Stage IV Neuroendocrine Cancer, with a metastasis to the liver to boot. Yeah. It was a sucker punch [not to mention that it just plain sucked!] – one of those ones that hits you right in the gut, dead-center, and doubles you over....leaves you bent down for a while too as you try to catch your breath! <br />
Stephanie is only 50. She’s got a 10 year old son, and last summer, another son made her a grandmother for the 1st time. You can understand now why I referenced the diagnosis as “shitty”. The following day, the oncologist didn’t make that suck-ass news any better when he told her there wasn’t much they could do for her at this point. I mean, what are you suppose to do with that? You’re trying to gear-up mentally for the fight of your life, when the doctor cancels that game plan. It was sobering. Surreal. The entire weekend went back and forth like that — kinda like a see-saw. Up and down the emotions went. Back and forth the tears came. I can only imagine what she must have been feeling!? No. Scratch that. I can’t. I tried, but I can’t. I hurt for her, and I was scared for her, like any friend would be. I prayed a lot over the next few days because I believe in the power of prayer, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t ask for a miracle for her. I’m not gullible! Let me state that for the record. But, I’m a realist! I prescribe to the philosophy of Anwar Sadat who once said, “you aren’t a realist unless you believe in miracles...” I do. So, I asked God for one for her. Asking for something can NEVER hurt! EVER!<br />
Anyway. Stephanie is a rare one. She’s not going to roll over! She’s not going to go quietly! Those were her words. If this were a boxing match, I daresay it’s gonna be similar to the “Thrilla in Manilla” of 1975 between Ali and Frazier. What I know of Stephanie, she gives as good as she gets...so, in other words, this isn’t going to be an easy fight for cancer! Here’s a link if you’d like to check out the reference:<br />
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<a href="http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Muhammad_Ali_vs._Joe_Frazier_(3rd_meeting)">http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Muhammad_Ali_vs._Joe_Frazier_(3rd_meeting) </a> <br />
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Once she got her bearings back, she stated as much herself. This cancer may have altered the overall scheme of things for her long-term plans, but she’s in the driver’s seat til the end of the road. She wants to do as much as she can with the rest of her life, while she can – make some special memories for her children, and do those things that she thought she had more time left to do. Again, her words. She is an inspiration. That’s all I can say, and she has inspired me with the grace in which she's handled it all.<br />
The Sunday following her diagnosis, she sat down and wrote up a fund-me page, because she’s a single Mom, and this diagnosis blind-sided her – the rest of us too. She needs a little financial help to make this dream become a reality. Dreams aren’t cheap! Not the good ones, anyway! :-) {I’ll post her fund-me page at the end of this entry.} If you want to donate a love offering, we “ain’t to proud to beg,” to help make this dream of hers come true. She wants to do as much as she can, while she can. Did I say that already? Well, it bears repeating. The time is now! That’s a lesson for ALL of us: live now! Don’t wait! None of us are promised tomorrow. No one knows what the future will or won’t bring us, so live now with NO regrets! Those of you who know me know that, while I can be shy about asking for anything for myself, when it comes to my friends, I’m like a bull in a china shop! There’s not a shy bone in my body, when it comes to asking for someone else! Every $5 makes a difference and adds up! If you can forgo a cup of store-bought Java for one day or a burger and fries and maybe donate $5 toward helping someone make some memories with their child become a reality, which one would REALLY make you feel better at the end of the day? That’s all I’m saying...<br />
Now, the first thing on Stephanie’s list of things to do was skydiving or in the language of a person afraid of heights, as I am: “ Oh my God! She’s ACTUALLY going to jump out of a plane at 14,000 feet above the earth!” WHAT the hell is she thinking?<br />
Brave. I give her credit. When she wrote on Facebook that she was going to do it, one image came to mind: Luke and Laura in the ‘93 return on General Hospital where Laura froze when she saw how high up they were and that Luke seriously wanted her to jump out into nothing but sky with NO net below her. She became to scream – panic screams, and the only way he could get her to jump was to toss her purse out the door that had most of her important worldly possessions in it. {it’s on YouTube if anyone wants to see it.} I think in that moment, I might be willing to even let go of my worldly possessions! [I hear you all calling me a chicken!] Okay, I’ll cop to that!<br />
Truthfully, I think the ONLY way that I would go out of a plane at 14,000 feet is for someone to open the door and literally kick me out, even with my hands white-knuckled, holding onto the door jamb with EVERYTHING in me, but that’s me. Stephanie, on the other hand, will go out full-force – just taking it all on. I admire her fortitude. She invited her friends and family to join her for this adventure. I PM’ed her and told her that I’d be there in spirit, and would release a yellow balloon in solidarity. So, now, you’re up to speed.<br />
Friday, Stephanie left for Homestead, Florida with her youngest son. Tom and I went out and got our yellow smiley face balloons that afternoon, after he got home from work. We were ready for the big day. Stephanie sent us all a message pertaining to Saturday: 10 a.m.~lift off. She felt a mix of terrified excitement. I understood that. I felt a mix of terrified excitement for her! So, I set the alarm and waited for the sun to come up.<br />
I got up early. It looked like a beautiful day at our end. From hers, she reported early morning rain. <br />
“Please, God!” I whispered, as I read that! “Don’t let anything spoil this moment.”<br />
I did the only thing I knew to do. I sent out a song: “Here Comes the Sun.”<br />
It did the trick. The Beatles usually do! :-)<br />
Not long after, she posted that she was on her way to the airport. <br />
I leaned my head back and mouthed upward, “thank you!”<br />
We waited for a bit longer for word that it was all a go. Pictures were posted from the airport. Stephanie rocked the look! Let me tell you! I told her as much in a post. <br />
Tom and I got our balloons and went out on our back deck as the music played: “Yellow” and “Free Fallin’”. I took several pictures as we got ready to release our contribution to her moment. We held hands as we counted down, then let them go and watched as they drifted higher and higher up into the blue, as the music played in the background. It was a wonderful sight knowing that she was up there, and they were heading up to her! We watched until they disappeared from our view, then we went back inside, feeling a full gratitude moment. <br />
I carried that image with me the rest of the day – those two balloons, side-by-side, floating up, up and away into the wild blue yonder up to our friend. Later, I laughed, and cheered as I watched the image of her jumping toward earth, checking off the first item on a special “to do” list. It was emotional. I can only imagine the incredible feeling it must have been for her, as she sailed across the sky like a bird in high flight! <br />
Stephanie, along with family and friends who are down in Homestead with her are having a fish fry tonight – making some special memories. I told her Tom and I were going for ice-cream to top off the day’s celebration, just like Chris Martin said to the audience before he sang “Yellow” to them. And, so we did. It was a popular night to go for ice-cream too! By the time we got home, night was overtaking the sky. I looked up and saw my father’s star, right beside the moon. It’s not out every night. But, I know he had to come out and give a two thumbs up for the day’s events, because he enjoyed “WOW” moments as much as the next guy, and today truly was one of those! It was WOW and yellow all rolled up into one magnificent thing. Pure yellow – NO other words. <br />
I smiled as Tom and I walked to the side door. We could hear the puppies barking their heads off as if we’d been gone for a week! As we opened the door, they ran around in a crazy giddiness because we were back where we belonged, and all was right in their world. Tom and I said some silly greetings to them, and they took off in play as I chuckled to myself and turned to close the door. I thought about that sentiment for a moment: all’s right in the world. On this day, it was! From the window of the door, I could see the moon high up in the sky. As if sensing the importance of keeping with the day’s theme, it was yellow. Not just ANY yellow though, a deep golden one. I smiled and thought of Stephanie: Golden. Yellow. Brave. Bodacious. Beautiful. Loved. Yeah....that’s what it had all been. But, most of all: AMAZING! <br />
Upward and onward, as they say. On we go. There are more adventures and memories to be made...<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/ddEV13ekyOU">http://youtu.be/ddEV13ekyOU</a> Stephanie's jump - May 4, 2014<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/T3JzcCviNDk">http://youtu.be/T3JzcCviNDk</a> It Is Always Now~Sam Harris<br />
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<a href="http://www.gofundme.com/8hduh4">http://www.gofundme.com/8hduh4</a> - Stephanie’s Fund Me PageJhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-37734642455641040872014-02-17T21:07:00.000-08:002014-02-17T21:46:24.045-08:00P.O.T.U.S.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label." -Barack Obama<br />
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Barack Obama.<br />
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*Post will be forthcoming.<br />
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"Yes. We can!" {♥ this picture}Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-51491426258095233832014-02-11T21:11:00.001-08:002014-02-11T22:35:34.930-08:00The Voice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Whitney Houston.<br />
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Two years ago, the world lost, in my opinion, one of the most incredible voices ever gifted to us. I had the pleasure of seeing Whitney in concert back in her early days - when she first began her career. My mother and I sat mesmerized as she sang for several hours. Her range was tremendous. Her pitch was perfect. Her voice was unlike any we had ever heard before. When she let her band take a 20 minute break, and she stayed and sang gospel songs a capella, well, to say that it was incredible would be a gross understatement!<br />
I was saddened to learn two years ago that she had lost her struggle with that demon she carried inside. It's difficult to put a measure on a loss like that, and I'm not going to try, other than to say that she's missed. Thank God for the music! It is the gift that will last a lifetime. Thank you, Whitney! Rest in peace...<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/V0W924XsLu4">http://youtu.be/V0W924XsLu4</a> - One Moment In Time<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/slLGgch-igA">http://youtu.be/slLGgch-igA</a> - All At Once<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfaB4VS47CyM6daAwENVGfAHWCjVVxO5SdDDcFtGbdCAGw9BLlwNX6lvieJOO17nqumE0xrjs-bYGSW78kmP_o2RAiU05tX2o77BtlwVjA5kY1rQdoeArbB3tmljvXu1B8xXc14aISk7c/s1600/whitney5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfaB4VS47CyM6daAwENVGfAHWCjVVxO5SdDDcFtGbdCAGw9BLlwNX6lvieJOO17nqumE0xrjs-bYGSW78kmP_o2RAiU05tX2o77BtlwVjA5kY1rQdoeArbB3tmljvXu1B8xXc14aISk7c/s1600/whitney5.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/XS-BeP1Mb8I">http://youtu.be/XS-BeP1Mb8I</a> - The Greatest Love Of All<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/diToYaNJadk">http://youtu.be/diToYaNJadk</a> - Where Do Broken Hearts Go<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Hpj0ZtzQIgLyGHWM9oRvxedI9Zyum3QVXB2CVzAA62SnJggIk67RSy9zTgkbzmIPsZQNZCWPbXa_zAgvfce8vX305_nMAdR_EfHnUFXMfbip-cPqTCdLETocYA4sC9AyfxmfqBY42J8/s1600/whitney31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Hpj0ZtzQIgLyGHWM9oRvxedI9Zyum3QVXB2CVzAA62SnJggIk67RSy9zTgkbzmIPsZQNZCWPbXa_zAgvfce8vX305_nMAdR_EfHnUFXMfbip-cPqTCdLETocYA4sC9AyfxmfqBY42J8/s1600/whitney31.jpg" height="207" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/eAM2-hg7xJs">http://youtu.be/eAM2-hg7xJs</a> - When You Believe [Duet w/Mariah Carey]<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6atmzrcRfS65zvv95Ba_AP-thfN6eVfbmig_MWgNiONUNsegqYduGFkclNVXy-y0cNGEk4lxiRsQ2DLOQBQKaeIT2nczKZCOotRpitXXqMpGktXB-NWE18-aKQqG4HCpXaT4TrF2HDN8/s1600/whitney6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6atmzrcRfS65zvv95Ba_AP-thfN6eVfbmig_MWgNiONUNsegqYduGFkclNVXy-y0cNGEk4lxiRsQ2DLOQBQKaeIT2nczKZCOotRpitXXqMpGktXB-NWE18-aKQqG4HCpXaT4TrF2HDN8/s1600/whitney6.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHKOXCxwcDSmJ_eS3h5VAvlJXP_fDmgtukWyT2ilIV-kOLKT5oeQaS-_x_LN7jYJAKTiUdhGA6Ly1ztHtYesiL2855nNDKdDZrNssodetPmgLltUgbwfy5gyiAqiv4Wj4h6n-FzjEcss/s1600/whitney17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHKOXCxwcDSmJ_eS3h5VAvlJXP_fDmgtukWyT2ilIV-kOLKT5oeQaS-_x_LN7jYJAKTiUdhGA6Ly1ztHtYesiL2855nNDKdDZrNssodetPmgLltUgbwfy5gyiAqiv4Wj4h6n-FzjEcss/s1600/whitney17.jpg" /></a></div>
Whitney and Bobbi Kristina<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/0YjSHbA6HQQ">http://youtu.be/0YjSHbA6HQQ</a> - So Emotional<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuAStDhPZSw01znVm7U5sOepG35WpqZlXOsQVKkFpHiwSU57fV7_AfYctRJzxUKGhq35zaC7UlzKSNNljdWjEWyJcmm7nBLE39RQo6d88wD7r7aT3UcHg4PdS-ew4KmvAoSZcPWfkJiTA/s1600/whitney23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuAStDhPZSw01znVm7U5sOepG35WpqZlXOsQVKkFpHiwSU57fV7_AfYctRJzxUKGhq35zaC7UlzKSNNljdWjEWyJcmm7nBLE39RQo6d88wD7r7aT3UcHg4PdS-ew4KmvAoSZcPWfkJiTA/s1600/whitney23.jpg" /></a></div>
<a href="http://youtu.be/H7_sqdkaAfo">http://youtu.be/H7_sqdkaAfo</a> - I'm Every Woman<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgd3sN5ogrq8OiCA0VlpGGM0TN0dkKr2ROK69icbs3_0S3-MVu-ItIij3CTzbDspfPeKjWZ6yY5U3SWAFGxQ6W5aumBUqyftRyGavq9EY7Uyq00qIzun8PVVA4T6GgVILpztml54QLd7A/s1600/whitney13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgd3sN5ogrq8OiCA0VlpGGM0TN0dkKr2ROK69icbs3_0S3-MVu-ItIij3CTzbDspfPeKjWZ6yY5U3SWAFGxQ6W5aumBUqyftRyGavq9EY7Uyq00qIzun8PVVA4T6GgVILpztml54QLd7A/s1600/whitney13.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/F9i-HmNJq0U">http://youtu.be/F9i-HmNJq0U</a> - He/I Believe [Duet w/Cissy Houston]<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB0Wd0FXzPPVJqOgUrMVjQGlnpYur_TYXT-Z-mkOrfXg7YWUvxLd0xP5Ok2hw0An7rJkW0Seg7yZqpJ2dcwJzo7K0VGn8TA355-SUix15YqA-PG_3jswy32D1zU2a0L4bQbyLHJzRobkE/s1600/whitney19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB0Wd0FXzPPVJqOgUrMVjQGlnpYur_TYXT-Z-mkOrfXg7YWUvxLd0xP5Ok2hw0An7rJkW0Seg7yZqpJ2dcwJzo7K0VGn8TA355-SUix15YqA-PG_3jswy32D1zU2a0L4bQbyLHJzRobkE/s1600/whitney19.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/9UFYKEFlje0">http://youtu.be/9UFYKEFlje0</a> - I Know Him So Well [Duet w/Cissy Houston]<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMIjcjrOmLdZeL_QcSncpSAtl6XhBot5kYJeB1C0ZQThwiblHaRXXYmLx0hQM4-xC8cMWmloxWDtRmu-JkpGL0KoZ9qPbdkiMY2FO3773wn7rCT_0IA5YGQrbSpBo0OoHabE5DpJvYcM/s1600/whitney25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMIjcjrOmLdZeL_QcSncpSAtl6XhBot5kYJeB1C0ZQThwiblHaRXXYmLx0hQM4-xC8cMWmloxWDtRmu-JkpGL0KoZ9qPbdkiMY2FO3773wn7rCT_0IA5YGQrbSpBo0OoHabE5DpJvYcM/s1600/whitney25.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/5Pze_mdbOK8">http://youtu.be/5Pze_mdbOK8</a> - I Look To You<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj03rYYQ4L-eLKFJfgXnEMmYitGZikxY7kRKtiToSvpoTFdhHcebRuTL0274nUxJdPizJkiB3fyRgh8ViBHrH1xZz1Wu1kMTAH2cLtNNUwy73YpLrEg-qrA4SXq5bGBFrAwBb2jQhbA6z4/s1600/whitney7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj03rYYQ4L-eLKFJfgXnEMmYitGZikxY7kRKtiToSvpoTFdhHcebRuTL0274nUxJdPizJkiB3fyRgh8ViBHrH1xZz1Wu1kMTAH2cLtNNUwy73YpLrEg-qrA4SXq5bGBFrAwBb2jQhbA6z4/s1600/whitney7.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/wrTuV4Szxzo">http://youtu.be/wrTuV4Szxzo</a> - Exhale<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGBnXFJtmSFkhk2fKj5Q5AwoB4nf12MV97ZTiJaGBXzgZGDZ-OoxhJ0oE5_zvyWzyaHUkIjv2wUbNv3LqQ6mZjKmqoolR3BANs0H1nMebkhDwiM6uo1-KgMU46kMxR_VcSdczgtSbuxjI/s1600/whitney21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGBnXFJtmSFkhk2fKj5Q5AwoB4nf12MV97ZTiJaGBXzgZGDZ-OoxhJ0oE5_zvyWzyaHUkIjv2wUbNv3LqQ6mZjKmqoolR3BANs0H1nMebkhDwiM6uo1-KgMU46kMxR_VcSdczgtSbuxjI/s1600/whitney21.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/ZAdi3LIW898">http://youtu.be/ZAdi3LIW898</a> - Miracle<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvxZbHhtuxUhB26fE9G6RDbaJSDvnIheq7lm23JjtGTrcECcdAg3rJiHGdNgl6_xH9zIL7X1vqB3wpu6j2fwDd0CHO3CTLPRPI6tyK3hgmxBr4hP9p_pIIr-KKMJUq8-EgRl9sztgLVY/s1600/whitney10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvxZbHhtuxUhB26fE9G6RDbaJSDvnIheq7lm23JjtGTrcECcdAg3rJiHGdNgl6_xH9zIL7X1vqB3wpu6j2fwDd0CHO3CTLPRPI6tyK3hgmxBr4hP9p_pIIr-KKMJUq8-EgRl9sztgLVY/s1600/whitney10.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/KGL099t8i2s">http://youtu.be/KGL099t8i2s</a> - Bridge Over Troubled Water [Duet with Cece Winans]<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Hpj0ZtzQIgLyGHWM9oRvxedI9Zyum3QVXB2CVzAA62SnJggIk67RSy9zTgkbzmIPsZQNZCWPbXa_zAgvfce8vX305_nMAdR_EfHnUFXMfbip-cPqTCdLETocYA4sC9AyfxmfqBY42J8/s1600/whitney31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Hpj0ZtzQIgLyGHWM9oRvxedI9Zyum3QVXB2CVzAA62SnJggIk67RSy9zTgkbzmIPsZQNZCWPbXa_zAgvfce8vX305_nMAdR_EfHnUFXMfbip-cPqTCdLETocYA4sC9AyfxmfqBY42J8/s1600/whitney31.jpg" height="207" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/h9rCobRl-ng">http://youtu.be/h9rCobRl-ng</a> - Run To You<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwwWxomCwMDBD1uM7RCgZWFBCpRFrlVlARoIeiPhf-K1-t6qJFfPR1bNpkj0YvzOUZ99F6uUgcJbuLKyAu39PgZ2dXII9hzcs0AFi4S0BfCJoTrQDeUaE1nmjFQJVOMHwv7Jmtr-Uk69o/s1600/whitney12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwwWxomCwMDBD1uM7RCgZWFBCpRFrlVlARoIeiPhf-K1-t6qJFfPR1bNpkj0YvzOUZ99F6uUgcJbuLKyAu39PgZ2dXII9hzcs0AFi4S0BfCJoTrQDeUaE1nmjFQJVOMHwv7Jmtr-Uk69o/s1600/whitney12.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/N_lCmBvYMRs">http://youtu.be/N_lCmBvYMRs</a> - Whitney sings our National Anthem</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9eMMKB1-jJyDj7HH2ksxjMJntYPBxGmbNcM7hc7bgb_o7Dzls2BiibGMyPA50xm-wQqYGpg-lPQFrwL4Uo9NMDoQgRMoL-W5WOTYNfE-uVEfc8oS5Zb4LOmL4AZuPVHd_FSRDENLY2I4/s1600/whitney16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9eMMKB1-jJyDj7HH2ksxjMJntYPBxGmbNcM7hc7bgb_o7Dzls2BiibGMyPA50xm-wQqYGpg-lPQFrwL4Uo9NMDoQgRMoL-W5WOTYNfE-uVEfc8oS5Zb4LOmL4AZuPVHd_FSRDENLY2I4/s1600/whitney16.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/7m6QuqynqUI">http://youtu.be/7m6QuqynqUI</a> - Hold Me [Duet w/Teddy Pendergrass]</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwqcGaA0wn1BzvUyDTLmPEnMtKJEK6e_FdQ-E6lR4Nn7UIFj1R_99WbgVJQHUuvJCxpyQcryyXUobxiPDDtxt9TzzipjmkCCLCA5o89xanCJCrjX-WEbr6p-slP5V3AlRNl4GAUb6Ya50/s1600/whitney3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwqcGaA0wn1BzvUyDTLmPEnMtKJEK6e_FdQ-E6lR4Nn7UIFj1R_99WbgVJQHUuvJCxpyQcryyXUobxiPDDtxt9TzzipjmkCCLCA5o89xanCJCrjX-WEbr6p-slP5V3AlRNl4GAUb6Ya50/s1600/whitney3.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/aSvH4s-4sCQ">http://youtu.be/aSvH4s-4sCQ</a> - Battle Hymn of the Republic [performed for our military in VA]</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/t_UnGxm3OPs">http://youtu.be/t_UnGxm3OPs</a> - A Song for You</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/PVZTide-lWk">http://youtu.be/PVZTide-lWk</a> - Does It Hurt So Bad</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/ae2iX6vZCoM">http://youtu.be/ae2iX6vZCoM</a> - Count On Me<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/0BgeUfgyy-U">http://youtu.be/0BgeUfgyy-U</a> - I Didn't Know My Own Strength<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/uHm9Ggdanyo">http://youtu.be/uHm9Ggdanyo</a> - Jesus Loves Me<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/mK4hweZRU0k">http://youtu.be/mK4hweZRU0k</a> - I'll Always Love You...</div>
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ALWAYS...</div>
Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-24581542028874517112014-02-08T21:08:00.003-08:002014-02-12T06:04:22.824-08:00I've Got The Music In Me...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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“What we play is life.” –Louis Armstrong<br />
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“Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.” </div>
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–Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker</div>
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“They hear it come out, but they don't know how it got there. They don't understand that's life's way of talking. You don't sing to feel better. You sing 'cause that's a way of understanding life.”</div>
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–Ma Rainey</div>
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<a href="http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/guides/black_music_history_timeline.cfm">http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/guides/black_music_history_timeline.cfm</a> - Black on Track~Charting African-American Music History</div>
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<b>There are four core types of African-American music: gospel, blues, jazz and soul music:</b><br />
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<b>Gospel music includes religious hymns that slaves began singing in the fields as they worked to help them pass the time and cope with their living conditions; </b><br />
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<b>Blues coupled the religious story-telling of gospel to the primal rhythms of drums and guitars – hence the reference of R&B music. Early blues began in the south near the Mississippi delta, but was taken to different parts of the country by African-Americans who were seeking to escape racism and the poverty of the south;</b><br />
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<b>Jazz is a uniquely American form of music that came to prominence around the turn of the 20th century, some argue earlier, and has it roots in the African-American communities of the South. </b><br />
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<b>Soul music is a combination of various elements of all three of the above types. </b><br />
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<b>Music is the universal language. It is calming, soothing, restorative, and comforting. We use music for both joyous and solemn occasions – to celebrate; to mourn; to worship or just to relax. As we continue to celebrate Black History Month, I have included on this entry those pieces of music which nurture my soul — ease a troubled day — heal a broken spirit — elevate a happy heart and just make me smile. I hope you enjoy each selection.</b><br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/EfGDvDGE7zk">http://youtu.be/EfGDvDGE7zk</a> - Oh Happy Day! - The Edwin Hawkins Singers<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/lmGiu9JfbIs">http://youtu.be/lmGiu9JfbIs</a> - Soon And Very Soon - Andrae Crouch<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/hAi34inTwjU">http://youtu.be/hAi34inTwjU</a> - His Eye Is On the Sparrow - Shirley Caesar<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/ODmHMKfD_iY">http://youtu.be/ODmHMKfD_iY</a> - Great Is Your Mercy - Donnie McClurkin<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/as1rsZenwNc">http://youtu.be/as1rsZenwNc</a> - Precious Lord Take My Hand - Mahalia Jackson<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/w1GvAJjMS20">http://youtu.be/w1GvAJjMS20</a> - Through It All - BeBe Winans<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/cGWHxgG0FA4">http://youtu.be/cGWHxgG0FA4</a> - John Lee Hooker - Please Don't Go<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/NvYmL5KsvYA">http://youtu.be/NvYmL5KsvYA</a> - Mr. Bojangles - Sammy Davis, Jr.<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/esrihJQRiwM">http://youtu.be/esrihJQRiwM</a> - At Last - Etta James<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/fsjFi4KkOZc">http://youtu.be/fsjFi4KkOZc</a> - Mustang Sally - Wilson Pickett<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/SDkjHsuOuLc">http://youtu.be/SDkjHsuOuLc</a> - Yesterday When I Was Young - Lena Horne<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/qkXYqUB-9NM">http://youtu.be/qkXYqUB-9NM</a> - Every Time We Say Goodbye - Ray Charles & Betty Carter<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/9gytJemzNTM">http://youtu.be/9gytJemzNTM</a> - Lonesome Valley - Mississippi John Hurt<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/ZOTTYTGv22k">http://youtu.be/ZOTTYTGv22k</a> See See Rider Blues - Ma Rainey<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/fcAmwCnAChk">http://youtu.be/fcAmwCnAChk</a> - I'm a Man - Muddy Waters<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Kh3XOl_G_qE">http://youtu.be/Kh3XOl_G_qE</a> - Good Times - Phoebe Snow<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/QRefymu_Nj8">http://youtu.be/QRefymu_Nj8</a> - God Bless The Child - Whitney Houston<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/cT1YTkl0-NY">http://youtu.be/cT1YTkl0-NY</a> - John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman - My One & Only Love<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/_l9V_AmB2b0">http://youtu.be/_l9V_AmB2b0</a> - My Lucille - B. B. King<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/XodEFGIObsk">http://youtu.be/XodEFGIObsk</a> - Someone To Watch Over Me - Nancy Wilson<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/DYIqxDfg2bQ">http://youtu.be/DYIqxDfg2bQ</a> - Sweet Soul Music - Arthur Conley<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/dwyr40YbnWY">http://youtu.be/dwyr40YbnWY</a> - My Funny Valentine - Sarah Vaughan<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/JB2X5dfeTA4">http://youtu.be/JB2X5dfeTA4</a> - All Of Me - Count Basie<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/CI779D2tLyk">http://youtu.be/CI779D2tLyk</a> - Cry Me a River - Ella Fitzgerald<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/zqNTltOGh5c">http://youtu.be/zqNTltOGh5c</a> - So What - Miles Davis<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/vg14HPuXLOU">http://youtu.be/vg14HPuXLOU</a> - After All - Al Jarreau<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/_eXO7hrq2AY">http://youtu.be/_eXO7hrq2AY</a> - Absolutely Live - George Benson<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/CiVDzTT4CbE">http://youtu.be/CiVDzTT4CbE</a> - Wild As The Wind - Nina Simone<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/UTORd2Y_X6U">http://youtu.be/UTORd2Y_X6U</a> - All The Things You Are - Charlie "Bird" Parker<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/6zW_59nFO9U">http://youtu.be/6zW_59nFO9U</a> - Wishful Thinking - Earl Klugh [Discovered Him in college ♥♥♥]<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/6BvL-i--8Ws">http://youtu.be/6BvL-i--8Ws</a> - C'est Si Bon - Eartha Kitt<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/AcwYEGdKto8">http://youtu.be/AcwYEGdKto8</a> - You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine - Lou Rawls<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/ohW1RX0AA3U">http://youtu.be/ohW1RX0AA3U</a> - Back On The Block - Quincy Jones [Full Album]<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/w6DQavhJUrk">http://youtu.be/w6DQavhJUrk</a> - No Ordinary Love - Sade<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/U5TqIdff_DQ">http://youtu.be/U5TqIdff_DQ</a> - I Feel Good - James Brown<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/XS-BeP1Mb8I">http://youtu.be/XS-BeP1Mb8I</a> - The Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/M8AtyaxgtOU">http://youtu.be/M8AtyaxgtOU</a> - I'm Still In Love With You - Al Green<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/ypyiAT1RelU">http://youtu.be/ypyiAT1RelU</a> - Can't Get Enough of Your Love - Barry White<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/CU9Kg4pwu2k">http://youtu.be/CU9Kg4pwu2k</a> - Piano In The Dark - Brenda Russell<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/zcdDqTEgDwI">http://youtu.be/zcdDqTEgDwI</a> - I Want You Back - The Jackson Five<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Jzly6jrepRU">http://youtu.be/Jzly6jrepRU</a> - Papa Was a Rolling Stone - The Temptations<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/gGDgAaaMLjk">http://youtu.be/gGDgAaaMLjk</a> - Someday We'll Be Together - Diana Ross & The Supremes<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Rglxw5cbZWY">http://youtu.be/Rglxw5cbZWY</a> - Stone Love - The Supremes<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/dXGa__ECvnM">http://youtu.be/dXGa__ECvnM</a> - Everybody Plays The Fool - The Main Ingredient<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/xroRNBvvF9M">http://youtu.be/xroRNBvvF9M</a> - Chain of Fools - Aretha Franklin<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/o49S0uyM3vY">http://youtu.be/o49S0uyM3vY</a> - You Really Got A Hold On Me - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/MhRbTsI4Aes">http://youtu.be/MhRbTsI4Aes</a> - No Night So Long - Dionne Warwick<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/3JvkaUvB-ec">http://youtu.be/3JvkaUvB-ec</a> - Everyday People - Sly & The Family Stone<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/VOXmaSCt4ZE">http://youtu.be/VOXmaSCt4ZE</a> - People Get Ready - Curtis Mayfield<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/gbO2_077ixs">http://youtu.be/gbO2_077ixs</a> - A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/v78-ftcqpNw">http://youtu.be/v78-ftcqpNw</a> - Midnight Train To Georgia - Gladys Knight & The Pips<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/PHq81T80x7k">http://youtu.be/PHq81T80x7k</a> - The Jackson Five - Who's Loving You<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/dJm51jsRoo0">http://youtu.be/dJm51jsRoo0</a> - You Make Me Feel Brand New - The Stylistics<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/BvsVVexIYtY">http://youtu.be/BvsVVexIYtY</a> - Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time - The Delfonics<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/xVYxKRXDT2I">http://youtu.be/xVYxKRXDT2I</a> - Have You Seen Her - The Chi-Lites<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/wbGVh6p9aFI">http://youtu.be/wbGVh6p9aFI</a> - Proud Mary - Ike & Tina Turner [This one is for my mother]<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/81bgy94vdRI">http://youtu.be/81bgy94vdRI</a> - Me & Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/l3QvYIx0mfQ">http://youtu.be/l3QvYIx0mfQ</a> - Aquarius~Let The Sun Shine In-The 5th Dimension<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/HeHiio1sTTI">http://youtu.be/HeHiio1sTTI</a> - A Song For You - Donny Hathaway<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/0jVMTydhx1Y">http://youtu.be/0jVMTydhx1Y</a> - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Robert Flack<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/fHjZQb-kGek">http://youtu.be/fHjZQb-kGek</a> - A Kiss To Build a Dream On - Louis Armstrong<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/B7sfs4gWI0E">http://youtu.be/B7sfs4gWI0E</a> - When Will I See You Again - The Three Degrees<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/t4LWIP7SAjY">http://youtu.be/t4LWIP7SAjY</a> - Lady Marmalade - LaBelle<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/S9uZOCEl7v0">http://youtu.be/S9uZOCEl7v0</a> - Tell Me Something Good - Rufus<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/LTf0I5f-yhQ">http://youtu.be/LTf0I5f-yhQ</a> The Closer I Get To You - Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/PsRoXg5akks">http://youtu.be/PsRoXg5akks</a> - Superstitious - Stevie Wonder w/Jeff Beck<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/pWv6Nh-6Eis">http://youtu.be/pWv6Nh-6Eis</a> - Old Friend - Phyllis Hyman<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Gu2JBMNBbKo">http://youtu.be/Gu2JBMNBbKo</a> - A House Is Not a Home - Luther Van Dross<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/lnY5ThvmhaI">http://youtu.be/lnY5ThvmhaI</a> - A Smile Like Yours - Natalie Cole<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/qaYLWSo4fYM">http://youtu.be/qaYLWSo4fYM</a> - The Very Thought of You - Nat King Cole<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/zDlKb2cBAqU">http://youtu.be/zDlKb2cBAqU</a> - I'll Be Seeing You - Billie Holliday<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/ytLsW2K7b1Y">http://youtu.be/ytLsW2K7b1Y</a> - I Don't Want To Fight No More - Tina Turner<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/LZ8ce4Jdp-Y">http://youtu.be/LZ8ce4Jdp-Y</a> - Billie Jean - Michael Jackson [Motown 25]<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/n3EzU7kMmec">http://youtu.be/n3EzU7kMmec</a> - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me - Oleta Adams<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/x6QZn9xiuOE">http://youtu.be/x6QZn9xiuOE</a> - Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/7irzxzEGk6I">http://youtu.be/7irzxzEGk6I</a> - Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/0T4Gqnh11iE">http://youtu.be/0T4Gqnh11iE</a> - If Ever You're In My Arms Again - Peabo Bryson<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/mkVQcZRoWMM">http://youtu.be/mkVQcZRoWMM</a> All The Way - Jeffrey Osborne [King Curtis]<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/PFloePvOvXo">http://youtu.be/PFloePvOvXo</a> - Your Song - Cissy Houston<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/PVcEz8jdcig">http://youtu.be/PVcEz8jdcig</a> - Soul Serenade - King Curtis<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/kjRo_CHSdt0">http://youtu.be/kjRo_CHSdt0</a> - Baby Can I Hold You - Tracy Chapman<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/ZbCXyL_xbkM">http://youtu.be/ZbCXyL_xbkM</a> - Thank You For The Years - Shirley Bassey<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/B4dl6JSf-bc">http://youtu.be/B4dl6JSf-bc</a> - Three Times A Lady - The Commodores<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Da-RjeCObyA">http://youtu.be/Da-RjeCObyA</a> - If You Asked Me To - Patti LaBelle<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/fgRyh9f5cOE">http://youtu.be/fgRyh9f5cOE</a> - Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/FkAGSuMOBqY">http://youtu.be/FkAGSuMOBqY</a> - I've Been Loving You Too Long - Otis Redding<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/P29E7YYMD7o">http://youtu.be/P29E7YYMD7o</a> - Try A Little Tenderness - Otis Redding<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/yfSRovxLcAs">http://youtu.be/yfSRovxLcAs</a> Respect Yourself - The Staple Singers<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/SxCBu45HgjE">http://youtu.be/SxCBu45HgjE</a> - One In A Million You - Larry Graham<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/_NVVe1DkVsQ">http://youtu.be/_NVVe1DkVsQ</a> - Hot Fun In The Summertime - Sly and the Family Stone<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/c3q3AUp_-Ks">http://youtu.be/c3q3AUp_-Ks</a> - Celebrate Me Home - Donna Summer<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/H-kA3UtBj4M">http://youtu.be/H-kA3UtBj4M</a> - What's Going On - Marvin Gaye<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/DUKaRpSMuAA">http://youtu.be/DUKaRpSMuAA</a> - Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/EU4UTDrSwQc">http://youtu.be/EU4UTDrSwQc</a> - Could It Be I'm Falling In Love With You - The Spinners<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/NIS4P8xbPtg">http://youtu.be/NIS4P8xbPtg</a> - Let's Do It Again - The Staple Singers<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/rK3CGdyJBrI">http://youtu.be/rK3CGdyJBrI</a> - Ain't No Woman Like the One I've Got - The Four Tops<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/QMNAAZk4Bgk">http://youtu.be/QMNAAZk4Bgk</a> - Then Came You - Dionne Warwick & The Spinners<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/3UNWThZ-kQU">http://youtu.be/3UNWThZ-kQU</a> - No One - Alicia Keys<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/DW7oaNWo3mU">http://youtu.be/DW7oaNWo3mU</a> So High - Usher<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/aKxrCs3P0TA">http://youtu.be/aKxrCs3P0TA</a> - Irreplaceable - Beyonce<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/DsStH6K6omE">http://youtu.be/DsStH6K6omE</a> - Just Another Day - Queen Latifah<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/ljpl0neGk2Q">http://youtu.be/ljpl0neGk2Q</a> - Man In The Mirror - Michael Jackson<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/FWF_o-MnIAY">http://youtu.be/FWF_o-MnIAY</a> - I Got The Music In Me - Thelma Houston<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/p65sBNxoLbA">http://youtu.be/p65sBNxoLbA</a> - If You Don't Know Me By Now - Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Dxeq1iYFY_w">http://youtu.be/Dxeq1iYFY_w</a> - Betcha Bye Golly Wow - The Stylistics<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/28HZKzpIUgw">http://youtu.be/28HZKzpIUgw</a> - Just To Be Close To You - The Commodores<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Gs069dndIYk">http://youtu.be/Gs069dndIYk</a> - September - Earth, Wind & Fire<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/UIt3dx4an9c">http://youtu.be/UIt3dx4an9c</a> - I'll Be There - Mariah Carey<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/3wZ_b_uUAdQ">http://youtu.be/3wZ_b_uUAdQ</a> - You Are The Sunshine Of My Life - Stevie Wonder<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/fpEE6CgaL5s">http://youtu.be/fpEE6CgaL5s</a> - I'll Always Love You - Whitney Houston<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Ewf0TnM4eKo">http://youtu.be/Ewf0TnM4eKo</a> - Endless Love - Lionel Ritchie & Diana Ross<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/5EdmHSTwmWY">http://youtu.be/5EdmHSTwmWY</a> - Saved The Best for Last - Vanessa Williams<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/uY3vgBzgYn4">http://youtu.be/uY3vgBzgYn4</a> - I'll Take You There - The Staple Singers [Close Your Eyes & Be Transported]<br />
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It's certainly not all of the glorious songs that I love, but it's a good collection of some favorites. Enjoy & Blessings~</div>
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“We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing so.” </div>
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–B. B. King</div>
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Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-8304449222562457232014-02-06T20:39:00.000-08:002014-02-07T20:49:04.189-08:00A Stroke of Grace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.” – Arthur Ashe</i><br />
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<br />
Arthur Ashe, Wimbledon-1975<br />
<br />
For those of you who do not know the name Arthur Ashe, and I honestly cannot imagine that, let me say that he was a mild-mannered athlete who was gladitorial in his convictions. He has always had a special place in my heart because he is a native son of Richmond, Virginia. Born on July 10, 1943, Mr. Ashe set a stellar example during his lifetime, and he truly left the world a much better place than what it was in when he was born. He left us on this day, 21 years ago at the age of 49 – much too soon! I honor and remember him today as we continue to celebrate Black History Month.<br />
When I was a young girl during the 70's, there were not many sports that I enjoyed watching on televison. Tennis, however, was not among that list. I adored the game, and I loved watching the greats: Billie Jean, Jimmy, Chris, John, Bjorn and then there was Arthur. He was ranked number two in the world in 1975. He was a black man too boot, and that was an unusual sight in the tennis world back in the 70's.<br />
What I remember about watching Arthur Ashe play tennis, aside from the enjoyment of it, was that he always seemed calm – even keeled. Things didn’t rattle him. He had a certain restraint about him that I found amazing, especially when certain calls made during a game were questionable. Later, I learned that his coach trained him to be calm under pressure. It served him well.<br />
I remember when he played at Wimbledon. It was a little over a month before my 12th birthday and a holiday weekend in our country. The year was 1975. The most notable thing about that weekend [July 5th] though was that he was playing Jimmy Connors for the title. No black man had ever won it. My father and I were glued to the television as we watched that Saturday.<br />
The first two sets went by quickly as he put the pressure on. I think he took both of those sets in less than hour. Jimmy Connors was NOT happy! I remember that vividly. Curse words were muttered. Connors rebounded in the third set and took that one – seven games to five. But, it was that last set, when cool-as-a-cucumber, Arthur Ashe broke Jimmy Connor’s serve in the 9th game, I turned around and high-fived my father, knowing that he had it in the bag. He took the match quickly after that — popping a winning volley over the net after he got a weak return by Jimmy Connors. It was history in making, that game. It was a WOW moment! A black man had won Wimbledon – a first.<br />
To his credit, Jimmy Connors stated in a very sportsman-like manner, “I couldn't find an opening. Whether I served wide balls, or kicks he was there. Everything he did was good: fine returns, short and long, and hard serves and volleys.”<br />
In 1979, he suffered a heart attack. Arthur was 36 years old. As a result, he had quadruple by-pass surgery, followed by a second round of corrective heart by-pass surgery in 1983. I think the only thing crueler than a heart attack that forces you into an early retirement, which occurred for him in 1980 from competitive tennis, is contracting H.I.V. from the blood transfusion you received during the by-pass surgery for said heart attack. That’s what happened to Arthur.<br />
He worked as an AIDS activist up to & throughout the last year of his life. He was a class act. A statesman to the world of tennis. He was a man of composure and decency. More importantly, he was a lesson in grace. <br />
The world lost him to AIDS-related pneumonia 21 years ago today. Nelson Mandela wrote to Arthur Ashe as his life's end was approaching. I believe Mr. Mandela’s words summed up best how many of us felt about him, “...I hope you feel my embrace...and that it serves to let you know that we love you and wish you well.”<br />
Amen...<br />
<br />
I’m attaching excerpts from a couple of articles here, because I could never say to you as eloquently what they state about Arthur Ashe — things that made him an important figure in history, and there is still more to say and know:<br />
<br />
<b>Sportsman of the Year</b><br />
by Kenny Moore<br />
From Sports Illustrated, December 21, 1992<br />
If you’d like to read the entire article, please go here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/features/1997/arthurashe/sport1.html">http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/features/1997/arthurashe/sport1.html</a><br />
<br />
<i>Arthur Ashe epitomizes good works, devotion to family and unwavering grace under pressure</i><br />
<br />
In 1973, after years of trying, Arthur Ashe wrangled an invitations to play in the South African Open tennis tournament. He wanted to see for himself how the world might help press South Africa to ease its system of racial oppression, its apartheid. In Johannesburg he met a poet and journalist, a black man named Don Mattera. The South African watched when Ashe was confronted by young blacks who hissed that he was an Uncle Tom and told him that his visit only served to legitimize the racist white-minority government, which should be boycotted, made a pariah, until it abandoned apartheid. Mattera heard Ashe defend the use of sporting contacts to chip away at injustice. Allowing one black man to compete in the tournament had been a concession by the government, and, Ashe argued, "small concessions incline toward larger ones."<br />
Mattera listened when Ashe cited Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass on how, since power surrenders nothing without a struggle, progress can come only in unsatisfactorily small chunks, and even the tiniest crumb must be better than nothing at all. The South African blacks shouted that Ashe didn't grasp the nature of the police state that bore down on them, that in South Africa his Reverend King would have been thrown into Robben Island prison with their Nelson Mandela. In the face of their seething anger, Ashe had the saintly temerity to warn that if they hoped to exert consistent moral pressure, their emotions were best kept controlled.<br />
No minds were changed. Ashe, depressed by the prospect of standing helplessly on the outside while South African blacks suffered, asked Mattera if he, too, felt Ashe shouldn't have come. Mattera answered carefully, saying it was good to know that people in the rest of the world were concerned, but Ashe needed to understand the full extent of Soweto's misery.<br />
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A few days later the South African Bureau of State Security banned Mattera, meaning that he was declared invisible and inaudible. He could no longer publish, travel, enter a library or even speak with more than two people at a time. Imprisonment, he knew, might follow. After a final word with Ashe, Mattera went back to his tiny house, put his six children to bed, lighted a candle and wrote:<br />
<br />
<i>I listened deeply when you spoke</i><br />
<i>About the step-by-step evolution</i><br />
<i>Of a gradual harvest,</i><br />
<i>Tendered by the rains of tolerance</i><br />
<i>And patience.</i><br />
<i>Your youthful face,</i><br />
<i>A mask,</i><br />
<i>Hiding a pining, anguished spirit,</i><br />
<i>And I loved you brother —</i><br />
<i>Not for your quiet philosophy</i><br />
<i>But for the rage in your soul,</i><br />
<i>Trained to be rebuked or summoned. . . .</i><br />
<br />
Mattera's words are an uncanny blueprint of Ashe, a man constructed to hold fast to reason however impassioned his world...<br />
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0710.html">http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0710.html</a> ~ NYTimes Obituary<br />
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<b>Nelson Mandela, Arthur Ashe, and the Transformative Power of Sports</b><br />
by Bill Simons<br />
To read the entire article, go here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.insidetennis.com/2013/08/nelson-mandela-arthur-ashe-transformative-power-sports/">http://www.insidetennis.com/2013/08/nelson-mandela-arthur-ashe-transformative-power-sports/</a><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
Whimsical tennis paintings are delightful, but Mandela’s fateful connection with Arthur Ashe—the athlete who campaigned most strongly against apartheid—was a whole other matter.<br />
For decades, anti-apartheid politics was intense and contentious. Should one follow the pleas of activists and the UN to isolate South Africa’s apartheid rulers by boycotting the nation or instead, should one say that art, sport, and economics have their own dynamic, above the fray and independent of politics? Many, like Paul Simon, the Supremes, McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, and Brad Gilbert, became involved in the harsh controversy.<br />
At first, Ashe wasn’t even aware of the reach of apartheid, and he presumed he could play the South African Open. But his South African friend Cliff Drysdale quickly informed him that he wouldn’t even be allowed into a land where racial rules prevailed. In his book <i>Days of Grace</i>, Ashe recalls that another South African pro, Ray Moore, thought there just might be a way out of the morass. “I think,” Moore suggested, “There is one man in South Africa capable of leading my country out of this mess”<br />
“Is he white?” Ashe asked.<br />
“No,” Moore replied. “He is a black man, a lawyer imprisoned on Robben Island … His name is Nelson Mandela.”<br />
“Mandela? I’ve never heard of him.”<br />
“Well, you will,” Moore insisted. “In fact, I think he will become president of South Africa one day.”<br />
Over time, Mandela and Ashe proved to have much in common. Both were renaissance thinkers with deep wells of calm, possessing a quiet reflective nature that allowed them to adeptly evolve, change course, master a range of challenges, and quietly inspire. And both shared a burning desire for justice that exceeded their deep appreciation of decorum. Over the years, both Mandela, from inside his jail cell, and Ashe, from outside and using his platform of fame, campaigned against apartheid.<br />
Ashe would go through two phases. He began by fighting for years to get a visa to visit South Africa in order to be the first black to ever play the South African Open—on the condition that the stadium be open to both blacks and whites. From 1973 through 1977, Ashe would visit South Africa four times. There, while briefly integrating sports events, he “looked apartheid directly in the face, [and] saw the appalling WHITES ONLY and NONWHITES ONLY signs, the separate and drastically unequal facilities very much like those of my childhood in Virginia. I saw the sneer of superiority on the faces of many whites, and the look of obsequiousness, fatalism, cynicism, and despair on the faces of many blacks.”<br />
Ashe’s trips, including his run to the final of the 1973 South African Open, were sensational happenings. While an angry few raged and called him an Uncle Tom, claiming his presence gave legitimacy to the apartheid regime, most saw him as a role model and beacon—a successful African-American in a black culture too familiar with failure.<br />
Black writer Mark Mathabane said Ashe was “the first truly free black man” he had met, and wondered, “How could a black man play such excellent tennis, move about the court with such self-confidence, trash a white man, and be cheered by white people? …The more I read about the world of tennis and Ashe’s role in it, the more I began to dream of its possibilities. What if I too were someday to attain the same fame and fortune as Ashe? Would whites respect me as they did him? Would I be as free as he? The dreams were tantalizing.”<br />
But the real world struggle to abolish apartheid was daunting and bloody. Amidst heated debates, Ashe became a fierce advocate for the international boycott of South Africa. Invoking Mandela’s position, he convinced the ATP to prohibit the creation of two new proposed South African tournaments. Ashe also moved to have South Africa banned from Davis Cup play, and convinced John McEnroe’s father to stop his son from playing a $600,000 exhibition against Bjorn Borg in Bophuthatswana, South Africa.<br />
Then, in a move that Ashe felt probably cost him his job as Davis Cup captain, he took to the streets and participated in an anti-apartheid demonstration outside the UN, joining the likes of Coretta Scott King and Harry Belafonte as one of 3,000 demonstrators arrested outside of the South African embassy in Washington.<br />
All the while, Mandela was reading Ashe’s writings and telling the world that, once he got out of prison, the first person he wanted to talk to was a tennis player—Arthur Ashe.<br />
Eventually, when apartheid at last tumbled, Mandela told the world, “I stand before you not as a prisoner but as a humble son of a free people.” Soon after, New York City celebrated the triumph with a ticker-tape parade and a town hall meeting at City College. There the circle was completed. Ashe recalled the intimate moment:<br />
<br />
<i>“I watched [New York City mayor David Dinkins] go over to Mandela and whisper in his ear. I saw Nelson’s head raise abruptly, and he broke into a beautiful smile.</i><br />
<i>“Arthur is here?” he asked, with obvious surprise and delight.</i><br />
<i>“He’s right here,” David said, turning to me.</i><br />
<i>“Oh my brother,” Nelson said, looking straight at me. “Come here!”</i><br />
<i>He threw his arms around me and held me for a moment in a most affectionate embrace. He told me that in prison, he had read my three-volume work A Hard Road to Glory, about black American athletes.”</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Ashe noted what so many felt, that for Mandela, “to have spent twenty-seven years in jail … to have been deprived of the whole mighty center of one’s life, and then to emerge apparently without a trace of bitterness, alert and ready to lead one’s country forward, may be the most extraordinary individual human achievement that I have witnessed in my lifetime.”<br />
The connection between Mandela and Ashe had evolved into the most significant international bond ever between a politician and an athlete. After all, the two agreed that, as Mandela wrote, “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, the power to unite that little else has … It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”...<br />
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• Ashe was also an active civil rights supporter. He was a member of a delegation of 31 prominent African-Americans who visited South Africa to observe political change in the country as it approached racial integration. He was arrested on January 11, 1985, for protesting outside the Embassy of South Africa, Washington, D.C. during an anti-apartheid rally. He was arrested again on September 9, 1992, outside the White House for protesting on the recent crackdown on Haitian refugees.<br />
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• In 1973, Arthur Ashe became the first black pro to play in South Africa’s National Championships. Prior to his arrival, Ashe told the South African government that he would not play in front of a racially segregated audience and would not accept limitations on his free speech while in South Africa.<br />
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Circa 1965<br />
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Two GREATS: Arthur Ashe & Nelson Mandela<br />
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Amazing Fact: Did you know that after spending 27 years in prison, upon Nelson Mandela's release and prior to his visit to the United States, when asked if there was anyone who HE would like to meet, he replied, "Arthur Ashe."<br />
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• Ashe continued to work even though he was weak from the disease of AIDS. During his last ten months of life, he continued to help children. He also demonstrated to support Haitian refugees, continued to fight racial injustice and battled AIDS. He said, <i>“. . . Living with AIDS is not the greatest burden I’ve had in my life. Being black is.”</i> He said in his last speech given the week he died. He said further, <i>“AIDS is killing my body, but racism is harder to bear. It kills the soul.”</i><br />
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<i>“You come to realize that life is short, and you have to step up. Don't feel sorry for me. Much is expected of those who are strong.” –Arthur Ashe, July 10, 1943-February 6, 1993</i><br />
<br />Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-12567723391975820192014-02-04T17:45:00.000-08:002014-02-05T23:15:22.524-08:007053<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Rosa Parks on a Montgomery bus on December 21, 1956, the day the Montgomery transit system was legally integrated.<br />
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“The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” ~Rosa Parks<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/JKCsZc37esU">http://youtu.be/JKCsZc37esU</a> Sister Rosa~The Neville Brothers<br />
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On a December evening in 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, AL, after a long day’s work. She paid her fare, took her seat in the “colored” section and waited for the bus driver to take her to the stop where she would walk home. She had not intended to create a stir that day – to NOT make a move of historical proportions. She had not planned on acting out in civil disobedience on that day which, in turn, would be the catalyst for a major civil right’s protest and boycott. But, on December 1st, when Bus Driver, James F. Blake demanded that Mrs. Parks and three other black passengers on the bus give up their seats in favor of white passengers who had just boarded, and she politely refused, that’s exactly what she did. She created a stir of historical proportions!<br />
Mrs. Parks has stated that when Mr. Blake stepped back toward the four of them and waved his hands at them, barking orders to them to move out of the seats they had paid for, “I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night.”<br />
Her further account of Mr. Blake’s demand was that he warned, “Y’all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats.”<br />
She recalled that three of them acquiesced, but she refused. Instead, she moved toward the window seat, but did not get up to relocate to the re-designated colored section of the bus.<br />
She sat still by the window, minding her own business, but the bus driver would not let it go. He persisted in asking why she would not stand up, and she told him that she didn’t think she should have to. It was at that point that he threatened to call the police and have her arrested.<br />
“You may do that,” Mrs. Parks replied.<br />
And, the rest is history.<br />
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white man, it set off a chain of events which helped change the course of history. It spurred a city-wide bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama several days later that would ultimately lead to desegregation on public transit systems.<br />
Mrs. Parks has said in the aftermath of that event, that as she was being arrested, she knew that “it was going to be the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind...”<br />
And, so it was.<br />
In a 1992 interview with <i>National Public Radio</i>, Mrs. Parks reflected on that December day in 1955, when she decided to stay seated in order to stand up to injustice:<br />
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“I did not want to be mistreated; I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It was just time... there was opportunity for me to take a stand to express the way I felt about being treated in that manner. I had not planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail. But, when I had to face that decision, I didn’t hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became.”<br />
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I’ve thought a lot about that incident over the years — Rosa Parks’ unassuming yet mighty protest in the face of iniquity. It took a special kind of courage to stand firm in unwavering resolve, especially when someone bigger, brutish and extremely inconsiderate was staring you down. It took a rare kind of fortitude to encourage someone to call the police on you and quietly wait for them to come and arrest you for doing nothing more than being unwilling to relinquish a seat that you had already paid for and deserved to remain in. It took a genteel, black woman to stand up to a white man; a state; a nation; and the world and proclaim that she was not going to be pushed around any more by unfair laws and unjust practices. And, when she rose up, a movement rose up along with her and toppled those laws that had served to treat them less than the rest of humanity. What an inspiration her example has been these last five plus decades!<br />
Rosa Parks played a significant role in raising not only awareness in our country but an international awareness, as well, regarding the dilemma that African Americans faced during the civil rights struggle. Dr. King wrote in his book <i>Stride Toward Freedom</i> that Mrs. Parks’ arrest was the catalyst for protest: “The cause lay deep in the record of similar injustices...no one can understand the action of Mrs. Parks unless he realizes that eventually the cup of endurance runs over, and the human personality cries out, ‘I can take it no longer.’”<br />
December 1st, 1955 was the moment when her cup of endurance ran over, and she said “enough.” And, the world is all the better for that singular, grand gesture of civil disobedience by Rosa Parks.<br />
Never let it be said that one person cannot change the world...<br />
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Today would have been Rosa Parks' 101st birthday. We celebrate and honor her...Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-66845035331530757372014-02-03T20:59:00.001-08:002014-02-04T17:50:13.602-08:00Ted Ellis<div>
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Ted Ellis</div>
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For those of you who have previously read my blog, you know that my husband and I went to New Orleans last summer to celebrate my 50th birthday. While there, I saw a painting in one of the shops in the French Quarter that was painted by a native son named Ted Ellis. It was a painting about Katrina. Upon returning home, and doing some research on him, I discovered that an abstract painting of President Obama that I'd seen in several places was also a work of his. </div>
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I don't know a whole lot about Mr. Ellis other than he was born in New Orleans in 1963. {a VERY good year! ;-) } He's a former environmental chemist, which got a "WOW" from me when I learned that fact about him - impressive. He is a mostly self-taught artist, and he currently lives in Texas with his wife and two children.</div>
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It's his art that got me though. It got me good. </div>
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<i>Free At Last</i> and <i>My Old Quilt</i> are my favorite works of his, but I appreciate each and every one of his paintings that I see. This post is simply a showcase of his art to share his gift with you. </div>
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Today, we celebrate Ted Ellis.</div>
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Obama, the 44th President</div>
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This is the painting I saw in New Orleans in the French Quarter. It's called "Surviving Katrina".</div>
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One of my favorites of Mr. Ellis'. This one is called, "Free At Last."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJGj_y2sQh3yAt2dEPrzQsvJIVLUoPzbMmVHmxIryzgMW1mBBHwaat69LSuKhZdjUBgMpYYHuPklwnQLEvL-zd_GcrNLwMXdcEoA8UbGhap4K-yAvciu9IKz6t3-l6_8ssqDjCJqNj7M/s1600/TedEllisSundayWorship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJGj_y2sQh3yAt2dEPrzQsvJIVLUoPzbMmVHmxIryzgMW1mBBHwaat69LSuKhZdjUBgMpYYHuPklwnQLEvL-zd_GcrNLwMXdcEoA8UbGhap4K-yAvciu9IKz6t3-l6_8ssqDjCJqNj7M/s1600/TedEllisSundayWorship.jpg" /></a></div>
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"Sunday Worship" is Ted Ellis' most popular & reportedly his favorite work.</div>
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This painting is called "Life Begins Anew" and was the symbol of new beginnings after Hurricane Katrina.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-TH8vzIAdmSyXOa09nADf4HG67htiiOUeUyWSp1k9Omf77EeQbqPY3IUzP4HFzheWdZ2jY3PYCePcNC_bsRcbynGVFfFV5GonBMPTqRJcS3tYYlZR_Y29fFvIkjxooxsn6cl5cxyWSw/s1600/TedEllisBourbonStreet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-TH8vzIAdmSyXOa09nADf4HG67htiiOUeUyWSp1k9Omf77EeQbqPY3IUzP4HFzheWdZ2jY3PYCePcNC_bsRcbynGVFfFV5GonBMPTqRJcS3tYYlZR_Y29fFvIkjxooxsn6cl5cxyWSw/s1600/TedEllisBourbonStreet.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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Bourbon Street</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupdaGu7NTXsFQMoY38YIpVXnOi5SaitjW9RHFD-LEaFPvwqLsQKuc1yFyQs8qtQ8dGY94lKsEUo_EyqfBf7F8Bh6FG4aT16WZTCnot4bFkQlYLqX3ZPgZcgYUo9SW9OL4f0F7lqA6B1M/s1600/TedEllisEdIsTheKeyToSuccess.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupdaGu7NTXsFQMoY38YIpVXnOi5SaitjW9RHFD-LEaFPvwqLsQKuc1yFyQs8qtQ8dGY94lKsEUo_EyqfBf7F8Bh6FG4aT16WZTCnot4bFkQlYLqX3ZPgZcgYUo9SW9OL4f0F7lqA6B1M/s1600/TedEllisEdIsTheKeyToSuccess.jpg" /></a></div>
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Education Is The Key To Success</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09jJ2oLp-uofzby37WCsgxkVLkSW2N2Dkh6gOAXEnCEKiBbgPun78maTprSvrJLHi13zV3IDVMNWEs2C7MWJEcMztgz9fAFyjtFxTyO2SUaqHYkXNXd9xQLaj0CG52yrz3GcstKS24VI/s1600/TedEllisIntoTheWord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09jJ2oLp-uofzby37WCsgxkVLkSW2N2Dkh6gOAXEnCEKiBbgPun78maTprSvrJLHi13zV3IDVMNWEs2C7MWJEcMztgz9fAFyjtFxTyO2SUaqHYkXNXd9xQLaj0CG52yrz3GcstKS24VI/s1600/TedEllisIntoTheWord.jpg" /></a></div>
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Into The Word</div>
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Southern Pleasure</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCbjIx_b5fUZ9OGfY0eA5_o7AaJf_kWj_o3JdiUvm-VS7ZkETsyRpeTfHGk4iP6sCshNKvtgSRquoADod4nrK6kLNkEXijs0-KsUPw5g0HK0jH-VpeEcA9P6K70Agzd20nkY33vXimTTc/s1600/TedEllisTeachThemToPray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCbjIx_b5fUZ9OGfY0eA5_o7AaJf_kWj_o3JdiUvm-VS7ZkETsyRpeTfHGk4iP6sCshNKvtgSRquoADod4nrK6kLNkEXijs0-KsUPw5g0HK0jH-VpeEcA9P6K70Agzd20nkY33vXimTTc/s1600/TedEllisTeachThemToPray.jpg" /></a></div>
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Teach Them to Pray</div>
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Praying Hands</div>
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Baptized In This House</div>
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My Old Quilt</div>
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If you'd like to inquire about Ted Ellis paintings, I've included a couple of websites: </div>
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http://tellisart.com/ http://www.itsablackthang.com/Ted-Ellis-art-work.htm</div>
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<i>"I'm on a personal journey to pictorially document our life history through painting and share that experience with the world .... That is my passion." ~Ted T. Ellis</i></div>
Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-47467072586441120272014-02-02T21:12:00.001-08:002014-02-04T19:31:57.560-08:00L♥ve Is Color Blind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Lovings~Life~1965<br />
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Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,<br />
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.<br />
~William Shakespeare<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/Z009ZpDJtpk">http://youtu.be/Z009ZpDJtpk</a> Love Is Color Blind~Sarah Connor & TQ<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/HSGU2Yekadg">http://youtu.be/HSGU2Yekadg</a> The Loving Kind~Nanci Griffith<br />
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Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law. ~Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, A.D. 524<br />
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In 1969, the state of Virginia adopted a motto, “<i>Virginia is for Lovers</i>.” Once there was a time, however, when that sentiment didn’t appear to ring true. The year was 1958. That was the year when Mildred Jeter, a woman of African-American and Rappahannock Native American nationality married Richard Loving, a man of European descent. In other words: she was black, and he was white. They traveled outside of the state of Virginia into Washington, D.C. to marry, so as not to violate <i>The Racial Integrity Act of 1924</i>, which was a state law banning marriage between white and non-white individuals.<br />
After their marriage, the Lovings returned home to their small town of Central Pointe, Virginia. Within five weeks of their marriage, and based upon an anonymous tip, it’s been reported that Mr. and Mrs. Loving’s home was raided at 2:00 a.m. by the local police who found them in bed asleep. Upon learning that they were married, the couple was arrested and charged under Virginia's anti-miscegenation law with “cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.”<br />
Can you imagine that? I have tried to put myself in that place that they were in and imagine it, and I can’t. I cannot fathom being asleep in bed with my husband, and having police descend upon my home at two o’clock in the morning, wake us from our peaceful sleep, then arrest us for nothing more than the simple fact that we were married to one another and our skin colors were different.<br />
That was the reality in 1958-Virginia, and other places in the south as well.<br />
Specifically, the Lovings were charged under <i>Section 20-58 of the Virginia Code</i>, which prohibited interracial couples from being married out of state then returning to Virginia, and <i>Section 20-59</i>, which classified miscegenation [the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, or procreation] as a felony, punishable by a prison sentence of between one and five years. The trial judge in their case was Leon M. Bazile who echoed the German Physiologist, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s 18th-century interpretation of race, to define the specific infraction of the law for which the Lovings were being charged. He said:<br />
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“...Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”<br />
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Hm. I had to pause when I read that. I felt such vitriol dripping from those words as I read them. I wish that someone had asked Judge Bazile if he’d ever listened to the words of the gospel song, <i>Jesus Loves the Little</i> <i>Children</i>? It would certainly see his statement and give it a holy-roller raise!<br />
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<i>“Jesus loves the little children – ALL the children of the world. Red, and yellow, black and white, ALL are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world!”</i><br />
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Take a listen for yourself: <a href="http://youtu.be/0a45z_HG3WU">http://youtu.be/0a45z_HG3WU</a> Ray Stevens-Everything is Beautiful<br />
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Unfortunately, in the late 50's, the judge found nothing, it would appear, beautiful about the Lovings. After they pled guilty to their charges on January 6, 1959, they were sentenced to one year in prison, with the sentence suspended for 25 years on the condition that the couple leave the state of Virginia and not return to it together for 25 years. As painful as it was, they accepted the condition and moved to the District of Columbia.<br />
Even in D.C., the Lovings faced housing discrimination. But, it was Mildred Loving’s frustration over their inability to travel together to visit their families in Virginia coupled with the social isolation they felt and the financial difficulties they faced in Washington as well as her flat out feeling of unfairness over the decision to begin with, that caused her to write a letter of protest to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in 1964. Upon receipt of her objection over her and her husband’s situation, Kennedy referred her letter to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).<br />
It would be the case that would change the course of the legality of interracial marriage and shake the foundation of the deep-seeded discrimination associated with statutes that would be shown to have ultimately violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. <br />
The ACLU, on behalf of the Lovings, filed motions to vacate the state’s trial court judgement and set aside the original sentence that had been handed down in 1959, because of a Section 1 violation of the 14th Amendment. By October of 1964, when their motion still had not been decided, the Lovings filed a class action suit in the United States District Court.<br />
By January 22nd, of the following year [1965], the district court allowed the Lovings to present their constitutional claims to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. It was Virginia Supreme Court Justice Harry L. Carrico who wrote the court’s opinion upholding the constitutionality of the anti-miscegenation statutes and affirmed the criminal convictions as originally handed down in ‘59.<br />
Undeterred, the Lovings took their case, on appeal, all the way to the United States Supreme Court. It was known as<i> Loving v. Virginia</i>.<br />
What the U.S. Supreme Court decided in response to <i>Loving v. Virginia</i>, in the simplest terms is that love is color blind, and that the state did not have the right to tell people that it was illegal for them to marry because the color of their skin was akin to two different crayons one found in a child’s box of Crayola’s. It was not right. It was unfair. More importantly, it was unconstitutional.<br />
Who would have EVER thought that a black woman from a small town in Virginia could change the course of marital law for every state in our union simply by virtue of writing a letter out of frustration over HER circumstance. Yet, that’s exactly what Mildred Loving did.<br />
It was a unanimous decision by the court. UNANIMOUS. Think about that for a moment. In 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision, every, single justice voted on the side of the Lovings – they were in full agreement that the state of Virginia had violated both the Due Process Clause as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and overturned the previous conviction. The Commonwealth’s arguments were dismissed because they were discriminatory.<br />
Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the unanimous decision for the court, finding:<br />
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“Marriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man,’ fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.”<br />
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Further, the court held that the anti-miscegenation laws were racist and had been established as a means to perpetuate white supremacy, stating:<br />
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“There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination which justifies this classification. The fact that Virginia prohibits only interracial marriages involving white persons demonstrates that the racial classifications must stand on their own justification, as measures designed to maintain White Supremacy.”<br />
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Richard Loving’s reaction to the court’s decision: “For the first time, I can put my arm around Mildred and publicly call her my wife.”<br />
The Lovings attorney, Bernard Cohen, responded by saying, “They just were in love with one another and wanted the right to live together as husband and wife in Virginia, without any interference from officialdom.”<br />
It is no surprise that the Lovings thereafter moved back to Virginia.<br />
On June 12, 2007, the 40th Anniversary of the high court’s decision, Mildred Loving had this to say, “My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone, they have a right to marry.<br />
Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the ‘wrong kind of person’ for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.<br />
I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.”<br />
I get choked up when I read the last two lines of her statement. I agree with them wholeheartedly: I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving and loving are all about. <br />
Yes. Indeed. Love and ONLY love...<br />
Today, 47 years later, more and more people who have been denied the right to marry are seeing that ban lifted on them as well, in part, thanks to the <i>Loving v Virginia</i> case. It’s a good thing.<br />
For those of you who may be wondering, Richard Loving died in 1975 at the age of 41, in a car accident, after a drunken driver struck the car that he and Mildred were riding in. She lost her right eye in that same accident.<br />
On Friday, May 2, 2008, Mildred Loving died of pneumonia. She was 68 years old. I remember hearing it on the evening news that night. Living in central Virginia, there was an overview of the case. It was a nice tribute. I remember taking a glass of iced tea outside on the front porch and sitting in the rocking chair, looking at my rock garden in the front yard thinking about that case and the Lovings. I heard the song, <i>Everything Is Beautiful</i> in my mind as I reflected on what Richard and Mildred Loving had achieved with that landmark Supreme Court case. Then, I heard Bruce Springsteen’s, <i>If I Should Fall Behind</i>, in my mind and I smiled. Richard and Mildred were together again. That was a lovely thought on a Friday evening as is this: the legacy of the Lovings is that the ban on interracial marriage has been stripped from the books on every state in our union. It it no longer illegal to marry someone of a different race than your own. Love does not recognize color. Other groups are using the Loving case to argue that love does not recognize gender either. I hear Ray Stevens in my head singing, “<i>under God’s heaven, the world’s gonna find a way...</i>”<br />
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In case you’ve ever seen June 12th marked on a calender as “<i>Loving Day</i>” and wondered what that was all about, now you know...<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/N1wg9jyvfN0">http://youtu.be/N1wg9jyvfN0</a> If I Should Fall Behind~Bruce Spring steen & The E Street Band<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1KngHeBLeltOOcffcNBlSGY_RWLtJtLrCRa7AG450scILdJYJLTviSVgFxu7boH-upLNFAsVk_OjI1zuhV0AbxlHxxfiTkRnzkopYe1gfm3VLe0Xoq4EZ1vLFKMxqyk5SPuPClMz-ozc/s1600/MildredRichardLoving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1KngHeBLeltOOcffcNBlSGY_RWLtJtLrCRa7AG450scILdJYJLTviSVgFxu7boH-upLNFAsVk_OjI1zuhV0AbxlHxxfiTkRnzkopYe1gfm3VLe0Xoq4EZ1vLFKMxqyk5SPuPClMz-ozc/s1600/MildredRichardLoving.jpg" /></a></div>
The final sentence in Mildred Loving’s obituary in the <i>New York Times</i> notes of her statement to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia: “A modest homemaker," Loving never thought she had done anything extraordinary. “It wasn’t my doing,” Loving told the <i>Associated Press</i> in a 2007 interview. “It was God’s work.”Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-88822202140417001902014-02-01T22:02:00.001-08:002014-02-03T15:07:15.653-08:00Black History Month<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://youtu.be/JkWZjTPlQhc">http://youtu.be/JkWZjTPlQhc</a> A Change Is Gonna Come~Sam Cooke<br />
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Today begins the annual observance in our country of Black History Month. There has been much debate over the years as to why we need to designate a month to remember black history. It’s a fair question. Even the actor, Morgan Freeman, is opposed to it. He states, “I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history.” While I agree with part of Mr. Freeman’s thought that black history is American history, I don’t agree with his opposition to black history month — much as I admire and respect him.<br />
When an entire race or class of people has been subjugated and oppressed for hundreds of years, I welcome the opportunity to have an annual celebration of–about–for those individuals who exemplified outstanding courage, intellect and leadership abilities in light of such opposition. I wish we had a designated month where we celebrated women the whole month-long! But, I digress...<br />
The idea of black history commemoration is not a new one. Back in 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson along with the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History proclaimed that the second week of February would be designated as “Negro History Week.” They selected this week because it coincided with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The emphasis of this idea was to “encourage the coordinated teaching of the history of American blacks in the nation's public schools.” As you can imagine, it was met with lukewarm response. However, it did gain cooperative assistance from the Departments of Education of three states and two cities: Delaware, North Carolina, and West Virginia as well as the city school administrations of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. That was enough for Woodson to continue to fight for the annual continuation of teaching the history of “Negro people”. He contended that its teaching was essential “to ensure the physical and intellectual survival of the race within broader society.” And, took it one step further by stating that, “If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated. The American Indian left no continuous record. He did not appreciate the value of tradition; and where is he today? The Hebrew keenly appreciated the value of tradition, as is attested by the Bible itself. In spite of worldwide persecution, therefore, he is a great factor in our civilization.”<br />
Within three years time, <i>The Journal of Negro History</i>, noted that “with only two exceptions officials with the State Departments of Educations of every state with considerable Negro population had made the event known to that state’s teachers and distributed official literature associated with the event.” It is important to note that churches played a significant role in the distribution of literature associated with Negro History Week. By 1929, it was met with a more positive response that led to the creation of black history clubs and more of an interest among teachers as well as the progressive white community.<br />
The leaders of the Black United Students at Kent State University pushed for the expansion of the week to an entire month in February of 1969. One year later, in February of 1970, the first Black History Month was celebrated at Kent State. Six years later, as part of our countries Bicentennial celebration, that informal expansion was officially recognized by the government. In response, President Gerald Ford encouraged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”<br />
Which brings us to today. It’s the official start of Black History Month. It always gives me pause. I stop and think about all of those African-American men and women who have left an indelible mark upon me in some way. I think about the lessons they imparted and the example they set. This month, my blog will honor those African-American men and woman who helped shape my world views . It is a way to say “thank you”. As Meister Eckhart stated, <i>“if the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you’, it will be enough.”</i> I hope it is. They have been great teachers one and all.<br />
The first African-American person to impact my life will be the last one I write about. Some of you know who it is. For those who don’t, let it be a fun game, if you chose to read the blog this month, try and figure it out. I’ll give you a hint: Railroad. ;-)<br />
Back to lessons for a moment. When I was in college, I minored in English. I took a course called “Women in Literature” which was focused on women writers and their works. It was a great course. Our professor allowed us, as one of our assignments, to choose our own book to write a paper on. I won’t say that I’m a renegade, but I have been known to challenge a principle a time or two in my life if I felt strongly enough about it. At the time, I was reading a book, <i>The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman</i> by Ernest J. Gaines. I had seen Cicely Tyson on a talk show and they’d shown an old clip from the television movie [of the book] referenced above. I remember watching that clip which I’ve attached here {by the way, troubled to learn of the poster’s depiction of real-life “white’s only” America in THIS day and age!}:<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/bVv1VR8OTfg">http://youtu.be/bVv1VR8OTfg</a> Clip from Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman<br />
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My jaw dropped as I watched that scene, and I wanted to know more about that story. {No, I had not seen the movie.} So, I went and got the book. I submitted the book to my professor as MY pick for the paper I wished to write about. <br />
She asked to speak with me after class at the beginning of the next session, and we went to her office when that session was over. Slightly humored, she handed me my request. There was no mark of approval on it.<br />
“Miss Bosher,” she began. “I appreciate your selection. It’s a good work, however, this course, if you look at your syllabus is ‘Women in Literature’.” she informed. “All works are by women authors.”<br />
I knew that. Still, the course title left room for negotiation. I seized upon it.<br />
I pressed my lips together and prayed that I didn’t come across as anything other than sincere.<br />
“Dr. Pridgeon,” I began. “Why does the course structure limit us to authors instead of a remarkable female character in literature?”<br />
She crossed her arm over her chest and rested her other arm upon it. Her mouth rested upon her hand. I recognized this move. It was a signature one of my father’s when he was pondering something. She stared at me. I could tell she had no plausible answer at hand to my question.<br />
The silence lasted for a minute. I wasn’t certain if she thought the silence would unsettle me? It did not. I was trained by a master regarding that technique. ALWAYS be still and comfortable in the silence. Wait it out. I did.<br />
After a minute, she responded. “The course was designed to teach students about remarkable female authors and expose them to their work,” she stated.<br />
I nodded. “I appreciate that,” I told her. “It’s the reason I took the course,” I admitted.<br />
“Then,” she asked, curious. “Why would you submit a book that was written by a man?”<br />
I told her of seeing the movie’s clip and being not only mesmerized but intrigued by the woman I had seen on my tv screen. I told her that I’d never seen the movie, though I’d heard of it, but in that moment, I wanted to know the story of Miss Jane Pittman. <br />
“Isn’t THAT an important objective in literature?” I asked. “To want to KNOW the story of something because an interest has been sparked within you?”<br />
Her eyes narrowed as she considered my question. “Has an interest sparked within you?”<br />
“I’m reading the book,” I told her. “On my own — with a full course load. And, it’s AMAZING! I want to discuss it with someone. Won’t you give me that chance?”<br />
“It’s highly unusual,” she replied.<br />
“Some would say that about me,” I countered.<br />
She smiled, took my paper, signed off on it and replied. “You may add me to that list.”<br />
I smiled back. “Thank you. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”<br />
She nodded. <br />
In case you’re wondering, I got an A on that paper with a comment beneath it that read, “You were true to your word. I was not disappointed!” {I always try to be true to my word. It’s a little lesson about honor that my parents instilled.}<br />
As you can imagine, in 1993, when Ernest J. Gaines came out with his book <i>A Lesson Before Dying</i>, I was all over it – even before Oprah picked it as her Book-of-the-Month club reading selection. In Mr. Gaines’ eighth novel, he sets the drama in the 1940's. It’s the story of a black man who is sentenced to death for a crime that he did not commit and his interaction with a teacher who counsels him as he awaits execution. Beyond that nutshell overview and this quote, I will let you read it for yourself and I encourage you to do so, because Mr. Gaines is a masterful story teller. MASTER–FULL! Yes. I wrote it that way on purpose. I will let it speak to you in however manner it does. See for yourself below why I say it:<br />
“My classroom was the church. My desk was a table, used as a collection table by the church on Sundays, and also used for the service of the Holy Sacrament. My students’ desks were the benches upon which their parents and grandparents sat during church meeting. Ventilation into the church was by way of the four windows on either side, and from the front and back doors. There was a blackboard on the back wall. Behind my desk was the pulpit and the altar. This was my school.” –Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines<br />
Powerful.<br />
As is this. In 2005, Oprah Winfrey honored the important women in her life who had paved a way not just for her but for all of us. It was called <i>The Legends Ball</i>. I remember watching it and thinking what a blessing it was to be able to do something like that for those in your life who had meant something to you, as a means of saying “thank you.” It was a grand gesture – the stuff of....well, legends! As part of that tribute, Oprah had asked one of her favorite authors to write a poem which was read to celebrate those legendary women. I will never forget the chills that I had as I watched the “Young Uns” as Oprah called them, read that poem out loud. I’ve thought a lot about that poem over the years. It says SO much about “way-pavers”:<br />
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<i>We Speak Your Names</i><br />
by Pearl Cleage<br />
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Because we are free women,<br />
born of free women,<br />
who are born of free women,<br />
back as far as time begins,<br />
we celebrate your freedom.<br />
<br />
Because we are wise women, <br />
born of wise women,<br />
who are born of wise women,<br />
we celebrate your wisdom.<br />
<br />
Because we are strong women,<br />
born of strong women,<br />
who are born of strong women,<br />
we celebrate your strength.<br />
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Because we are magical women,<br />
born of magical women,<br />
who are born of magical women,<br />
we celebrate your magic.<br />
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My sisters, we are gathered here to speak your<br />
names.<br />
We are here because we are your daughters<br />
as surely as if you had conceived us, nurtured us,<br />
carried us in your wombs, and then sent us out<br />
into the world to make our mark<br />
and see what we see, and be what we be, but better,<br />
truer, deeper<br />
because of the shining example of your own<br />
incandescent lives.<br />
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We are here to speak your names<br />
because we have enough sense to know<br />
that we did not spring full blown from the<br />
forehead of Zeus,<br />
or arrive on the scene like Topsy, our sister once<br />
removed, who somehow just growed.<br />
We know that we are walking in footprints made<br />
deep by the confident strides<br />
of women who parted the air before them like the<br />
forces of nature that you are.<br />
<br />
We are here to speak your names<br />
because you taught us that the search is always for<br />
the truth<br />
and that when people show us who they are, we<br />
should believe them.<br />
<br />
We are here because you taught us<br />
that sisterspeak can continue to be our native<br />
tongue,<br />
no matter how many languages we learn as we<br />
move about as citizens of the world<br />
and of the ever-evolving universe.<br />
<br />
We are here to speak your names<br />
because of the way you made for us.<br />
Because of the prayers you prayed for us.<br />
We are the ones you conjured up, hoping we<br />
would have strength enough,<br />
and discipline enough, and talent enough, and<br />
nerve enough<br />
to step into the light when it turned in our<br />
direction, and just smile awhile.<br />
<br />
We are the ones you hoped would make you<br />
proud<br />
because all of our hard work<br />
makes all of yours part of something better, truer,<br />
deeper.<br />
Something that lights the way ahead like a lamp<br />
unto our feet,<br />
as steady as the unforgettable beat of our collective<br />
heart.<br />
<br />
We speak your names.<br />
We speak your names...<br />
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Over the course of this next month, I’ll be writing about African-American men and women who embody the message of what Ms. Cleage’s poem convey’s. [I don’t think she’d mind that I expanded the sentiment to include men.] I will speak their names with gratitude for making this world a better–brighter–more beautiful place because of their example.<br />
I hope you join me as I celebrate them.<br />
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<br />Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-85721694701577571172013-12-31T21:39:00.000-08:002014-01-02T08:59:45.268-08:00Reflections of...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” —Zora Neale Hurston<br />
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“Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” ~Hal Borland<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/Jn2Lpmo3vq8">http://youtu.be/Jn2Lpmo3vq8</a> What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve~Nancy Wilson/1963-A VERY good year! ;-)<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/Ar9Ip7pSqEg">http://youtu.be/Ar9Ip7pSqEg</a> Same Old Lang Syne~Dan Fogelberg {My birthday buddy!}<br />
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Happy New Year’s Climbers! I want to thank those of you who have spent the last several months here with me again since the blog got back up and running! I cannot tell you how much it means to me that you take the time to read my writing–these posts. I’ve been thinking a lot the last few days about this post — the last one of 2013, and what I wanted to say. Gosh, that sounds odd to say that – the last of 2013. WHERE has the time gone? It truly does seem like just yesterday that THIS New Year was embarking. My parents both have told me, at various times in my life, that the older one gets, the faster time goes. I’m certainly finding that to be true.<br />
Last year, at this time, I was gearing up for a personal milestone year for myself. However, we were also preparing for a surgery that my husband would have on January 3rd for a disc fusion that would keep him out of work for three months and in physical therapy for a couple more. We were getting all the bad stuff out of the way so that the rest of the year would be smooth sailing...that’s what <i>we</i> were planning for on our end. Have you ever heard that old adage, the best laid plans? Hm...yes. 2013 would prove to be that all-encompassing mix of the best and worst of times, as Dickens once wrote about. <br />
Tom made it through his surgery with flying colors. His recovery was a long, hard, climb back for him to regain his strength and stamina, but he did it like an athlete in training. I’m always amazed by his diligence and perseverance! His focus is intent and unwavering. He continues to be an example to me in many things, but this, perhaps, is his greatest - the way he keeps on keeping on no matter the obstacle in his path. Gosh, I admire that more than I can express!<br />
Spring brought us to our 18th wedding anniversary on the 24th anniversary of our first date. Yeah, we planned it that way so that we’d always remember that special night when we first went out, coupled with that special night when we said we wanted to spend all of our nights together! We spoke of all the changes we’ve seen in our lives, since that day in April when we exchanged vows, and rings and names...so many changes. Still, we hold hands and stick together. I can’t imagine it any other way. I don’t think he can either. It’s a blessing when you find your soul’s mate. It’s a divine comfort. I wish it for everyone!<br />
2013 also brought a new friend in my life. It is always a blessing when life bestows upon us the bountiful boon of a friendship – the kind of friendship that George Eliot wrote about when she penned, <i>“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.”</i> It was just like that...talk came easily as did the laughter—common interests kept aligning, like stars in the heavens, making you realize that it was something truly heaven-sent. It is an amazing thing when you discover a friend who shares many similar likes, and it’s always a gift when you can learn something new from someone. And, I have.<br />
Early summer brought a health scare for me: a BIG one! Life sometimes gives us those “slow me down, Lord! Moments”, or “wake up calls”, and I got one in July. It is every woman’s fear: to get the call from one’s doctor informing you that there’s a “problem” with your mammogram. It is a moment that gives you pause. It’s hard to truly describe what fear feels like other than to say it’s akin to something that grips your insides with a fist and holds so tightly that you almost can’t breathe. I remember that July Thursday so vividly, when I went to deliver previous mammogram results and follow up, after that first call informing me of a possible problem. The worst thing in the world is to go into the weekend with something like that hanging over your head! You try not to let your mind go to the worse case scenario, but, invariably, it does. I tried to be brave on my own – just me and Tom knowing about it. {I failed miserably at that-was a basket case...} I didn’t want to talk too much about it with him, because I could tell he was concerned about it on his own, and I didn't want to upset him further. We spoke a little. He reassured me that it would be okay. My gut gnawed over it though. At 4 p.m. that Friday, I called to find out what was going on, and was told that they’d not gotten the results back yet from my comparison that was needed to determine if more, advanced tests should be done. I was told that they’d call me first thing Monday morning, which meant that I had to suffer through the weekend not knowing if there was a cancer growing in my left breast. I can tell you that two days NEVER felt so long! NEVER. The more you try not to think about something like that, the more your mind focuses on it. I prayed a lot...I thought a lot about my friend, Sheri. My heart spoke to her. In my quiet moments, I tried to mentally prepare for the dreaded scenario, but my mind wouldn't let me go there. Do not give power to an unknown. Wait. And, so I did...<br />
Monday morning FINALLY came as did the call. It was not positive news, and being told that I was being sent to a radiologist in Richmond literally took me to my knees. Have you ever felt a room close in on you? That was the feeling that came, aside from a true sense of fear take root. I immediately called my friend, Luci, who is also an OB-GYN. She talked me down and through the fear. She told me what to expect, and what it all might mean – what it probably was. She offered to consult if I needed her that Wednesday, if the news wasn’t good, and told me to give her cell phone number to Tom. She’d be on standby. It is a double blessing to have a dear friend who is also this kind of doctor. "Don't worry, Jhilly!" she said to me. "Whatever it is! We'll get through it. I'll be there with you every step of the way if you need me!" What a comfort! It gave me peace to hear that! I felt a level of calm return. After I spoke with Luci, I shot off an email to another dear friend, Erika, who immediately focused my energy on prayer and meditation. I also called my A.B. who also has a way of putting things into a calm perspective as well for me. These friends grounded me, and helped get me through one of the scariest moments of my life. Do you have friends who you can feel with you in moments such as this? I felt them with me as I went in Wednesday morning for the second follow-up exam - especially from an email Erika sent me at 5 am her time. "I'm with you, Jhilly! I'm here!" It brought tears to my eyes when I received it - to know she was up and praying for all to be healthy and well! I would know when I left that office that morning whether or not I had cancer, but no matter the outcome, in THAT moment, I felt stronger! I WAS stronger! Though my husband and I were on pins and needles on the inside, I had powerful women in my corner, however ready to fight with me-for me, if need be...one in Chicago ready to talk strategy if it came down to it, one in Maryland bee-lining her faith for a positive outcome regarding my circumstance straight to God in prayer, and the other in California in early morning prayer and mediation doing her own special offering of healing on my behalf. It was an awesome feeling to feel that kind of power, love and support in my corner. Other friends were praying for me as well. There is power in it, I tell you! A mighty fortress surrounded me....I truly felt lifted up.<br />
I knew when I sat in the waiting room with the other women waiting for results, knowing that my husband was in the outside waiting room and looked up and saw a picture of a white, sandy beach with a tree that had coconuts hanging from it that it was going to be okay. It was a sign...I believe in them. It was the first time in nearly a week that I felt a smile come. No more had that happened, then I was called back to see the doctor. I went and got Tom. He squeezed my hand as we waited to hear the results. When the doctor said that it was all clear - that there was no cancer, I exhaled. Then, I asked him to repeat it, and I watched his lips closely as he said the words again. Only then did I felt the relief wash over me as I looked to my husband, and we hugged. He had told me it would be okay. It was nice to know it.<br />
“My God! My God!” I cried. And, I DID cry. “Thank you!” It was all I could say. But, as Meister Eckart stated, <i>“if the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you’, it will be enough.” </i><br />
It was one of those moments when you know that you just caught a fortunate, break because you were just sitting on the cusp of something that could have gone the other way. I couldn’t wait to get home to let Luci, Karen, and Erika know that all was well – that their prayers and positive energy had worked and seen me through. It’s the kind of experience that you can never adequately express your gratitude about, but I hope they know much I appreciated their love and support in that moment. It meant EVERYTHING! All my friends who prayed during that experience will never know how much it truly meant to have that grace on my side. It was a life-lesson, and the lesson is this: the time is now! Don’t take anything for granted – not one, single thing. I remember hearing, “Live Like You Were Dying” run through my mind as we walked out of that office later that morning. It’s a wonderful feeling to have a new lease on life. And, I did...boy, did I!<br />
After that, the sky was the limit...my 50th birthday was approaching, and we were going to New Orleans with family and dear, old friends - my oldest in the world. I've known Terri for 45 of my 50 years. We were best friends when I was little. Her mother was my mother's bestie too. It was the perfect compliment to that week having Terri and Mrs. Lombardo there with us. To say that this was a special time was a gross understatement! I had never been to New Orleans before, and it gets in your blood! The food; the music; the people; the culture...it’s ALL incredible! It takes root. We loved it! [NOLA with Kathy & Paul was another treasured experience & my birthday lunch at Mr. B's with Tom, Mom, my brother and everyone...the jazz at Fritzel's - OMG! BEYOND good!] I can’t adequately express all the special moments I-we had there. I can honestly say though that if you want to blow the lid off, New Orleans is the place to do it! It was a grand experience, rich with memories that linger. Still...<br />
September and October were our “circle of life” moments. We lost a brother, and gained a brother. <br />
It is an indescribable moment when you get a phone call and learn that your husband’s brother has died at the age of 56. It’s one of those moments when you say, “what?”, because you don’t think you could have possibly heard the telling of information correctly the first time it's imparted to you. When you realize that you <i>did</i> hear correctly, everything else becomes surreal. So it went the next few weeks for us as we muddled through the gathering of information as to what happened and when - as arrangements were made and a trip to Florida was planned to honor and remember him. It still seems like a bad dream...some things in life are like that. <br />
October came with a new beginning for our sister, Kathy, as she remarried, and we added another brother to our family. It was a wonderful celebration, and a true confirmation that, sometimes, when we least expect it, life does give us second chances. It was a gratitude moment for our family. God blesses us with those when we are most in need of them, and it was a much needed joy, I must tell you! We love Paul not simply because he put a happy light back in Kathy's eyes, and a genuine smile on her face again, although those were BIG +'s in our books. He's a good guy, and they make a great couple. Once again, all is well for Kathy, and for that, we offer praise.<br />
It’s been a full year. There have been incredible highs and lows. Life. That is the stuff of it: incredible highs and lows. 2013 gave us several of each. It is a year that will forever be a memorable one in our families history. Now, as the clock approaches midnight, my hope is that 2014 will a good one for all of us – the whole world over. <br />
My mother told me that when you hit the age of 50, you finally come into your own. You know yourself. You’re comfortable with your thoughts and speak your mind freely. You care less whether others do or don’t like who you’ve become. The days of “impressing” are gone. You are who you are and YOU know who you are! People can either take you or leave you. If they choose to leave, you’re less inclined to fight for them to stay, because you’ve learned that not everyone’s place in your life is a permanent one. And, so it is, and so it goes...<br />
So, let me speak my mind in this moment as a new year dawns: I hope we all do better in the coming year with one another regarding patience, tolerance, understanding, compassion, and forgiveness. The answer still and always will be love. Only love. It is the true healer. I hope we all dispel more positive energy than negative. I hope we judge less, and learn to work together more. I hope the sun sets gently on your days and the moon shines brightly to see you through your nights. And, I hope when we gather next year, we can look back and say, “Wow! What an awesome year 2014 was!”<br />
It’s time to tuck 2013 away in the place where past years go: safely in our hearts and minds where memories live and thrive. So long 2013! You will not be forgotten!<br />
Happy New Year Friends! May it be your best! May you be blessed with good health and fortune and love overflowing...May you sparkle and shine brightly in the coming year...Shine! Shine! Shine!<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/6pfA_K9dUjI">http://youtu.be/6pfA_K9dUjI</a> Auld Lang Syne~Kenny G {Still chokes me up to watch this...}<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/yoRpWEE-E0Q">http://youtu.be/yoRpWEE-E0Q</a> White Sandy Beach~Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/JjRXGqRofE4">http://youtu.be/JjRXGqRofE4</a> Live Like You Were Dying~Tim McGraw {Live It, Friends!}<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/T3JzcCviNDk">http://youtu.be/T3JzcCviNDk</a> It's Always Now~Sam Harris {I listened to this a LOT this year!}<br />
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God Bless Us, Everyone!<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/_qCWIWI1ClM">http://youtu.be/_qCWIWI1ClM</a> Shine~David Gray ~ Now, go! Shine your light beautifully and brilliantly in 2014 for ALL the world to see! Be a blessing! I wish nothing less for each of you. I’ll see you on the Beanstalk....Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-71457343787820041092013-12-16T09:17:00.000-08:002013-12-16T09:17:19.990-08:00A Cup of Christmas Tea<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://youtu.be/ROX5gUWS7mo">http://youtu.be/ROX5gUWS7mo</a> Joy~George Winston {You can find this track on "Heavenly Christmas" cd - pure bliss! Enjoy...}<br />
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by Tom Hegg<br />
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The log was in the fireplace, all spiced and set to burn.<br />
At last the yearly Christmas race was in the clubhouse turn.<br />
The cards were in the mail, all the gifts beneath the tree,<br />
And 30 days reprieve till Visa could catch up with me.<br />
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Though smug satisfaction seemed the order of the day,<br />
Something still was nagging me and would not go away.<br />
A week before, I'd gotten a letter from my old, great Aunt.<br />
It read: "Of course I'll understand completely if you can't,<br />
But, if you find you have some time, how wonderful if we<br />
Could have a little chat and share a cup of Christmas tea."<br />
She'd had a mild stroke that year, which crippled her left side.<br />
Though house bound now my folks had said it hadn't hurt her pride.<br />
They said: "She'd love to see you. What a nice thing it would be,<br />
For you to go and maybe have a cup of Christmas tea."<br />
But boy! I didn't want to go. Oh, what a bitter pill...<br />
To see an old relation and how far she'd gone downhill.<br />
I remembered her as vigorous, as funny and as bright.<br />
I remembered Christmas Eves, when she regaled us half the night.<br />
I didn't want to risk all that. I didn't want the pain.<br />
I didn't need to be depressed. I didn't need the strain.<br />
And, what about my brother? Why not him? She's his aunt, too!<br />
I thought I had it justified, but then before I knew...<br />
The reasons not to go I so painstakingly had built,<br />
Were cracking wide and crumbling in an acid rain of guilt.<br />
I put on boots and gloves and cap, shame stinging every pore<br />
And armed with squeegee, sand and map, I went out my front door.<br />
I drove in from the suburbs to the older part of town -<br />
The pastels of the newer homes gave way to gray and brown.<br />
I had that disembodied feeling as the car pulled up,<br />
And stopped beside the wooden house,<br />
That held the Christmas cup.<br />
How I got up to her door, I really couldn't tell . . .<br />
I watched my hand rise up and press the button of the bell.<br />
I waited, aided by my nervous rocking to and fro.<br />
And, just as I was thinking I should turn around and go...<br />
I heard the rattle of the china in the hutch against the wall.<br />
The triple beat of two feet and a crutch came down the hall.<br />
The clicking of the door latch and the sliding of the bolt,<br />
And, a little swollen struggle popped it open with a jolt.<br />
She stood there pale and tiny, looking fragile as an egg.<br />
I forced myself from staring at the brace that held her leg.<br />
And though her thick bifocals,<br />
Seemed to crack and spread her eyes,<br />
Their milky and refracted depths lit up with young surprise.<br />
"Come in! Come in!" She laughed the words.<br />
She took me by the hand.<br />
And, all my fears dissolved away as if by her command.<br />
We went inside and then before I knew how to react,<br />
Before my eyes and ears and nose<br />
Was Christmas past . . . alive . . . intact!<br />
The scent of candied oranges, of cinnamon and pine,<br />
The antique wooden soldiers in their military line,<br />
The porcelain Nativity I'd always loved so much,<br />
The Dresden and the crystal I'd been told I mustn't touch.<br />
My spirit fairly bolted, like a child out of class<br />
And danced among the ornaments of calico and glass.<br />
Like magic, I was six again, deep in a Christmas spell,<br />
Steeped in the million memories the boy inside knew so well.<br />
And here among old Christmas cards so lovingly displayed,<br />
A special place of honor for the ones we kids had made.<br />
And there, beside her rocking chair, the center of it all<br />
My great Aunt stood and said<br />
How nice it was that I had come to call.<br />
I sat and rattled on about the weather and the flu,<br />
She listened very patiently then smiled and said, "What's new?"<br />
Thoughts and words began to flow. I started making sense.<br />
I lost the phony breeziness I use when I get tense.<br />
She was still passionately interested in everything I did.<br />
She was positive. Encouraging - like when I was a kid.<br />
Simple generalities still sent her into fits.<br />
She demanded the specifics . . . the particulars . . . the bits.<br />
We talked about the limitations that she'd recently had to face.<br />
She spoke with utter candor and with humor and good grace.<br />
Then defying the reality of crutch and straightened knee<br />
On wings of hospitality she flew to brew the tea.<br />
I sat alone with feelings that I hadn't felt in years.<br />
I looked around at Christmas through a thick hot blur of tears.<br />
And, the candles and the holly she'd arranged on every shelf,<br />
The impossibly good cookies she still somehow baked herself.<br />
But these rich and tactile memories became quite pale and thin,<br />
When measured by the Christmas<br />
My great Aunt kept deep within.<br />
Her body halved and nearly spent, but my great Aunt was whole.<br />
I saw a Christmas miracle, the triumph of a soul.<br />
The triple beat of two feet and a crutch came down the hall.<br />
The rattle of the china in the hutch against the wall.<br />
She poured two cups, she smiled, then she handed one to me.<br />
And then, we settled back and had a cup of Christmas tea...<br />
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~This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions - reading this poem and having a cup of Christmas tea. I hope you'll pick up the tradition along with me and share the story with your loved ones. Feel the simple joy in it & pass it on...<br />
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Blessings~<br />
JhillJhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-54598115297655014222013-12-13T21:39:00.002-08:002013-12-13T22:00:08.114-08:00When Life Was a Cabaret...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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“There is no more beautiful musical instrument than the voice of Nancy LaMott.” -Bob Harrington</div>
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Nancy LaMott</div>
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December 30, 1951-December 13, 1995</div>
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“Be nice, stay sweet, and recognize the worth of every person you meet.” Nancy’s Motto</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/zY3ggb65vsc">http://youtu.be/zY3ggb65vsc</a> We Live On Borrowed Time~Nancy LaMott</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/3lGGZ390p-w">http://youtu.be/3lGGZ390p-w</a> Listen To My Heart~Nancy LaMott</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/KAsfxd0wgCM">http://youtu.be/KAsfxd0wgCM</a> What’s Good About Goodbye~The Promise~Nancy LaMott</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/k9gHB6yOmFU">http://youtu.be/k9gHB6yOmFU</a> I Want To Be Around~Nancy LaMott</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/4YfS5CbAfgs">http://youtu.be/4YfS5CbAfgs</a> I’ll Be Here With You~Nancy LaMott</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/ERs4lujJnKk">http://youtu.be/ERs4lujJnKk</a> How Deep Is The Ocean~Nancy LaMott</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/qYI6ZfwGXBg">http://youtu.be/qYI6ZfwGXBg</a> Where Do You Start~Nancy LaMott</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/3TAyZlWhaXQ">http://youtu.be/3TAyZlWhaXQ</a> Remember/Always~Nancy LaMott</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/-QUS6oW_Dx4">http://youtu.be/-QUS6oW_Dx4</a> I’ll Be Home For Christmas~Nancy LaMott</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/z0W0ZUz1Amw">http://youtu.be/z0W0ZUz1Amw</a> Moon River~Nancy LaMott {Her last performance/live-December 4th, 1995; she would die of uterine cancer 9 days later...}</div>
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Have you ever heard of Nancy LaMott? </div>
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The first time I’d ever heard of her was on December 14th, 1995, when Kathie Lee Gifford informed the viewing audience on <i>Live With Regis and Kathie Lee</i> that Nancy had died the previous night. It was a sad telling: a beautiful, young, cabaret singer had succumbed to uterine cancer at the too-young age of 43. Sadder still, her actor-boyfriend, Peter Zapp, had married her just an hour before she had died. It was the saddest fairy-tale ending I’d ever heard. I was moved to tears over a woman who I’d never met, didn’t know, and, until that day, had never heard of.... Still, her story touched something in me. I was moved beyond words. Her story has stayed with me all these years...</div>
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Back then, I remember thinking what a special man Peter was to have given her that gift before she passed: the gift of marriage, yet what a cruel twist to die on your wedding night. Sad isn’t even the appropriate word for something like that. After the segment ended, I couldn’t get the story out of my mind. I had felt crummy before the show began — wicked sore throat and feverish from head to toe, now I felt bluer than blue, with a healthy dose of depressed heaped on top of the bronchitis that I was battling. </div>
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I couldn’t focus on the show anymore. I picked up my cup of hot tea, put a couple of cough drops in the pocket of my robe, grabbed the box of Kleenex and went into the front room where the computer was. I typed Nancy’s name into the search engine, and looked at the things that came up. There was a recording from 1989 called <i>Where Do You Start</i>? I sipped my tea as I listened to it, and I recall the three words that came to my mind as I heard her rich, smooth, soulful voice for the first time: Oh. My. God! That’s what your brain collects and piece-meals together as reaction, when it’s too verklempt to fathom anything else as proper response. Plain and simple, I was gobsmacked by her voice; her clarity; her styling – the overall beauty and grace of it all. Gobsmacked — utterly astonished. Utterly. </div>
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I’ve picked 10 of Nancy’s songs I especially love for your listening pleasure–see for yourself. Regardless, I’m a fan, and I remember her today. </div>
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I was listening to her music today, and couldn’t help but wonder just how big she might have become had cancer not taken her? I think she’d have made it big! She was already on her way when that crummy hand she’d been dealt surfaced! Thank God she left us well-endowed with a wealth of her music! Therein lies the blessing for the rest of us!</div>
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If you’d like to read more about Nancy, please go to her website which I’ve listed at the end of this entry. There is a lot of information there. I’ve also listed an article from the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> that I enjoyed reading. Likewise, you can purchase Nancy’s cd’s either from her website or <i>Amazon.com</i>. Worth every penny!</div>
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I don’t know how many people know of Nancy LaMott, but I thought she deserved to be remembered today because it’s important to remember. It matters. </div>
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And, one final thought: a special message to her from those of us who love her music. She’ll get this and so will they:</div>
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“We'll meet you at the end, Nancy...”</div>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/16/arts/nancy-lamott-43-pop-singer-of-a-clear-all-american-style.html">http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/16/arts/nancy-lamott-43-pop-singer-of-a-clear-all-american-style.html</a> link to Nancy LaMott's Obituary In the New York Times, 12/16/95</div>
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<a href="http://www.nancylamott.com/images/WallStreetArticle.jpg">http://www.nancylamott.com/images/WallStreetArticle.jpg</a> </div>
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<a href="http://www.nancylamott.com/welcome.htm">http://www.nancylamott.com/welcome.htm</a> Nancy LaMott website</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/7Scvdf0NdX4">http://youtu.be/7Scvdf0NdX4</a> The Secret of Life~Nancy LaMott</div>
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Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-73865234250236833372013-12-12T21:21:00.001-08:002013-12-20T06:35:51.054-08:00Songs of the SeasonThe best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis<br />
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There is no story or personal reflections to this post. It is simply a listing of feel-good, Christmas tunes. I wanted to put together a compilation of the songs that I love and enjoy listening to during this season. There are a few missing songs - perhaps, for another year, and there are some repeats from the first year I did this. I couldn't help myself! Some songs bear a re-listening! ;-) I hope you’ll spend a little time here over the next few days, at your leisure, and share these songs with me. Get a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa and a plate of Christmas cookies, turn on your tree's lights, sit back and relax. The season is truly upon us now. I wish you the happiest of holidays and a joyous listening experience...<br />
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NOTE: To facilitate listening: click on the blue link; listen to the song then hit your back arrow on your computer which will bring you back to the blog entry and click on the next blue link....and so forth, and so on....<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/lx_9QvtoVuo">http://youtu.be/lx_9QvtoVuo</a> Happy Holiday~Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/I0e_bktNKLE">http://youtu.be/I0e_bktNKLE</a> Christmas Bells~Patti Page<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/CxymT2s5QDs">http://youtu.be/CxymT2s5QDs</a> Angels We Have Heard On High/Joy To The World~Michael Crawford<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/ZLC4t21_aT4">http://youtu.be/ZLC4t21_aT4</a> Let It Snow~The Manhattan Transfer<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/n543eKIdbUI">http://youtu.be/n543eKIdbUI</a> Angels We Have Heard On High Instrumental~The Piano Guys<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/p07T4dlw2cc">http://youtu.be/p07T4dlw2cc </a>Jingle Bells~Frank Sinatra<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/rJY1s0oOQDY">http://youtu.be/rJY1s0oOQDY</a> Ole Santa~Dinah Washington<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/f3d4bkTQIHI">http://youtu.be/f3d4bkTQIHI</a> I’ll Be Home For Christmas~Josh Groban<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/IB8w2FK98sg">http://youtu.be/IB8w2FK98sg</a> Do You Hear What I Hear~Whitney Houston<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Y-ImRQuFSXo">http://youtu.be/Y-ImRQuFSXo</a> We Three Kings/Carol of the Bells~Kenny G<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/E5jYbtUzZhY">http://youtu.be/E5jYbtUzZhY</a> Christmas Mem’ries~Barbra Streisand<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/y_xuGxdqKU0">http://youtu.be/y_xuGxdqKU0</a> The Twelve Days of Christmas~Roger Whittaker<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/bJ73_HcR1VA">http://youtu.be/bJ73_HcR1VA</a> The Bells of St. Paul~Linda Eder<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/hG_M-BLVSIk">http://youtu.be/hG_M-BLVSIk</a> It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas~Perry Como<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/YvI_FNrczzQ">http://youtu.be/YvI_FNrczzQ</a> Christmas Time is Here~Vince Guaraldi Trio<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/O3wujkozv9E">http://youtu.be/O3wujkozv9E</a> A Baby Changes Everything~Faith Hill<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/YTnow1IOz7k">http://youtu.be/YTnow1IOz7k</a> The Little Drummer Boy~Neil Diamond<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/n0tryKdpl0s">http://youtu.be/n0tryKdpl0s</a> O Come All Ye Faithful~Celtic Women<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/SOszvL9lgSs">http://youtu.be/SOszvL9lgSs</a> The Christmas Song~Nat King Cole<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/7S-IidmcSN8">http://youtu.be/7S-IidmcSN8</a> White Christmas~Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera Ellen {let’s see if you catch the twist in this one}<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/yts9sQic3Q0">http://youtu.be/yts9sQic3Q0</a> O Holy Night~Linda Eder<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Ahj5RbcDGDE">http://youtu.be/Ahj5RbcDGDE</a> The First Noel~Andy Williams<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/yeteg5fNZfM">http://youtu.be/yeteg5fNZfM</a> The Bells of Dublin/Christmas Eve~The Chieftains {For Tom}<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/_EXCv7REDoM">http://youtu.be/_EXCv7REDoM</a> The Seven Rejoices of Mary~Loreena McKennitt<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/SFjMPaOBzXc">http://youtu.be/SFjMPaOBzXc</a> Hark! The Herald Angels Sing~The Mormon Tabernacle Choir<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/iBZKnt02TTE">http://youtu.be/iBZKnt02TTE</a> When My Heart Finds Christmas~Harry Connick, Jr.<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/UfHQ8CMZHMA">http://youtu.be/UfHQ8CMZHMA</a> Christmas Canon~Trans-Siberian Orchestra<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/c3q3AUp_-Ks">http://youtu.be/c3q3AUp_-Ks</a> Celebrate Me Home~Donna Summer {Sheri's Song}<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/FL6_lPd7kkY">http://youtu.be/FL6_lPd7kkY</a> What Christmas Is All About~Charlie Brown/Linus<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/JeGh4IxA74c">http://youtu.be/JeGh4IxA74c</a> Just In Time For Christmas~Nancy LaMott<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/9nt5fqHNf2Y">http://youtu.be/9nt5fqHNf2Y</a> O Christmas Tree~Kenny G<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/7qRbXNABLQg">http://youtu.be/7qRbXNABLQg</a> Silver Bells/Happy Holidays~Williams-Osmonds<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/bDzHLx3494w">http://youtu.be/bDzHLx3494w</a> Silent Night~The Piano Guys<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/JERkrHv5qMY">http://youtu.be/JERkrHv5qMY</a> We Wish You A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year~Bing Crosby<br />
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<b>New Year’s Extra Tracks:</b><br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/Jn2Lpmo3vq8">http://youtu.be/Jn2Lpmo3vq8</a> What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve~Nancy Wilson [from 1963, a VERY good year! ;-) ]<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/AhdxjcjzCAM">http://youtu.be/AhdxjcjzCAM</a> Same Old Lang Syne~Dan Fogelberg<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/6pfA_K9dUjI">http://youtu.be/6pfA_K9dUjI</a> Auld Lang Syne Millennium Mix~Kenny G<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/7vfBVbIe25g">http://youtu.be/7vfBVbIe25g</a> Auld Lang Syne~Guy Lombardo<br />
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Merry Christmas, Everybody, & God Bless Us Everyone!<br />
I wish you Health, Happiness and Blessings overflowing in the New Year.<br />
And remember, as W. T. Ellis once said, <i>“It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.</i>” I hope these songs fill your heart with the wonder, magic, peace and the love that is this season...<br />
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Always love~</div>
Jhill<br />
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<br />Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-69379803646771446752013-11-28T10:16:00.000-08:002013-12-12T18:51:52.528-08:00We Gather Together<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." -Thorton Wilder<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/7NSQLMPUK-8">http://youtu.be/7NSQLMPUK-8</a> Thanksgiving Song~Mary Chapin Carpenter<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/LA05aiIvl20">http://youtu.be/LA05aiIvl20</a> Thanksgiving-George Winston<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/xBtKRKM3a9o">http://youtu.be/xBtKRKM3a9o </a> We Gather Together~Thanksgiving Blessings<br />
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"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy<br />
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Thanksgiving. It comes every year on the fourth Thursday in the month of November. It is our national holiday, when we give thanks for the bounty of the yearly harvest and the many blessings bestowed upon us. In the United States, our Thanksgiving holiday is rooted in English tradition as well as with prayers and ceremonies that we recognize dating back to 1621, and that first feast of Thanksgiving which took place at Plymouth Rock. Pilgrims feasted for three days, celebrated and offered thanks for the abundance of harvest. Edward Winslow an attendee at the first gathering in 1621 recorded that 90 Native American Indians were in attendance at that first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims.<br />
Did you know that Thanksgiving has been an annual celebration by Presidential proclamation since 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed: a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.571426391601563px; line-height: 19.19642448425293px;">, </span>and by state legislation since the times of our Founding Fathers? It was set to be observed as the fourth Thursday in November by federal legislation in 1941. As stated, the holiday began as a traditional celebration of the yearly harvest. <br />
Here is an excerpt of Edward Winslow's personal account of that first Thanksgiving:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.571426391601563px; line-height: 19.19642448425293px;">"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massasoit" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.571426391601563px; line-height: 19.19642448425293px; text-decoration: none;" title="Massasoit">Massasoit</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.571426391601563px; line-height: 19.19642448425293px;">, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">So once in every year we throng</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">Upon a day apart,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">To praise the Lord with feast and song</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">In thankfulness of heart.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">~Arthur Guiterman, The First Thanksgiving</span></span><br />
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As stated above, Presient Lincoln proclaimed there be a national day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated the last Thursday in November. Here is his proclamation, dated October 3, 1863:<br />
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The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.</div>
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No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.</div>
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"It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.</div>
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In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.</div>
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Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Domini" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Anno Domini">year of our Lord</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1863" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="1863">one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three</a>, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth."</div>
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"All that we behold is full of blessings." ~William Wordsworth</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">~Since 1924, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held in upper Manhattan. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">~Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President with a live turkey. President John F. Kennedy was the first President to spare the turkey. Ronald Reagan is the first President to have granted the turkey a presidential pardon in 1987, and sent the turkey to a petting zoo. In 1989, President Bush made the turkey pardon an annual tradition.</span><br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/m57gzA2JCcM">http://youtu.be/m57gzA2JCcM</a> Alice's Restaurant-Arlo Guthrie<br />
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"Remember God's bounty in the year. String the pearls of His favor. Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude!" ~Henry Ward Beecher<br />
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"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is, 'thank you,' that will be enough." ~Meister Eckhart<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Thanksgiving</span><br />
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<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Now</span> gracious plenty rules the board,<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>And in the purse is gold;<br />
By multitudes in glad accord<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>Thy giving is extolled.<br />
Ah, suffer <i>me</i> to thank Thee, Lord,<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>For what thou dost withhold!</div>
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I thank Thee that howe'er we climb<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>There yet is something higher;<br />
That though through all our reach of time<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>We to the stars aspire,<br />
Still, still beyond us burns sublime<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>The pure sidereal fire!</div>
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I thank Thee for the unexplained,<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>The hope that lies before,<br />
The victory that is not gained,—<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>O Father, more and more<br />
I thank Thee for the unattained,<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>The good we hunger for!</div>
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I thank Thee for the voice that sings<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>To inner depths of being;<br />
For all the spread and sweep of wings,<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>From earthly bondage freeing;<br />
For mystery—the dream of things<br />
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 2em;"> </span>Beyond our power of seeing!</div>
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by Florence Earle Coates/Nov. 1905</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/SSKIVf0hSn0" style="font-size: x-large;">http://youtu.be/SSKIVf0hSn0</a><span style="font-size: large;"> Thankful~Josh Groban</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now, go and tell those who have touched your life what a blessing they are to you!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Happy Thanksgiving, Friends! May your day be abundantly blessed today~</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 19.5px;">And, know that in my heart especially today, that I thank God upon <i>every</i> remembrance of you....Blessings my friends, With love & gratitude, Jhill</span></span></div>
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<br />Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-84579541567097266492013-11-22T21:03:00.003-08:002013-11-25T10:40:35.256-08:00Old Friends<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sheri Soulis Jenkins, December 21, 1963-November 22, 2002</div>
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<br />
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,<br />
All losses are restored and sorrows end.<br />
~William Shakespeare<br />
<br />
“Best friends are made through smiles and tears and sometimes that fades over<br />
miles and years....but I knew right away when I saw you again, Emily~we’ll always be friends...”<br />
From the song, “Emily” by Beth Nielsen Chapman<br />
<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Ul2hSba5pOs">http://youtu.be/Ul2hSba5pOs</a> Old Friends~Bookends/Simon & Garfunkel<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/qxd-7dTsUfQ">http://youtu.be/qxd-7dTsUfQ</a> You and Me Against the World~Helen Reddy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/ttqgwlCsXZM">http://youtu.be/ttqgwlCsXZM</a> SNL-Point/Counterpoint Skit~Jane, You Ignorant _____!<br />
<br />
Eleven years ago, I lost my first friend to cancer — one of my oldest.<br />
The first, close friend we lose to death is a life-changing event. It brings mortality up close and personal to us. When it happens early-on in life—it’s an indescribable, undefinable feeling. As you get older, you begin to expect the passing of loved ones, but not when you’re 38. Not when you’re young like that; when your child is five; and when you have so much life yet to live – so much still to contribute and give to the world. You just don’t expect something like that to happen to anyone you know at 38 years old. It’s a hard pill to swallow — one of those bitter ones that life sometimes deals us. <br />
It sucks! Plain and simple.<br />
I met Sheri the summer of 5th grade moving into 6th. Our parents worked at the same school: her father was the Assistant Principal, and my mother was the Administrative Assistant. I was four months older than Sheri. By the time our paths had crossed, I had already spent two years at Hendricks. Sheri would be in the 6th grade at Hendricks the beginning of the school year like me, and our parents thought it would be good for us to meet – for her to have a friend at school when she began there. Starting a new school can be a daunting and nightmarish thing - particularly for a young girl. <br />
We hit it off immediately. We met at school a couple of times a week and spent our mornings hanging out in the library, swinging on the playground [we loved that] and talking, walking around school and talking some more. We’d eat our lunch sometimes out under a large Oak tree that was a favorite spot. We didn’t have computers, tablets or video games back then. We had to create our own fun and use our imaginations. We both had good imaginations and always had a blast together. After lunch, Mr. Soulis would give us each a dime, and we’d walk a couple of blocks up to the 7-11 and get an Icee and a nickle candy, then walk back to school talking all the while. You may wonder what girls could possibly spend so much time talking about? Trust me when I tell you that the topics are endless. Good times...<br />
Some Friday nights, I’d sleep over at her house. Others, she’d sleep over at mine. We’d go to the skating rink. Gosh....we had SO much fun! We’d stay up late into the night and do more of that marathon talking about everything and sometimes nothing in particular. And, we’d laugh. Oh, we laughed a lot. <br />
As the summer wore down, we eagerly awaited the assignment of classes. There were to be three 6th grade classes, we learned. We prayed a lot that we’d get in the same class together. We must have bugged our parents incessantly for weeks on end about putting us in the same class. <br />
“It’s not done that way!” they both told us.<br />
“Why not?” we asked.<br />
“Because it’s not.”<br />
“How is it done?” I asked my mother one day, not satisfied with that answer.<br />
“It’s based on your grades and your test scores,” she told me.<br />
“My grades and test scores are good,” I said. “Are Sheri’s?”<br />
“I can’t tell you that!” she said firmly.<br />
I called Sheri. <br />
“Are your grades and test scores good?”<br />
“Yeah,” she said. “Pretty good. Why?”<br />
“Mom said that the classes are based on that, and mine are good, but she wouldn’t tell me what yours are. I hope they’re the same amount of good. Has your father said anything?”<br />
“No,” she said glumly.<br />
I huffed. “What good is it to have parents who work at the school if you can’t find anything out?”<br />
“He’s pretty tight lipped about it,” she said.<br />
“He’s not giving anything away at all?” I lamented.<br />
“He’s got a good poker face,” she added. “What about your Mom?”<br />
“Nothing,” I sulked. “They know how much this is killing us! You’d think they’d have a little mercy!”<br />
She laughed. “It’ll be okay.”<br />
“If you say so,” I said.<br />
“I’ve got a feeling,” she added.<br />
“I hope so.”<br />
“Call me when you get your schedule in the mail,” she said.<br />
“Okay, and you call me when you get yours.”<br />
I remember when that call came. <br />
“I got mine,” I told her. “Did you get yours?”<br />
“Yeah.”<br />
“Who’d you get for Home Room?”<br />
I remember closing my eyes and holding the phone white-knuckled as I waited for her to tell me what our fate was going to be for the school year. Everything was riding on her answer. [That’s how it felt back then.]<br />
“Mrs. Lester—Algebra.”<br />
My hand fisted in victory as I squeezed it and happily squealed, “Yay and Yes!” into the phone. <br />
“Oh my God!” she squealed back. “Really?”<br />
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” I squealed louder as if the lottery was ours.<br />
And we laughed and began to talk 90 to nothing as our excitement built for the upcoming school year. Let me just say that’s the ONLY time in my life that I’ve ever been happy about a math class. [LOL]<br />
We were inseparable back then. <br />
I’ve written of Sheri before and of some of these events in our life, but not in detail. The details are good and important. They give insight into the specialness of our friendship. I’d like to share some of those details today:<br />
I remember we were both in debate club. I’ll never forget one of the most gut-wrenching moments in that club for both of us was when we were pitted against each other in a debate. It had never occurred to either of us that such a thing could happen–would be done. We always thought that we’d be on the same team of whatever debate was taking place. <br />
Looking back on it, I’m sure the teacher [I won’t name her out of respect.] who oversaw that club thought it would make for a good debate. Sheri and I were both smart young girls, we weren’t afraid to speak our minds, and we both had very definite ideas on things. So, when the topic of which animal made a better pet came up, Sheri had answered cat, and I had answered dog. Therein lied the making of a good debate. I felt sick to my stomach when it was announced that we’d be up against the other. I looked over at her and saw that her face looked the way my stomach felt. She didn’t want to do it either. The point of a debate, after all, was to win – to beat the other person–to be victorious over them.<br />
I remember we both left the club meeting that day, and we walked all the way over to the playground in silence. She took a swing, and I took a swing. We pushed ourselves back and forth for a minute or two in more silence. I remember that conversation like it was yesterday.<br />
“I don’t want to go against you like that,” I finally said. “I don’t want to beat you or try to make myself look better than you. It’s a stupid debate! You’re my best friend.”<br />
She sighed relief that I’d said it. “You’re my best friend too. I don’t want to beat you either,” she said. “And, I don’t want to say anything that could make you upset with me. I don’t want us to get angry with each other because of this debate.”<br />
I looked over at her. “So, what do we do?”<br />
“Can we do a friendly point-counterpoint?” she asked, not certain if her suggestion made much sense.<br />
I started to laugh and brought up Saturday Night Live’s version of this concept with Jane Curtain and Dan Aykroyd. <br />
“I can,” I teased. “So long as you don’t call me an ignorant slut!”<br />
Sheri doubled over in the swing laughing. <br />
“I won’t if you won’t!” she agreed.<br />
We were too young for that term to ever be applied to us, but it was a mood lightener and made for a good laugh between us.<br />
She held her hand out, and we shook on it. <br />
The outcome of that debate went like this: it was the first and only time in our school that a draw was called in a debate. No one lost nor won. We held our own against the other, which had never been anything up for debate. We knew we could hold our own against the other. What we did, however, was we played off of the other and the other’s information in a way that didn’t give a clear-cut win of which animal was the best household pet. Sheri and I conspired together to make certain that was the end point to the debate–no clear winner. We worked REALLY hard practicing our responses together with each other to make certain that we kept the argument on equal ground. We were very proud of that outcome. I remember leaving the makeshift stage, stepping behind the curtain and us high-fiving each other before we hugged. It was a relief that it was over! We had managed to pull it off. We had argued our case without undermining it or each other. I’ll tell you the secret to our success. I’ve never told this to anyone before, and I don’t think Sheri would mind: Sheri and I worked on each other’s arguments. She gave me tips on what made a dog the better pet, and I gave her tips on why a cat was better one. We figured if our voice was in both sides of the argument that it would level the overall field. It worked. We were never pitted against each other again.<br />
Then, there was the cheerleading-pep club matter between us.<br />
“Come on, Jhill!” she begged. “Try out for cheerleading with me!”<br />
“No way!” I said.<br />
“Why not?” she asked, not understanding my reluctance. “I want you to stand beside me and root for the home team.”<br />
“How bout I stand in front of you and root for the home team,” I offered my alternative.<br />
“Pep Club is not the same thing!” she pouted. <br />
“I’m not trying out for cheerleading, Sheri!” I adamantly told her.<br />
“Why not?” she pushed harder.<br />
“I can’t do a split,” I rattled off. “And, if I try to do a cartwheel, God only knows where I’ll land with that, and last and most importantly, you couldn’t pay me to wear that little shorty skirt you have to wear!”<br />
“What’s the big deal with the skirt?” she said in an exasperated tone.<br />
“Um....hello!” I shot back. “I don’t have the legs for that like you do!”<br />
She frowned. “Your closest friends are going out for cheerleading,” she told me something I already knew. “You’re going to be the only one not out there with us.”<br />
I looked at her as tears came. Yeah. That was true, and it hurt. I didn’t like thinking about being left out. But, I wouldn’t try for cheerleading. <br />
“What?” she pled. “Tell me.”<br />
I remember my lip quivered when I told her the truth of the situation. “I don’t want to embarrass myself! I can’t do a split, and you know that you can’t make the squad if you can’t do that. You’ve seen my cartwheel, which is crappy at best. I don’t want to get out there and look like an idiot — have people laugh at me! There’s nothing worse than people laughing at you!”<br />
“They won’t laugh!” she tried to assure.<br />
I gave her a look. “Have YOU seen my cartwheel?”<br />
She laughed. It was okay. I was going for the laugh then.<br />
“There’s nothing wrong with knowing your limitations and knowing your strong suits,” I told her. “I’ve got good hand motion, and I can jump up and down with the best of you, I’m full of pep and I can cheer my heart out, but I can’t do the rest of it, and the rest of it is important. You KNOW it’s important! Don’t ask me to make a fool of myself.”<br />
Softly, she said, understanding. “I’d never ask you to do that.”<br />
I nodded my appreciation and said cheerfully as I wiped my eyes. “I’ll be good on the Pep Squad, but I won’t make the cheerleading team, if I try for it. You and I both know that!”<br />
It was a moment of vulnerability for me. I opened myself up and showed it to her. I didn’t need to say anything else. She understood. She didn’t want me to do anything I wasn’t comfortable in doing. Sheri hugged me, and spoke no more of me going out for cheerleading. Instead, we decided to bolster the Pep Club’s importance, mainly so that I wouldn’t feel out of the loop with the cheerleaders. She and I, once again, worked in tandem playing off one another. Sheri, with the other cheerleaders, would call out the letters — “Give me a R, Give me an A....” [Our team’s name was the Raiders] and I with my pom poms in hand and my Pep Squad jumpsuit would jump up and down and move my hands just as she did and give em right back to her. It didn’t surprise her that I became President of the Pep Club. She knew my strengths, just as I knew my weaknesses, and I acted upon them accordingly. We were a good team.<br />
There are so many stories I could tell. We had good times...so many of them.<br />
A lot of things connected us – some private which I choose to keep that way, but there was a song back then, that made me think of us based on some of the things that we discussed with the other and went through. The song was called “You and Me Against the World”. It felt like that sometimes, and that’s okay. As long as you’ve got a good friend–a best friend standing next to you when life throws stuff at you, it doesn’t seem so bad. <br />
Ninth grade was the last year we shared together at Hendricks. Afterward, we were off to high school. I knew I was going to Bolles. I remember when I found out that she was going to Wolfson. It was a panic moment. Things were going to change. We were going in different directions, and I wasn’t going to be seeing her the way that I had for the previous four years. It was disconcerting and unsettling. We were best friends, and things were changing between us. We couldn’t stop it. <br />
“You could always go to Wolfson,” she suggested.<br />
I chuckled nervously. “You could always go to Bolles.”<br />
We both knew that our paths were set, and we actually couldn’t. It was one of our first life-lessons. It was a hard one – the letting go so that we could find our own ways. But, there was a saying back then that we both loved and would prove true for us: “if you love something, set if free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was....”<br />
“It’ll be okay,” she said. <br />
“Promise?” I asked.<br />
We pinky sweared on it.<br />
As we both suspected and knew in our hearts, things did change when we went to other schools – new friends, new school interests. The first time we got together after the new school year began, it felt awkward because we weren’t in the same place anymore, and we didn’t have the same things in common. The friends she spoke of, I didn’t know and vice versa. Her complaints about teachers meant nothing to me nor mine to her. Slowly, over time, we simply began to check on one another through our parents.<br />
I remember running into her one summer afternoon at Florida Junior College. It was a wonderful run-in. We laughed and hugged when we saw each other, then went for coffee, catching up in person for a change. <br />
I remember the last thing I ever said to her in person, looking into her eyes, was how good it was to see her again. She said it back to me. <br />
“Let’s not wait so long next time to catch up,” I said.<br />
She smiled and nodded.<br />
“Let’s not,” she agreed.<br />
Life and circumstances, however, can sometimes get in the way of best intentions.<br />
As previously mentioned, my mother and her father remained friends. Once again, Sheri and I reverted to keeping up with each other through them. We would continue to do that over the years.<br />
It’s how I found out that she was sick. My mother called me the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2001 to tell me the news. It was November 26th, and I’d not been home from work very long when the phone rang. I will never forget the feeling that went through me when Mom told me that Sheri had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only four months to live. Sucker-punched. That’s what it felt like.<br />
There have been a handful of times in my 50 years of life when something literally took me to my knees. That news was one of those times. I went numb. I felt my knees buckle, and sat down before I fell down. Everything inside me went shakey. When I got off the phone, I cried a river. I could not imagine what must have been going through her mind, nor could I fathom the fear she must have been feeling for so many different reasons? My heart hurt so bad for her. In that moment, I spiraled right back to that first summer when we met — when we were running around the school yard, playing and swinging and going to the 7-11 and talking non-stop about everything and any thing. I didn’t sleep that night. I kept trying to put myself in her place, and every time I tried to imagine it, I broke down and sobbed. The moment my mother told me that Sheri was sick, the years melted away, and all that remained beneath the layers of it was my friend. My dear friend from Jr. High School was in trouble — serious trouble. I knew she was probably terrified. I knew I would be. <br />
The next day, I reached out over the miles and years and reconnected with her in the most delicate way I knew how. I wrote her a letter. I also went and bought her a teddy bear. I squeezed it tight, giving it the biggest hug I could muster, and I told her that my hug was in there and whenever those moments came when she was scared or lonely or just needed a hug, to go to that bear and just hold on. Sometimes, in life, we all need a little something extra to hold onto. Knowing her, she’d try to be brave for everyone else. I just wanted her to have something in her moments to cling to if she needed it. I also wanted her to know that I was there, if she needed me. <i>Anything</i> she needed, I was there for her.<br />
My mother told me that Sheri was trying to put a book together for her daughter, Aliya. Things she wanted her to know as she got older. I thought about that–what a lovely idea that was – how much that would mean to her child as she got older and wanted to know what her mother thought about dating or high school or getting married. <br />
I’ve been told by family members and several friends that I’m the memory keeper. I remember everything. I have one of “those” minds. So, I began to write to Sheri weekly. I recalled memories from our childhood in an effort–a hope to help her recall things for her daughter. Her mother later told me that Sheri would read the letters and laugh and say in awe that she’d forgotten that particular memory until she’d read my letter, and it would all come back to her. I also learned that she took that bear I sent to her chemotherapy appointments. It meant a lot to know that.<br />
I also had a group of friends called the prayer warriors begin to pray for her, because I believe so strongly in the power of prayer. I will tell you that I breathed a sigh of relief when March came and went [that four month period] and Sheri was still with us. On the months went, writing and sharing memories with her.<br />
It was clear to me as November came that things were getting tougher for her. I had told her in that first letter that I’d written to her to hold on for a miracle, because I believed in them. I had hoped and prayed for a miracle of complete healing for her. Sometimes though, the miracle is living eight months beyond what the doctors originally predicted for you. <br />
My mother called me on the last Tuesday of her life and told me that she’d taken a turn, and to step up the prayers on her behalf and for the family. I told her the Prayer Warriors were already round-the-clock praying for everyone. My mother and I shared a teary moment together on the phone. It was a comfort to me, and I remember wondering who was comforting Sheri’s mother and her daughter in that moment? Her father—. I cried some more.<br />
Sheri’s last night on earth, one of my friend’s in Chicago, went to her Catholic church and prayed all night for her—holding vigil. It was amazing that people who didn’t even know her were praying like that for her because they were my friends and loved me. Ties that bind are strong ones and connect us all. Through me, each of them said they felt they knew her. It was such a lovely gesture. The depths of friendship is a powerful well-spring. It is one of my sources of greatest strength, and it did not fail me in that moment of need.<br />
It’s odd, I woke up Friday morning the 22nd, not feeling well—feeling out of sorts. I went to work, but around 10:30 a.m., I went to the ladies room and got sick to my stomach. My boss saw me coming out of the restroom, and told me to go home. I didn’t argue.<br />
On my way home, I had to pull over. Christmas songs had begun being played on the radio, and one came on that hit me hard. <br />
I’ve asked before in my blog, if you all believe in signs? I do. The song that played on the radio in that moment seemed like a sign to me from God. It was called, “Celebrate Me Home” by Kenny Loggins. I call it Sheri’s song now. I’d heard that song so many times before, but I’d never <i>heard</i> it. Do you know what I mean? Oh, I cried. It wasn’t long after I got home that my mother called to tell me that Sheri had passed. My heart already knew it. I think my physical reaction at work had been because it sensed that she had finally left us. <br />
She’s been gone 11 years today — Friday, November 22nd. It’s just like it was then: a Friday, only her daughter is 16 now instead of five years old. It gives me pause.<br />
Next week, Aliya will turn 17. Her birthday is one week to the day after her mother passed. I remember last year when James, Sheri’s husband–Aliya’s father, send me Aliya’s Sweet 16th birthday invitation via email. I took my laptop out on my back deck and sat looking at the pictures on it then out at the leaves in all of its autumn glory. It was a beautiful day. I thought of Sheri as I looked at all the pictures on the invitation of this young girl on the cusp of young womanhood. I saw Aliya’s father in her, but I also saw traces of her mother, my childhood friend, in her as well. Years. More of them now had accumulated that Aliya had not shared with her mother than those that she had – twice as many more. That fact always feels wrong to me. She’s a beautiful young woman just like her mother was. Smart. She’s very involved in Girl Scouts. She has a lot of friends. Sheri would be so proud of the young woman Aliya has become. We spoke a lot about children and motherhood back when we were young girls. I can’t help wishing somehow that she could be here to see her daughter almost all grown up. I can’t help wishing somehow that Aliya could have gotten to have the opportunity to have known her mother as a woman and a friend not just as a mother the way that I’ve gotten to know mine over the years. It is a most precious gift. Oh....to have magical powers to make that so....but I digress.<br />
At least they had five years together—of loving each other—of bonding—of experiences—of memories. That means everything. Though she had just a few short years with her daughter, Sheri made her imprint on Aliya. There are echos of her that clearly resonate. It is the gift of spiritual legacy. For those of us who were blessed to have known and loved her, she left us richly endowed with her incredible grace notes. The last year of her life, that’s what she was to me: a grace note, much like the one her mother found written to me among her personal effects after she had gone to heaven. It was unfinished, like her life that ended too soon. In the letter, Sheri was struggling to find a way to thank me for that last year. She couldn’t find the words she wanted, and she didn’t finish it, but her mother thought I’d want it anyway. She was right about that. It came in my Christmas card just a month after her passing. I remember the tears as I saw her handwriting and read the beginnings of her message that she’d been unable to find the words to finish. It was alright. We never needed words between us. I knew what my role in the last year of her life had meant to her, and it meant SO much that it had mattered to her with ALL that she was dealing with to even try to tell me as much. I remember clutching it to my heart as the tears came and looking upward as the words of Meister Eckhart came, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you’, it will be enough.” It was the best present I got that year for Christmas. I treasure it to this day.<br />
Today, I remember Sheri and celebrate the gift that she was in my life. I hear the words of “You and Me Against The World” echo in my mind as I think about her:<br />
<br />
<i>“And, when one of us is gone, and one of us is left to carry on,</i><br />
<i>Then remembering will have to do. Our memories alone will get us through.</i><br />
<i>Think about the days of me and you~you and me against the world....”</i><br />
<br />
Yeah, my dear friend. I’m thinking about you and them today — all those good times! And, I’m also remembering what Dr. Seuss once said: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”<br />
Well, I’m smiling today, Sheri! I think of you now always with a smile, and I’m playing a song or two that I know you’ll remember today. I'm playing them in your memory. I hope you can hear them in heaven.<br />
Time it was and <i>wha</i>t a time it was we had, you and me, my friend...I love you, Sheri, still....always...forever...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/r3ClXw9D8mI">http://youtu.be/r3ClXw9D8mI</a> Emily~Beth Nielsen Chapman<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/NVbPgBGv2to">http://youtu.be/NVbPgBGv2to</a> Celebrate Me Home~Kenny Loggins {Sheri’s Song}<br />
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Below is a copy of The Friendship Cake recipe. I wrote about it a couple of years ago in my blog entry about Sheri. I’ve pasted that part of the entry here for you, so that you’ll know its significance:<br />
<br />
<i>...I remember praying the day of her funeral that she’d send me a sign to let me know she was okay. I’m open to them, signs that is, and I recognize them when they come. The week after she passed, a friend gave me a book with a card that said, "Thinking of you. I hope this book will bring a smile to your sad heart."</i><br />
<i>The book was called The Friendship Cake. The weekend after her death, I laid on my sofa, curled up under a blanket, with my cat, Rhiannon, sleeping on top of me and read that book. My husband was in our back bedroom where we kept the computer working on something having to do with his master's degree, when I finished that book.</i><br />
<i>Here is what he heard:</i><br />
<i>"Oh my God! Oh my God!"</i><br />
<i>It was said in exclaimed disbelief, giddy relief with happy tears and the laughter that comes when you realize that a prayer has been answered. The tone was high-pitched like a woman who'd just opened the front door to find Publisher's Clearing House standing there with a GINORMOUS check.</i><br />
<i>"What’s wrong?" he asked, running to me to see what was going on, not certain if I was hurt or what....</i><br />
<i>I looked at him as tears poured from my eyes and said over and over. "Sheri is in the friendship cake!"</i><br />
<i>He looked at me as if I’d landed from another planet. "What?"</i><br />
<i>I remember putting my hand to my mouth and nose as a fresh wave of tears came, trying to explain it. I held up the book and showed him the recipe. "Sheri. Look," and I pointed to the recipe. It called for cream Sherry. "She’s okay. I asked for a sign to let me know she’s alright, and the recipe for Friendship Cake calls for Sherry. She's okay! She's okay! She's okay!"</i><br />
<i>He sat down and took my hand.</i><br />
<i>"Of all the things I could read," I told him. "Of all the recipes I could receive, and THIS is the one that comes to me: Sherry [Sheri] is in the Friendship Cake."</i><br />
<i>"Wow," he said. "That’s something, isn’t it?"</i><br />
<i>"It’s amazing. It's something else!"</i><br />
<i>"Do you feel better?"</i><br />
<i>I sniffed. "Some."</i><br />
<i>"That’s good," he replied. "Maybe you should make that cake."</i><br />
<i>I nodded. "I think I will."</i><br />
<i>And, I did. I went and bought a bottle of cream Sherry, and I made the Friendship Cake for her birthday that year and took it into work to share. It was delicious. I saved two slices of it for Tom and I to share that night over coffee.</i><br />
<i>Nine years later, I’m passing on the story and the recipe. I hope you’ll try it, and think of Sheri when you do. Thoughts of Sheri are a good thing.</i><br />
<i>I celebrate her today as I will continue to do every year on this day until my time in this life comes to its end. I will listen to her song and take comfort, and I will eat her cake and feel satisfied and grateful for the years she was a part of my life, because she came and touched me in ways that I cannot adequately express, and her imprint went deep. Endless kind of deep.</i><br />
<i>I don’t know what her role is in heaven? I don’t know if she’s an angel or a beautiful flower. I like to think she’s with my father and grandparents giving all her mother-love to my children. That thought makes me very happy. Whatever she’s doing, this much I know: she has added beauty and grace to her forever home..</i>.<br />
<br />
The Friendship Cake~Sheri’s Cake<br />
<br />
1 box Duncan Hines butter cake mix<br />
1(3 ½ ounce) package instant vanilla pudding<br />
½ cup oil<br />
½ cup water<br />
½ cup cream sherry<br />
1 cup pecans, finely chopped<br />
4 eggs<br />
<br />
Boiled dressing:<br />
<br />
3/4 cup sugar<br />
6 tablespoons butter<br />
3 tablespoons sherry wine<br />
3 tablespoons water<br />
<br />
Place cake ingredients in a mixing bowl - ½ cup of pecans; I use the other half to sprinkle around the bottom of the Bundt pan.<br />
<br />
Mix on slow speed with electric mixer for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 3 minutes or until well-mixed.<br />
Pour into a greased and floured tube pan (or Bundt pan).<br />
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour (Test to see if done with a toothpick). Let cake cool then turn onto cake plate just to make certain the cake comes out completely. Put the cake back into the Bundt pan,<br />
Boil dressing ingredients for 2 to 3 minutes. I take a knife and cut a circle around the Bundt cake’s bottom to open it up, then pour the boiled dressing into it.<br />
Let it cool completely in pan before turning it out onto a cake plate.<br />
<br />
Serve with a cup of tea and make certain a friend is nearby to share it with. Enjoy<br />
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Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-84754178978138202482013-11-16T21:00:00.000-08:002013-11-17T20:31:25.035-08:00It's Still Fascination - A Luke and Laura Tribute<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Luke and Laura~November 16, 1981<br />
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Genie and Tony~The Good Ole Days...<br />
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They are a match made in heaven....<br />
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"Deep within my heart, I always catch the scent of the Beloved. How can I help but follow that fragrance?" ~Rumi</div>
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"I love thee, I love but thee with a love that shall not die! Till the sun grows cold and the stars grow old..." ~Shakespeare<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"> </span>“To love and to be loved is to feel the sun from both sides." -David Viscott<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial;">I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial;">Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial;">Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial;">And, when you get the chance to sit it out or dance,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial;">I hope you dance...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">“I can never forget Tony Geary and Genie Francis. I take them wherever I go– always. They're in everything that I do.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">—Jonathan Jackson</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">2007 Daytime Emmy Awards</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">Genie Francis takes home her first Emmy.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">Super Soap Weekend Nov. 2006</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">Genie and Tony 2013 </span></div>
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"All kings, and all their favourites, All glory of honours, beauties, wits, The sun itself, which makes time, as they pass, Is elder by a year now than it was When thou and I first one another saw. All other things to their destruction draw, Only our love hath no decay; This no to-morrow hath, nor yesterday; Running it never runs from us away, But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day." ~John Donne</div>
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"Nothing GREAT in this world has ever been accomplished without passion." ~Hebbel</div>
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"They may forget what you said, but they will NEVER forget how you made them feel..." -Carl. W. Beuchner</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>“There is something else at work here that is beyond me – that is Laura. She has a life of her own. There is a magic in her. The muse is in her. And I'm lucky to have her in my life.” (May 14th, 1997) ~Genie Francis on her signature role of Laura Spencer</b></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“I don't like to be Luke without Laura. She is his heart and his humanity. I don't want a major storyline without her.... I don't want another romance. I'd rather lay low in Genie's absence and protect the Spencer franchise. She's the only woman for Luke. They're not going to do any affairs--we're not going down any of those usual roads. He can flirt with everybody--and he does, shamelessly--but the man is not going to violate those vows. No way. The marriage will be on hold, and I'm OK with that as long as we've got the family. She's got part of the family--Lesley and Lesley Lu--in one place, and I've got Lucky here, so we'll never close that door. There's plenty of stuff to do. I can always support other storylines. I'm not that concerned about it. Hopefully, Genie will do what she needs to do for her family and still want to come back.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">—Anthony Geary/TV Guide website, May 14, 1997</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/aFcT6KZM9BY">http://youtu.be/aFcT6KZM9BY</a> Lovers On the Run~Part 1 {Part 2 is missing on YouTube}</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/yQXcuTIVYRQ">http://youtu.be/yQXcuTIVYRQ</a> Lovers On the Run~Part 3</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/-UJMRurwL7w">http://youtu.be/-UJMRurwL7w</a> Lovers On the Run~Part 4</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/ifrzBiKf1FU">http://youtu.be/ifrzBiKf1FU</a> Lovers On the Run~Part 5</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/Jtn39FpkIK8">http://youtu.be/Jtn39FpkIK8</a> Lovers On the Run~Part 6</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/nF68UxPh9ZE">http://youtu.be/nF68UxPh9ZE</a> Lovers On the Run~Part 7</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/RMUhhhszVc8">http://youtu.be/RMUhhhszVc8</a> Lovers On the Run~Part 8</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/CztbwFGKblg">http://youtu.be/CztbwFGKblg</a> Luke and Laura’s Wedding November 16-17, 1981</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/UBcDsgnjyZE">http://youtu.be/UBcDsgnjyZE</a> Luke and Laura~The Greatest Love of All-Part 1</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/Z7BvHJnpFCw">http://youtu.be/Z7BvHJnpFCw</a> Luke and Laura~The Greatest Love of All-Part 2</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/qiw637BlG-Y">http://youtu.be/qiw637BlG-Y</a> Luke and Laura~The Greatest Love of All-Part 3</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/egXkNCDF5ao">http://youtu.be/egXkNCDF5ao </a>Luke and Laura~The Greatest Love of All-Part 4</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/yvIVCUrXeuk">http://youtu.be/yvIVCUrXeuk</a> Luke and Laura~The Greatest Love of All-Part 5</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/8heu-E9iJbs">http://youtu.be/8heu-E9iJbs</a> Luke and Laura~The Greatest Love of All-Part 6</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/6NUs043jPGA">http://youtu.be/6NUs043jPGA</a> Luke and Laura~The Greatest Love of All-Part 7</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/L8tEdj_tzeA">http://youtu.be/L8tEdj_tzeA</a> Luke and Laura~1983 Reunion/Part 34</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/Pm_eCGl9450">http://youtu.be/Pm_eCGl9450 </a> Luke and Laura~1983 Reunion/Part 35</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">*<i> If you’d like to watch the story of Luke and Laura from almost the beginning of the phenomenon’s origin, Sus’ YouTube channel is the place to go to relive the magic or see it for the first time. Go to:<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/sussezq?feature=watch"> http://www.youtube.com/user/sussezq?feature=watch</a> to subscribe. It’s an archival goldmine of the history of this great love story & SO worth a look.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">A milestone happened on this day in 1981. I’ve written about it before, but it bears repeating. Over a two day period in the fall of my Freshman year in college, November 16th and 17th 1981, Lucas Lorenzo Spencer married Laura Webber Baldwin. It rivaled the British Royal Wedding that same year between Charles and Diana. Thirty million people paused to watch the nuptials take place between Luke and Laura. It remains the highest rated hour-long viewing in American serial daytime drama, i.e. soap opera, history.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">I remember a few years ago, someone made a sarcastic reference as to why something of this caliber was still being discussed. I believe the comment was, “For crying out loud, it’s<i> just </i>a soap opera!”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">True. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">But, let me put this in a context that people can understand: my father spoke for YEARS about Ted Williams being the “greatest hitter who had ever lived—that professional baseball had ever seen!” So, I went and looked up his stats. Mr. Williams had a batting average of .344 — the highest of ALL time. That was based on 521 home runs. He had a .482 base percentage which is also the highest of ALL time. That’s impressive. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Likewise, if you were to mention the “Rumble in the Jungle”, I daresay every guy 50 years old and older would be able to tell you that was the 1974 historic boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman which took place in Zaire. They could probably even tell you the exact date [October 30th] when it happened. Ali defeated Foreman, winning the match by knockout before the end of the eighth round. It has been called “arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century”. My husband said, “Oh, ‘Rope a Dope’!” when I asked him about it, which I learned was the tactic Ali used to tire Foreman out and enable him win the match. Go look it up. It’s an interesting read.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Now, my father would have told you that Ali’s “stunning” upset in ‘64 over Sonny Liston to win the Heavy Weight Championship when he was only 22 years old, [and still going by the name of Cassius Clay] was nothing to sneeze at either.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">And, who can forget that gold medal, Olympic record performance set by Torvill and Dean in 1984, when they skated a perfect ice-dance to Ravel’s <i>Bolero</i>, garnering them straight 6's across the board. Even I saw that back then, and still talk about it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Likewise, you still hear people discussing Billy Buckner’s faux pas in the 10th inning – Game number 6 of the 1986 World Series between the New York Mets and The Boston Red Sox, when Buckner failed to catch the ball at first base, letting it glide between his legs and winning the game for the Mets, which ultimately took them to a seventh game. [The Mets also won that, along with the World Series that year.]</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">What’s your point? You may be asking. My point is that these are people playing in sporting events that are watched for entertainment purposes, but they each had a moment – one special moment in time, that set them apart from any other moment in the history of that field, and people STILL talk about it decades later just like MY people, the Luke and Laura base, speak of and remember the wedding that occurred in November of ‘81. It was legendary. College classes all across the country were cancelled for that Thursday and Friday, because wise professors knew they were going to be sitting in an empty classroom otherwise.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">I asked a few of my friends on the<i> Luke and Laura Unrevised</i> forum to give me their thoughts of that day or of Genie and Tony so you could have a broader context regarding the magnitude of this couple; this story and the pairing of Genie Francis and Tony Geary as the incomparable Luke and Laura Spencer. Here are a few thoughts:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Lucille Russo of Illinois had this to say: “Luke and Laura showed me love, passion and trust. They taught me how two imperfect souls could come together, become each other’s home and create an enduring and abiding love. I need more time for Genie. I grew up with Genie. Her Laura was an impulsive youth who grew into a woman of strength, character and compassion. Genie’s talent is a gift from God. With her emotional depth, she can reach right through the screen and into a viewer’s heart. She is a light that viewers are more than willing to follow on any journey. Like all of us, Genie the person is flawed. But, she is not afraid to show those human qualities. She is full of integrity, and she has a pure heart — a generous soul. Together, Genie and Tony as Luke and Laura are the perfect combination of chaos and calm. They have a chemistry that is pure harmony. They share more emotion and knowledge through their eyes than with a thousand words. They are sheer perfection. We will not see the likes of them again. I was lucky to be a part of the journey. ” </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Sue C. from Los Angeles, CA and one of the founders of<i> Luke and Laura Unrevised </i>sent along her thanks and well wishes to Genie and Tony for 32 glorious years: “Happy Anniversary Luke and Laura! Toasting Tony and Genie for their mesmerizing portrayals of the most fascinating, romantic couple ever! You have given us countless moments of joy with your incredible acting! It's no surprise that L&L's wedding set a record. Your magic continues to bring in new fans on the Internet! Thank you both and congratulations on this momentous occasion!”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Becky Hagerman from Tennessee added: “Luke and Laura they have the greatest love story ever. I was too young to see the wedding live, and I became a fan of Luke and Laura when they returned in 93. Luke and Laura have a chemistry that's so strong its out of this world. Luke and Laura have a deep enduring love that transcended time . Genie Francis and Tony Geary are amazing and they've created the greatest love story ever. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Luke and Laura are equal or in my mind greater than Rhett and Scarlett on <i>Gone With the Wind</i> or <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>. Luke and Laura make you believe in soul mates and the one true love of each others’ lives! Thank you Tony and Genie for the great gift of these legendary characters.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Lynn from New York simply said regarding this pairing: “Let me not to the marriage of true talent admit impediments...” </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">And, Dee Smellie of Texas summed up her feelings by touching on some of the frustration and disappointment that the long-time fans have felt regarding several of Tony’s interviews in recent years. The comments concerned Luke Spencer’s own revisionist examination lately of the legacy, and his own departure from the franchise’s original blueprint of who and what these two people truly meant to one another as was told to us by the late, GREAT Gloria Monty and sold to us brilliantly by both Genie and Tony, as well as the recent, lackluster story that was given to the pair this last year. She states: “I read in an interview years ago, that Tony Geary said he could not play Luke Spencer without Genie Francis, and I could not agree with him more on that point! Genie brings something out in Tony that is unparalleled – like Laura does for Luke. I think Genie gives a special level of humanity to Tony’s acting that is otherwise missing. She softens him much the way Laura softens Luke’s rough edges. All I know is that the Luke Spencer that I have known and loved for the last three decades is not the one I’ve seen on the small screen for the last few years. I can' t watch the show anymore because I don't like the direction Luke has taken nor Tony’s seeming co-indictability in the rewriting of the history of this iconic couple. People may not like me saying that, but he’s got it written into his contract that he can alter script content if it doesn’t jive with him, so whatever I hear Luke say, I know has Tony’s stamp on it. I’ve wanted to “return to sender” a lot in recent years because the story contradicts the history that was aired and is known by the fans. The legend is set. You can’t re-write it at this stage in the game. It’s a disservice to do that not just to the loyal fans who were there at the beginning of this story and KNOW how it goes, but also to Genie’s legacy as well. It’s been a bitter pill they’ve tried to force down our throats, and many refuse to drink that Kool Aid. But, I will always celebrate them and thank them for that original love story! I hope we get the sunset. I’ll always hope for that! I can’t thank ‘em enough for the years of pure joy and entertainment that they have given me! God, it was good! In the glory days—it was good stuff. There was nothing better! NOTHING! Like the rest of the old-timers, I’d like to taste it one more time.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">A couple of years ago, I blogged on the 30th anniversary about this “passion” that so many share. Here’s what I wrote back then: <i>“It was magic - pure magic. We crammed in so tightly that I’d venture to say sardines in a can had more wiggly room than we did, but it didn’t matter. The camaraderie was like being in a tight space rooting for the home team at a football game, and Luke and Laura’s wedding was the Super bowl of daytime television. I remember thinking with all the hoopla not just among the fans but with the media as well that this was going to be a memory - a long-lasting one. I wasn’t wrong about that! [Thirty years later and the fans still remember.] Elizabeth Taylor didn’t make an appearance for "just anybody" Dahling! She adored Luke and Laura like the rest of us. If it was good enough for Dame Elizabeth.....Yet, even without that added bonus of a big name dropping in as part of the festivities, it was truly something special simply in and of itself. It was the stuff of well....legends. Genie Francis and Tony Geary certainly sealed their iconic status with that wedding...they became TRUE legends that day, and their fans have never forgotten it. It’s like sports fans recalling with awed fascination when The Dodgers won the World Series; when Ali won the Heavyweight Championship or when The Saints won the Super bowl. The Wedding of Luke and Laura was our world series; heavyweight championship and super bowl Sunday all rolled up into one glorious thing. It was the Motherlode of fictional television events. I don’t know whether we’ll have the opportunity to see them again, in the sunset ending that we’ve all hoped and dreamed for them and ourselves, but we hold it in our minds - the happy place. And, for a moment, for one GREAT, shining moment, they were magic, and they shared it with the rest of us as well. </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><i>I’ve attached a poem that I wrote a few years ago about Luke and Laura and attached a few of my favorite music videos along with it. Today, like then, I know the ardent fans will be celebrating again like it’s 1981....and why not? It was a heady time in our lives that few things compared to. It’s nice to brush off, at times, the cobwebs of certain memories and celebrate them again - those halcyon days. </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><i>It’s also a perfect opportunity to once again say to Ms. Francis and Mr. Geary: Thank you for the ride! It was wild and crazy and fun. It was true roller coaster! You gave us the time of our lives in a story that was brilliant and bodacious and beautiful! There was nothing any better than what you created from the Wyndam’s dance on down to The Triple L, and that last, heartfelt, long-awaited gazebo dance. We are indebted and we are grateful for the legacy – The unrevised version of that great love affair.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><i>Happy 30th Anniversary, Luke & Laura! It was fascination then, and it's fascination now - ...still...always...Fascination...”</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Yeah. It’s still Fascination for us. Michael Logan calls us a fierce bunch, the Luke and Laura fans, and we are. Those of us who are LnL purists, who have been with this story from the get-go are a passionate, loyal, fierce group of viewers. Genie has credited us with helping get her back on General Hospital a time or two. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Contrary to thoughts that many of us are frozen in time, that’s the farthest thing from the truth! We’ve journeyed with this couple through a summer on the run, a summer when they saved the world from being frozen because of the dastardly, evil and insane plans of Mikkos Cassidine, we braved the departure of Genie and our loss of Laura in 1982 just after the wedding we’d waited years for, only to rejoice in 1983 with that most glorious reunion, we shared in the brief visit of ‘84 and the announcement that the Spencer family was expanding, then we celebrated in ‘93 with the penultimate of returns for the Spencer clan. We’ve weathered all the ups and downs of the ride over the course of that 20-year period, when children came, and problems ensued, when a divorce occurred and a nervous breakdown ultimately removed the love story from our grasp for the better part of a decade, with only a couple of small crumbs in between with those too short guest appearances by Genie. NEVER in all of that time, have the characters been “frozen” in the past. If that were true, we’d be clamoring for them to be pushing drinks and still running “The Campus Disco!” It’s ludicrous to say that fans are stuck in the past, when all we’ve wanted was to move forward with this pair and continue to grow with them as we’ve done for decades. What we’re frozen in is the truth of who these characters are and the reality of what this love means. This is a soul mate love story. That’s what it was created as and presented as. The crux of that concept doesn’t change nor should it. It is this point that fans take exception to with recent revisionist history as Dee pointed out above. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Tony Geary is fully aware of this fact based on this comment he made to <i>Soap Opera News</i> on June 3, 1997 when HE said: “The audience is endlessly forgiving with those kinds of things. But if you violate character, that's different. That's like screwing with their friends–they won't stand for that.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">So, while we remember and celebrate this day today because it was an “out of the ballpark” moment for us, we will never stop hoping for the final chapter. We will never stop believing that as both Genie and Tony said in 2007, there is more gold to be mined with this story. We will never stop hoping that we will get an Executive Producer and Head Writer who will restore Luke and Laura to their glory, and who will peel back the complex layers that has been cast over them in this last decade and deal with the issues in story that need to be hashed out between the characters, repaired to match up with the true history, and restore them to their greatness. Many of us have been with this story for 33 years. Loyalty should be rewarded. It’s been a crazy-good, wild ride for the most part. We are fortunate to have been gifted with these two brilliant performers. They don’t come around very often — and probably not again. Chemistry. It’s a rare yet delicious thing when you experience it, and Genie and Tony have one of the most unbelievable chemistries I’ve ever seen. I want to look at them and see all that splendor once again. Those of you who’ve witnessed it know what I’m talking about. It’s an incredible sight to behold. I want the story to end as it should in Luke’s own words: “Laura is MY wife: first! Last! Always!” God, yes to that! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Tony Geary summed it up best when he said SO eloquently as the character of Luke Spencer, “Darlin’, it’s like poetry with you! We fit together! We’re meant to be together! I’m sorry, but we’ll never be normal. We can’t be normal because we’re extraordinary! The truth of who we are and what we want has never changed.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Here! Here! Luke! Here! Here! Glass raised. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Thank you Genie and Tony for the magic, wonder, passion, splendor, love and un-bridled goodness you have given us these last 32 years! God Almighty, it has been a wild and crazy-good ride that the two of you have taken us on. I know I’ve said that once, but it’s true. Forgive me for being greedy. I want to go up one more time with the two of you....to the high place where only the two of you can take us.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">As Luke would say, “Come on, Baby! Let’s take it to the limit...one more time...”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large;">Quotes about Genie and Tony:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“The pleasant surprise for me is that when I look into Tony's eyes, he's still 100% present, sharing everything that's going on,” she says. “Acting with him is like a beautiful dance....I could act with him forever...” ~Genie Francis on Tony Geary</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Constance Towers describes Genie Francis in one word: “Luminous.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“My first screen kiss was Genie Francis, and then I forgot the others.” —Kin Shriner</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“Genie Francis came up to me when it was all over and said, ‘I just want you to know I love you and you're special. On my wedding day on General Hospital, everyone just went home and I felt lonely and really depressed and I don't want you to feel depressed.’ That caught me by surprise, but she was right. At the end, everyone just went ‘OK, that's a wrap.’ You're left standing there with a bouquet in your hand thinking, ‘I get to drive home alone.’ It's like you were jilted at the altar. What Genie did was really special. I've never forgotten it.” ~Mary Beth Evans</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“Working with Genie Francis is always a wonderful experience. She is such a professional and makes herself so open to her fellow actors, it's easy to see why her scenes turn out so well. I hope to be working with Genie in the future...” John J. York</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">In an AOL chat in 1996, Stephen Nichols was asked if Stefan is really out for revenge or is he really in love with Laura. Stephen said: “There's a good possibility that both of those things are true.” Then, he said: “ I'm ecstatic to be working with Genie Francis. We have a fabulous chemistry–from the first moment we sat down to work together.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“I love Genie. She has always been nothing but really cool to me, and I think it's because when she came over to [DOOL as Diana] when I was there, she was just an actor. She wasn’t Laura. So, we got to know each other on a really base level. Genie’s a sweetheart and an amazing actress. It’s a shame that she doesn’t have an Emmy in every room!” —Billy Warlock </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“She's a wonderful woman...We quickly learned to trust each other. There's no one I'd rather work with. Nothing is more important to two actors than trust. You can open up to them and hope the camera catches it. Even with script problems or whatever the problems are, it's really between two people. We can hang onto each other's glances and unspoken moments, saying more with our looks and silent language than with pages and pages of dialogue. With chemistry like that, you feed off each other. Genie is an extraordinary woman and actress...~...so much unspoken material and love between us. I adore her...~Genie is my acting soulmate.” —Tony Geary on Genie Francis</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">When asked what it was like to be a part of the Luke and Laura phenomenon, Rick Moses said this: “It is an amazing phenomenon and unless people were fans of GH, they probably wouldn’t understand it... — The phenomena I think was more of the fact that the two actors that had most to do with that-Genie of course giving her fair do as the female aspect she had it anchored down eight ways to Sunday! Between Tony and I are we understood the inferences of what the storyline was and Gloria gave us tremendous latitude to improvise and write our own dialogue which was, I think was, unprecedented and probably still is unprecedented.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">TGN asked Tyler Christopher how he felt about Tony Geary. Here is what he said: “I am one of Tony’s biggest fans. You know, he is a big theater guy, he loves theater and I love theater. When you take the actor out of the soap and just look at actor for what he is, I think Tony is one of our finest, finest actors around. Regardless of soap or whatever it is I have a lot of respect for his work.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"> Erika Slezak was asked to define Tony Geary in one word: “Charming.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“I'm a fine actor, I have abilities to communicate that are gifts. There is no other reason for me to walk this earth.” –Anthony Geary/People, November 16, 1981</span></span><br />
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<span _yuid="yui_3_1_1_2_130834784369164" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>I wrote this piece three years ago when a band of Genie Francis' supporters created a group called "Genie's Angels" to fight to get her back on General Hospital. It was a successful campaign and one that Genie has appreciatively acknowledged. With the recent cancellation of two beloved soaps, and the looming threat of losing a genre that has been a part of my life since I was old enough to recall memories, [hm hm years ago] a friend recently asked if the LnL fans, that's Luke and Laura, for those of you not in the know, could say something nice about them. I reached back into my files and decided to dust this off. It's the nicest thing I can say about a couple, who, in my mind, will go down in history as one of the greatest romantic duos ever created. I will never be able to thank Genie Francis & Tony Geary enough for the many years of entertainment and joy that they have brought me. But, this is a start... Sit back. Relax. Enjoy!</em></span></div>
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<span _yuid="yui_3_1_1_2_130834784369164">An Epical Ode to Luke and Laura & a Love Never Forgotten</span></div>
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©Jhill Perran</div>
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August 10, 2008</div>
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For me, it began as a slow, simmered "Rise",</div>
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while the story unfolded through those incredible eyes.</div>
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The anguish, the longing, the heat of their stares,</div>
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kept me fanning myself, on the edge of my chair.</div>
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There was intrigue and mystery and passion that oozed -</div>
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between two, star-crossed lovers who were torn and confused.</div>
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And, we saw in the glimpse of that one, awful night,</div>
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how one man’s human foible made him a strange kind of Knight.</div>
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Luke’s remorse and despair cut to the depths of our soul,</div>
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and redemption began from the trust that he stole.</div>
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Yes, we rooted for him, and we rooted for her.</div>
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It was them who we hoped had a committed re-birth.</div>
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Because they suffered and struggled over their formidable love.</div>
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It was hard-fought and hard-won - but it fit like a glove.</div>
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We could not get enough of their angst-filled, raw, passion,</div>
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They were genuinely flawed, yet it was poignantly rationed.</div>
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Their story, as told, showed a unique kind of grace.</div>
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Luke found his absolution from an unlikely place.</div>
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The woman who received his most brutal attack,</div>
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found forgiveness within, and she offered it back.</div>
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In that moment, we couldn’t have cared for them more,</div>
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It was them who we cheered for! It was them we adored!</div>
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And that glorious summer, when they went on the run,</div>
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when they brought down the mob, without the use of a gun.....</div>
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Who’d have thought that one story could bring such fun-filled, pure joy-</div>
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than the one that was told through the Left-Handed Boy?</div>
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It was short-lived! We knew when that cigar band came off,</div>
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We were in for LONG days, but we were in for the haul....</div>
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We bore witness to some of the most powerful scenes</div>
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of a love that was spoken through the lines in between....</div>
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The unuttered words and their subtle nuance,</div>
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clearly showed their desire - the profoundness of want.</div>
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How is it that two people could make love without touch?</div>
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It was all in their eyes, and their eyes said so much....</div>
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We felt tingles and shivers and were giddy each minute,</div>
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in the way that they told it and how well they did spin it....</div>
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And the heat was turned up during summer number two,</div>
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diamonds, a yacht - a tropical island to boot.</div>
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There in their glory was Luke and his gal,</div>
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and his good-looking, sexy, Australian pal.</div>
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Yowzah, we thought! Who could ask for much more?</div>
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There was a starlet, a "mad" guy and bad guys galore!</div>
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<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1308347902_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px;">Port Charles</span> in the deep freeze, in August no less....</div>
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What a yarn that was spun with that name "Ice Princess"...</div>
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In the fall, finally! Finally! we all got the dream!</div>
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Luke and Laura united with the exchange of a ring....</div>
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Like Camelot, the magic was gone much too quick,</div>
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Something precious was lost in that cold, foggy, thick...</div>
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Oh, I cried when our Laura disappeared in the night,</div>
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And, for me, that’s when GH lost its most luminous light.</div>
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Luke without Laura? - Too painful to watch it back then,</div>
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But I watched in ‘83 when our ship sailed again....</div>
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I was there holding on......and holding my breath,</div>
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when they finally connected in that earth-moving caress...</div>
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In his arms, Laura jumped as Luke screamed out to God,</div>
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it was a path only made for Angels and Heroes to trod.</div>
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It was splendor and wonder and grace personified,</div>
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when those two saw each other, when they embraced and they cried.</div>
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One knew in that moment, that fairy tales do come true,</div>
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If you believe in such things, and I assure you I do!</div>
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It was magic, I tell you - seeing that miracle unfold,</div>
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Watching Laura and Luke spinning more tales of pure gold.</div>
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True love, it endures. It survives. It abides...</div>
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You saw it so clearly when you looked in their eyes.</div>
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Nothing and no one would keep them a part!</div>
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You can sever one’s ties but you can’t sever their heart!</div>
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And therein and throughout, lies the crux of it all,</div>
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One heart shared by two lovers can’t be arbitrarily recalled...</div>
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No one could keep Laura on an isle with a cool, hunk of steel,</div>
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No one would stop Luke from protecting his Angel from evil.</div>
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Thus, commenced an odyssey of adventure and fun,</div>
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Luke and Laura were together - happily, back on the run...</div>
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And the following year, we got the Aztec Adventure,</div>
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With that most special scene: the telling of a new, baby Spencer.</div>
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Then, they left us to go live their lives off the screen,</div>
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but we knew they’d return.....can you say "Halloween, 93"...</div>
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Oh, Happy Days! Happy Days! Happy Days, don’t you know!</div>
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Luke and Laura were back with their Lucky in tow.</div>
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What followed can only be summed up like this:</div>
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It was JUST as it was when we last saw them kiss!</div>
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The magic still sparked, in the whirl of their dance.</div>
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Down the Triple L aisle, and the heat of their glance,</div>
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and the way that they touched and the way that they moved,</div>
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Made our hearts pitter-pat as we swayed with their groove.</div>
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We giggled over hijinx, watched sorrow amidst happier times.</div>
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The birth of sweet, Lulu and news of a son: Cassadine.</div>
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There were struggles, separations, and severe growing pains,</div>
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Yet, through all of those lessons, it reinforced their one, great strength:</div>
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Love. Always love. It was love from the start.</div>
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Every obstacle faced couldn’t tear them apart.</div>
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Yet, the unthinkable happened - papers signed for divorce,</div>
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No! No! No! No! No! No! That’s not REALLY their choice!</div>
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"Why DID we get divorced?" Tony asked Genie one day.</div>
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She replied with regret, "Cuz they wrote it that way!"</div>
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Then, we watched them discover what WE knew all along,</div>
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It was there with each other where they truly belonged.</div>
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They must marry again. It was destiny’s fate!</div>
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Luke and his Laura would forever be bound as soul mates.</div>
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But, the other shoe dropped, and it blew all apart,</div>
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not only our story but these two lover’s heart.</div>
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It was disbelief, horror and I gasped "Holy crud!"</div>
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When that candlestick hit Rick, then fell with a thud.</div>
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What happened in that attic isn’t really that clear,</div>
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all I know, was I knew it was my worst kind of fear....</div>
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Genie leaving? Laura crazy? Please say it ain’t so!</div>
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It felt helpless and hopeless - it was the worst kind of low!</div>
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The one thing I felt was how unbelievably wrong,</div>
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it was to hush the splendor of their incredible song.</div>
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We love her! He needs her! Don’t take her away!</div>
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Luke’s humanity. His Angel. PLEASE! God! Let her stay!</div>
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Yet, it wasn’t to be and we all watched just how,</div>
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These two said their goodbyes in that sad, attic-vow.</div>
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Those vows, oh those vows....they serve to remind,</div>
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We were gifted with not one but TWO one-of-a-kinds!</div>
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When Luke lovingly said "just my Sweetheart and me,"</div>
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There was a crumble within and I went weak in the knees.</div>
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She was courageous! Outrageous! He said that’s what she’d need,</div>
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To throw in with a guy from the wrong-side of Elm Street.</div>
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Then, he marveled again at her beauty and grace,</div>
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as he vowed his true love, as tears streamed down his face.</div>
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I remember that look, when she looked in his eyes,</div>
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and she cried in her truth: it’s there she felt safest inside.</div>
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Laura told him with knowing, with a sincere, true-love grit,</div>
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that he lived in her heart....right in the center of it.</div>
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Then, she broke from her hero as he fought not to weep,</div>
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he lost all that had mattered. Had Luke sown what he reaped?</div>
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Had the chickens come home to finally roost on past sins?</div>
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That’s the seed that took hold of his demons within.</div>
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In the past, she had seemingly taken each hit,</div>
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for the payback that had Luke Spencer’s name written on it.</div>
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There was Mikkos, Stavros, Nikolas too,</div>
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Laura suffered because Helena sought to punish her Luke.</div>
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And if that weren’t enough, we mustn’t forget,</div>
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What it cost her because Luke chose her over Jennifer Smith.</div>
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As I went into mourning because Laura was gone,</div>
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still, my heart dared to hope she would, one day, come home.</div>
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And the memories of past times, when their love was in bloom,</div>
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kept me buoyed from the despair, disappointment and gloom.</div>
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In my mind, "Fascination" memories of a pink-feathered lift,</div>
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made my heart smile again, as I cherished the gift,</div>
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That Gloria Monty gave us, when she paired up these two,</div>
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and made history with daytime’s most-beloved, dynamic duo!</div>
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Years past, as we waited and prayed for a fix,</div>
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And the magic returned in the fall of ‘06.</div>
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Hallelujah and glory and Hallelujah again!</div>
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Laura’s back! She’s awake! From ear to ear spanned my grin.</div>
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It was wonder and heartfelt - nothing better than this,</div>
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when the name "Luke" was called out from those once-quieted lips.</div>
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And, we watched sheer relief as Luke turned in pure awe,</div>
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once again, gold was mined in the love that we saw,</div>
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as he knelt and he looked and he cried "is it you?"</div>
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And her hands traced his face as a small-smile broke through.</div>
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"Yes, it’s me!" she declared. She’d been there all along,</div>
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They could take her away but not silence their song!</div>
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It’s too powerful, this love - this story - this pair.</div>
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That’s evident! It’s been 30 years. 30! Years! Still, we care!!!</div>
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There was a moment - a happening, at Beecher’s Corner’s when they...</div>
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went to dance....it was a most sacred, revered interplay.</div>
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When her arm went around him and she buried her head,</div>
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there was so much unspoken yet so much clearly said.</div>
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When Luke held her and stroked her with such sweet tenderness,</div>
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It was Tony who assured Genie in that gentle, utterance:</div>
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"I know, Baby!"</div>
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It was all staring at me, but the lines clearly blurred.</div>
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For a moment, I wasn’t certain who it was I had heard?</div>
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I can tell you I saw much resolved in that embrace,</div>
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It was one more REAL moment of their beauty and grace.</div>
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Time had stood still. It had waited for them.</div>
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Four years disappeared; wiped away - a faint dim.</div>
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The story played out - in the span of mere weeks,</div>
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all the love and the longing and the wanting for keeps...</div>
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It’s a love story that’s been so much a part of the lives,</div>
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not just for the fans but those who breathed it to life.</div>
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Once again, we strapped in, for a wonderful ride,</div>
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that ended too soon - in the blink of an eye.</div>
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What’s the matter with those who are running this show?</div>
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Can’t THEY see when they’re holding an ace-in–the-hole?</div>
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It boggles the mind that we lost Genie again,</div>
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Especially when Tony declared HE wanted his friend,</div>
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to return to her home where they had more gold to mine,</div>
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but it fell on deaf ears. All requests were denied.</div>
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It was too much to bear, being deprived of what’s golden,</div>
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How was it that ABC didn’t feel the least bit beholden -</div>
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To these actors and their fans who once saved this show from ruin,</div>
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from a cancellation stamp when rating-troubles were brewing?</div>
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Could they have truly forgotten who put GH on the map?</div>
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It was raised up by an unsuspecting Angel and her unlikely Chap!</div>
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We still loved them and missed them and wanted them back,</div>
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it was humanity and grace that our show sorely lacked.</div>
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Thus began an uprising: "Genie’s Angels" campaign,</div>
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We weren’t taking this lying! It was clearly insane!</div>
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When a show’s lost it’s heart, it’s goodness and luster,</div>
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Is change-in-direction really THAT hard to muster?</div>
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It appeared so, but we demanded OUR voices be heard,</div>
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They could solve so many problems if they’d just bring back our girl!</div>
<div>
Clean up the mob-violence - write it again as sub-text,</div>
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Get rid of the dead weight! That’s the thing to do next!</div>
<div>
Give us love, and joy and some stories with passion:</div>
<div>
Luke and Laura, family values, how bout hospital interaction?</div>
<div>
That’s what we’ve longed for, prayed for, yet when hope seemed MOST lost,</div>
<div>
that she was not coming back, no matter how much the cost...</div>
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Something magical happened....in the kindliest knack,</div>
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Someone heard us! Praise be! "Mama" Laura is back...</div>
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It may be a brief moment with regard to this stint...</div>
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But within it, there’s hope that’s much more than a glint.</div>
<div>
There’s a story - a sunset - that sets NOT solely on him!</div>
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Every road, we all know, leads us right back to them.</div>
<div>
LukeandLaura: it’s one idea, one love and one tale.</div>
<div>
For the die-hards, this love story is OUR Holy Grail!</div>
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We won’t rest til the ending matches up with the truth,</div>
<div>
with the narration that was told in the days of our youth.</div>
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See, some of us believe fairy tales can come true.</div>
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For the fans, there’s one ending: it’s Laura with Luke....</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large;">Fan Videos Of Luke and Laura:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Below are some of my favorite videos of Luke and Laura set to music. It just goes to show that fans can write this story beautifully without the dialogue. The magic, however, is still there. All there—right there where it’s always been. Genie and Tony have a chemistry that’s, bar none, like nobodies business, and the likes of which, we’ll probably never see again: Take a look for yourself:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/yAouLmL3dMg">http://youtu.be/yAouLmL3dMg</a> All I Know by StillErica24</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/SduZbULyu1I">http://youtu.be/SduZbULyu1I </a> The Promise by Hypnoticeclipse {I sent my friend, Hypno, this song several years ago & asked her to weave her magic because I wanted to use it in some fan-fiction I was writing, I was SO honored that she not only made it for me, but with what she came up with. It’s a beautiful thing, if I do say so myself, and I do! ;-) I call her the Renoir of music videos.}</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/u1_2BIcFuoc">http://youtu.be/u1_2BIcFuoc</a> Beautiful In My Eyes by Hypnoticeclipse</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/eZvIY4tiz34">http://youtu.be/eZvIY4tiz34</a> When You Tell Me That You Love Me by Hypnoticeclipse</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/x__qABTlWI0">http://youtu.be/x__qABTlWI0</a> Is Forever Enough by Hypnoticeclipse</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/ZhejttCwo1g">http://youtu.be/ZhejttCwo1g</a> Home by Hypnoticeclipse </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/1LMbEH6_Yyc">http://youtu.be/1LMbEH6_Yyc</a> Angel by Hypnoticeclipse</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">*If Hypno is Renoir, Lakb45 is da Vinci. Her videos have always moved me like few others can:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/XYQ5brxSVWI">http://youtu.be/XYQ5brxSVWI</a> I Won’t Last a Day Without You by Lakb45</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/mcy4nzg5dk8">http://youtu.be/mcy4nzg5dk8</a> Every Time I Look At You by Lakb45</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/vhSqj5C2ny8">http://youtu.be/vhSqj5C2ny8</a> Laura’s Love: Luke’s Bride to Life~And I Love You So/Lakb45</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/AThYV3_Or04">http://youtu.be/AThYV3_Or04</a> The Story of My Life by Lakb45</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/SPFS0sFdveo">http://youtu.be/SPFS0sFdveo</a> I Will Not Take My Love Away by Shazzer707</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/aIkiHtr3MWE">http://youtu.be/aIkiHtr3MWE</a> Life In Slow Motion by Smirksy</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/Eciglak5cNY">http://youtu.be/Eciglak5cNY</a> Can’t Help Falling In Love by Monkeygrove</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/gKYBP_jWNJk">http://youtu.be/gKYBP_jWNJk</a> Think Of Me by Monkeygrove</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/LXmjBqnf610">http://youtu.be/LXmjBqnf610 </a> Your Love Is a Song by Monkeygrove</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/H7DuBm7kJ3Y">http://youtu.be/H7DuBm7kJ3Y</a> Eternally Luke and Laura Video by Kieragirl</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Among the masters, Sus would be my Michelangelo:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/b_tUhmABjOg">http://youtu.be/b_tUhmABjOg</a> Love Song by Sussezq</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/sGjFan1kr2g">http://youtu.be/sGjFan1kr2g</a> Drowning by Sussezq</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/unwfMwE5wFg">http://youtu.be/unwfMwE5wFg </a> The Special Two by Sussezq</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/JIBiNKIhkgM">http://youtu.be/JIBiNKIhkgM</a> Keep Breathing by Sussezq</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/LJepXyarO1U">http://youtu.be/LJepXyarO1U</a> You and I by Sussezq</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/bjrXrcvMR7s">http://youtu.be/bjrXrcvMR7s</a> Give Me a Reason by Sussezq</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://youtu.be/cHSUePVMb18">http://youtu.be/cHSUePVMb18</a> In Your Eyes by Sussezq</span></span><br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/bvq9fBauiT8" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">http://youtu.be/bvq9fBauiT8 </a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"> It’s All Coming Back To Me Now by Luke Laura</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji-t8xwOm3UCvfJ9n5_NYSVGLuNuXFPyGthZUllJ3q0ybepev66XFjfdK8_jUCdK37RyiqDsk2DdLQrgQXw5XCDamoh2HD34Y29uJOD2I1NzdYzlm8rbnQKnxx67MhCfQG67XQsysQNG8/s1600/GH50Luke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji-t8xwOm3UCvfJ9n5_NYSVGLuNuXFPyGthZUllJ3q0ybepev66XFjfdK8_jUCdK37RyiqDsk2DdLQrgQXw5XCDamoh2HD34Y29uJOD2I1NzdYzlm8rbnQKnxx67MhCfQG67XQsysQNG8/s320/GH50Luke.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<dt><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"The roots of these characters are so deep and solid and understood by us. They were created by both Doug Marland and Gloria Monty, who really cared. They built an extraordinary foundation. I could play Luke till I drop dead--and probably will--and there will still be things to play based on that foundation, those roots. And that's really lovely-where Laura comes from is always present in Luke's mind."</span></dt>
<dd><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>~Tony Geary, TV Guide</i> website, May 14, 1997</span></dd><dd><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></dd><br />
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<dt style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"This story couldn't have been done without Genie. Genie defines Laura by allowing an audience inside a complicated moment, and I could not allow an audience in without her love, Laura's love."</span></dt>
<dd style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>~Tony Geary, Daytime TV</i>, March 1994, on the return of Luke and Laura</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></dd><dd style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></dd><dd style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the off-chance that we don't get the sunset, here's a video that I made a few years ago. We're still holding on...</span></dd><dd style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://youtu.be/tfgpCSl9P5A">http://youtu.be/tfgpCSl9P5A</a> Auld Lang Syne Luke and Laura Style~Music by Kenny G</span></dd>
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Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-67357296297603900642013-11-11T20:35:00.001-08:002013-11-11T20:35:13.159-08:00Thank You For Your Service<br />
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“But the freedom that they fought for, and the country grand they wrought for, Is their monument to-day, and for aye.” -Thomas Dunn English<br />
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“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” -Cynthia Ozick<br />
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“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” ~Maya Angelou<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/7NCZ4l8FCFc">http://youtu.be/7NCZ4l8FCFc</a> Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree~Tony Orlando & Dawn<br />
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<br />
In Flanders Field<br />
Written by Lt. Col John McCrae/1915<br />
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In Flanders fields the poppies blow<br />
Between the crosses, row on row,<br />
That mark our place; and in the sky<br />
The larks, still bravely singing, fly<br />
Scarce heard amid the guns below.<br />
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We are the Dead. Short days ago<br />
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,<br />
Loved and were loved, and now we lie<br />
In Flanders fields.<br />
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Take up our quarrel with the foe:<br />
To you from failing hands we throw,<br />
The torch; be yours to hold it high.<br />
If ye break faith with us who die,<br />
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow<br />
In Flanders fields.<br />
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<br />
Today is Veterans Day~the day when we honor and celebrate those brave men and women who serve and have served in our armed forces. I thought it would be nice to pay tribute to them here today. <br />
For those who don’t know, Veterans Day also coincides with Armistice-Remembrance Day. Now, I’ll admit that I’ve never been real clear on what Armistice Day was exactly? I knew it had something to do with World War I, and I’m certain back when I was in school, I memorized it for the history test that I knew it would be asked on. I’m embarrassed to state that piece of history didn’t stick in my brain. Today, however, I looked that little piece of information up. As with Veterans Day, Armistice or “Remembrance” Day is commemorated every year on November the 11th. It marks the ending of the first World War – when the armistice, i.e. truce was signed between the allies of that war and Germany. Here’s the cool thing about Armistice Day: it took effect at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in the year 1918. In many countries around the world today, a moment of silence is observed at 11:00 a.m., as a sign of respect to the approximately 20 million people who died in WWI.<br />
In our country, this is a day when we celebrate <i>all</i> who have fought past and present in our armed forces. It came about because Raymond Weeks, a WWII Veteran, sought to expand Armistice Day as a day to remember all veterans, not just those who had fought and died in the first world war. Weeks led the first national celebration of Veterans Day in 1947. It became a nationally observed holiday in 1954.<br />
Today, there are no family stories or anecdotes. Today, I just wanted to say thank you to all the men and women who have donned a uniform for one of the branches of our armed forces and who have valiantly served and still serve our country. Your sacrifice is greatly appreciated. We would not enjoy the freedoms we do in this country if it were not for each one of you — standing guard—keeping watch—manning posts —standing on the front-line of defense. You are all our heroes and she-roes. Today, we honor you with heartfelt gratitude for all that you do to protect and serve. God Bless You All~<br />
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<br />Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-54409020669938779792013-11-02T20:59:00.001-07:002015-11-02T09:22:54.995-08:00The Golden Thread<div>
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My favorite picture of us: Thanksgiving, Circa 1988 ~ Pam, Nannie, Mother, and Me</div>
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Martha Jane Tignor Whitlock, 8-16-10~11-2-99</div>
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Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.</div>
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The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.</div>
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She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.</div>
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She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.</div>
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She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.</div>
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She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.</div>
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She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.</div>
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She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.</div>
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She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.</div>
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She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.</div>
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She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.</div>
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She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.</div>
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She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.</div>
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Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.</div>
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She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.</div>
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Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.</div>
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She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.</div>
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She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.</div>
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Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.</div>
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Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.</div>
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Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.</div>
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Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates. </div>
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~Proverbs 31:10-31</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/GHbOBNaERco">http://youtu.be/GHbOBNaERco</a> Oh, Had I A Golden Thread~Eva Cassidy</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/lOqAtTYlWmQ">http://youtu.be/lOqAtTYlWmQ</a> How Can I Keep From Singing~Eva Cassidy</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/fVPDrZypPM4">http://youtu.be/fVPDrZypPM4</a> Sweet Hour of Prayer Hymn [My grandmother's favorite hymn]</div>
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I had the best grandmother! </div>
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I know that’s a grand statement to make, but I did. There is one instance when the word “best” is allowed to be used multiple times in reference to the same idea: when a child is speaking about their grandparent! My grandmother being the best does not negate your grandmother from being the best. Normally, it would, but, as I said, this is the one instance when it is the exception to the rule. </div>
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You might be wondering what it was about my grandmother that made her the best? The easiest answer is, what didn’t? My father thought she was a saintly woman. Like the rest of us, he held her in the highest esteem. Open praise like that from my father was a big deal. I remember the first time I ever read Proverbs 31, verses 10-31, my mouth dropped open slightly and I thought to myself, <i>“Wow! My grandmother is referenced in the BIBLE!”</i></div>
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Her life wasn’t an easy one, and when I say that, I don’t mean that she grew up impoverished or suffered abuse. What I mean when I say that about my grandmother is that there wasn’t a lot of frivolity in her life. She was the eldest daughter of 13 children, and many of those children she helped raise. [Her brothers and sisters held her in the highest regard too.] She was always working. Always! </div>
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She was a farmer’s wife and a mother to two of her own children. Not only did she have the full-time and exhausting responsibilities of running a farming household, she also worked a regular 40-hour a week job in the meat department at Thalhimer’s in Richmond for years. I do not know how she managed it all? I think about it sometimes, and am exhausted just by the thought. </div>
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By the time she went to work in the morning, she’d already put in a half-day’s work at her home. Think about that for just a moment. By the time her head hit the pillow at night to say her prayers, she’d put in another. Her hands were never idle. Never~ever. Well, except when she slept. Does that count as idleness?</div>
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If she took time to sit down, she always had a pan in her lap to snap peas or some sewing that needed to be finished. Her one guilty pleasure was reading. </div>
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My grandmother was a magician of sorts. She never wasted a thing. She re-purposed anything that she could. They were farmers. It’s what they did. They made the best of what they had, and they got the most out of the things they had. She could take nothing special and turn it into something amazing. Case in point: back when my mother was a little girl, feed sacks came in floral bags. Why? I don’t know, but my grandmother didn’t discard those. She washed them, then cut them out, sewed them together and made lovely blouses out of them for my mother and aunt. She was a top notch seamstress, and the clothes she made rivaled anything we bought in the store. Also, back during the depression, when times were really tough, she could take a basic household ingredient like vinegar and turn it into a dessert...something akin to a lemon pie. I never cared for Vinegar Pie but my grandfather, mother and brother loved it! She was the best cook too! Lord, that woman could cook! A friend of mine’s father swears that my grandmother’s vegetable soup healed him of his heart problems. I’m not kidding. Who knows? Everything she cooked, she made with love. It’s possible. Love is healing. </div>
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She chuckled when I called her and told her that Mr. Dillon thanked her for the soup, and said that she could make it for him anytime, because it had healed his heart. She didn’t know about that, but she appreciated the compliment.</div>
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She was an example to me of gentility and grace. She had both; she WAS both. My grandmother was a southern “lady”. She was gentile yet strong, and that is a formidable combination. I never heard a vulgar word EVER cross her lips. She did not participate in gossip. She always gave someone the benefit of the doubt. She didn’t tolerate “foolishness” as she called it. She didn’t like “fussing” among the grandchildren.</div>
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I admired her so much. I don’t think I could have lived her life with ½ of the dignity and grace that she lived it or 1/10th the stamina. She had 53 years on me, and the woman could run circles around me — even in her later years when she had lost portions of both of her legs, she could still run circles around me! We tease my mother about being the Energizer Bunny because SHE never slows down, but my grandmother was the original. My mother comes by it naturally. It skipped a generation with me. I don’t have the energizer bunny trait! </div>
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Life dealt her some tough blows later in her life. She developed some health problems, but I never heard her complain about it. Not “why me”? She didn’t grumble when her diet was restricted to excluded certain things, and I can tell you right now, I wouldn’t have just complained, I would have wailed over such a restriction. My friends across the country would have been able to hear my wailing, but not my grandmother. She accepted her fate without a bitter pout. It reinforced a lesson that she’d instilled in me when I was a young girl. She had told me once that everybody has problems in their life, and if we all laid our troubles out on a table for everybody else to see, we’d gladly pick up our lot and go about our merry way. She truly lived that philosophy. </div>
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Her illness progressed, and she wasn’t able to stave off the reality that she was going to lose part of her leg. She handled it like a champ! She was amazing like that. Rise above. Rise above. That’s what she did. If life gave her a challenge, she saw it as an opportunity to rise above. Nothing ever shook her faith — on the contrary, her life-challenges brought her closer to God. </div>
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There were only two times I recall ever seeing her cry: when my granddaddy died, and when her illness progressed to the point that she knew they were going to have to take part of her other leg. </div>
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By that time, we lived in Maryland – just two hours away, and my sister and I would drive down sometimes and spend the weekend with my grandparents, and after Granddaddy passed, we took turns and each took a weekend and went down to spend with her. I remember going to see her before she had the operation on her second leg. </div>
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“You okay, Nannie?” </div>
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“Well, Dahlin’,” she said in her soft voice that I can still hear in my mind. </div>
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But, when she said, “Dahlin’”, she got a little overcome with it all, and her voice broke. She lowered her head, and I knew that tears had come. </div>
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I reached my hand out to her, and she took it. </div>
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“It’s going to be okay,” I assured.</div>
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She just nodded, and we didn’t speak of it again. It’s a hard thing to lose pieces of yourself — to have a doctor cut parts of your body off bit by bit and reduce you to a place of dependence on others, when you’ve never done that in your entire life. It’s humbling. It’s not that my grandmother didn’t know how to be humble. She just didn’t like to be dependent. She had always carried her weight, and she knew without her legs to aid her, she was going to need serious help. She didn’t want to be a burden. We all assured her that a burden was something that she would <i>never</i> be. She was grace realized and grace is <i>never</i> a burden...</div>
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Did I say with parts of both of her legs removed, she could still run circles around me? Here is my funny story about that. This happened before I was married so I must have been about 30, and my grandmother was in her mid 80's. I had gone down for the weekend in the summer, and as I was coming in, her sister, my Aunt Myrtle was leaving. I heard her tell my grandmother that the corn had not come in yet.</div>
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Aunt Myrtle KNEW Nannie could run circles around her too.</div>
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Anyway, after she’d left, I looked at my grandmother and said, puzzled. “She needs her eyes checked! There’s a ton of corn out there.”</div>
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“What?” My grandmother asked, in disbelief. </div>
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I nodded. “There’s at least six rows of corn out there!” </div>
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Let me paint this picture: these were LONG rows of corn.</div>
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Nannie wanted to see for herself, so I helped her up out of the wheelchair over to the door. Proud of myself, I waved in the direction of the incoming corn. </div>
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“See?”</div>
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“Well, how do you like that?” my grandmother said, not certain what to make of my Aunt Myrtle’s comment. {I NOW know what was intended by it! ;-) }</div>
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“Come on,” my grandmother said. “Let’s eat real quick, cuz you’re going to need to go out there and pick it for me.”</div>
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Clue number one regarding Aunt Myrtle’s inability to recognize plain-as-day grown corn. </div>
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“Okay,” says I, the dumb cluck.</div>
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Nannie and I got supper on the table and cleaned the kitchen. Let me just say that I’m normally tired out by the time I’ve done this....tacked onto that chore, the couple-hour drive down from Maryland, and the chores I’d already done at home before I’d left, and I was ready to go sit in the den and take a load off — relax. No. That would not be the routine for that evening. I had some rows of corn to pick.</div>
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My grandmother directed me to the two large handled buckets by the freezer to use, and she pulled out a bunch of small plastic pans that she lined on the kitchen table along with the garbage can.</div>
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“What’s that for?” I, the dumb cluck, asked, still having no clue what I’d set myself up for.</div>
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“You pick it and bring it in to me, and I’m going to shuck it.”</div>
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I nodded. That sounded fair. </div>
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“Okay,” I replied, taking the buckets and heading out to the fields. It wasn’t that I’d never not picked corn before, I’d just never picked it by myself — ALL by myself.</div>
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I picked and I picked and I picked and I picked some more. I hauled bucket after bucket after bucket up to the house, and that was just on row one. It dawned on me at row two why my Aunt Myrtle had said what she’d said. I noticed that SHE wasn’t outside at seven o’clock at night picking corn and hauling it back to the house all by HERSELF. </div>
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By the end of the second row, I was calling out to God: “Lord. Have mercy!”</div>
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Had I told my grandmother six rows? I still had four rows to go — four LONG-ass rows! [Yeah, I told you I wasn’t gentile like my grandmother.]</div>
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What amazed me was that my grandmother had this corn shucked faster than I could bring it in to her. Did I mention Energizer Bunny?</div>
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By the end of row four, my back hurt so bad, it felt like it was about to break in two, and I needed something to drink. I was hot, sweaty and exhausted. </div>
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“I need some tea!” I informed as I went into the house without a bucket full of corn.</div>
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My grandmother looked surprised that I had brought no offering of corn with me AND that I had the audacity to sit down to take a load off of my weary self, when there was still MUCH to do. </div>
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“Don’t take too long, Dahlin’,” she gently cautioned. “It’s gonna be gettin’ dark soon.”</div>
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That’s what I was hoping, but I didn’t say that. </div>
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“Do you have any Advil?” I asked. </div>
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She motioned to the drawer, engrossed in shucking.</div>
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Stunned that she wouldn’t utilize the wheels on her chair and was actually making my tired body get up, I stood, not certain my fatigued legs would even hold me upright, at that point. I reached for the counter, and pulled myself along it over to the drawer. I found the bottle and took three pills — one for good measure. I left them out on the counter, having a sneaking suspicion that I was going to need the bottle again before the night was through.</div>
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I made the mistake of pouring me another glass of tea. </div>
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“Come on, Dahlin’!” she said in a “Chop! Chop!” tone. “There’s a couple of more rows to do.”</div>
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I wanted to cry “Uncle”, but I knew it would do no good. Still, I defended my action. “I can’t dry swallow the Advil, Nannie!”</div>
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“Well, hurry it up!” she firmly urged me to get back outside.</div>
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I’d never seen the “drill Sergeant” side of her before. She was tough. I chugged the tea and headed back outside. I’d catch my breath out there in the privacy of God’s wide, open spaces. </div>
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I sighed as I looked at those other two rows of corn I had to pick before it got dark — at least it was only two. There was a light at the end of the tunnel. My Aunt Myrtle — she was one, smart cookie! Yes. She sure was. I learned another big lesson that night: whenever it’s approaching nighttime and someone says the corn has not come in, and you know the contrary is true, keep your big trap shut!</div>
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Half-way through row five, I was wishing I had one of those sheet type things I’d seen in movies before that wrapped around field hands’ waists so they could just toss the produce on it and drag it along behind them.... I was wishing mighty hard I had one of those so that I could toss the ears of corn onto it and make one trip, dragging it all back up to the house with me. Man, that would have made my life SO much easier in that moment!</div>
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By row six, I felt like Sally Field in <i>Places of the Heart</i>, when her hands were all blistered, cut up and aching, her back felt like it was breaking and she was wearing knee pads, crawling down the row, because she was too bone-weary to stand on her own two feet any longer after picking all that godforsaken cotton! Yeah. I’d have given ANYTHING at that point for a set of knee pads, so that I could have crawled my way back to my grandmother’s house! It amazes me, after this horrific experience, that my heart did not harden against corn. I love it, but in that moment, I have never hated the sight of anything more in my life, and I wasn’t certain I ever wanted to see it again! [Thank God that moment passed... ;-) ]</div>
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The house. Salvation was waiting for me there: I could plop down. Take a load off. Have some iced-tea. Take a long, hot bath and hit the hay....or so I thought....</div>
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I knew when I walked into the house that I had grossly miscalculated the situation. There were two large vats on top of the stove. There was an empty pail with a knife sitting in my chair and one at my grandmother’s place. </div>
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I was afraid to ask, but had to.</div>
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“What’s going on?”</div>
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My grandmother looked at me and smiled as she informed. “We’ve got to get this corn put up.”</div>
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I looked at the clock. It was pushing nine o’clock. </div>
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“Put up?” I asked, not certain what this meant but knowing that I didn’t like the sound of it.</div>
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“We have to par-boil the ears,” she informed. “Then, we’ll freeze some of them on the cob, but cut most of it off and put it in freezer bags.”</div>
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I stared at her like a deer who was caught in the headlights. I looked around at the mountains of corn on the kitchen table, down all the counters, on the chairs and in pans on the floor. MOUNTAINS of it. </div>
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“That’s going to take us hours, Nannie!” I said in disbelief.</div>
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She nodded, chuckling. “It’s a good thing we got started when we did!”</div>
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My mouth fell open as I stared at it all. I wanted to cry. I couldn’t very well tell her that I didn’t want to do it. She was 85 years old. I couldn’t let her do it all by herself! I don’t know what I thought we were going to do with all that corn, but I didn’t think my Saturday night was going to be spent picking, shucking, boiling, cutting and bagging corn all evening. That was definitely not how I thought the night was going to go.</div>
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“I’m going to wash my face and hands,” I told her, heading to the bathroom and praying that the hot water would give me a second wind. </div>
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There were two things I thought as I sat down and began the process of cutting the corn off the cobs: 1) at least I was sitting down for<i> this</i> part of the chore; and, 2) Aunt Myrtle got the prize for being the brightest bulb in the pack that night! </div>
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By the time we finished and got the kitchen cleaned up and all the corn put up into my grandmother’s freezer, it was pushing one a.m.; to say I was beat was a gross understatement. At least, I thought, I could sleep in the next morning. That’s what I thought...</div>
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“Do you have anything for my hands?” I asked, showing my grandmother the blisters that had formed over the chafed, red patches of irritated skin.</div>
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She pulled out a small tub of udder cream. Yes. THAT kind of udder cream. Do not knock this until you try it, because it works. It soothes, and it softens the heat of the irritation. Gently, I rubbed it into my sore, burning hands.</div>
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“Do you need help getting to the bedroom?”</div>
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“No, Dahlin’,” she replied. “I’m going to do a few more things out here.”</div>
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God Bless her! I thought.</div>
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I bent down and kissed her goodnight, and headed for my bedroom.</div>
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“What time do you want me to get you up for church in the morning, Dahlin’?” she called to me softly.</div>
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I froze. I think I heard the Scooby Do, “Huh?” bellow out of me.</div>
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<i>“Are you serious?”</i> I thought. </div>
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“Ch-ch-church?” I said.</div>
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I should have known this had not been taken off the table. Unless she was in the hospital, my grandmother would never shortchange the Lord. Sunday was his day. It was a non-negotiable for her. </div>
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“We need to leave by 10:25 a.m.,” she reminded.</div>
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“I’ll get up at nine,” I told her.</div>
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“You don’t want any breakfast?” she asked.</div>
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“I’ll just have coffee,” I told her. </div>
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It was the first time in my life when sleep was more important to me than food. I would forgo breakfast in order to rest my weary body for a little while longer. I don’t even remember my head hitting the pillow that night.</div>
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I will say that I could hardly move for two days after that, and we still laugh over the “corn picking” experience I had with my grandmother. I don’t know how she did what she did. I truly don’t. I have said it before, and I will say it again, she was a better woman than I will ever be! </div>
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My grandmother was a card as she got older. She would crack us up! For those who knew her, she was a generous and gracious woman to those who visited her home. She would offer you food. She would make certain that you’d had enough food to eat. No one ever left her table hungry. There was an exception to that rule however in the latter years of her life. If my sister made her peanut butter pie or I made my cheesecake, my grandmother was not as inclined to share it as she otherwise was with anything else in her kitchen. Stingy is a word that comes to mind. Downright. She actually hid them in the back of her refrigerator, like we didn’t know we’d brought them down. It was funny. She’s the one who cut the desserts, so it was always comical when Nannie was doling out portions of either of these desserts to us. Sliver, in this case, would have been a generous portion. </div>
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My sister and I had gone down one weekend together, and Pam had made two peanut butter pies. One for us to eat and one to leave for Nannie. That didn’t matter to her that Pam had made an extra pie all for her. She was guarded even with the one we cut into. I don’t even know what you’d call the serving that my grandmother handed me? Tad — maybe.</div>
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“Good Lord!” I marveled. “You afraid we’re gonna taste it?” I asked, looking over the barely spoonful she’d put on my plate. </div>
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Pam walked in from the other room and saw my plate and looked at my grandmother. You could see the surprise on her face.</div>
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“Nannie!” she said, laughing in good-natured disbelief.</div>
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My grandmother got this funny little look on her face and hunched her shoulders up because we knew what she was doing, and we all began to laugh. She did not want to share even that one. </div>
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“There’s a whole other pie in there,” Pam told her. </div>
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“I know,” she replied, trying to minimize her uncharacteristic behavior. “I thought we’d have a little taste for now. We just ate supper. I’m still full from supper. Aren’t you both still full from supper?”</div>
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“Actually,” I said. “I saved a little room for dessert, Nannie, because Pam doesn’t make that pie very often.”</div>
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She nodded and replied politely. “Oh. Alright then.”</div>
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The tad became a thin sliver. We were grateful to have gotten it. </div>
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It was the same response when I made cheesecake: thin slivers were the most you got and hiding it in the back of the refrigerator was her standard practice. </div>
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It made us feel good though that our grandmother, who was in our opinion, the world’s BEST cook, would feel that way about something that each of us had made for her. It’s another thing that we still laugh about.</div>
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Likewise, I made a pie for Thanksgiving one year that my grandmother loved so much she asked me for the recipe for it. Not only that, she put it in her church’s cookbook. THAT was high praise and honor for me. She always made it at Christmas thereafter, and we lovingly referred to it as Nannie’s Christmas pie. It’s funny how little things like that can touch someone and come to mean something important. I never taste that pie now that I don’t think of my grandmother and the honor I felt when she requested that recipe from me, or when I learned that she had thought it was good enough to not only put her name on, but place it in something as important to her as her church cookbook.</div>
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The last time I spoke with her was Halloween night in 1999. It was a Sunday. I had called early because church was that night, but she wasn’t feeling well. She said that she didn’t think she’d be going out that night. I knew if she wasn’t going to church that she truly wasn’t feeling well, because Sunday, for her, was the Lord’s day. It belonged to him, and she never shortchanged him on her servitude and devotion. </div>
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“Well, you take care of yourself,” I told her.</div>
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“You too, Dahlin’!” she replied.</div>
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I told her that I’d call her in a couple of days and check on her. The last thing I ever said to her and heard in return was “I love you.” It is a gift when those are the last words that you carry from a loved one and know that they take with them from you. At this point in my life, they are the last words I ever say to a loved one when I get off the phone or leave an event. I want that to always be the last thing I’ve ever said to anyone I care about — because you never know...</div>
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That Tuesday morning, November the 2nd, I was getting ready for work and listening to Eva Cassidy, when the phone rang. I always get an uncomfortable feeling when the phone rings late at night or early in the morning. It’s normally not good news. It wasn’t.</div>
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It was my father calling to tell me that my grandmother had passed in the early hours of the morning. My mother was already in route down to Virginia. Even when you know that someone’s time is close at hand, and your loved one has been having health problems for a while, it’s never easy getting that phone call. You’re never prepared for it no matter how much you try to prepare yourself for it. </div>
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I could tell my father was shaken by the news. My grandmother had been a mother figure to him since he was a teenager, and he held her in the highest esteem. The very fact that he wasn’t going into work that day – a man who had only missed a half-day’s work in more than 35 years told me just how devastated HE was by the news of her loss. </div>
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“Why don’t I come over in a little while?” I suggested. “I’ll make us some lunch.”</div>
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“That’ll be fine,” he said sadly. </div>
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“How’s Mother?” I asked, sniffing, and wiping my eyes, not thrilled to know she was on the road driving in an upset state.</div>
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“As well as can be expected,” he replied. “She said she’ll call you later.”</div>
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“Okay,” I said. “I’ll see you in bit.”</div>
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When I hung up, I started crying again as Eva Cassidy finished singing “<i>Oh, Had I A Golden Thread</i>”. It was odd THAT song was playing as I got the news that my grandmother had passed. She was the golden thread in our family — the one that was woven throughout all of us. She was the great maternal, anchoring force that bound us together. She was golden alright — pure gold. It wasn’t lost on me.</div>
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Later that day, I did go over to my parents house. I remember walking around outside in their backyard — the wooded part of the yard, gathering my thoughts because I wanted to give the eulogy at my grandmother’s service. I wasn’t certain if I could do it, but I wanted to try. I thought a lot about her that day. She had told us not to cry for her when she finally went, because she was ready to go. </div>
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She was 89 years old and had lived a good and full life. That’s what she’d told us. She loved us, and she would miss us, but she was ready to go home when God called her. She had actually said that to all of us at different times during the previous year. I think she knew that her time here was coming to an end. It was a comfort to hear that from her, but that was my grandmother.</div>
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I wanted to say something comforting to her one final time to send her off with the most loving thoughts from my heart, and let her know what she had meant to me — what she would always mean to me. </div>
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I remembered something she had read to me when I was little girl, and she had come to visit us for Thanksgiving. I was sitting on my bed trying to read a book that was too big for me, at the time, but I’d liked the pictures in it when I’d seen it in the library, so I checked it out. She heard me struggling with it and came into my bedroom to help me read it. She pulled me close to her and wrapped her arm around me then proceeded to read me the most glorious — magical part of <i>The Velveteen Rabbit</i>. Years later, when I got married, I used those lines in my wedding vows to my husband. My grandmother smiled when I told her that, because she couldn’t be at my wedding, but when I told her about my vows and asked her if she remembered reading that story to me as a child, she smiled and said she remembered it vividly. It had meant a lot to her to know that a special moment that she and I had shared, had been used in the life-long vow that I had given to my husband on my wedding day.</div>
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I thought about those words again today as I listened to Eva Cassidy sing <i>Oh, Had I A Golden Thread</i> and <i>Fields of Gold</i>. I remembered standing before her casket on that chilly, November day 14 years ago and saying “so long for now”, to her in the most loving way I knew how to say it:</div>
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"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side... “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"</div>
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"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but <i>REALLY</i> loves you, then you become Real."</div>
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"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.</div>
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"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."</div>
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"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or does it happen bit by bit?"</div>
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"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But, these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."</div>
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"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.</div>
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"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always..."</div>
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I remember her today with all the love and gratitude my heart can hold for the gift that she was to me — for the lessons she taught— for her sterling example. We made her real. My mother, aunt, brother, sister, cousins and I. Our love for her lasts for always... </div>
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Oh, I have a golden thread running through me. It bears her name: Martha...</div>
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I’ll see her again one day in Heaven. She’s waiting there for us. She’ll be whole and restored, once again, just like the Bible says she’ll be. Her legs will be intact. And, I’ll take hold of her arm, as we catch up with one another over all the years we’ve missed, and we’ll walk in fields of gold...</div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/hKtqTYSOBCg">http://youtu.be/hKtqTYSOBCg</a> Fields of Gold~Eva Cassidy</div>
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Nannie’s Christmas Pie</div>
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INGREDIENTS:</div>
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1 (9 inch) un-baked pie shell</div>
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2 eggs, beaten</div>
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1/3 cup butter, melted</div>
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1 cup white sugar [You can cut this to 3/4 c of sugar if you’d like it a little less sweet]</div>
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1 teaspoon vanilla extract</div>
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1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar</div>
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1/2 cup chopped pecans</div>
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½ cup shredded coconut</div>
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½ cup golden raisins</div>
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DIRECTIONS:</div>
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).</div>
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In a medium mixing bowl combine eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and vinegar. Beat until smooth. Stir in pecans, coconut, and raisins. Pour mixture into pastry shell.</div>
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Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. Cool before serving.</div>
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*Serve with vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream. </div>
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** For a little twist, add a ½ cup of milk chocolate chips</div>
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Jhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161316609151912646.post-44676267988978431692013-11-02T20:39:00.000-07:002015-03-10T02:43:39.020-07:00She Left In Autumn.<br />
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Eva Marie Cassidy, February 2, 1963-November 2, 1996<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/eTUQy0ijNcc">http://youtu.be/eTUQy0ijNcc</a> Live At Blues Alley~Eva Cassidy *Hard to believe that 10 months to the day of this performance at Blues Alley, Eva would die from cancer.<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/bXU219b3Zdw">http://youtu.be/bXU219b3Zdw</a> Eva Cassidy Story~ABC Nightline<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/AFFo1pu4q7Q">http://youtu.be/AFFo1pu4q7Q</a> Songbird~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/J8W9rPxxnP4">http://youtu.be/J8W9rPxxnP4</a> People Get Ready-Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/sYyQcQSqpbI">http://youtu.be/sYyQcQSqpbI</a> Bridge Over Troubled Water-Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/5xv5t70u-ZI">http://youtu.be/5xv5t70u-ZI</a> Who Knows Where The Time Goes~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/D43QBBc7IvY">http://youtu.be/D43QBBc7IvY</a> Forever~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/d3qTecMMCFg">http://youtu.be/d3qTecMMCFg</a> Drown in my Own Tears~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/8EmnmYtLW14">http://youtu.be/8EmnmYtLW14</a> Say Goodbye~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/DTVsp_q8mxE">http://youtu.be/DTVsp_q8mxE</a> Imagine~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Dc75Mwg4I0c">http://youtu.be/Dc75Mwg4I0c</a> Son of a Preacher Man~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/XRNleKBDCNw">http://youtu.be/XRNleKBDCNw</a> Chain of Fools~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/L8x0BYijc94">http://youtu.be/L8x0BYijc94</a> At Last~Eva Cassidy [Live at Fleetwood’s]<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/Efro-QrHdnk">http://youtu.be/Efro-QrHdnk</a> Fields In Gold~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/nzFdlLzhVhM">http://youtu.be/nzFdlLzhVhM</a> Autumn Leaves~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/BTNRN4rsfX8">http://youtu.be/BTNRN4rsfX8</a> Early Morning Rain~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/f5EesOU5oc0">http://youtu.be/f5EesOU5oc0</a> Somewhere Over The Rainbow~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/g7r-_oH1A5E">http://youtu.be/g7r-_oH1A5E</a> Stay~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/GNLfAnWe12g">http://youtu.be/GNLfAnWe12g</a> O Danny Boy~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/X6Oq-WQ-Sy4">http://youtu.be/X6Oq-WQ-Sy4</a> What a Wonderful World~Eva Cassidy<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/gW-nsqUAY6A">http://youtu.be/gW-nsqUAY6A</a> I Know You By Heart~Eva Cassidy<br />
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“I really like to create the sound of a choir the most. If you could see what the sound of it looks like when I shut my eyes and listen, you'd see the sound as angels spanning across the universe.”<br />
~Eva Cassidy<br />
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How many of you have ever heard the <i>true</i> voice of an angel? If you’ve heard it, there is no mistaking it. I’ve been fortunate to have heard that glorious sound about a half a dozen times in my life, give or take. It’s not a compliment I readily give away, because it means something to give it. It’s special, and special doesn’t happen often, which is why this particular high praise is reserved for truly worthy beneficiaries of such a distinction. Eva Cassidy had such a voice.<br />
For me, her voice is like honey~butter, but not just ANY honey~butter: Tupelo Honey and Kerry Gold Irish Butter. If you’ve ever tasted either, you know it’s the best — rich, sweet, smooth, silky, decadent — unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before. That’s what listening to Eva Cassidy’s voice is like — unlike anything you’ve EVER experienced before! Yes. It's Just. Like. That. It puts the definition of “amazing” to a whole other dimensional context.<br />
Many of you have probably never heard of Eva Marie Cassidy. I'm happy to share the wealth! I've been fortunate these last 15 years! In 1989, I moved to Maryland from Florida in the hopes that I would be able to utilize my journalism degree in the Washington, D.C. area. Eva grew up in Bowie, Maryland and played a lot of the area Beltway clubs, i.e. Pearl’s in Annapolis, Maryland, Fleetwood’s in Alexandria, Virginia and Blues Alley in Washington, D.C., to name but a few. I was unfortunate in that I never saw her play live, and I discovered her about two years after she died. It was like finding a lottery ticket with winning numbers on it, only the numbers were for the previous week. Or, as Dickens wrote, <i>“It was the best of times and the worst of times.</i>..” That's what it feels like when you discover an artist like Eva Cassidy, only too late to have the good fortune to ever be able to see her perform live.<br />
I came to learn of Eva, when a friend told me about hearing a version of “Over the Rainbow” that was so bone-tingling that it would have made Judy Garland weep. Intrigued, I inquired more about it and learned that the song was on a recently released CD called <i>Songbird</i>. It was early summer of 1998 when I bought that CD, and I will never forget the night I listened to it and heard Eva’s voice for the first time:<br />
My mother had gone down to Virginia to stay with my grandmother, who was having health problems, for about a week, and my husband and I had gone over to spend the evening with my father. After supper, they had commandeered the television to watch a baseball game. It was no sweat for me. I had my new CD, and I was interested in listening to it. I was more than psyched to see that it had been named for Christine McVie’s song of the same name, “Songbird” which has always been a favorite of mine. I took my father’s small boom-box cd player out onto the back patio with a candle and a glass of iced tea and settled in as night descended, and I prepared to hear Eva Cassidy’s voice for the first time – something I’d heard a <b>lot</b> about. To answer your question, yes. I had purchased the CD without having heard the voice, because my friend told me if I didn’t care for it, that she would buy it from me. I had nothing to lose. Also, I loved the songs that were on it — a few I’d not heard before, but most of them I knew and loved. I also trusted this friend’s advice, and if she said I was going to be blown away, I knew I was going to be in for a treat. <br />
I will say that I cheated and skipped straight to <i>Songbird</i> first. <br />
Words cannot adequately express nor describe what I felt when I first heard her sing <i>“For you, there’ll be no more crying...For you, the sun will be shining...Cuz I feel that when I’m with you, it’s alright. I know it’s right.”</i> I shivered; I gulped and the hair on the back of my neck stood at full attention — in that order. I think my mouth fell open in disbelief over what I was hearing, and I reached for the CD jacket and candle. This woman’s voice was incredible, and I wanted to know more about her! I opened it and pulled out the liner notes and began to glance through them as I listened to the awesomeness that was generating out of that small box. My heart caught when I read, “terminal cancer.” <i>What?</i> I didn’t think I’d read correctly, so I went back and re-read it again. I had not read it wrong. It clearly stated: “the next month, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.” I stopped the music, and sat for a minute staring out at the woods behind my parents house as I tried to digest that information. Cancer. <i><b>Terminal</b></i> Cancer. I looked at her cover photograph again. She was young — lovely, with golden blonde hair to match her golden voice. She looked to be my age. [I would find out that she had been six months older than me.] I went to the beginning of the liner notes and began to read each sentence — every word.<br />
The second paragraph delivered the devastating blow:<br />
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<i>“...That’s when I learned that her first solo album, recorded live at the Washington club Blues Alley, had just come out locally – and that Cassidy, age thirty-three, was consumed with cancer [metastatic melanoma]. Only after her death on November 2 was she discovered by the community at large...”</i><br />
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I felt tears come.<br />
"Damn!” I muttered. <br />
I felt an odd combination of happiness and sorrow in that moment, because I’d just discovered something so wonderful only to learn that the wonderful something was no longer with us. Life. It can be cruel at times...she was only 33 years old. She had been MY age. It gave me pause. I listened to the remainder of the CD with a heavy heart, and each song I heard had a more profound meaning as I listened to it with the knowledge that the golden voice serenading me was, in actuality silenced. Each song brought new tears – fresh pain over the reality that this angelic voice had been stilled before it had even had a chance to truly soar. That’s how my husband found me: sitting on the back deck, listening to Eva Cassidy with tears streaming down my face.<br />
“I wanted to see if you wanted coffee?” he asked, stepping out into the night and coming over to me, when he saw the tears. “What’s wrong?”<br />
I sniffed and wiped at my eyes. “She’s dead.”<br />
He looked at me funny. It had been a blunt telling.<br />
“What?” he asked, not understanding.<br />
I held up the CD cover. <br />
“Eva,” I said flatly, looking up at him. “She’s dead. She died of cancer at 33 years old.”<br />
<i>Autumn Leaves</i> was playing in the background, as we spoke.<br />
He paused to listen, equally impressed by the voice emanating from the box. <br />
“Wow!” he said as reaction to the voice, then offering this as reaction to what I’d just told him about her. “That’s really sad.”<br />
“It sucks!” I grumbled.<br />
“Yeah,” he agreed, not knowing what else to say? What else was there to say?<br />
I sniffed and asked if he needed me for something? He told me he just wanted to see if I wanted coffee? I shook my head that I didn’t, but thanked him for checking. <br />
"You okay?" he asked.<br />
I shrugged and nodded, but I felt out of sorts.<br />
He went back inside.<br />
Then, I went back to listening to Eva.<br />
I was struck by her range and her ability to own whatever song it was she sang. Most covers of songs are nice nods to the originator, but they don’t eclipse the standard. Eva’s interpretations, for me, were the exception. Every song that her vocal chords nurtured, before she gave them to the rest of us as a love offering was something akin to the blossoming of a rare, and beautiful flower, and it was nothing short of glorious. She tilled the words—notes of a song much the way I imagine she tilled plants and gardens, during the time she worked at a landscape nursery as her “day job” for several years.<br />
There wasn’t anything she couldn’t sing. She was like Elvis that way. Pop, blues, jazz, gospel, folk — you name it, and she could sing it. Eva didn’t just sing it either. She mastered it. She had a gift for interpretation, and her style was singularly her own. I’ve never heard another artist who sounds <i>anything</i> remotely like Eva Cassidy. <br />
It may sound odd to you, but I once owned three copies of <i>Songbird</i>. [I’ve since given one copy away to a friend.] I kept one at work; one in my car; and one at home. I always wanted to have her music near me. I also own every CD that has subsequently been released since <i>Songbird</i> and added its predecessors<i> Live at</i> <i>Blues Alley</i> as well as <i>Eva By Heart</i> to my collection. She is one of my “go to” artists — no matter my mood, I find myself going to her music a lot. Her voice has a calming–soothing affect. If I’ve had a bad day, it cheers me. If I’ve had a good day, it makes it better. If I’m down, it uplifts. If I’m sad, it consoles. If I’m happy, it broadens my smile further. It is a gift when a singer has the ability to be able to do that: regardless of the circumstance, the voice has the power to alter the mood and make it better. That was Eva Cassidy. She had that power; she was that gift. <br />
We lost her too soon. There is <i>no</i> getting around that! And, I tend to agree with Mary Chapin-Carpenter when she said in her song <i>My Heaven</i> about Eva that there are, “More memories than my heart can hold, when Eva’s singing ‘Fields of Gold’.” Man, that is so true! Take a listen to it and see if we’re not right about that. I’ll take it one step further: after you listen to Eva Cassidy sing ANY thing, not only will you not be the same again, you’ll never quite look at that song in the same context ever again either. Ever.<br />
I remember her today with gratitude~heartfelt thanksgiving~longing. What can I say? I am only human after all, and she is something that is now beyond this world. It doesn’t matter that I never met her. I know her by heart. What a beautiful one she had! The songs she loved and left us to enjoy as her legacy are a clear window into her heart, soul and spirit. What I see and feel and hear when I listen to her is beauty and grace.<br />
That sums up Eva Cassidy in a nutshell.<br />
She left in autumn.<br />
That’s when I miss Eva most, I think...when autumn leaves start to fall...<br />
I honestly can’t say that for her, I haven’t cried...because I have. It was a great loss...<br />
I’m not the only one though.<br />
...For most people, death has the final word, but that’s not the case this time! Not here.<br />
Not for you, Eva. True to form, you eclipsed even death... ღ ღ<br />
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ღEva Cassidy, By Heart ღJhill Perranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13687959867924362345noreply@blogger.com0