Healing

Forge

Laurie Halse Anderson An escaped slave enlists as a soldier and struggles with his regiment to survive the bitter cold winter of 1777-78 in Valley Forge.  Still a teen, Curzon must endure days without food, disentegrating boots, disrespect and mistreatment by his fellow soldiers.  He is fighting for the freedom of people who will not recognize his …

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Mind Boggling

Georgia Blizzard Born in 1919 of Irish and Apache heritage, Georgia Blizzard began making pottery as a child with clay found in local Appalachian streams and hillsides.  She is a self-taught artist and all her pieces are formed by hand.  Of her artwork and its creative process, she stated, “I can get rid of taunting, …

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Healing Quote of the Day

  If good things lasted forever, would we appreciate how precious they are? ― Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, It’s a Magical World

Dog and Butterfly

Heart See the dog and butterfly Up in the air he likes to fly. Dog and butterfly Below she had to try She roll back down to the warm soft ground, laughing She don’t know why, she don’t know why Dog and butterfly. More music by Heart Post by SuperKevinHeart

Omertà

Marc-Antoine Fontenelle Six years have already passed. Six years during which she made a vow to this code of silence. If in Sicily, one does not speak of the crimes committed by the mafia, a code known as omertà; here in my house, my mother never brings up the terrorist attacks committed by those deadly …

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Abide With Me

Elizabeth Strout In the late 1950s, in the small town of West Annett, Maine, a minister struggles to regain his calling, his family, and his happiness in the wake of profound loss. At the same time, the community he has served so charismatically must come to terms with its own strengths and failings–faith and hypocrisy, …

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In the Realms of the Unreal

Henry Darger Henry Darger (1892-1973) was born in Chicago and placed in a home for boys after his mother died and his father became too ill to care for him.   As a young teenager, Darger was diagnosed with behavioral issues and institutionalized in the Lincoln Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children.  He was forced to perform labor until he escaped a …

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Black on Grey

Mary Wilkinson Rothko’s Black on Grey painting is visible from my back porch at six a.m. on a Wednesday morning. The sky to the north looks ominous but nonetheless beautiful. I remember seeing his painting in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. I remember it well because the tiny voice from the tiny tape I carried …

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I Shall be Released

Music Saves I Shall be Released by Bob Dylan.  Another performance by the VAMS Music Saves Project.  The Vancouver Adapted Music Society (VAMS) supports and promotes musicians with physical disabilities. See the previous VAMS post on Healing Hamlet. To learn more about VAMS visit vams.org. Post by SSDFoundation.

Author Naomi Benaron

An Interview with the author of Running the Rift     The best advice I can give is to never let your rational mind get in your way. If you move forward one step at a time you will likely get where you want to go, and even if you don’t, the journey will teach …

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