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Showing posts from May, 2011

Chapters...

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The chapters of our lives are filled with adventure, tears, sadness, and hopefully growth - like the strokes in a painting they come together and create fine art. Each one begins afresh as another tale unfolds- sometimes the chapter holds the key to fabulous tomorrows or glimpses into the memories of yesterdays....one has hard time standing on it's without the others.  The one thing that remains constant is all the chapters flow into the next, never really ending...that is...until the last and the book of our life comes to completion. Until that last line -step in life is completed - the story does not stop, and even then, if read well and shared with many, the novel of our life continues on in the chapters of those who read ours. That is the ever giving beauty of life -even as we struggle through a difficult chapter of our own, one we may believe it to be too much to bare, sooner or later the story of the whole will come together and before us life will once again make s

It is what it is

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It was in September of 2009 when I wrote an article on homelessness that lead to a group being formed, Lend a Hand   - at the time I didn't even have a firm grasp at just how wide spread the problem was here in rural Juneau County, Wisconsin. I did however know that while driving through a public campground and witnesses the homeless community that had taken root there...my heart broke when I saw the children's toy strewn about - all I could think about was the winter that was closing in and some child spending Christmas morning waking up homeless in a tent...shivering.. - there would be no Christmas tree umbrellaing the presents that Jolly St. Nick dropped off the night before. Perhaps it hit me so hard because I knew that at any time my children and I could have...or still could...end up homeless - it could easily be my child waking up on Christmas...cold...shivering...and feeling forgotten. I am the type of person that needs to "make sense" out of the trauma that

They did it again...

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Yes, they did it again - my boys made me cry on Mother's Day. Not like that is a hard thing to accomplish but still, they provided me with yet again the greatest gift a mother could receive from a child....being remembered. Every year for the past 4 years I have received a breakfast in bed and every year there's chaos in the kitchen as they prepare it. The first time they did, there was even a small pan fire. Every year my youngest takes charge, and my oldest son grumbles and moans about having to get out of bed. It's become a tradition that I look forward to and dread the day when they leave the nest and I awake in my home on a Mother's Day and my boys aren't in the kitchen arguing over their well anticipated surprise breakfast for me. Since my father passed on a decade and a half ago, Mother's Day has been a bittersweet holiday for me. We buried him just two days before Mother's Day, and the week following it, was the first time in my life that a May 1

Hidden Truths - Spousal Rape

It was just a couple of weeks ago I wrote about finding the article in the web which told a story I was, myself, familar with - spousal/marital sexual assault. Just two posts ago I wrote about the emotions I had when I read the story about Crystal Harris    . I can still feel that strong and lingering emotion I had when as I read how she audio taped that assault and it lead to her husband being charged and ultimately prosecuted. Just knowing her fears that caused her to even think about taping it, and then the courage it took to turn that audio over to the police...well, I don't even know if words can relay the connection I felt since I, myself, walked a similar path back in 2007. Just admiting that the man you've married could carry out such a heinous crime...the man that together you've created two beautiful children with - the man you vowed to love and stay committed to til "death us do part" ...is gut wrenching - Crystal knows that...I know that. But in

Tough times

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Well, here I go again. It seems lately like I have less and less to write about, but actually it's really the opposite - however - life has been so very busy and so filled with interesting stories and experiences that by the time I find I do have some time, I am exhausted and cannot find the words. The last two weeks have been exactly that. My last post I wrote about finding a news story on a woman who had survived a similar situation as I did at the end of my marriage. I had found her story one late night when I couldn't sleep. I was so moved by it, I not only wrote about it, but also made an attempt to locate her and speak with her. After all, how often do we read about spousal/marital/partner sexual assault being caught on tape and the abusers being sent to prison? One day I will find the words to share the emotions of the conversation I shared with her over the phone, an hour and half conversation....thousands of miles apart...different walks of life, and ironically dif