Facing My New Decade - On National Women's Day - With New Thoughts, Concerns, and Joy - Open Memoir

 

As I completed reading my latest book, I found several revelations about myself... I have been picking up too much of the "DJT Syndrome" that many of us have been infected with during the last decade. How did I realize that? I had early on chosen my villain in this book simply because he was rich... I was wrong... My logical mind would not normally have consider this as a point of discrimination for individuals in my life--close or distant--but for the last decade there has been so much garbage assimilated that my thinking patterns have been affected. I must work to ensure that I take some major remedy to ensure I am cured...LOL Know what I mean???

When one man's actions can blind us to the joy of living, we must certainly not allow it to affect us. But, in my opinion, it takes more... We must make sure that we are immunized against future infections! Note how some of the garbage actions are entwined in that recommendation? If we, specifically, women (and men) do not act to rid our world of whatever group of, I am sure, white men who are attempting to move us back to a time when white men were seen as leaders of all things, we need to admit that we have allowed it... and, for some, actually gladly accepted it.

I am not one of those and don't intend to continue to change with still another birthday...

I recently found the abundance of songs by Josh Groban and love this one as well as others I've recently shared. However, I am learning, also, that there is a real meaning behind God's request to love our neighbors... and what that means in our daily lives... I don't think we can sit passively, anymore, as we have done for over 2000 years, and allow wars and violence against anybody else... Yes, it may continue, but if you believe and place your life in God's hands, then you need to also start allowing God into your brain!

Placing videos of Josh Grobin, a video about the Iran/Israel/Trump war, and calling for Christian Soldiers to be marching together does not necessarily mean something different. For instance, here's another song by the same group... SEND the Light!

Now let's look at the totality of the juxtaposition... carefully...

• God sent His Son over 2000 years ago.
• It was said that Jesus Christ was to die for All of Us.
• Jesus died on the cross, Rose Again, and Abides in all of us through the Holy Spirit.  With me so far? Because while I recognize that not everybody in the world has accepted Jesus as their Savior as Josh Grobin and I have, that does not negate the plan that God had made. Indeed, to ensure people KNOW what Jesus had done, we who come to know Him were asked to go across the world and tell of Him and His Love, that He died. And INTRODUCE HIM to those we meet...

• Note that Jesus spoke to a Samaritan to offer His living water--His Salvation... The Samaritan was a NEIGHBOR to whom He was to share God's Love.
• And, just as the Samaritan, it was ALL of us, just like the Samaritan who was, after learning of His Love, who were to share and tell of His Love! To All Neighbors!
• Instead, what did we do? The great monuments of gods/God which had existed from the beginning of time, were built. Crusaders were sent NOT telling of His Light, but Rather with a sword of violence, of force... You will become a follower of what we call Christianity--or Else... That continued even into the discovery of the Americas when indigenous peoples in these lands started to be forced to accept and attend schools taught by Christians...
• And for over 2000 years, people have continued to divided themselves into this church, or that synagogue, or this mosque, or that street ministry...on and on and on... Further dividing us up into racially centered churches, mandated national religions, or some such similar nonsense as was dreamed up by this man or that man.
• Until we have reached another step of forced division. Again... But, now, we have sophisticated tools of violence that can blow up buildings, with or without people in them...death is considered just a part of war as we have heard since the War on Iran was started... Another war that nobody wanted...  A war that nobody can really explain what it is about... or they attempt to manipulate what it is they are hoping to do without telling you!

Who did We--meaning any autocrat who has initiated war for power for thousands and thousands of years--think we were when we chose to divert from the teaching of Jesus to love our neighbors? Did we not understand that over 2000 years ago, God was once again sharing His Love as Our Creator? Surely wondering why some chose to ignore His wonderful gift of a Greater Love...

Was it out of ignorance that we chose not to listen when He told us to put aside rules and regulations outlined from ancient scrolls, of how to accept and EARN this gift of love that was already available to us as His Children? All we needed to do was Love as He Loves Us... Or was it that, even then, there were some, as Jesus pointed out of the Pharisees, that turned away from His Love to choose their own path, which ultimately led to death not only for the individual but for so many others? 

Or was it simply a matter of allowing our own will to take over, even that part of us where the Holy Spirit was abiding, waiting to talk to us... Had we, in ignorance, not really understood how the parables were meant to guide us as we fumbled through His teachings to guide our lives?

We have advanced in so many ways in this world... So many advances in science and medicine that we are living longer and longer... We have learned how to even go to other planets of our universe. But have we not advanced sufficiently to learn...to...share... to give freely of His love without us "demanding" obedience?

Let me add something that I just learned about this morning that affects all women. Uterine Fibroids are found in a high percentage of all women. 

Uterine fibroids are common growths of the uterus. They often appear during the years you're usually able to get pregnant and give birth. Uterine fibroids are not cancer, and they almost never turn into cancer. They aren't linked with a higher risk of other types of cancer in the uterus either. They're also called leiomyomas (lie-o-my-O-muhs) or myomas.

Fibroids vary in number and size. You can have a single fibroid or more than one. Some of these growths are too small to see with the eyes. Others can grow to the size of a grapefruit or larger. A fibroid that gets very big can distort the inside and the outside of the uterus. In extreme cases, some fibroids grow large enough to fill the pelvis or stomach area. They can make a person look pregnant.

Many people have uterine fibroids sometime during their lives. But you might not know you have them, because they often cause no symptoms. Your health care professional may just happen to find fibroids during a pelvic exam or pregnancy ultrasound.

As of now, doctors can identify it, but nothing can be done... This morning I learned that there will be requests for funding research into both the House and Senate... Did you know that women's health issues were not given priority until the 1990s... And, now with going backwards with the overthrow of Roe and loss of women's health support, plus the DEI mandate, reduction of medical support for things such as measles are now being ignored by our government, we MUST Act to save our people. God's People! Fighting violent wars over abortion should never be a global affair!

How can we worship somebody like movie or tv stars and follow them, encouraging children to enter contests to get money for recognition, when we have, as a nation, also placed the majority of His Children in Harm's way? Children are starving... Being bombed without explanation or reason... Made to appear as if war is just a game to be played

Right now, we are being taken backward. Some group somewhere across the world is wanting to remove all connections of His Creations from one side of the world to the other... They want to divide us by race again. They want to have women only be concerned with having children and meeting the needs of every man's desire... And they want to be Rich! With all the riches that are available across the world... claiming that whatever is "rich, beautiful, and desired" should be in the hands of only THOSE WHO ALREADY HAVE RICHES AND CAN USE IT FOR...STUFF... Yeah. That was purposely written with a bit of sarcasm...LOL

But the cruelest thing about wanting to be richer, is that every once in a while, a claim is made by some man that it is God's Will that they take up arms and destroy all those who are different from them, the Elite... Whoever they are... Perhaps they represent the world-wide secret Epstein Cult who use the name of Baal in their activities? I've refused to follow this trail I learned about because I know that the Great I Am is Greater than any false god or prophet, including those already owning and buying riches of gold, that can be worshipped and used for Stuff of destruction for others! 

But, folks, if we are indeed dealing with the supernatural aspect of power, it will never be overtaken by violence, guns, bombs of destruction. If we cannot replace that Hate that governed Iran for so many years, how do we expect to conquer it through the same type of destruction, murder of children and war after war after war... As Spock would quickly point out "That is Illogical..."

Who gets to "claim" the latest loss of children by bombs of war... How many years will it take to rebuild over $1B worth of daily destructive action that God's children Paid For

and which God's Children Are Dying From?

It has now been announced that it was a bomb from the US that killed all those children! Forgive us Lord; we are fighting to rid those guilty from our government!

Got your kool-aid ready?

Is Christian Nationalist just another Jonestown

THIS TIME WITH BOMBS 

DO YOUR RESEARCH!

Donald J. Trump is NOT God's Light of Love!

His Actions Speak For Him

Choose Endless Worry and Chaos

or Love and Joy

All it Requires is that You Allow God's Love to Flow Freely Through You

Are you willing to allow that to occur to save a child bombed today?

A student murdered by a gunshot today?

A woman to die or a student to die because of reduction of funds for proper medical care already in existence?

Are you able to give up your pride of always being a member of this political party or another and start seeing what devastation occurs through, for example, the implementation of JUST the ICE program now underway, and Say "No More!" And we all know that the majority of Americans have polled AGAINST that violent group...

(And I found this 30-year update of the Second Act!)Have You Chosen...JOY?!!!

Thank All of You for Spending My Birthday With Me!

Gabby!

Celebrating Adolfo Caso's Birthday...and Latest Book, Boy Destined to America! and More!

Happy Birthday Adolfo!

Now We Are Free

Adolfo wrote this book in 1956, as a challenge to Professor Holmes, who, in his creative writing course, made the following recommendations to would-be authors: 1. Write about things you know intimately. 2. Write about things within your reach. 3. Remember grammar can be corrected; a good story is not generally easy to fabricate...

Against all odds, Adolfo completed the manuscript of more than 300 pages, and put it away for a later revision. However, he forgot about it...

until now...

Two weeks after the big movement, before the sun was setting, Adolfo came out of his kitchen to feed the chickens in the barn. When he came in the open, he saw a rubicund sun projecting brilliant and colorful rays across the heaven. Few cumulus clouds travelled the sky along the horizon where the sun's rays penetrated them, making a heavenly picture. He had seen the picture of Heaven on Holy Cards which the church gave out to the parishioners. These were only concepts of artists. Adolfo saw where the so-called inspired men of art received their inspiration. The heaven was as beautiful and fantastic as the cards showed, with all the colors, the clouds, the rays. They were all part of a painting he had once seen in his church. It was one by a certain Fra Lippi who painted "The Adoration of Christ," The air itself was sweet and placid, with breezes pervading through, making Adolfo feel exhilarated, as if something wonderful was about to happen. He stood there motionless, absorbing this strange sensation as he let his soul soar up into the sky to wander with clouds, rays, and emptiness...
~~~

Given the circumstances under which this book was written, i.e., 30 years ago, as a creative writing class activity challenge, I hesitate to say that this is a real biography of the author during his early life. It is written in fiction form and reads as a family drama and easily grabs readers attention... Nevertheless, with the main character's name being Adolfo, it was hard for me not to make the assumption that it was the author's story...

At least until later in the book when a murder occurs. It was then I thought that it might really be the first fictional novel written by the author. I still don't know. What I do know is that, since I have been on-line friends with the author for more than 10 years, I realized how we really have little personal experience and knowledge of that individual...

When I began to read the story, I found myself starting to cry almost immediately. This is the story of a young boy, born into a family that was created by an arranged marriage. The father was cruel and abusive of his new wife right from the beginning and treated her as a second-class citizen. He would, supposedly to show respect to his father, make every cent of the household funds be given to his wife through his father. In my mind, I believed that he was not even interested in establishing a partnership of any sort with his wife...except to bear children. Even then, he was not satisfied because so many of their children were girls...

Adolfo never met his father until he was near his teens. His father had left to seek work in America and stayed...Then he made arrangements for his first son to go. Then two daughters. His wife, Prisca, Anne a daughter and his youngest, Adolfo, were left back in Italy. She was taking care of his parents! While she barely had time and opportunity to visit/care for her own father...

Fictional or not, I hated the father character!

What came next in the book startled me...We are there in the little village, Passo Eclano, where Adolfo lived with his family, when the Germans invaded during the early part of WWII...and through to the time when the Americans had arrived... Notable to me was that, with the naive youth of a boy, Adolfo was soon talking and friendly with soldiers from both sides. With a sweet tooth that later got him in trouble, Adolfo was thrilled when soldiers would offer candy and other gifts, sometimes hoping to get things back that should never have been bargained for, like the young daughters of the village families.

One of the first things I noticed in reading the book was the brilliance of this author, as he was accepting a challenge from his creative writing instructor. Anybody reading this novel will quickly verify that this man was a man born to write. Even as a child, he was already searching for and looking to the external world, at its beauty, at its majesty, and forming his thoughts in words, trying to capture a vision through his words.

The second thing I came to know was that Adolfo was a sensitive boy, prone to become emotionally involved with his surroundings--the good and the bad--and quickly learning to apply his intelligence toward solving issues that his childhood was thrusting upon the happy young boy. It was when he first saw the slaughter of bombs, with pieces of men, women, and children lying about him on the road where he was walking, that readers actually begin to see him beginning, early, to a maturity that he really should not have been facing... We are proud of him as he began to see what was wrong, both within the family and in the world around him. This is a "coming of age" book that no child should have had to go through...

Getting to know his mother, his sister, as well as grandparents and other relatives prepared us, but still proved to be heartbreaking when it seemed that the family remaining in Italy were pushing them out so that they could take the good name and reputation that had been held...and claim it, only to use and abuse it for their own benefit. It was clear that Adolfo and his mother had a deep, close personal relationship with God, even though it seemed that He never listened to their prayers...

The knowledge that the fears and hardships during the war, were far less than what pain and anguish had been poured on the three family members who had been left in Italy, was difficult to understand... just as it is for all of us in family disputes...

The combination of the war, together with an absent father from part of his family being purposely kept in another country creates a provocative, infuriating, story line that tears emotions from readers without hope of being able to understand or put aside how cruel man can be to another man, including family members...

The book closes soon after Adolfo arrives in America where he was destined to be. Anybody doing a computer search about this man will quickly realize what he was to achieve as an adult. It is impossible to not wonder, would he have achieved as much if he'd had another early childhood. This book is engaging, easily able to sink into the story...but there will also be poetic prose where Adolfo explores philosophical issues that affect all of us who live in this world together. A superlative, inspiring story...

GABixlerReviews

And more congratulations are due...

Col. Adolph Caso

Added as Honoree by

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

• Wall of Honor Location:

  Foil: 12 Panel: 4 Column: 1 Line: 30

• Wall of Honor Level:

  Air and Space Friend

• Dedicated Panel:

  Tuskegee Airmen

Col. Retired, publisher of first edition – 1955 – of Charles Francis Seminal work: – the Tuskegee Airmen; co-author of 4th edition of same.

Added: December, 2016!

Adolph Caso, Italian publishing company Executive. Decorated cavaliere Republic of Italy; Fulbright scholar, 1966; Teaching fellow Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964. Caso, Adolph was born on January 7, 1934 in Mirabella, Avellino, Italy. Came to the United States, 1947. Son of Raffaele and Prisca (DeLuca) Caso. Bachelor, Northeastern University, 1957. AM, Harvard University, 1965. Director binlingual education Waltham (Massachusetts) Public Schools, 1964-1983. President, editor Branden Publishing Company Inc., Boston, since 1983.

Another Birthday Poem...From Don Yorty and Birthday Wishes from Alan Black And All Those Sending So much More!

Sunlight in Forest by Charles Burchfield (1916)

Every day brings light and dark—

that's how we see

so let the dark as well as light

make you happy.

Enjoy today; it is the best;

tomorrow will be better yet

the road taken taking you there

under a sky near, far and fair.

May all you wish for come

(From Alan Black)

with happiness and love.

Carpe diem, Glenda. Have fun.

Poetry by Don Yorty

Angelic Wishes from

Alan Black

Thanks so Much 'Cause 

I'm Walking on Sunshine Now!

Merry Christmas from Book Readers Heaven!

My sister, Dee, and I will be spending

most of the day at the hospital where

my brother-in-law is... 

May the peace of God's love dwell

among us... everywhere...

Thanks for Special Birthday Greetings From Alllllll Over!

Happy, Happy Birthday Glenda!

I hope your Iris blades are cutting the clouds down to size,

and the roses are getting ready to raise their blooms to the skies,
I will send word to the daylily leaves,
to wait untill roses and iris are done
to color your world with life giving sun.
May your grass never grow more that one green inch high
and every darn weed will just turn up and die
and may you enjoy every day in life giving sunshine
and lots of good wishes be added to mine.
May your heart sing this whole day long,
now show that you'r happy with your voice raised in song.

~~~


Now go and sit down and lets have a piece of that Birthday cake,
and a cup of whatever your taste calls for today.

I had to send a thank you again
for making my day special.


Love


Mary


Yesterday was my birthday and I got so many great thoughts from my online friends, but Mary, whose birthday is one day before mine, chose to write this lovely poem--she's been hearing my complaints about being snowed in...So she wished me Spring! I love it!

Guest Poet and Author Mary Edwards Celebrates Birthday With Book Readers Heaven!

Another Pill

 

I rode a bus the other day

And I heard a woman say

I went to see the doctor

And wondered what he’d say

He smiled and wrote a prescription

To fill another pill

I asked if they were costly, he said they’d cost a bit

I said then I can’t get them

The cost would make me ill

I take a pill to wake me up

Another to help me sleep

A pill to kill my appetite

And one to make me eat

One to cause the skinny thing, or.

make my fat cheeks glow

Oh! What happened to the day

When we were so eager to go

And we didn’t need a pill

we could just--get–up--and go

~~~

Hallways

There are ghosts that walk the hallways of my mind

Precious ghosts that still reach out for me

Ghosts that I still hold as treasures of the days that used to be

Brought in through doors of memory

I hold your hand and walk beside you in the hallways of my mind

I hear your footsteps as you grow

I feel your baby fingers as they curl around my heart

memories in a room that I still know

Memories will live forever in my mind

and give me one more day to spend with you

what will I do when I never more can hold you

as I walk these hallways in my mind

How long is forever, can you tell me?

Will these ghosts leave more footprints on my heart?

what will I do if I never more can hold you

and your wraith leaves no footprints on my heart.

~~~

The Firefighter

What color were the lips

that blew the breath of life in me when mine was gone?

What color was the hand that held to mine?

What color were the arms that lifted me

and carried me from harm?

What color? What shade of white, red, yellow or brown?

What color?

In my time of desperation, my baby buried ‘neath debris

What color were the hands that worked and finally set him free?

That lifted him and ran for help, tears streaming down his face,

I don’t remember now, his color or his race.

What color were the hands that held to mine in prayer?

And gave the precious comfort of knowing he was there.

He went into that burning hell.

Where other’s screamed in pain, but

I do not know if he came out again.

When I try to remember him, I cannot see his face.

But now I know he was all men, all colors, shade and race.

He went back into that place of death

From where he rescued me,

To find that screaming voice of pain

And work to set it free.

--Mary Edwards

Happy Birthday Mary!

Love You!