Someone placed this rock with BE GRATEFUL written on it in my front yard. Who was it? I’ll probably never know. I kept it there for many months as a reminder for all those times in my life I experienced sadness, worry and fear and how  I would press forward towards the light gratefulness brings.

I’ve found it’s getting easier to feel grateful and blessed as the years go by. I passed the Be Grateful rock on to someone special to me. For one summer Arizona day an unknown angel on earth placed a heaven sent message on a rock in my front yard. Now I know the angels meant for me to pass  on it to you.

My twins Liz and Mike  have been such treasures in my life. When I was writing my first novel, The Angel’s Daughter, Liz was in graduate school. An avid reader, she edited the first draft of my manuscript with a red pen. Her ability as an editor amazed me. On the plane going home from our visit she called me as I sat on the runway,”Mom, I saw a man running down the street with angel wings tattooed on his back. Make Sam’s character  have angel wing  tattoos!” Thus Sam, the despicable character as Hannah’s ex- boy friend and writing professor,  was given large  angel wing tattoos on his back which he proudly shows off in the novel on TV interviews.

My son, Mike, a television writer. gave me a beautiful butterfly birthday card the year after my husband passed away . He wrote,”I know the last few months have been hard, but I want you to know how proud I am of you.  You still have your wings and you’ll fly again soon,” Serendipity was ever present as there was a bush outside my hotel in LA that day filled with yellow flowers visited by many lovely  butterflies. This card became a theme in my last novel, Town of Angels. Mike’s quote is part of the story in the novel.  Angel Ken, the main character, sends butterflies to his flock of people in the fantasy town of Mystic Bay,California to sooth and calm troubled minds. And using one more of his wondrous angel gifts he guides the towns’ bully to an awakening of spirit.

People come into our lives and with small gestures make such life changing impacts on us. Liz and Mike have grown up to be kind, thoughtful and talented people.  They have used  wings of hope to realize their own dreams.  I am blessed to know and be the mother of these twin angels on the writers’ shoulders. Happy Birthday  today, January 2,2020, Liz and Mike!

This is  the letter I sent to a department store for Santa. The department store then gives a donation for each letter they receive to a charity for children. Shouldn’t helping  children in need in our world be at the top of our own lists at Christmas time and always? Giving is surely an ingredient of Love.

I guess you could say I was born with a vivid imagination. My first childhood memory was of my mother standing at the backdoor of our home in Oklahoma with my sister, my  brother and me. She showed us our first rainbow. I can remember the rainbow so clearly today. After that  I would twirl and dance around the living room my parents said to the music that was always playing in our home. Also in those early years of two years old to five years old I had three imaginary friends. I played with them and I remember their names yet not what they looked like. Years ago my parents must have found it quite comical for me to chatter on about these friends during the day but today as I reflect upon them I  wonder. Could my imaginary friends have been angels? Maybe one was the man I call Angel  who I met twenty years ago after my daughter passed away. I am sure angels have been with me all my life sparking my imagination and helping me write novels about angels who live as  humans in a town where no one knows the secret. Weaving these stories of angels who guide their flock with hope and love bring me moments of joy and peace.Were my three imaginary friends really angels? I so hope the answer is yes!

 

I first became aware of bullying before 1974 when I was a child and the American With Disabilities Act had not been passed. Children with Special Needs were not allowed in the public school system. As we walked to grade school a girl about twelve I guessed with flaming red hair would ride her bike by our school almost every day as we were about to cross at the crosswalk. I knew she was different and know now after a career in Special Education she had Down’s Syndrome. The kids would laugh and point while calling her names as she drove by our school but I never did. I just stood there always  feeling  sad for her wondering who she was. I  knew it was wrong for the kids to make fun of her.  The girl obviously wanted to belong and go to school like the other kids.

Why do some kids and adults feel the need to bully others? Maybe  bullies do feel shame. Perhaps they feel they don’t belong.  Making others feel that shame too makes them feel better about themselves. So much must be lacking in their lives.  

Over the years, I’ve always wondered what happened to the girl on the bike with the flaming red hair. Sending angels to her in my mind, hoping she’s found peace helps the memory of her.  I hope she’s finding the kindness of others now as an adult. Hopefully the adults who as children taunted her have learned their own lessons of kindness from the angels.

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