Today and tomorrow, I am sharing a conversation that I had with Tarra Simmons, a formerly incarcerated individual who decided to devote her life to advocating for people serving sentences and for people with criminal records. In 2014, with the encouragement of the attorneys who helped her rebuild her life after incarceration, she entered the […]

“I want to go home.” “Where’s my car? Someone stole my car?” “When will my parents come?” “Where am I?” “I’m not letting that man in my house.” “I wouldn’t have married that old man.” You may know the answers to all of those questions, but how do you answer them? Suzanne Weessies, the caregiver

Today is day six of the Ultimate Blogging Challenge, and the suggestion from the challenge’s organizer, Paul Taubman, was to talk about working on the weekend as a writer/blogger. Do I work on the weekend? Or do I prefer to take the weekend off? And why? Because of the nature of my blog, I often

One of the most frightening illnesses to watch in another person is dementia. The illness attacks the brain and steals a person’s memory of all things that are meaningful to that person. It renders the person confused, unable to maintain a conversation. It is painful to watch, especially if the person affected is a close

Last month, I participated in a walk from Savannah to King’s Bay, Georgia. The walk was titled the Disarm Trident Peace Walk, and we were walking to bring attention to the King’s Bay Naval Base, the home of Trident II submarines, which can carry up to twelve D5 missiles. Each of these warheads is six

On Saturday, September 29th, I went to Father Earle King’s retirement party. He had been the rector of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church since October 1987. He said, at the party, that, when he accepted the position at St. Martin’s, he believed that he would be the church’s rector six years, eight years at the most.

Today, I’m starting on a new Ultimate Blogging Challenge. This blogging challenge is held four times a year: January, April, July, and October. The goal is for bloggers to post daily for the challenge months.  Today’s post is about the month’s theme, which is change. Change of seasons and retirement are two of the changes that

Butterflies are amazing insects. My sister Diane and I had the chance to see many of them in a butterfly exhibit at the Erie County Fair. Butterflies exist everywhere in the world, except for Antarctica. Here are some interesting facts about butterflies: they are insects they have their taste receptors on their feet they go

Some of the gardens that I visited in Buffalo had statues and fountains as elements. These statues and fountains created atmosphere. They gave the gardens a story. They made the garden feel like a secret and private place.  In the midst of busy-ness, there was a quiet sanctuary. The garden, no matter how large or

On Sunday, July 29th, I had the opportunity to visit a great variety of gardens in Buffalo, during the annual garden walk. The garden walk is always held during the last weekend in July, and this year’s version was the 24th annual garden walk in the City of Buffalo. monarch butterfly. I will share photographs