Mother Earth Roars and We Listen…

When Mother Earth decides to make her presence known, we must listen.
We humans are nothing but ants on her skin.
She stretches, the ground moves. She roars, and we hear nothing else.

Mother Nature knows when things are not right.
Silence precedes the dog's barking and the sparrow's flight.
Then her mouth opens and the city falls.

Alarms of man overshadow the screams.
The heart races and fear is all you know.
You have no control, just clinging for life, praying for it to end.

Then silence. It's unbearable.
You can't move, waiting for it to strike again.
You know it's coming. You've been through this before.
And it does.

I hear you, dear Mother. Please let me live.

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I’m a writer… Juggling is a necessity.

It’s the life of every working mother, to become the taxi driver. Let’s face it, my son is currently 14, a freshman in high school, and fills his free time with swimming training, archery and scouts, and of course computer games, but I’m not going to talk about those. My 10-year-old daughter, just starting junior high, does ballet, contemporary, scouts, art, kapahaka, and until recently guitar and swimming. And this says nothing of my own activities: writers’ groups, committee meetings, scout leader… (Wait… I’m not a scout leader anymore. I have my Thursday nights back, but I’m sure I’m missing something.) There are days when I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.Read More

When does school start again?

The real torture for a parent starts long before school lets out for the holidays. The anticipation of that long awaited break is almost too much to bear for the child. But a long break from school, like the summer break… Please! Save me now!Read More

Cyber-Safety

Social Media: The Dangers that Writers Never had to Think About Before

In a recent post, I made note of the changes that our world has seen in terms of work philosophies. However, in that post I commented about how social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, has transformed our world into something that no longer resembles the world that I grew up in. Systems such as Skype and Google Hangouts have bridged the gap between continents so that those on opposite sides of the world can do more than just talk to one another over the phone — they can now see each other, have a face-to-face conversation. It was something that was proposed in science fiction, but society as a whole never believed that such a thing could be possible. When I was a child, it wasn’t.Read More

The lights go out, but it’s still the season of cheer

Winter was upon them and the chill leaked through the walls and windows. The young girl shivered, wrapping herself in the blankets that her mother had laid across her shoulders. The candlelight flickered across the table. She picked up the paintbrush, yellow on its tip. As carefully as she could, she painted the stuffed solider doll.

Every night that week, she had decorated another ornament for the tree that sat in the corner. Every night, it was only a candle that provided the light to see by. Every night, she beamed with pride with another creation hung.

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