There are those in the blogosphere that say that to be successful a blogger must post some type of information at least three times a week. Most also say that these posts should be a certain length and should contain certain strategically placed, platform based key words for blog search engines to latch onto.

According to these experts in all things blogging, a reader will not stay engaged with a blogger unless the blogger meets the minimum posting requirement. If the Powers That Be are correct… Continue

Like many of you, I am a writer. I can write about anything; and for the most part, I’m fairly confident in my skills. Yeah, I said for the most part. That part I’m not so confident about—well, that would be my poetry. I’ve been writing poetry since I was a child. Some of my poems are neatly handwritten on crisp lined notebook paper--far more are scribbled on miscellaneous bits and pieces of oddly-shaped, multicolored paper. Hey, I use whatever I can find. When the words come to me, I jot them d… Continue

“It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth—and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up—that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.” Elizabeth Kübler Ross

I don’t know if it’s my age or just an odd springtime melancholy that has my mind wandering to the brevity of life. Odd—when I was younger, I never stopped to consider just how short life really is. Back then, life seemed to be a long never-ending highw… Continue

One day last summer, I walked into the living room and found my six-year-old grandson sitting quietly, head down, coloring a picture. His lips pursed, his small jaw-line tense, he held his crayon tightly in his small balled up hand.

“What are you coloring?” I asked and sat down beside him.

“Diego,” he said, without looking up.

“Are you having fun?”

“Yeah,” he said, “I guess.”

“Well, if you were having fun, I think you’d know it,” I said and ruffled his curly blonde hair.

He took in a deep… Continue

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas," The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

Readers and writers alike have always known that well-written books can transport the individual to different times and places. But, how many of us truly understand the deep healing power of the words in these fictional narrativ… Continue