Posts Tagged With ‘ @LIFE & CULTURE ’

When I visit schools to share my children’s books, the students always ask, “How do you know anyone will like them?” I say, “I don’t. But if I don’t write and publish them, I’ll never know.” When I write fiction for adults, the adults who read it always ask, “How do you know anyone will like it?” I say, “I don’t. But if I don’t write and publish it, I’ll never know.” When I tell people I’m taking a podcasting workshop because I want to do a podcast of my own, the people I tell always ask, “How do you know anyone will like it?” I say, “I don’t. But if I don’t... Continue Reading

In 1999, I was working at a small public-relations firm in Avon, Connecticut. My dentist was in the next town east, which, oddly enough, is West Hartford. (Everything is relative.) Exiting I-84 on Prospect Street, I drove north on Prospect, intending to turn left onto Farmington Avenue, the street on which my dentist’s office was located. At the intersection of Prospect and Farmington, I was the first to reach the traffic light. It was red. I stopped. I saw a woman step off the curb to my right, intending to cross Prospect Street. Appearing to have some physical and cognitive disabilities,... Continue Reading

Author’s Note: This story is an elaboration on a comment I posted in a thread initiated by my friend, Tammy Eldredge. It’s also a faithful recounting of an actual event and a very valuable lesson. In 1974, I was playing in a band with some guys who rented a house on West Street in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. We rehearsed in that house. The band was your garden-variety, blues-rock cover band. My bandmates and I were your garden-variety, blues-rock amateurs, for which playing in a band was an attempt to do something constructive while we were otherwise getting drunk, high, and myriad other forms... Continue Reading

As readers of my ravings likely know by now, my father was a U.S. Marine. To him — and, so, to us — time was an adversarial construct. There was no later. There was no gradually. There was no patience. There were just two things: (1) Now. (2) Now, God damn it! Growing up in an environment like that makes it rather difficult to come to any sort of peace with time. I’ve come to think that getting bored only means you’ve failed to master the fine art of doing nothing when there’s nothing to be done: a skill you can learn from any house cat. (John Gierach, Fool’s Paradise). I never knew... Continue Reading

I did not grow up with cell phones, social media, or electronics as my main source of communication. It was a different world in the ’60s, ’70s, and even the ’80s. Today, there is information overload, communication via text/email, and a culture that has practically eliminated the art of conversation. If you are of the older generation, I will bet when you attempt to talk to someone today it can be much more difficult than it was in the past. I believe we all know the WHY. What I observe is a lack of true connection, a conversation that is an exchange of thoughts, ideas, perceptions, and... Continue Reading

As a girl of the 1950s and growing up in a small town in Jamaica, I was constantly reminded of the need to be conscious of other people’s opinions. “What will people say?” “What will people think?” “You know, people don’t appreciate that.” Who were these ‘people’ my mother was concerned about and why? It was ingrained in me to be concerned about what people think and avoid offending them. In my story of The Red Dress (below), the opinions of the matrons of our town clearly mattered to my mother. It was only my love for my beloved Cousin Vie at the age of 12, that gave me the... Continue Reading

Shara Lewis-Campbell is the co-founder of Beauty & the Beast Publishing, a book publishing and media company. In the spirit of Nadine Gordimer, Shara believes all writers have a social responsibility in all arenas.  Shara’s speciality involves publishing aspiring writers atypically from the industry, providing them with a voice and opportunity as social beings, creatively through independently published works, using their writings as a formula to demonstrate various aspects within society. It is her mission to create a concrete collective of authors into the industry who write from a place... Continue Reading

Life has a way of bringing us full circle back to our passions. Danny Budiski, a singer/songwriter has had a dream his entire life to be a star. He spent his younger years training his voice and playing in touring bands but never reached the pinnacle of his music goals. It is not easy to make it in the music industry, and yet, there is something deep within a musician that never lets the music die. Danny has a drive and strong ambition to succeed, no matter the trials and tribulations that have held him back or the fact that he is now in the last chapter of his life. Through major medical crisis... Continue Reading

There is no script for how to handle grief. Everyone deals with grief in his or her own way. Because of this, we really should never judge anyone for how they react or behave when they’re faced with the loss of a loved one–whether family or friend. What we see may be only a part of the reality, and not the entire reality itself. I know this to be true because of my own experiences. The first was in 1994. Migration In the late 1980s, my family and I migrated to the United States leaving my parents behind in Jamaica.  It was really hard on all of us because I was their Caregiver even though... Continue Reading

In this episode, Laura Staley shares her passion for creating or guiding people to a holistic transformation. She explains that this may include people who have been traumatized and terrified in their space. They just haven’t felt at home in a physical space or physical environment, for whatever reason, and maybe they haven’t felt safe in their own skin and learned to value themselves. She further explains that sometimes people will have things in their physical space that remind them of, even a trauma, or remind them of a grief that they haven’t fully grieved. They feel obligated to hold... Continue Reading