Outstanding Picture Book – Pete & Pickles

Pete & Pickles, written by Berkeley Breathed, is one of the most touching picture book stories I know. It is the tale of a very proper pig, Pete, and a very free-spirited elephant, Pickles. The story is about friendship, forgiveness, healing, joy, and accepting the differences in others. But believe me, even this does not [...]

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Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert

Are the words #1 New York Times Bestseller a draw for you? For me, generally not, though I find and read some by chance every now and then. And sometimes one comes to me through a friend, as did Eat, Pray, Love. Because we are kindred spirits and she thought I might enjoy it, I [...]

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Play the Cheese or Font Game

Here’s a fun little diversion for those of you who are mightily drawn to cheese and/or fonts. Play the Cheese or Font Game – it’s quite the challenge!
You are given the name of a cheese or font, and you have to decide which one it is. Sound easy? Guess again! The game seems to have [...]

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Work as Love

Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
Kahlil Gibran “On Work” from The Prophet
After working intensely on one of my major jobs [...]

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Winged Migration – A Spectacular Visual Treat

This movie, released in 2003, is one of the most spectacular I have seen. There is almost no narration, there are occasional notes on the bottom of the screen indicating the type of bird and the location and distance it flies during migration, and the most incredible music created just for the film. Not to [...]

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The Character Who Never Grew

It was my idea that when you read a novel, you should feel something for the character, identify with her in some way, and as you go through the course of the book, cheer her on through adversity, feeing her pain, and then rejoice in her overcoming challenges. But what if the character just never [...]

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Honored to Receive the Honest Scrap Award

I recently found I was chosen for an award by a fellow blogger, The Battered Trunk.
I readily found what I, as a new recipient, needed to do, but was unsure exactly what the award was about. A little online delving, and I found the following definition of the Honest Scrap Award on Buddhist Minister Rev. [...]

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Alice Hoffman – Local Girls

One of the things I love about reading Alice Hoffman is that I never know quite what to expect with the exception of one thing – I will be deeply moved by her story. I find Hoffman’s writing brilliant in her ability to take us so penetratingly into her characters, characters who are not heroes, [...]

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