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I’d Like to Buy the World a Chocolate Bar
Today’s question of the day from WordPress reminds me of another childhood favorite, the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Chocolate changes impoverished boy Charlie Bucket’s life for the better. He, and other children who are superfans of Wonka’s chocolate bars are chosen for an exclusive tour of the enigmatic Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory,…
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A Little Princess By Frances Hodgson Burnett
Today’s daily prompt asks, “Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?” For me, this question could be answered with various titles. My love for books began early in life. My mother used to read to me from Little Golden Book adaptations of Disney fairy tales, classic picture books by Richard Scarry and Beatrix Potter,…
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Lessons From The Tale of Genji
I am currently reading the classic 11th century Japanese novel The Tale of Genji. It was written in 11th century Japan, the Heian era. This was a time of relative domestic tranquility in Japan, but also a time when the wealthy aristocracy lived a rareified existence very isolated from the common people. The retainers of…
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Kay’s Library: Book Club Pick 5, The Priory of the Orange Tree
In an increasingly turbulent world, we look increasingly towards the extended metaphors of speculative fiction to voice inconvenient truths and audacious hopes about our own lives and times. In fiction, cloaked in the archetypes of Shadow, Mentor, Goddess, and Hero, we can utter the “J’accuse!”s to those who have abused their power, and answer the…
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A Peaceful Life is Justice
Once, I private-messaged one of my favorite authors at the time via social media asking when or if she was going to write another book in the series that had launched her career, a series of paranormal thrillers. She was promoting a memoir about her divorce at the time. She responded to me that sometimes…
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Kay’s Library: Grieving and Reading
My life has changed immeasurably since the last post I wrote. About two weeks ago, my great-grandmother died unexpectedly. While my family’s grief has been profound, having none of us ever dealt with such a major loss before, there has also been lots of love and beauty in the process of letting go. In a…
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Bloganuary 11: Defining Success
Today’s Bloganuary prompt asks a hard question for me to answer: “How do you define success?” In yesterday’s post, I discussed how an unlikely book, Fifty Shades of Grey, inspired me to go to college. Its young heroine, Anastasia Steele, with her aspirations to enter the publishing industry, became something of a role model for…
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Bloganuary 10: The Book That Changed My Life
Books have changed my life many times over the years. This year, after much spiritual searching, I found my faith again. The words of the Bible, but also many Christian devotional writers, have been a guide to me. I have also derived a lot of healing and knowledge from philosophical texts, and poetry. As a…
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Bloganuary 9: The Most Memorable Gift
I am very blessed. My family gives very thoughtful gifts, tailored to what the receiver of that gift most needs or enjoys in life. We don’t bother with much secrecy, even at Christmastime. Sometimes, we are right alongside the gift-giver as they pick out and purchase the intended gift. Some would say this spoils the…
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Bloganuary 8: Family Trees
Today’s Bloganuary asks, “How far back in your family tree can you go?” For my family, this question still lacks a definitive answer. Years ago, my mother and other relatives discovered via a genealogy website that our family’s origins lie in Brazil, Italy, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, although the names of our ancestors are…
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Bloganuary 7: Rain
The Rain Remembers I’ve heard that water remembers, that it holds memory within mists The rain remembers me It remembers the way I danced in summer downpours, barefoot upon the sunwarmed sand The fragrance of petrichor perfuming the air as raindrops met hot earth It remembers gathering at the heart of the horizon and rolling…
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Bloganuary 3: Earliest Memories
Today’s Bloganuary prompt asks, “What are the earliest memories you have?” I’m blessed. Most of my early memories are very happy ones. That’s thanks to the adults in my life. No children had been born in our family in a long time. A new arrival, especially a little girl, was a novelty. My mother and…
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Bloganuary 2: How Are You Brave?
I discovered #Bloganuary by reading another blog, and I’m all in! I love writing challenges. I wasn’t always a fan of writing prompts, but now I love how you always find out something new about yourself and grow as a result of pondering the prompt’s answer. Todays’s prompt asks, “How are you brave?” If you…
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Kay’s Library: Book Club Pick #4, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
There are few things more familiar and instinctual to me than heading to the manga shelves on a trip to one of my favorite bookstores. As a Millenial, I grew up during the global popularity explosion of manga and anime franchises like Dragonball, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Fruits Basket, and Bleach, as well as the feature…
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This is Now
This is now- the sweat on my forehead, the laughter of my siblings, and the sound of children playing on a warm spring night my mother calling my name, me running up the stairs to hand her something she forgot, and then hugging her goodnight the book beside my foot waiting for me to pick…
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The Fullness of Silence
I miss you. No- I miss who you pretended to be when you would have said anything to win me When I was all yours’, I began to see the cracks appear in your mask that was welded with veins of iron rather than gold: Sarcasm, Inattention, Lies; by then I was alone with you…
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The Scent of Lillies
The scent of lilies wet, fresh, sharply sweet, with a pulpy musk, catches my attention, and clears my mind; it reminds me of the dark, promising earth of spring beneath the green, sprouting grass, of long gone gardens and youthful days in a home left behind, it reminds me of the grace that has brought…
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My Happy Place
Everyone needs a space of their own, a place where they abandon the cares of the day, the thoughts weighing on their mind, let go and let loose a bit. For some, that is their home, where they can take refuge from co-workers, friends and family for some alone time with their furry babies and…
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Poem 1
What if is what we say when a dream begins to bloom in us, and the frost of fear breathes on it What if I’m ugly? What if they won’t like me? What if I said too much? What if I end up alone? What if I get hurt? What if I’m not the one…