a prophetic voice-

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. –Anonymous I believe that we are always attracted to what we need most, an instinct leading us toward the persons who are to open new vistas in our lives and fill them with new knowledge. –Helene Iswolski Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. - Anais Nin A friend is a loved one who awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you. -John O’Donohue On this day of giving thanks, I am most thankful for life and health. But closely nipping at the heels of that experience of gratitude is my overwhelming thanks for my children and grandchildren and scattered extended family. And clinging tightly to the thankfulness shirt tail (I'm mixing metaphors shamelessly here) is my deep and abiding gratitude for my friends, a true blessing in my life. Recently, my precious friend, Mae, came...

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. -Lao-Tzu monday morning... the morning is fleeting... yet what is more important at this moment than being here, listening to chanting, enchanting voices from the CD player, sipping coffee from my new, handmade-by-a-friend coffee mug, watching the flickering candles and the heavy gray air outside my windows... reading, writing, thinking, while an occasional tear glides down my cheek, a tender smile parts my lips. Here Now present in this present moment... for where else should I be? breath in breath out this is my life...thanks be to God.

How beautiful Carolina is in the autumn. Everywhere you look, color fills the landscape, all the more precious because it is so fleeting. And now, with the recent rains and high winds, my lawn is littered with the leaves which so recently graced the limbs of the trees in the yard, many of which are now standing nearly bare in preparation for the coming of winter. In the brief week since these pictures were taken around my house, much of this color is gone, as the winds which cleared the clouds and gave us the incandescent Carolina-blue skies stripped these lovely ladies of their colorful garb, their bare bones now showing clearly and starkly. What an autumn it has been, though. In spite of a paucity of rainfall through so much of the summer, Nature put on her annual show. Oh, there were fewer reds and oranges, though a maple tree at the end of my block put on a truly remarkable show, going from orange to red to glowing gold over a matter of weeks. Glorious, simply glorious...

As some of you know, I am an inveterate reader and since, for the first time ever I have been keeping a list of "books read" this year, I was surprised to realize that my list has reached seventy...so far. If my math is correct, this comes to 7 books per month...or almost 2 per week. Not amazing, surely, but substantial. The list includes both fiction and non-fiction, with a smattering of poetry thrown in for good measure. But my favorite genre is mysteries & thrillers...not of the chainsaw variety but of the smart, well-written type, with well-drawn characters and page-turning plots which keep me engaged until the last page. And if the denouement is a true surprise, so much the better. So, for you fellow mystery fans out there, I am including a list of some of my very favorites. A number of these are just one of a series by a particular author focusing on a particular main character and with these, I have read the others of the series in the past or am planning to catc...

Though he said goodbye to all of his fans several weeks ago, Andy Rooney said his final goodbye this week when, at age 92, he died. The last of the original cast members of CBS' "Sixty Minutes", his ascerbic wit and curmudgeonly view of life kept us both entertained and thoughful as, week after week, he reflected on the state of the world, our nation, or simply the foibles of humanity, including his own. His commentary on cotton in pill containers, paper weights, and junk mail mixed with heartfelt reflections on national and world politics, and he was never afraid to voice his opinions loudly and clearly. His voice joined those of other truly stellar newsmen: Mike Wallace, Dan Rather, Harry Reasoner, and Ed Bradley, all of whom were reporters to the bone, digging for the heart of each story, fleshing it out for us, the viewers, in a way seldom seen since. Andy, you will be missed. Blessings to you, and good night.