The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

18:48 Nov 20 2008
Times Read: 996

Flyer I made for the fundraiser. We'll be selling cookbooks in front of a grocery store this Saturday and at a table in the local Farmer's Market. They have been selling really well. I'm very, very pleased!



As always, I've removed the Center's name because of restrictions on where I'm allowed to place our name.

Ministry Update
19:22 Nov 19 2008
Times Read: 1,028


The New Orleans Mission is where I am going Friday to take some of the hats, underwear, gloves, and socks that we have been collecting. I toured their facility not long ago and I'm very impressed with their dedication to homelessness. Mr Ron and his wife have shelters, transitional housing for families, and a ground-breaking education system for the homeless that they developed. When I called him today to ask if he'd like the undergarments and gloves and hats, he said, "You're ringing my bell. We'll take all you can spare."



We recently had a big article that hit the newspaper. It highlighted our HUGS program (Hats, Underwear, Gloves, and Socks). Featured in that very story was our own Silverbow, who pledged along with her kids, to make 100 hats for Winter 2008! True to their word, we received shipment of all 100! It reminds you that everyone has something to give...you just sometimes have to be creative in figuring out what and how. Thank you Sil, kids, and hubby.



HUGS grew from the story many of you will remember from last year, where we tried to serve over 200 people living under a bridge in New Orleans. Some of you responded quickly to the need, rushing warm things to us for distribution.



Since the article, items have been pouring in. We'll be distributing all items throughout the winter, but when it warms, we will only give out the undergarments and will hang onto the hats and gloves until the following winter. We will be also sharing between the Center, Covenant House (program for runaway teens,) Just the Right Attitude (in New Orleans East) and to a street minister who works with the "gutter punks" along Decatur Street.



I'm supposed to go to an award ceremony for Second Harvest on Friday, so I'll already be on the south shore. They will be receiving a check for 5 million dollars! Because we are a member food bank, that will impact us, as well. We have not been charged the driver/mileage differential since Hurricane Katrina! Second Harvest has been very good to us!

17:27 Nov 19 2008
Times Read: 1,053






"I don't know." That's what I told those of you who asked. It's even partially true. Have you ever come to a place that used to bring you joy and find that the colors are running together and faded, the shine no longer there? Well, sometimes, it isn't the place. Sometimes, it's you. I think it's me.

22:08 Nov 08 2008
Times Read: 1,109

I'm reading Silas Marner. I'm surprized at being so choked up. I expected a dry classic that I would just have in my pocket as experience. Instead, I have fallen in love with this story of Marner reawakening to the world around him because though his gold was stolen, Eppie, the orphaned little girl, has been given to him by providence.



"Yes," said Marner, docilely, bringing his eyes very close, that they might be initiated in the mysteries; whereupon Baby seized his head with both her small arms, and put her lips against his face with purring noises.



"See there," said Dolly, with a woman's tender tact, "she's fondest o' you. She wants to go o' your lap, I'll be bound. Go, then: take her, Master Marner; you can put the things on, and then you can say as you've done for her from the first of her coming to you."



Marner took her on his lap, trembling with an emotion mysterious to himself, at something unknown dawning on his life. Thought and feeling were so confused within him, that if he had tried to give them utterance, he could only have said that the child was come instead of the gold, that the gold had turned into the child. He took the garments from Dolly, and put them on under her teaching; interrupted, of course, by Baby's gymnastics."

17:53 Nov 05 2008
Times Read: 1,139

I've been living within the lines of my newly found poet, Machado. Here is a beautiful line that plays and plays in my head for a simplicity that yields forth such vivid imagery:



Lilac moon

of ancient evening

in a cold land

more moon than earth!





I need to write.

PRIVATE ENTRY
17:33 Nov 05 2008
Times Read: 1,140


• • • • PRIVATE JOURNAL ENTRY • • • •

HUGS
18:50 Nov 04 2008
Times Read: 1,170

HUGS! I have just given away HUGS to men just out of jail, getting started on their new lives within a program that finds them housing, counseling, and jobs.



HUGS stands for hats, underwear, gloves, and socks!



Silverbow and her kids actually knitted 100 hats to donate to this program. We focus on the homeless and those in grave need of warm garments in winter, but we distribute the underwear and socks throughout the year.



Today, we served a dozen men starting over. They received food and HUGS :) This is as much about simply encouraging people as it is about their physical need. It even blesses the people who are serving that population when I get to tell them about how people from all over the world care and want to help.



I had a few things left from last year when it all began, under a bridge in New Orleans when I came face to face with the most chronic homeless situation I have ever encountered. Thank you to all of you who helped launch this beautiful way of giving others a hug when they most need it. You are all my heroes!

Premier Poet of Spain
00:47 Nov 03 2008
Times Read: 1,202

I met you today, dear poet. You lifted my spirit and painted your world before my eyes. I read everything of yours I could find, and I am hungry for more.





IV: ‘Yo eschuco los cantos’





I follow the songs



with age-old rhythms



the children are singing



while they are playing



and showing in song



what their souls are dreaming,



like stone fountains



that show their water:



in monotonous murmurs



of undying laughter



that has in it no joy,



of ancient weeping



that has in it no pain



and speaks of sadness



the sadness of loving



of ancient legends.







In the mouths of children



the singing brings



the tale’s confusion,



pain that’s clear



as that clear water,



brings the message



of ancient love,



that it conceals.







Playing in shadows



of an ancient plaza



the children, singing…







The fountain of stone



poured out its eternal



crystal of legend.



The children were singing



innocent songs



of things that go on



and are never ending:



the story confused



the suffering clear.







The fountain serenely



continued its tale:



erasing the story,



telling the pain.

- Antonio Machado (July 26, 1875 – February 22, 1939)