What About the Children?

October 23, 2017October 23, 20172 Comments

Photo from Pixabay

I’m having another super busy Monday, but it’s been weighing heavily on my heart to share the powerful message about children and homelessness my sister-friend Takiyah Franklin (Tk) recently recorded.

In sharing why she recorded the song, Tk writes:

The homeless crisis is getting worse . . . and while I want to see more action from [our] city [and state] officials, we the people have to act as well. I definitely don’t have the solution to the housing crisis, but I know I’m not so far removed from the realities of poverty to not care. Music is one way to raise awareness, so I choose to lift my voice as a tool for social justice.

In speaking specifically about the situation in Oakland, California, Tk reminds:

It is our duty to protect the most vulnerable in our society. It is our duty to hold local and state officials accountable for working with the community and the corporations taking over to find solutions to homelessness and poverty.

The song, called “Homeless Children,” is the result of the collaboration between Dan Zemelman (pianist and co-writer), Albert Greenberg (co-writer), Alberto Hernandez (engineer), Julie Wolf (producer), and Tk (vocal artist).

Click the image to listen to the song:

“Homeless Children” Recording. Photo by Pat Augsburger. Used by Permission.

For more information about childhood homelessness and to find ways you can help, see the following:

Be sure to check out local missions and programs to help with the the homeless crisis in your area.

It is my hope that homeless children–indeed all homeless people–will get the assistance they need to improve their circumstances on this side of heaven.

Nature Photo Challenge: A New Song

January 1, 2016January 1, 20168 Comments

Last week, my brother, Dennis, a talented photographer and graphic artist/designer, nominated me to do the “Nature Challenge.” The challenge calls for posting a photo, on Facebook, I assume, every day for seven days and nominating someone different every day to join the challenge.

When I first read the post, I embraced it. I was tickled pink that my brother thinks enough of my photos to include me and was also excited to share nature photos–my favorite! But…I’m not much of a “facebooker.” I visit sporadically, and even then, for only a few minutes at most. I posted the first day and then forgot about it. Completely.

I don’t want to disappoint my brother or feel like a complete failure (a little dramatic, yes), so I am going to share here and allow WordPress to do the “dirty work” of Facebook posting.

I’m starting over. Today is my new Day 1.

“A New Song,” Original

I shot this photo Labor Day weekend in North Carolina. It took quite a bit of work since the front of the flower was positioned away from view and in the middle of dense foliage.

“A New Song,” Millers Creek, North Carolina, September 2015

I was inspired to work with the photo when Takiyah, a former student, mentee, and sister-in-Christ shared with me her performance of a new song entitled “A New Song.” Take a listen…

I’m already singing my new song…

Wishing you a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2016.

Note: For a look at Dennis’ work:

I Did It!

February 28, 2013July 11, 2013Leave a comment

I made it! I completed the “Month of Letters 2013” challenge today with a postcard to a friend and colleague in Louisiana. LV is a lawyer and an English professor. She has achieved much, but I admire her most for the three wonderful, accomplished, God-honoring sons she and her husband have given to the world! Here’s the postcard I sent her:

Edith Spurlock Sampson (1901-1979), by Betsy Graves Reyneau (1888-1964)
Oil on canvas, 1953

Edith Spurlock Sampson was a lawyer and judge. She was the first African American named to the permanent United States delegation to the United Nations (in 1950). While working at the UN, Sampson went on several international lecture tours and held membership on the U.S. delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 1962, at the age of 61, Sampson was elected a judge on the Chicago Municipal Court. With that election she became the first African American woman in the United States elevated to the bench by popular vote. Edith Spurlock Sampson retired from the bench in 1978 and died one year later in Chicago.

LV loves law and history and I know she will be thrilled to receive this postcard!

Yesterday, I finally sent a postcard from my Postcard 2013 Desk Calendar to my friend Lindy in Indianapolis. The calendar is really neat. There’s a beautifully designed postcard for each weekly strip (53 postcards). At the end of the week, I perforate the calendar strip, and voila! I have a postcard to send, complete with the address lines and a postage box on the back. The calendar sits in an attractive framed box. This is the best calendar investment I’ve made yet! 🙂 Postcards make Lindy really happy, so she’ll be pleased to see this surprise in her mailbox:

From the Postcard 2013 Desk Calendar

If you’re interested, you can purchase the calendar at Calendar.Com.

I wrote a few letters this week, sent cards, music, poetry and stickers to friends (and their kids). I received a second letter this month from Tk, my awesome former research assistant. She sent a nice long letter and photos of her beautiful family. Her five-year-old daughter even enclosed a letter for my six-year-old. Oh, happy day for him! Tk is an amazing singer/songwriter with a powerful voice. You can check out some of her music here (HerStory) and here (Mellow Love).

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I thoroughly enjoyed the “Month of Letters.” I don’t always have time to write lengthy missives, but it is a pleasure I would love to indulge more frequently. There’s something about the “look” and “feel” of words on a page. I enjoy musing and thinking about life in writing. Letters are also journals, records of our lives, our hopes, thoughts, dreams. Every purple moon or so, I run across my boxes of letters and piece together parts of my life based on letters written to me. I find myself engrossed for hours. Now, if only I could get more of my friends to WRITE BACK!

I was a bit obsessive about vintage writing and reading instruments this month, so I “designed” a very simple stationery set for my February letters. I used a typewriter image from Books, Reading and Writing Illustrations, a Dover publication with 347 different copyright-free designs. The book comes with a CD for Macintosh and Windows that includes EVERY image from the book. The stationery looks beautiful on parchment or any lightly textured paper–with a font that resembles that of an old fashioned typewriter. If you’re interested in the stationery, here it is. Click the link to download.

Vintage Typewriter Stationery

While you’re downloading, you might also like this Victorian Rose stationery I designed almost two years ago using elements from Victorian Rose Spring Fresh, designed by Vicki Pasterik of Heritage Scrap. Heritage Scrap has beautiful kits. This stationery also looks great on textured paper–with burgundy or maroon ink! Click the link to download.

Victorian Letter Stationery

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Use them freely. Find a quiet place and write (or type) a few letters this weekend!