Tag: Daily Post

The Daily Post: Reviving Bricks

“You just inherited a dilapidated, crumbling-down grand mansion in the countryside. Assuming money is no issue, what do you do with it?”

I have often thought of this in my life. If I could what would I do to help people. I would fix up the home and create a shelter where people could transition from homelessness to having a home. One of the biggest issues with people who are the working homeless is that they don’t have enough money to get into an apartment, but make too much money for assistance to get into a home. The waiting lists are very long and it can take quite some time to get enough money to pay to get into an apartment. I would allow people to bring their pets and children would be allowed. There would be a large resource room for people to use computers for school and job searches.

There would have to be rules of course and admission would require that people attend workshops to learn how to handle finances, how to write resume’s and job search. There would be tutoring for GED and SAT testing. If you have alcohol, drug or anger issues you must attend counseling to deal with those issues. AA, NA, CS (Compulsive Shoppers), OE (Over-eaters Anonymous)You have to “work” to stay there. Whether it is working to find a job or working to improve yourself and your family through education and training.

I can hear people now saying that people won’t do that. Perhaps. But, for every family or person that stays and goes through the program I would probably lose two or more for various reasons. It is difficult to change and I have no problem helping people make the changes they need. But, I will not coddle them and I will not allow people to stay who won’t work on their problems. If they don’t they could just end up right back where they started. It isn’t enough to give someone a place to stay or rent for a month. They have to be taught and sometimes pushed into getting out of the cycle they are in.

But imagine if I could get even three families or people to change within a year. Imagine those people spread what they have learned to others. Imagine that in 10 years I could have helped 30 families to find their way out of their cycle of poverty and despair. Wouldn’t that be worth it?

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Daily Prompt: Strike a Chord

I love music. I love music of most any kind. There isn’t a genre that I have not found at least one song that I liked in some way. When it comes to musical instruments I prefer string instruments. A bow slides over strings, notes float in the air. Fingers strum and stroke strings to produce passion and fire. Keys of white and black press out rhythm and time, sadness and smiles. My favorite cellist of all time is Yo Yo Ma. The man is the master of his instrument. If I could play any instrument it would be the Cello. The deep evocative sounds, the timbre in it’s frame.

Add a human voice with clear pitch and melodic notes and it is even more beautiful.

The Daily Post: First Sight

I had just split up with my lying, cheating husband of 10 years. I was to find out later exactly how abusive he had been to my children much later. It made me so angry, not just because of what had been done to them, but what had been done to me. The mind and soul numbing abuse that I had suffered as a child blinded me to the faults within the man that I married. What was so funny, tragically so, was that he was the first person that I truly worked on loving, really loving. Deep down in my soul type of loving. And while it seemed at the time that it was all for nothing, it taught me that I could actually let someone in and I could really love someone, have them hurt me so badly and come out alive and better for it.

I put my profile up in Yahoo personals and corresponded with several people, but none connected like my future husband’s. We spoke of Christmas and Halloween and the things we wanted and what we liked most in life. Family, holidays and the importance of decorating properly for Christmas. 😀 As I moved from my old life to my new one he talked me through it each step of the way.

When I saw him that night for the first time that we met I knew he was the one I was supposed to be with. I never had a doubt from that moment on. (I learned later he did..but he had just been badly hurt as well.) I connected with him like I had never done with anyone before. It truly felt like I had been struck by lightening. He is attractive, but he is not drop dead gorgeous. He has intense eyes. And soft lips that I don’t tire of kissing.

We have been together for 13 years, almost 14 and it seems like yesterday that we met and in other ways it seems as if we have known each other forever.

He’s so fine

What was it about my husband that drew me to him? We actually “met” online on Yahoo personals. I was actually getting ready to delete my profile when I saw a response from him. I don’t remember what his picture looked like, I don’t think there was one. What attracted me was his post about Halloween. We both love that holiday and Christmas is a close second. At the time he was also feeling out some Pagan/Wiccan leanings and I found that very interesting. As well as the fact he was helping the Chaplain on board his ship with Catholic Mass. I thought this all made for an intriguing combination. When we did eventually talk he had a very rich, nice tenor voice. He was and still is a great listener. So, I guess the first thing that attracted me to my husband was his mind and then his voice. As he talked me through the very rough time of finally breaking off with my then husband (as saga best left untold and the best thing that happened to me) and moving across country from San Diego to Virginia he talked to me. He would call me and talk me through the rough patches. I finally made it to Virginia on December 22nd in the morning. We met that evening at WalMart-because I knew where that was, and we have never been separated voluntarily since.