Our greatest gift is the thunder of Silence. ~Joel Goldsmith
It’s the end of the week, and the wisdom of the wordsmith in me says “that’s enough!”
Do return on Monday to All Things Fulfilling. You’ll be Looking at Lucky and I will tell you how that relates to my life. Some details of my journey weren’t included in the memoir Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected, so I’ll share more on this site. Sue’s memoir
The universe is but one great city, full of beloved ones, divine and human, by nature endeared to each other. ~ Epictetus
Mark your calendars, right now! The 2014 Bawlmer Hon Fest is coming up in less than a month. This year it is June 14th and June 15th. It’s a whole weekend dedicated to the culture that I grew up on the outskirts of, in the mid-Atlantic city of Baltimore. People like to poke fun over it’s regional subculture in self-deprecating humor.
Don’t know what I am talking about? The movie Hairspray with John Travolta will give you insight into what I am talking about. It’s hard to explain but once you are immersed in the jest, you’d quickly get it. It’s all about fun and fortune of being among friends or close family, hon, and speaking the same language.
That’s all I’m sayin’ except that the influences are there, in my memoir. I’ll say no more. I don’t want to get myself in trouble. Here are some pictures that might explain a little to outsiders.
This blog brought to you by Sue BattonLeonard, the author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.Sue’s memoir
Come on back tomorrow, hon, I’ll be sharing some more childhood memories from living in Baltimore, Maryland.
“Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.” ~ Carol Lynn Pearson
Some places you just have to return to. The Expanding Heart, a bookstore in historic downtown Park City, Utah is one of those kinds of places. I encountered this gem of a gift shop and bookstore on my visit to Park City two years ago and have never forgotten it.
It’s evident from what’s inside the store that great thought is put into their offerings. Those taking journeys into their hearts seeking self-realization can learn more about life’s natural energy forces through this bookstore’s publications and gift items. The focus of the store is all things that help fulfill one’s spiritual growth, emotional awareness and rejuvenation of the spirit. The sychronicity of the themes of the inventory is what makes browsing the store so interesting.
I came across a book that I couldn’t pass up because books in this genre are not a dime a dozen. At first glance I thought it was an unexpected find. But as I pondered the publication further, it indeed belonged among the other publications. It is all about self-expression and learning about oneself through art.
What was it you might ask? An historical art fiction book called With Violets: A Novel of the Dawn of Impressionism by Elizabeth Robards. It takes place in Paris in the 1860s when art had reached a new dawn, and creatives were freely exploring new styles of painting. Based on artist Edouard Manet and his relationship with one of his models, she comes to terms with the fact that she does not want to follow what Society expects for her but rather she will create her own future. I can’t wait to dig into it.
I enjoyed my second visit to The Expanding Heart and Svetlana, the store attendant, could not have been more enjoyable to talk with. Park City was a welcome get-away after having just completed a memoir. Sue’s memoir
Historic Main Street, Park City, Utah
“My dear girl, you must cultivate a taste for the finer things. Civilized pleasures give meaning to life.”
― Barbara Taylor Bradford, Being Elizabeth
Did you read yesterday’s blog about my childhood fiasco of trying to take my little brother on a road trip? If not, check it out.
Speaking of road trips – A few weeks ago, a friend and I took a journey from Steamboat Springs, Colorado to Glenwood Springs, Colorado. We gallery hopped, window shopped and had a tasty lunch. It was a wonderful and a much needed day away for both of us just before Easter.
Not only did my friend get to return to something familiar from her past, so did I. My book, Sue’s memoir
There she stood a shapely women, a manikin, dressed in a fitting Easter outfit all made from tissue paper flowers. I couldn’t believe my eyes! My memoir has a chapter entitled Paper Roses. which recounts my fulfilling experience of learning to make and sell paper flowers as a project in junior Girl Scouts.
I had never seen an entire frock made out of tissue paper flowers. As you can see from this image, it was gorgeous and so was the women’s clothing shop. The store had a real vibrancy to it, every color in the spectrum was represented in their high quality and creatively decorated shop. The sales clerks in it could not have been more hospitable either.
I could have shopped til I dropped, but instead I behaved myself. I’m trying to be fiscally conservative so I can properly get the word out about my publication through a diverse marketing plan and that takes some bucks.
Some day soon, I will take Barbara Taylor Bradford’s advice and will return to Confetti Designs with cash in my pocket to splurge on something deserved and special just for ME – perhaps an accoutrement to an outfit for a book talk! From all appearances, the ladies in Confetti have an outstanding eye for style and design. Maybe they will help me find just the right thing. I will be back!
I want to remind everyone to shop around by visiting different blogs – it’s a great way to discover fascinating sites and topics through the world-wide-web. You never know what you might run into that may peak your interest. Looking for a fun fashion blog? Visit http://invisiblecrowne.blogspot.com/. See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling.
“Were in tarination have you been chile? You liked ta scared me a half a death,” the stellar character in my memoir said to me one day, as I ran in the door late for dinner.
“What do you mean, Fanny?” I had never heard her use a big word like”tarination” before. I’d heard it from my parents, but I wasn’t sure exactly what tarination meant. Perhaps she was trying it out for size. My parents were away for the weekend and it was Fanny’s duty to play the role of our parents. Nobody could get a point across better than she could, even though she said things in a different manner.
“I been callin’ and callin’ and you ain’t be answering me. Don’t you be doin’ that to nobody, not even to your Mama. We needs to know you alive. When someone calls your name, speak up chile – don’t be shy. Anythin’ you say means as much as all dat jabbering dat comes outta yo’ brothers’ squalk boxes.”
I didn’t know what Fanny meant at the time. But, now as an adult I get it. Sometimes these kinds of realizations in life take time.
There are so many meaningful things Fanny said to me when I was a child that went over my head. In retrospect it’s made me realize the significance of Buddha’s words “Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.”
Sadly, we often don’t realize the full impact people have had on our lives, until something happens.
This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.Sue’s memoir
Today on All Things Fulfilling: A visual look back at iconic images from my growing up in Baltimore.
That was a fulfilling journey revisiting my childhood through images this morning. Last summer when I was back in Maryland for an extended visit, my mom bought me a box of Berger’s cookies. I thought I had died and gone to heaven!
As the stellar character in my memoir often stated to my mother after having eaten a box of Berger cookies –
“Dem’s was da bestest, Miz Battoney!”
Indeed, being given a surprise box of Berger cookies is as satisfying of being given a Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected!
In coming weeks we will be hunting down more images of Baltimore memorabilia… Stay tuned to All Things Fulfilling!
“Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days.” ~ Doug Larson
If you remember shows like Mickey Mouse, Bozo the Clown, Captain Kangaroo, Ozzie & Harriet and Leave it to Beaver you are probably among the first generation of American children to be raised by television.
You’ll also remember what it was like watching a movie back in the 1950s and 1960s. Just setting up the film screen and the projector in the living room was a big production. Then there were the challenges of the film getting messed up in the projector when it malfunctioned – piles of film, knotted and tangled on the floor.
It was a different experience than in today’s world of digital filmmaking, where watching a movie entails the ease of slipping a disc into a DVD player which projects a movie through a computer or television screen. Convenient and hassle-free!
If you are a baby boomer, you can relate to some of my favorite movies from the 1960s like:
Oh how I loved Sidney Poitier in those two films.
Then there were my Disney Favorites from the same decade:
Let’s not forget some of the Westerns that the boys and men in the family liked such as:
And the Jerry Lewis movies brought us such memorable characters and silliness that the scenes will be forever etched in our memories from films like:
Remember Hayley Mills in Pollyanna? Oh, how I have the most heartwarming memories of my cousin, my twin sister and me seeing that movie together with our mothers at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, Vermont when we were on vacation.
I love revisiting the old television and movies from the era of my childhood – the 1950s and 1960s. When was the last time you stepped back in time and reread a book from your past or watched an old favorite movie? It’s a blast! Movies from almost every era can be located through the Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com.
Have a great weekend and do return to All Things Fulfilling on Monday.
“Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important events in their lives.” ~Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth
If you are a baby boomer, no doubt you learned to read from the Dick and Jane series. For forty years (1930s – 1970s) these books were used by elementary school teachers around the world to teach children the art of reading.
Did you ever notice how the Dick and Jane series had so many pictures of children engaged in outdoors activities? The books typically featured images of kids walking the dog, playing hopscotch on the sidewalk, planting flowers, pulling wagons, playing ball, lying in a hammock under the shade tree day-dreaming, and flying kites outdoors.
Miss Zerna Sharp, known as the “Mother of Dick and Jane” http://bit.ly/1pwGk0u had great insight in the creation of the series because she felt that students would enjoy learning to read and find it much easier if they identified with the children shown in the illustrations. If she were alive today to redo the series to make the stories more relatable for this generation of children, she’d probably be horrified to realize what would the illustrations would look like. Rather than publishing pictures of fit children playing outdoors, I suppose we’d see images of children engaged in all things digital and figure drawings of children with physiques that look very different than those of the children from the 1930s – 1970s. 
We are living in a very visual age. With the power of digital marketing perhaps we need to stir children’s interests and entice them into wanting to experience the great adventure of life called the “great outdoors.” Personally, I think our whole society would benefit by becoming more aware of our connection to mother nature and all that she has to offer. And it may even save us some trips to the doctor!
Those are my independent thoughts, words and views for today. See you tomorrow on http://www.AllThingsFulfilling.com. Have a great day, and remember to get outdoors for some fresh air! It’s good for fulfilling the mind, body and spirit.
“Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.” ~George Washington Carver
The image below looks like me as a little girl. Even as a little child who lived life on the edge with some serious health issues, I was not pampered and made to feel any different than my twin sister and brothers. Our home was surrounded by the forest with a leafy canopy of tall straight tulip poplar trees. A beautiful natural environment where fresh air and sunshine was plentiful. I played outdoors constantly digging for worms, making mud pies and throwing rocks in the streams that bordered both sides of our property. My parents insisted that I spend the days outdoors playing in the muck so I had little time to think about my miseries. For that, I am grateful to my parents.
It concerns me that too many children today are nature deprived and become ill as a result of it. It’s important for children to get outdoors and explore the natural world. Here is an article from the New York Times that every parent should be aware of. http://nyti.ms/Nx7lVj.
Spring has sprung, and the warm-up has begun. Parents get your children outdoors as much as possible in the coming months. Take them to parks, gardens, nearby woods and forests. If that’s not possible, be one another’s walking partners. Hold each other accountable and trade off TV and video time for outdoors time. Enjoy the natural world that was given to us for a reason. Its good for the mind, body and spirit.
This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com. See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling.
I am posting this image on the Vernal Equinox for the benefit of my mother. Our family traveled many, many miles together on road trips. Most of them were pleasurable except when we four kids started fighting. Every time the mood in the car began to turn sour, my mother engaged us in singing songs from our favorite movie – The Sound of Music. Then the atmosphere began to lighten , better moods sprung up and we’d forget about our troubles with our brothers and sisters.
Ah, yes, as with every family there are instigators and peacemakers among us, but I am not going to point any fingers. Besides, “I can’t remember if I am the good sister or the evil sister.” Each of my siblings would probably tell you a different story! They all have their own independent opinions, which was the reason the fights began in the first place. There isn’t one among us who doesn’t have a strong view on everything in life.
Which do you think I might be? A peacemaker or instigator? Hey now, keep your opinion to yourself . Today is the International Day of Happiness and the vernal equinox is supposed to be about balance and harmony in the cosmos. Let’s not open a can of worms until Monday!
Do come back to All Things Fulfilling tomorrow – I’ll tell you about the road trip I am taking this weekend.
This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com .
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