Category Archives: Gifts

A Mothers Day Secret

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Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that suppose to mean? In my heart it don’t mean a thing. ~Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987

Now that  Mother’s Day is over I can tell you what I got Mom since my  present that I was planning came much earlier than expected, thanks to the efficiency of my publishers, The Bookcrafters.

You see, I had been planned on giving my Mom the first copy of my new publication Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected as a Mothers’ Day surprise.Sue’s memoir But, someone in the family found out through the internet that my book was  available before I was ready to reveal it and spread the news to my mother. She bought a copy for herself immediately! So much for my good intentions and my secret.

Heart pillow for MomSo began my quandry. What to give Mom for Mother’s Day, instead of the book. It was solved when I stepped into Kneading Hands Therapy’s apothecary and gift shop to bring them copies of my memoir to sell. There it was, a little heart pillow, artfully decorated with a small banner that said “Write it on your heart that everyday is the best day of the year.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Perfect,” I thought, ” mom will love it.”

My mom really needs no reminder of this adage because she already has a zest for living and a unfaltering positive attitude toward life. Thankfully she has tried hard to pass on her joie de vivre to me, my siblings and her grandchildren. But, I thought, “she might like to hang the heart pillow from her bookshelves in her library or from the bedpost as a reminder to have faith, hope and find love in being alive every day on this earth even if things get more difficult with aging. She and my Dad are in their mid-eighties.”

Hope you had a great Mother’s Day, Mom. I was thinking of you and how grateful I am that you have had a long,healthy life to enjoy your four children and the grandchildren, too.

See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling.

 

 

Getting the News Out

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“Educate a boy, and you educate an individual. Educate a girl, and you educate a community.” ~ ― Adelaide Hoodless

communications todayFriday’s blog News over the Fence made me think further of how communications have changed over the ages. Through the decades we have gone from “meet me at the fence” to meet me on I.M. For those who are not tech savvy, that means meet me on the computer and we will talk digitally through instant messaging!

In the early years of telephone communications the women who ran the switchboards had their own web of communications through party lines. Reportedly the operators listened into everybody’s conversations, and when something of hot interest happened in small towns, the switchboard lit up, then the good word spread like wildfire throughout the community.

Women also gossiped when hanging laundry on the clotheslines in their yards, if their neighbors were close enough to dispatch the latest low-down.

Way back in history,  town criers broadcast news from the town square and men on horseback rode from town to town spreading the latest hearsay. The telegraph was also useful in tapping out messages of urgency.

When the printing press came into being, spreading the news became much easier. In fact, when I was growing up many newspapers, like the Baltimore Sun, had morning and evening editions of their daily publications.

These days, news travels in an instant through computers. And once it is broadcast digitally, there is no way to retract what we say. It’s delivered in the blink of an eye through cyberspace, so be careful. There can be great benefits to that however. It means we can learn of happenings and events globally, very quickly.

Return tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling, I’ll tell you a story of how news over the internet sidetracked my plans for Mother’s Day this year.

This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard. Author of Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.Sue’s memoir

 

 

A Life Lesson

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“The realization of ignorance is the first act of knowing.” ~ Poet Jean Toomer

IMAG0002Just seeing the image of this car brings back memories of one of the first times it dawned on me that someone is always watching over me.

Here’s what happened that caused my reckoning. My parents had a car exactly like the one pictured. One day my twin and I and our little brother who was about four at the time, got into a little mischief.

My twin and I had decided we were taking our brother on a road trip. We were getting out of Dodge (Towson, Maryland) while our mother was otherwise occupied with our youngest brother. He was just a newborn. The three of us piled into the front seat of the sedan and began trying to move the steering wheel, pushing all kinds of  knobs and buttons. Since the car engine was off , moving the steering wheel was next to impossible! Suddenly one of us must have hit the emergency brake and released it. The car began rolling backward.

My sister and I quickly jumped out of the car and grabbed the front bumper. The car miraculously came to a stop. “We ‘re as strong as Popeye,” we both thought. We were convinced our awesome strength and determination had prevented the disasterous result of having the car roll down the drive and hit a tree with our little brother in it. (Mind you, we were nine and my twin and I were very underweight. Our strength combined was only enough to stop a flea from jumping off the carpet).

Lesson learned as a child: It’s not a bright idea to play in a car.

Retrospective lessons learned as an adult: Someone much greater than myself was looking out for the three of us. Yes, I am here to tell you there such thing as God’s protection.

This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.Sue’s memoir

 

 

 

 

People Leave Deep Impressions

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“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.

ring a bell“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

 

 

 

 

More than a Coincidence?

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curiousImagine this. Here it is in a nutshell:

Twins separated by birth, find each other at 39 years old only to discover they have lived mirrored lives.

Jim and Jim have a fascinating story to tell. Although separated at birth, each of their adoptive parents gave them the same first name – Jim. Each had two marriages with wives named Linda and then on the second go-round, Betty. Toy was the name of each of their dogs from childhood, and they each had one son James Allen and James Alan.

Their careers paralleled each other – deputy sheriffs, both! They drove the same cars, drank the same brand beer and are smokers of the same cigarettes. Even though, remember, they were  out of touch for 39 years.

Twin telepathy? It’s a curious thing. What else could it be for these two brothers? How can you call that many commonalities just a coincidence?

Interested to read more true stories about twins? Here is a link. http://bit.ly/1iiBcdU.

Stories like these make people want to read more about twin dynamics.

This blog brought to you by the author of “Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.” A story of multi-cultural love, faith, healing, life lessons and above all things – twins!

 

Memoirs Connect People

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Kit Cat

“Each day provides it’s own gifts.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

I am very excited! Last week I reconnected with a childhood friend who I have been out of touch with since I graduated high school in 1975. That was many,many moons ago – do the math!

Out of the blue, she connected with me through my Facebook page and said “that she had learned I had published a book and had ordered “Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected” for her Nook. She had questions about a few details of our childhood in trying to recall exactly when we moved down the street to our second childhood home, built by my father. When I was an newborn we lived next door to her parents. She said, “I still remember the cat clock you had in your bedroom.” Hard to believe after all these years she’d remember, with clarity, a detail like that.

Did any of you readers have a cat clock like the one in the image?  It’s still available through the Vermont Country Store! http://bit.ly/1hVqDkQ.

Mine hung in my bedroom. It  was a gift from my maternal grandparents to my twin sister and me.  They both passed away when we were very young children, and the clock is a remaining memory that I associate with my mother’s parents. I remember laying in my bed mesmerized every night watching the cat’s glowing eyes go back and forth, along with it’s swishing tail  until I drifted off into laaa laaa land.

What I have since learned from my childhood friend, Cindy, is that her sons, Brian and Jason Lyles, are involved with a publishing endeavor also. They recently published The Lego Neighborhood Book: Build a Lego Town  which gives tools to create your favorite architectural styles in homes and buildings. How cool is that? http://bit.ly/1hd18dm 

If I hadn’t written a memoir, who knows if Cindy and I would have ever connected again throughout our lifetime! So today’s story is all about neighborhood and community connection! See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling.

 

 

Small Things Big Wonders

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“All of our life is a miracle. . . . There is not a minute in the twenty-four hours that is not filled with miracles.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have you ever noticed how the smallest things sometimes hold the biggest wonders? Consider:

  • The sudden appearance of blue-speckled robins eggs in the nest
  • An unexpected phone call from someone you were just thinking about
  • The delightful scent of a newborn baby’s head
  • A colorful rainbow after a wicked storm
  • Perfumed air from a gardenia, rose or lilac
  • The extraordinary talent of a musician, painter, dancer, writer or singer who has had no training
  • The crowing glory of the daffodils through the snow

When did you last stop, take heed and intently observe  a small thing that holds big wonders? Springtime holds an abundance of opportunity! Recharge your life by being keenly observant as the season of renewal unfolds and opens up. Deeply inhale all the goodness and find gratefulness in each daybreak and sunset.

little is much

This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, the author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.  See you tomorrow on http://www.AllThingsFulfilling.com.

 

 

The Nature of Easter

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 Fling off thy sadness!

Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth

Your ancient gladness! 

~Thomas Blackburn, An Easter Hymn

Today as my present to you, valued readers, I have posted an audio chapter of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.

This audio recording will also be posted permanently to the About the Book page of All Things Fulfilling so you can return and listen to it as often as you’d like.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Your entire family will enjoy listening to what the stellar character in my memoir has to say about an element in nature that has more meaning than just a beautiful flower. Celebrate Easter week by sharing this story with others. Happy Spring!

To listen, click the arrow pointing  right, next to the speaker icon.

 

 

 

 

 

Writing about the King

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“The Irish – Be they kings, or poets, or farmers… They keep company with the angels, And bring a bit of heaven here to earth”~ Unknown 

My uncle, my mother’s brother, was named Joseph King. But he was called King his entire life.  Joseph was his father’s name (my maternal Grandfather’s first name).  King was his mother’s maiden name (my maternal Grandmother). If you ever met my Uncle King, you would never, ever forget him. And you’ll have a chance to meet in him my memoir. He was a lively character who really celebrated life! I believe he felt an obligation to live up to a reputation of being a magnanimous character.

Palm SundayToday, as we approach Palm Sunday, it seems fitting to dedicate this blog to him. The reason will become apparent if you read my upcoming book. The lifeline on the palm of my hand would most likely be very short, had King not become one of my saviors in life. The “King” is  part of my upcoming memoir “Gift of a Lifetime.” I share this small bit of insight into my story, as a gift to you this Easter season. I’m going to remember my King, enjoy Palm Sunday and celebrate the fact that spring is just around the corner. Hallelujah.

On Monday, I will posting a sample audio chapter of  Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected on All Things Fulfilling. The audio chapter is  for your listening enjoyment and it’s about Easter. Do return and listen in – you might learn something about this holy week you had never known before.

Twin Bonding

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OMG its twins

Welcome to Twin Week on All Things Fulfilling. Even if you are not a twin, we hope you will enjoy learning something about multiple births that perhaps you never knew before. We will be sharing some fun stuff!

There is a website that has informative twin facts, that I hadn’t seen previously.  Did you know –

“Twins bond in the womb. By examining 3D ultrasound images, a study in Padova, Italy found that fetuses start deliberately interacting at 14 weeks.”

If you wish to read more interesting statistics about multiple births, please visit this link http://bit.ly/PkaMA5.

My mother gets tickled pink when she thinks back to when my sister and I were children and how we used to have our own “twin language.” Without a doubt, we did chatter away in our own little world, that no one dared enter when we were in the “zone.” And if you were to ask my mother, she’d say that even as adults when my my sister and I get together we still enter into the “private twin zone” and like many twins, we finish each others sentences. We communicate in ways that seems to exclude others – including our husbands. It is not intentional – it naturally happens.

Have you seen any of the popular You Tube videos with the two little toddler twins carrying on in their own language, enjoying each others’ company. Whatever it is they are jabbering on about, they are having a very fulfilling and meaningful experience. The video is so incredibly precious!  http://bit.ly/PkeiKX .

Check it out – it will be the best 55 seconds you have spent in a long time. It will begin your Monday morning with a smile.

See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling.