Category Archives: Learning

Writers Face Fears Head On

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“Have you realized that today is the tomorrow you talked about yesterday?  ― Jaachynma N.E. Agu, The Prince and the Pauper

Indeed, I have come to understand that! For many a year I had visions of writing and publishing our family’s story, and it has become a reality. Memoirs are important because they are not just about our immediate family. They often reflect and record a time in history, a culture or religion,  a way of being raised, and the values we pass on to the next generation.

Oh, there were times when I doubted, got discouraged or couldn’t find the right words, but I never let it stop me. Action led to fulfillment of those dreams. I made it happen!

Each time the task seemed daunting or I couldn’t find the right words or hit a road block I’d press on remembering the words of Bill Cosby “Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it.”

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We published authors overcame our fears and live to tell the story of it!

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

Sue’s memoir
 

Dreams Expressed in Art

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“Think left and think right, think high and think low. Oh the thinks you can think up if only you try.” ~ Dr. Seuss

kimball art what dreams are made ofWhile I was in Park City, Utah last week, I stopped by the Kimball Art Center and took in the exhibit “What Dreams are Made Of.” This gathering of work came from students in the Park City region from kindergarten to high school age.

The Kimball Art Center www.kimballartcenter.org serves more than 11,000 students annually with free visual art lessons and also serves the community with more than 300 art classes each year geared toward all ages including adults.

In many of the two and three dimensional pieces on display it was very clear what interests the children want to explore further in their childhood and into adult life. There were works of art that included themes such as dance, ski racing, equestrian, fashion, writing and publishing, architecture and much more. Different art forms were used to create this display of mixed media – collage, photography, pottery, paper mache, sketches to name a few.

New exhibits are on-going throughout the year at “The Kimball”  but I am happy that I was able to see the diverse interpretations through different children’s eyes and imaginations of “What Dreams are Made Of.” Through persistence, determination and hard work, hopefully many of these dreams will be fulfilled and realized.

Perhaps our society would benefit if more individuals could pursue what drives their spirit rather than just be focused on making a living. Fulfilling a dream feels wonderful. I recently published my memoir! Sue’s memoir

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Special Interest Bookstore

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“Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.” ~ Carol Lynn Pearson

The expanding heart1Some 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 Come back on Monday I will let you in on a few of my favorite art galleries I visited in historic Park City, Utah.

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Historic Main Street, Park City, Utah

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

 

 

News over the Fence

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“How beautiful on the mountains are on the feet of those who bring good news.” ~ The Bible

My sister Jan had just walked in the door from work the other day when her telephone rang.
picket fence“Meet me at the fence,” her neighbor said. With urgency Jan threw down her pocketbook and ran out the back door wondering what the issue was this time. For twenty-five plus years whenever a “meet me at the fence” call came through between Jan and her neighbor, something was up. One of them had some kind of news to share with the other.

Jan stood at the fence waiting for her neighbor for a few minutes. Then watched her walk from her house across the lawn with one hand behind her back and a huge smile on her face. Jan knew from her expression it was good news, this time. Jan’s friend and her husband are police officers and sometimes she encounters difficult days, and needs to talk.

“Oh, my gosh, Jan!” her neighbor said “I can’t stop laughing. I love this book I am reading.”

“What are you reading?” Jan inquired.

The neighbor took the book from behind her back, where she was hiding it. It was a copy of “Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.”

“That’s my sisters book!” Jan said, with enthusiasm and surprise.

“I know it! That’s one of the reasons why I bought it!” said her neighbor. I’ve told everyone down at the police station they’ve got to buy it. It’s a balm for the heart and the soul when things in the world are too depressing and you want to uplift the spirit.

The author thanks you, Beth,  from the mountains of Steamboat Springs, Colorado! I am happy to hear you like the book. Many publications are sold when news of a good read travels beyond fences!

This blog brought to you by author Sue Batton Leonard. Sue’s memoir Come on back to All Things Fulfilling on Monday.

 

 

 

Paper Flowers Redux

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“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 memoirGift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected had only been published shortly before and as I entered into a fanciful women’s  clothing shop, called Confetti Design http://www.confettidesign.net. I was nearly blown away when I saw their window dressing!

glenwood springs paper flowers dressThere 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!

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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. 

 

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

 

 

 

 

Life Transitions

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Since I left high school in Towson, Maryland in 1971, I rarely have looked back to those teen years. In fact I have never driven by the site of the school, not even to get a glimpse to see if anything has changed and I’ve never returned for a high school reunion.

A couple of summers ago when I was in the area of where I grew up, visiting family, I did drive by my three childhood homes, all within the same neighborhood. How I was feeling was hard to grasp. I suppose it could be described as a mixture of beautiful feelings and a very quick dash of sadness that life marched forward. The melancholy feelings lasted only a few brief minutes.

Funny, isn’t it, how some people live their entire lives in one place feeling completely fulfilled and others move on. For me,  I can’t imagine having stayed for all these years in the same environment where I spent my childhood.

My husband feels the same way. He left his childhood surroundings on the northern shores of Massachusetts (north of Boston) and never looked back. I suppose we were meant for each other – Baltimore girl, Boston boy, parents to a son raised in Vermont – now living in Albuquerque, New Mexico – a transient three, aren’t we?

Its taken me a life time to learn there is truth in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quotation, “the only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”   I’ve come to many more conclusions about how life takes unexpected turns as I have written my memoir.My reckonings will give me plenty more to write about.

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Photo Above: My high school in Towson, Maryland.

Interesting fact: Swimmer Michael Phelps, holder of 22 Olympic medals, also graduated from this school about twenty-five years after me.

Photo below: Overhead view of where I grew up – moved to three different homes in the same neighborhood. My dad built all three. The first house was a small cape style house, then onto what might be described as a southern colonial farmhouse and then to a 1970’s modern-style home which is smack in the middle of this picture.

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Tomorrow’s blog is about a hard learned lesson that happened in the 2nd of my childhood homes.Sue’s memoir

Do return to All Things Fulfilling tomorrow. This blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.

Moving and Birth

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untitled“Having a baby is painful in order to show how serious a thing life is.” ~ author Lisa See

At the end of last week my husband and I changed residences. As we went through the process, I began to think of the analogy between moving and giving birth:

Through both you have to do the work and you are faced with labor. Yet if you want to make way for newness in your life, you must bear down, face it and go through it, whether you want to or not.

Once you’ve gotten through each event, you can look back and laugh. You forget all the pain and agony that was packed with the experience.

I’ve moved many times throughout my life. My most transient years were after I graduated college until the time I married. Come on back tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling. We will be visiting the neighborhood where I lived for the first 18 years of my life. It is where many of the stories in my memoir took place – in Towson, Maryland.

Sue’s memoir

Voice of Conscience

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For art to be relevant, artists must address the social and spiritual issues of our time. ~ Suzi Gablik

This week I’m taking time to focus on Project REGROUP. Here is what it entails:

R – Reviewing the future

E – Envisioning a message

G– Growing ideas for new horizons

R- Rejoicing, in new directions

O– Organizing thoughts and concepts

U – Utilizing whats been started

P – Praying that the voice within me steers me right

Regrouping is often associated with failure, disappointment or recovery. Many people automatically equate the word regroup with set-backs.

I look at it from a different tact – from the perspective of positive energy flow. Where do I want to place my attention next? I’ve got some ideas beginning to sprout, now I need to listen to what  my readers are saying. “How can I creatively communicate from a different level,” I ask myself.

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My  family is probably sending communications saying “Fanny, what’s Sue up to now?” to the central character of my book. With my publication, she has come into a different realm. 

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

Sue’s memoir

See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling