Category Archives: tools and skills for children

Summertime. The Way it Ought to Be.

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“Summertime is always the best of what might be.” ~ Charles Bowden
There is an article circulating over the internet that makes me feel as if the person who wrote it, an Italian teacher, really gets what living an inspired life is all about. He understands the way summer is supposed to be and the feelings of adolescence that seem to go along hand and hand with the season. Many of the youthful feelings of summer that are cited in this article return to me year after year, no matter what stage of my life I am in.

Read this article about the summer assignment the italian teacher gave to his students.
barefeet-lying-in-grass

How about you? Do you have certain youthful feelings that return this time of year? What do you think causes a stirring of these dreamy and magical emotions that don’t come any other time of year?

Is it the more laid-back approach that comes with summertime? Is it because we shed much of our clothing and live less bundled up, which leads to freer feelings? Is it the memorable sights, sounds and tastes of summer that come only one season of the year? What is it? I’d like to hear from you!

This blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard. Award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and short stories Lessons of Heart & Soul.

Good News, Dear Margaux

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May 27, 2015

Dear Margaux,

What a pleasant surprise when I opened my mailbox last week and found that the U.S. Postal Service had delivered this notecard from you!

Girl Scout Margaux letter without last name

I am so glad you enjoyed my presentation “One Day in the Life of a Writer.” I was happy to learn that I am not the only one who wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to jump out of bed to write down ideas. It makes me feel better that you said the same thing happens to you. 

GS scribe badge I was not aware that my visit helped your troop earn your Scribe badges until I read the Girl Scout blog.

Tomorrow I am attending the  Girl Scout Fundraiser for adults at the Catamount Ranch and Club.  I am excited! I have my ticket! What a cool fundraising idea to have some of the best chefs around creating savory appetizers from sweet Girl Scout Cookies.  It will be interesting to see what the chefs will be serving up. I’d better take my camera! If your mom is coming, tell her I have saved a book for her and will bring it along incase she hasn’t yet ordered a copy.

Enjoy your outings, meetings and the friendships you have made through the Girl Scouts. I think I mentioned to your troop that I made life-long friends through scouting.

Keep on Writing! And remember the good news we shared about life “There are always flowers for those who want to see them!”

Sincerely,

Mrs. Sue Leonard (aka author Sue Batton Leonard)

Award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected 

and short stories – Lessons of Heart & Soul.

Spirit Not Withstanding

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“A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.” ~ William Arthur Ward

What’s a girl to do when she’s a bystander because she is too young to be a Junior Girl Scout? She creates her own sense of fun, and I loved it.

Look at the joy on this little girl’s face! I’m calling her the “Dazzling Earring Girl.” She went about her way finding a  creative use for the paper roses I had made and given the Girl Scouts while she was waiting for her sister to complete her craft project.

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One never knows where life will take us and “Dazzling Earring Girl” might just have the tag line “jewelry artist” under her name in the future!

You know what I like about the Girl Scouts? Please excuse my bias because I was both a Brownie and a Junior Girl Scout. In my opinion, it is an organization that endorses postive values that parents can teach their children about keeping their values straight in life.

I hope this little girl in the picture remembers to always to seek the light! The good news is on this Thirsty Thursday her joy will dazzle other people. Glad she joined us!

This blog is brought to you by the award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. For information on her memoir and book of short stories. On Sunday, May 10th I’ll be honoring Mother’s Day on All Things Fulfilling.

 

Hats Off, Hats On

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“Building art is a synthesis of life in materialized form. We should try to bring in under the same hat not a splintered way of thinking, but all in harmony together.” ~ Alvar Aalto

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about hats because it was recently Easter and because I’ve been wearing many different hats lately. When I was growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s no Easter outfit was complete unless it was topped off with a new spring coat and a matching headpiece. It tickles me silly when I think of some of the hats my mother wore to church. She had a yellow one that was shaped like a bees hive, and there was even a little fuzzy bee that was glued to the mesh that surrounded the hat.

hat etiquetteIn my childhood days it was not a rare occurrence  to see men and women as well as boys and girls wearing hats on occasions that called for dressing up like going to church. It was all part of Sunday morning tradition.

Teaching children manners were of utmost importance when I was a kid and that included making sure kids were well versed in the etiquette of hat wearing. It’s been said by writer Alexander McCall Smith that “manners are the basic building blocks of a civil society.”

Do you think we are better off being a more relaxed society or would you like to see a return to some of the niceties that were present several decades ago?

Please take this one second poll on All Things Fulfilling. I’d love to know your response.

This blog is brought to you by award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard.

 

 

The Young Artists in Them

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Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~ Pablo Picasso

On Friday, a number of nine and ten year old students, who are Junior Girl Scouts, expressed their love of writing during my presentation “One Day in the Life of a Writer.” When I admitted to my weakness of rising extremely early at 5:30am to 6pm to write and record what I have often been thinking in the middle of the night, a few said they, too, wake in the wee hours of the morning with ideas to put down on paper.
GS13 croppedSo, each junior Girl Scout was given a spiral-bound notebook to embellish with reflections of their own personality, design sense and color preferences. The notebooks are bound to hold up no matter where they travel and no matter how long it takes to fill the pages with words.They’ve been given a strong foundation backed with Duck© Tape! I never realized there are so many colors and patterns of Duck© Tape now available.

With a promise of returning to teach the Girls Scouts how to make paper roses, the group set about doing their own craft project after my presentation. The rest of today’s story will be told in photos – enjoy the colorful personal journal creations made by Girl Scout Troop #12622.

 

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Isn’t individual creativity a wonderful thing? Come back tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling, I’m looking for some opinions. And on Thirsty Thursday, you’ll enjoy a post called Spirit Not Withstanding!

Happy Cinco de Mayo from Sue Batton Leonard,  the award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and Short Stories: Lessons of Heart & Soul.

Time with the Girl Scouts

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Children are our most valuable resource ~ Herbert Hoover

It’s been said that spending time with children heals the soul. Yes, indeed, it does. Friday was a splendid afternoon spent sharing “One Day in the Life of a Writer” with  Junior Girl Scout Troop #12622, ages nine and ten.

Writing desk in GS meeting room

Photo: My writers desk in the Girl Scout meeting room

I asked each of the girls to bring a question that they’ve always wanted to ask a writer but have never had the opportunity.  I gave them my Girl Scout promise that I would do my best to serve them further by sharing their questions and my answers today on All Things Fulfilling:

Is that you in the photo on the book? ~ Alison

Yes, it is me, thirty-five years ago on the day I got married.

Do you write on weekends? ~Ella

Sometimes I get brainstorms and write a whole bunch in one day so I won’t have to write on weekends. And I try not to write on weekends to take a break. But, sometimes I get ideas and can’t help myself.

Are you writing a new book right now? ~ Margaux

Yes, actually I am working on two. I have the goal of publishing one in time for Valentines Day 2016. It is fiction, an imaginary story. The other is about independent publishing. That will take more time because I want to share the knowledge a little differently, and I am trying to decide how that might be. I have some ideas…

What are the names of the books? ~Molly

I only have working titles for them at this time, but nothing final.

When were you born? ~ Caroline

1953, I am not quite 62. (Another little girl piped up and graciously said – “Oh! Then you’re not old at all!” To which I smiled and replied “Thank you for saying that!”)

What kind of fiction book are you writing? ~ Jade

One of the awards I won for Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected was in the Young Adult category – for ages 12 and up. I like writing for young girls, so this is the genre I’ve decided to write this next book for also. My first book was a memoir. A real life story. This new publication I am working on is not based on real characters but it is based on things that girls sometimes face in life.

Do you think we could read your book even though we are not 12? ~ Caroline

That would be up to your parents. The dialect of the character of Fanny is written a little differently than the way some people talk but there is no bad language such as swear words in it or anything else a nine or ten year old should not read. Since I just read you a chapter and you heard how the star character Fanny talked, you probably wouldn’t have trouble reading it.

What inspired you to be a writer? ~ Margaux

Back in 1998 I started working for an artist who has won every major art award in America. He independently published his own books and videos on painting. Back then very few people did that and I very inspired by it. When I started my own business, I started a blog called All Things Fulfilling and started writing daily. I realized how much I loved to write. I had a story I’ve wanted to tell all my life, and decided to write and publish independently. It’s won several awards.

Where can we buy your books? ~ Alison

On Amazon.com and it is available in paperback, e-book and audio book. By selling it over the internet, anyone from all over the world can purchase it. The real treasure is in the audio book because I narrated it and you can hear me speaking in Fanny’s voice. It won a 2nd place award in the audio book category.

Could you teach me  how to make those flowers? ~ Margaux

Absolutely! I would love to. But, I’ll have to come back and spend more time with you Girl Scouts.

Note: I read aloud the chapter from Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected called Paper Roses. I surprised each girl with one of my own paper flower creations that I learned to make when I was a Junior Girl Scout. After my presentation, the girls worked on a project that will give them a firm foundation to write on in coming days. You’ll learn more about Girl Scout Troop #12622’s  art project when you return tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling.

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This blog is brought to you by award-winning author, Sue Batton Leonard author of Gift of a Lifetime Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and Short Stories: Lessons of Heart & Soul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood & Belief

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“Children see magic because they look for it.” ― Christopher Moore

Little-Boy-movie-poster_1In select theatres across the country, the film Little Boy was released last Friday. This movie is among others that I have put on my list of upcoming movies to see. It is a story about the separation of father and son due to war in 1940. Although this is a fictional story, it is a tale that will ring familiar with families who have been faced with parent and child relationships strained due to military duties.

It has been said of this drama, written and directed by Alejandro Monteverde, a Smithsonian Institute award-winning filmmaker, that the power and value of holding tight to life-affirming belief as seen through the perspective of the little boy, “will warm your heart and lift your spirits.”

A review from Slant Magazine written by Ed Gonzalez  gives the movie what I would call a marginal rating  stating “Little Boy is the filmmaker’s naïve desire to convey life experience to such a sentimentalized degree that the world comes to resemble only the sham of a Norman Rockwell painting.”

In light of Gonzales’ remarks I ask   – Doesn’t having faith and hope get us through life’s most difficult circumstances? And shouldn’t the short, sweet childhood years be like an idealistic or quixotic Norman Rockwell painting?

This blog is brought to you by award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. Her publications include Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and Short Stories: Lessons of Heart & Soul.

 

 

Re-Enactment of a Sacred Time

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All of spiritual practice is a matter of relationship: to ourselves, to others, to life’s situations. – Jack Kornfield

As you will come to understand when you read my memoir, Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected, our parents sometimes allowed my brothers, sister and me to do things unconventionally.

Mom recently found this memorabilia in her hope chest. She had forgotten she had tucked away these writings nearly fifty years ago when my sister and brothers and I were little children.

I will leave it up to the readers imaginations as to what my sister Jan, my brother Rick and a dear neighbor named Margy and I were planning. If you wish to fully understand what we were up to, there is a poignant chapter in my memoir that goes with this program. Even though I did not have these writings before I published my memoir they were not needed for my storytelling because I so vividly remember this day and others just like it. It would have been nice however, to have been able to include these writings in my publication.

My youngest brother Scott was not mentioned in this program. But as the years went on, we planned other similar events and Scott became an active participant.

church service we wrote for around the pool page1 - right position

 

church service we wrote for around pool page2 -right position

During this week of holy celebration of Easter, I thought it would be an appropriate time to  share this treasure from my mother’s hope chest. When I read this, it warms me to the depth of my inner being. It’s a reflection of many fulfilling times that I had as a child with my siblings.

So as not to give anything away to those who haven’t read my award-winning anthology of stories yet, try to imagine in your mind where this event may have taken place. Read the book and see if you were right.

This blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, the author of the award-winning book (an anthology) Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.

 

 

 

Film Friday: Room to Breathe

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Did you know they are teaching mindfulness in schools? Today on Film Friday, I’d like to feature a multi award-winning documentary film about this subject.

Room to Breathe is currently being screened in select places across the country and both students and teachers are participating.

The purpose of the movie: is to educate others about the value of mindfulness, which means “paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

The potential value: better educational experiences for students and a changed, less stressful atmosphere for teachers.

Sounds like a movement towards a better world to me!

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I am going to take a “breather” on All Things Fulfilling until Monday. Over the weekend I will “find rest …because creativity needs a place to breathe.”

March will be arriving over the weekend. Early next week I’ll be sharing some of my last weeks fresh air travels to NM .

This blog is brought to you by award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard.

Lettuce Thank Them

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“We are all one Energy Stream, but what makes the separations or distinguishes the differences is perspective. You are a unique and individual perspective.” ~ Abraham-Hicks

We all know people who even as young children have “marched to the sound of a different drummer” or “keep a different pace than their peers” or perhaps it could be said “they go their own sweet way.”

Some people have a greater tolerance and understanding for deviations in personalities  than others. Thankfully “creative spirit” is not frowned upon in children as much as when I was growing up. People have grown to appreciate and celebrate creative thinking more, and the gifts unique perspectives bring to the world.

color inside the lines

When I saw this image below, I couldn’t help but ponder what extraordinary thinking and perspective!  It’s really cool couture! Yep, it’s a composition made with lettuce and etching.

very creative couture

Today  we are celebrating creative thinking and creative spirits on All Things Fulfilling.

If the energy is positively channeled, sometimes magnificent things become of children who go along looking at life a little differently. It is what makes life interesting!

See you tomorrow we will have more to say on ways to BE!

This blog is brought to you by the award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and Short Stories: Lessons of Heart & Soul.