Tag Archives: Gift of a Lifeime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected

Opening the Conversation

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Advent: Day #8

“Intercultural dialogue is the best guarantee of a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.” ~ Robert Alan Silverstein

For the past two years in the town where I am residing, we watched the building of a huge addition to the Holy Name Catholic Church. The construction essentially turned a relatively small church into a nearly cathedral-sized structure.

On Friday evening, the entire town was invited in as the Yampa Valley Choral Society and the Steamboat Symphony Orchestra brought Handel’s Messiah alive in the community. My husband and I saw the gorgeous space and heard beautiful voices and outstanding orchestral music. The evening put me in the Christmas spirit. I am so grateful the Catholic Church opened up  this event to people of all religious affilliations and that I was able to attend it! The tickets sold out so quickly.

Throughout my lifetime I have been exposed to multi-cultural viewpoints and a diversity of religions. On this eighth day of Advent I’d like to share an image that will give insight into one of the largest influences in my childhood years which helped me to develop my thoughts and writings on spirituality.

alleluia

How To Order the award-winning memoir by Sue Batton Leonard,  Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected:
Audio Book  http://amzn.to/1trrTl9
Paperback  http://amzn.to/1qmcEHI
e-Book  http://amzn.to/1lx7oRh

 

Peek at an Angel

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Advent: Day #6

Have you ever been in a situation where an angel comes to your rescue?

In the award-winning memoir, Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected, an incident of twins being stuck in a bad position leads to a solution by a stellar character who is a shining example that “a good teacher…who can help kids develop physically, emotionally, socially is literally an angel.” ~ Eva Amurri

That’s today’s peak between the covers of a Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected on this sixth day of Advent.

AngelsAmongUs

Here is more information on Sue Batton Leonard’s award-winning memoir, an anthology of stories.

Three Awards!
Merit EVVY Award – Anthology
2nd Place Evvy Award – Audio Book
2014 Winner of Harvest Book Contest – Young Adult Category
How To Order:
Audio Book  http://amzn.to/1trrTl9
Paperback  http://amzn.to/1qmcEHI
e-Book  http://amzn.to/1lx7oRh

 

Mr. Twains Angels

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I have been on the verge of being an angel all my life, but it’s never happened yet. ~ Mark Twain’s Autobiography

twain_bedDid you know Mark Twain slept in his bed backwards? According to an article in Yankee Magazine by Amie Seavey, she says it’s so. It is an unexpected and little known fact of the fabled author’s life.

He slept with his pillows at the foot of the bed so he could see the guardian angels that decorated his headboard. The carved angels on the dark walnut bed he and his wife purchased in Venice for $200 ($4600 in todays market), spanned across the headboard and atop each post. He said he liked to sleep in the bed backwards to “see what he had paid for.” The bed was, according to Mr. Twain”the most comfortable bedstead that ever was and enough space in it for a family.”

Clement’s bed, which was left to his daughter Clara was given to the Mark Twain Memorial and Library in 1940. The Hartford, Connecticut museum http://www.marktwainhouse.org has the bed as a showpiece for Twain enthusiasts.

Sweet dreams, Mr. Twain. We will always remember the important contributions you made to this world with your fulfilling words about life.
twain on life

This blog is brought to you by the award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. For more information on the award-winning audio book, paperback or e-book Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected, please visit this link.

Table it for Later

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Life be not so short but that there is always time for courtesy. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Table Manners

Who remembers hearing this litany of table manners? If you are a baby boomer like me (1946- 1964), you will most likely relate. I won’t deny having said the same stuff about table manners to my son when he was growing up! And even as I said it I thought “Wow, I have become my mother?”

I have vivid memories of my mom teaching my twin sister and me how to set a “proper table” with her best china and sterling silver, linen napkins and special serving dishes. Did your mother do the same thing?

If you are from Generation X, Y, Z or the latest “Silent”  era, your parents may have decided to table teaching you this list of  table”to-do’s and don’ts”– completely forgetting later to bring it up.

Dennis the Menace manners_cartoon
Hank Ketchum, one of  America’s most beloved cartoonists was a master at capturing how funny life is. No matter what generation we  come from, the generation of the past thinks the newest generation has gotten things wrong. It’s not until we look back in history, do we realize  good things come out of the past.

This blog brought to you by the EVVY award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard.  For information on her memoir, a story about life during the baby boomer decades, please visit this link. http://amzn.to/1te9k2F. If you listen to the audio book version of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected you will hear the voice of my 2nd mother – who was in some ways quite different than my birth mother.

Building Skills for Great Futures

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The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. ~ Diogenes

Last Friday I attended our monthly meeting of the Yampa Valley University Women. We had a wonderful speaker, Lynna Broyles, from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northwest Colorado. Her program was so informative and designed to educate people about the programs of this non-profit youth development organization.

Here are the five core programs that are available for boys and girls to get involved with. They make their own choices based on their interests:

  • Character & Leadership
  • Education & Career Development
  • Health & Life Skills
  • The Arts
  • Sports, Fitness & Recreation

Some figures were cited with regards to how many children in the NW Colorado Boys and Girls Club get their only hot meals for the day at school and at the Boys and Girls Club. For me those numbers were astounding and troubling. Thankfully, all youth, regardless of their parents’ socio-economic status can be involved in the program. Scholarships are available for youth who struggle with the annual membership fee ($25/annually).

The clubs are staffed by trained youth development professionals. Many very successful business people, athletes, and prestigious people in our country got a strong foundation through Boys & Girls Clubs. Youth programs as well as literacy programs are so important to the future of children in our country. Often these programs open doors and futures to much greater things. What a gift the Boys and Girls Clubs are to so many children! http://www.bgca.org/newsevents/Pages/GFSH_PSA.aspx

leadership

Moment with childThis blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of the EVVY award-winning book Gift of A Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected. For more information on the book which has also won an award in the young adult category, please follow this link.http://amzn.to/1vDFUMt.