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Archive for June, 2011

Healing through meditative practice

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in a dream nearly 15 years in the making. As a child I was profoundly affected by the way in which Sunday morning televised church services used to hold my interest. It wasn’t the message although that came through but it was the way in which several ministers, particularily Oral Roberts used the power of ‘laying on hands’ to heal the sick. I know that some of that may have been made for TV style but at heart I also believed in the power of prayer and a strong personal belief to affect cures. I think I have spent a lifetime trying to understand how to help people through the worst times of their lives using as little as possible from modern medicine.  I recognize the value of medicine to work its own kind of science but there have been times when only prayer has made the difference.
After getting my degree in Divinity, I worked with my partners to establish a community organization which would provide the kind of healing support which falls between active medical care and the end of life. In my experience, only prayer and more prayer or meditative practice can bridge the gap.
Healing is an individual process which can be helped by support from others. Today the healing ministry which was started with such high hopes so many years ago, comes back to life. We will welcome all to our serivces. The title of our opening song, written by Dan Fogelberg’ is, ‘There’s a magic every moment, and goes on to say that ‘there’s a miracle each day.’ I sincerely believe this to be true. I don’t think we will rise to the level of Oral Roberts in our size and scope for our little place in Creemore is limited but we hope to make change in the lives of those who share in our vision for wellness and healing.

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New novel – Suspect: Love

Posted in Suspect, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

On the 26th of May, 2011, AuthorHouse published my second book, Suspect: Love, A Profound Prophecy.  I am very excited about its release.  Like The Will to be True/In the Shadow of the Blackbird, it was written some time ago.  The draft of it sat for years on the shelf waiting, like Cinderella,  for the right time to be turned into a soft cover novel.  I received my first copy in the mail last week and with its completion, I feel that I have fulfilled a promise to a couple of  people who were  instrumental  in encouraging me to write stories from my heart.  They have both passed away now but their spirits were guiding me all along.

What took me so long?  I don’t know.  I love both the stories and I hope that readers will too.  I am thankful to my brother-in-law Bryan Davies for providing me with lovely photographs of Italy which grace the front and back cover.  He has an extraordinary talent for capturing the right moment, or the right spirit, or both, in everything he photographs.  I am also grateful to my family and several close friends who have been very supportive and of course my sister Gertrude who helps me to edit all my work.

A couple of quotes from Suspect: Love….

‘Rosanna knew her thoughts were unworthy, but fear of an unknown circumsatnce flickered along nerve endings, sending a clear signal that, if she continued, her life would never be the same again.  Fate and free will warred witin her.  In a heartbeat, fate had taken over.  The elevator landed with a soft whirr on the ground floor ending any thought of retreat.’

‘Love can remove many boundaries, including and especially those built by fear.’

Here is a synopsis of the story.

Rosanna, a highly educated, professional nurse in her mid-thirties is hoping for a promotion from a dead-end supervisory night job.  She is on the shelf as far as her old fashioned Italian family is concerned.

During a crisis, she ‘meets’ Angus Howard, a dedicated pediatric specialist who leads a dynamic research project close to her heart.
Stepping outside of her comfort zone, she spends a passion-filled weekend with him, engaged in some unexpected research into her own long dormant feelings.  Before the relationship gets off the ground, a long awaited promotion comes through.  It is the opportunity of a lifetime!  As part of her new duties, she is appointed, as a lone female, to participate on a powerful hospital executive committee whose mandate is to investigate a charge of fraud by the very man who has already engaged her heart.  Her sudden defection from his life leaves a trail of pain and suspicion in which he believes she used him to further her career. 

Their large and remarkable families try to intervene and help save the relationship but Rosanna knows that she has no choice but to fight to preserve the integrity of his career.  Her decision only serves to keep them apart.

The title will soon be available for purchase at AuthorHouse or any of the other online book sellers.  I keep thinking that I will not write another book but since I decided to get cracking and finish these two books, I have written 9 full length adventures for Fanfiction.  Online stories count.  I thank the many people around the world who enjoy the Beauty and the Beast series and encourage me to keep finding challenges for the characters in an updated version of the original 1987 TV show.

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Almost famous!

Posted in Musings, tagged , , , , on June 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I don’t know about anyone else but I have always thought about the 15 minutes of fame.  How would that happen?  I definitely wanted that 15 minutes.  Would I be a character in a movie?  How about a part on TV or even my own show?  Write a book? Deliver the keynote address at a large function?  Take a walk and have everyone pass me and say hi because they know me?

All of those things happened.  Sure I was almost famous but the excitement which I thought would come with any one of the above activities was nothing compared to the excitement I felt at having a coffee name after me.

My local coffee bistro was a godsend when I moved away from the fast paced city of Toronto.  I was such a faithful customer to certain coffee shops that I never actually had to order.  My morning Starbucks Vente Latte, 140* with extra foam was started  as soon as I stepped off the streetcar across the road from the coffee shop.  By the time I got to cash, it was done and waiting for me.  Great service!

My evening latte was made by a young man who made the perfect 142* extra foamy at Second cup in Dufferin Mall.  Yum….

When I needed to reduce my milk intake, the owner/manager, at the on-site  Second cup located in my hospital,  helped  me decided on the big switch to the Americano.   I learned that it was a drink made originally  for Americans in Italy.  Don’t quote me here but I think that Americans couldn’t handle the taste of the espresso.  Water was added to the single or double shots to tone it down.  I admit that I never liked the  short  espresso straight but I love it now if it has two shots dumped in hot water with a little half and half cream added.  Not too much caffeine and good taste.  It turned out to be the perfect drink for me.  I only had one problem.  I needed kick-ass taste and punted caffeine. 

 I can tell you that moving to a small town which didn’t seem to have a coffee shop open 16 hours a day was almost frightening.  Where would I get my coffee?  I bought several machines.  I even thought of going back to my original loves, Kenya or Caramelo coffee. The machines were only meant to be a stop gap until I could scout out an espresso bar.  Found it!   

Over the next four years, with the help of the owner-barista, we worked out a great espresso taste once I got used the difference  in beans.  Where the beans are bought and roasted makes a huge difference in taste. Groundswell has a terrific roaster.

Now, instead of running the water through short, it is run through long, extra long, so long that I don’t even need to add water to a large cup.  Voila, it is the perfect coffee for me and apparently others.  My barista informed me this week that someone called in and ordered a ‘judith’.  I felt an excitement akin to the day when a client called me the ‘breast whisperer’ for my work with breastfeeding mothers.  I knew that delightful lady and her little baby.  I took her words as a compliment to my work as a lactation consultant. 

 The lady who ordered the espresso has never met me.  Now I feel ‘almost famous’.

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