Trouble! I felt so loney when i sitting my bed. i took out a big fat black marker and scibbled with it on wall. My mom didn't noctice it, but my dad did, he gasped and started to laugh, i was misunderstood because my dad is laughing i ran away from dad. but nonthing happed. ...continued...

As a child, I was beat for my wrong doings and for my sisters' wrong doings. I never realized that I was abused... I just accepted myself as a failure. ...continued...

I'm in the woods a lot during summer. Yes, I know it's hot and sweaty. There's ticks, snakes and poison ivy to contend with. Still, summer is the best time to look for great ginseng habitat and since I'm all about restoring this wonderful herb to our property, I hike the woods in summer. As of this writing it’s mid-June. Here in the Ozarks, the ginseng plants have green fruit and some still have flowers and no fruit, some have very small fruit and are finished with flowers. The older plants have more berries than the younger ones. All of the berries at this point ...continued...

11 is a very important number in my life. Let me tell you why. I was born at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, the 11th child of the 12 that my mother and father had in total. Of the 10 that had been born before me, only four were still living when I was born; four of the six who had died had not reached their first birthday. Of the four then alive, only two survive to this day. So out of 12 children, only the last four , including me, are,as at the time of starting writing this story in 2013, still living. And, as with most births at that time a ...continued...

~~A BOOKWORM AT GIRL SCOUT CAMP In the 1950’s my family moved from a little Missouri town to the small town in Indiana where my father grew up. We lived with our grandparents for a few months while my father started a new job and we found a house to rent. My little brother and sister, ages six and five respectively, roamed my grandparents’ big back yard and the neighborhood, but I asked if I might read the old books I saw in the parlor bookcases. My grandmother, usually so strict about us not touching her possessions, gave me permission. I read from books that far exceeded my s ...continued...

On a beutiful sunny day in March 1978, my husband, Charlie Gordon, left the RAF and we returned with two young daughters to his home town on the Northumberland coast, dominated by a large caravan site, local people so nice and friendly. The sun would soon go behind the gather storm clouds &nb ...continued...

i don't sing at birthdays I pedaled my Schwinn Autocycle along the gravel road beside the Waterman's south pasture. The rutted road rattled the front fender almost enough to drown out my rendition of Gloria in Excelsis Deo. Almost, but not quite. Four of Charlie Waterman's cows standing by the fence-line mooed in tune to my song. I switched to Christ the Lord Is Risen Today near the intersection of the gravel and paved roads. Two lanky, flop-eared, black-and-tan hounds crawled out from under the front porch and added their howls in accompaniment. They ...continued...

I woke up this morning hoping to hear nothing other than the occasional stirring of our guides like in mornings past. Instead I was greeted with the sounds of an angry Artic wind. We are in a full blown whiteout and cannot move. The blowing wind fills the air with snow that smashes into your face. It's best described like you see if you are driving into a snow storm on the freeway. The kind of storm that cars pull under over passes for a little reprieve. Our sturdy little tent is our life source. We have to conserve fuel because there is no predicting how long we are here. So no stov ...continued...

Recently I spent the day with one of my granddaughters. She’ll be a senior in high school next year. We spoke of many things, but one stands out in my memory. She told me of accompanying a friend to a Planned Parenthood facility. Her friend’s mother instructed her to go there to get a pregnancy test. I’ll let you hear the conversation we had. “Mandy’s * mother was out of town so Mandy asked me to go with her.” “Why didn’t she get a pregnancy test at the drugstore?” My granddaughter shrugged. “Her mom wanted her to make sure t ...continued...

Introduction I set about to clean out Mother’s house. In the spare bedroom, I opened the antique cabinet and drew out a stack of memorabilia. Halfway down the pile of old newspapers, I discovered a speckled brown ledger book with ragged edges. It crackled as I opened the yellowed pages. Each line contained a date and a comment on life in the 1880's. It was my great-grandfather Sanford’s diary. The more I read, the more I wanted to share Sanford’s story, rather than bury it in some safe place for another 119 years. The basic story line is true and the hi ...continued...

Buying Stuff Presented @ a KC Writers Group Reader Function I enrolled in a comedy writing class at UMKC in Kansas City a couple of years ago and this is a version of my script that was broadcast on a local radio station. Writing comedy is a difficult venue. I say that in case you don’t think what have composed is funny. Today I’m going to tal ...continued...

As dad reversed mom came flying down wit a bag of snacks for the road. She gave it to me; we said our goodbyes and the journey began. A journey started with fear uncertainty and indecision How rude of me I didn’t introduce myself I’m Yasmin recently turned eighteen and right now on my way to my probable school of higher lea ...continued...

GHOSTBUSTERS …If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? If there’s something weird and it don’t look good, who you gonna call?…Ghostbusters. In the middle of the night my wife, Karen, heard a loud bump. She awoke to see a ghostly figure of a man standing next to the staircase. He was wearing a biker’s outfit with a yellow bandanna wrapped around his head. “Tom,” she shouted, waking me up. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “There is a man standing next to the stairs,” she gasped. ...continued...

Primary Care for Underserved Populations: Navigating Policy to Incorporate Occupational Therapy Into Federally Qualified Health Centers. Murphy, A. et al. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, Vol. 71, Jan 2017. http://ajot.aota.org/article.aspx?articleid=2599871 This article provided information about how people belonging to underserved populations, including minority groups and low-income people, have limited access to much needed occupational therapy services. Using a case example of a federally qualified health center serving American Indian/Alaska Native popul ...continued...

The lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the government, the government should not support the people. (President Grover Cleveland, while vetoing a bill offering financial aid to the poor, 1887) Collyfoxing By coincidence I happened to see a YouTube video put up by Jon Ritzheimer a few weeks back, one of the gang leaders that occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and who is now in jail. He stood in front of a table piled high with dozens of dildos that his detractors had sent. What struck me, however, was the seemin ...continued...