Read this feature from past issues.

Turkey Surprise

Given the title above, you might assume this month's column has to do with cooking. To keep the suspense going, I am going to devote a small portion of it to the topic of actually cooking turkey. The cooking of a full turkey (hen or tom) easily has always eluded me. I have tried the grilling method, which resulted in a lot of smoke and a day full of deciding who was on deck duty in the frigid cold of late November. I have tried the oven method which resulted in a dry turkey and me opening and shutting the oven door nine million times finished up with a Penn and Teller-worthy plan of getting the gigantic juice-encased bird out of said oven. The only method I haven't tried is the deep-frying choice that essentially is a fifty-fifty shot at burning down your house.

The best methods ended up being the Honey Baked Ham route and the buy-a-small-pre-cooked-turkey-breast route. By going the easy way, the more pleasant surprise was no smoke, no tending of turkey, and moist no-fail turkey breast. As we near Thanksgiving, I am already plotting out the easiest way to follow tradition and have extra meat for sandwiches. And, that is the end of the cooking portion of this column.

We live in a suburban area that is called that because we are on the outskirts of a major city. However, there are farms and wildlife abundant all around us. On any given day, the deer walk along the roadway and various other critters dart across the road and stare at us over fences. They usually stay relatively contained to the farms and the woods. In the past month, they have gotten oddly more brazen. There have even been daytime spottings of a fox wandering through our neighborhood.

One of our neighbors got the true turkey surprise of her life a few month's early. She was about ready to let her dogs loose in the backyard when her daughter yelled at her to stop. A flock of wild (and very large) turkeys were strolling through her backyard. They easily outweighed her dogs. The turkeys eventually meandered their way out of her yard and out to whatever field they had come from but it was a definite shock.

The turkeys have not come into our yard but I have seen them before and they don't seem to be the smartest birds. While we do live in the suburbs, it is nearing time for the Elmer Fudd-style signs to be posted stating that a turkey shoot is approaching. I can't quite get past the feeling that the birds can read the signs like the cartoon characters and are just flaunting their freedom.

Because this column is about my children, I am slowly making that tie-in as well. First off, my children are not turkeys. However, I have learned a thing or two from the turkeys' behavior and how I react to my kids. Emily has stubbornly refused to be potty-trained. She is developmentally ahead in every other area. It has strictly been a defiance issue on her part. The more I pushed, the more she refused to comply. The more methods I tried, the more she balked. It finally struck me that it was like trying to find out which way to cook the turkey. The harder I tried, the more times I felt like we both had failed. While I have always looked to cook a moist turkey and ended up with a dry bird, I desperately wanted Emily to be dry.

So, about six months ago, I decided to let it go. I stopped thinking about the other little girls who were obviously potty trained. I stopped thinking about the magazine articles and books promising potty training in one day. I put the underwear away. She wore pull-ups every day and every night. When I wasn't thinking about it, one morning she woke up and put on underwear after she went in the potty all by herself. It was like walking outside to find a flock of wild turkeys on our deck. She hasn't had an accident or regression since. To say I am surprised is an understatement. To say our trash usage and toiletry bill has gone down is a bigger understatement. I asked her why she finally decided it was time to go in the potty. She told me it was because she wasn't a baby anymore. I should have told her it was also because I wasn't a turkey anymore.

Read this feature from past issues.

Lynn Andrews

Celebrate Forgiveness

A man came to Buddha one day saying terrible, hurtful, hateful things to him. The Buddha sat there, smiling and listening.

When finally the man was finished, the Buddha said to him, "Thank you."

And the man said to Buddha, "Why aren't you furious with me? I am saying horrible things to you."

"No, I am grateful," said the Buddha. "I am grateful and I am filled with forgiveness, because it is clear to me that I hurt you in another life. I have been waiting for you all of my life to come and say these things to me in order that I could complete that aspect of my karma, so that I can be totally free. And now you have come to me and closed the circle. We have no more karma, you and I. Say nothing more."

It is extremely difficult for people in Western cultures to understand forgiveness and the laws of karma in the way of the Buddha, a forgiveness that comes out of the understanding that if someone insults you in this life, most likely in another lifetime you insulted that person.

It is, however, as the Buddha said, we are not free when we have not forgiven people for the things that have been done, ourselves included. We also cannot be free if we are not grateful for the opportunity to right past wrongs, no matter how difficult that may be.

Sometimes it seems impossible to understand forgiveness, at all. So often when I work with people who have been deeply wounded, we get to the point where the only thing left to heal is their relationship with forgiveness for what has happened, and they balk. They get angry all over again and don't know how to move off that miserable stump. I understand. They are not alone on that stump. We live in a very angry world.

We have developed such a tortured relationship with forgiveness. Somehow we have come to look at it as akin to saying, "Oh, it's alright what that person did. It doesn't matter. I forgive them." And that's nonsense. No wonder we have such a problem with forgiveness. In reality, what happened may matter a great deal. You may have sustained a real wounding that needs to be healed. If your ego was in some way threatened, most likely it has left you seething inside, and that is something that urgently must be healed. It is a fundamental truth that forgiveness must be reached for there to be real healing. Blindly saying, "That's OK, I forgive you," however, doesn't even begin to address the issue.

I would like to offer a somewhat different perspective
on forgiveness. If you look up "forgive" in the dictionary, this is what you will find: "Forgive: to give up resentment of �."
Stop and think about how truly healing it is to give up your resentment. When you are in resentment, you are in real darkness and it is a dangerous place to be. Always remember this: resentment has a very big mouth. It will consume you if you let it. It will devour your life and everything you've ever dreamed life could be, especially if you follow it down the pathway to revenge. Revenge, finding someone to pay for what was done to you, isn't going to heal you in any way. There may be times when that is necessary, but fortunately we live in a world where there are institutions for just that purpose. So let them do their job. Your task is to heal your wounds.

Focusing on revenge is only going to fuel your resentment. Know this about darkness, the darkness wants you to resent it. It has an even bigger mouth than resentment. It feasts on your resentment. When you are in darkness and resentment, all you are really doing is harming yourself even further.

There is another path to follow, a path that takes you into the light of healing grace. It is the pathway of gratitude. You can't come to the healing grace of forgiveness, the letting go of resentment, until you first come to gratitude.

Being grateful is a celebration of the life force. It is a celebration of light, a way of saying to the Great Spirit, "Thank you for the great gifts of life. Thank you for all of the things that have gone right in my life today," instead of, "Blast the world for all of the things that have gone wrong." You take the focus of your attention off whatever it was that went wrong and you place it on all of the things that didn't go wrong, all of the things that are right in your life. Let that focus open your heart to a celebration of thankfulness to God for the great gifts of life, and allow the healing grace of forgiveness to fill you.

When you focus on what you have to be grateful for instead of your resentment for wrongs inflicted, so often you find that all of the barbs and arrows you feel were shot at you simply fall away. Where there has been real harm, it is only when you let go of the destructive force of resentment that your life can begin to heal. You reverse the feeling of resentment to a place of love, a place of forgiveness, and allow the life force of the Great Spirit to flow into you and heal you.

When I work through resentment with people to the place of gratitude and forgiveness, so often they say to me, "I am still not happy that this happened, but I am so thankful for what I have learned about myself and my life because of it." They realize that they may have never found spiritual growth and contentment without going through what they did.

Make your life about celebrating forgiveness, not fueling resentment!

Read this feature from past issues.

Emotional Eating: The Stress of Emotions

Everyday I read articles or books featuring a means of overcoming emotional eating. At first I was excited about what new tips I'd learn and was quickly disappointed.

Three of the top books on amazon.com for dealing with or overcoming emotional eating are:

Would you believe that not one of these resources on emotional eating has a chapter on how to deal with emotions? Nothing about the cause of emotions? Nothing about how to embrace them or experience them? or the importance of experiencing emotions?

Tons of articles are dug up by google alert that deal with emotional eating and all they provide is old recycled advice (much as the books I mentioned) from the fad diet era.

None of the books or articles recognize that emotional eaters don't eat because of particular emotions, but because of the stress the emotions place upon the overeater.

Yes, emotions are themselves stressful and the old stress management advice, i.e. take deep breadths, practice yoga, meditation, go for a walk, count to ten... just are not effective for 95% of over eaters. Yes, it's all good advice, but very few over eaters actually take the time to put it into practice. And none of this advice deals directly with the stress of the emotions.

For instance, do you like to feel upset? down? frustrated? confused? uncertain? malaise? boredom?
anger?

How about happiness? joy? excitement? love?

Most people say "NO" to the first group of emotions and call them negative and they say "YES" to the second group of emotions and call them positive.

But do you know what you've just done?

You've just voted. You determined that there are some emotions you like and some that you dislike.

Actually emotions are nothing more than different energy levels and it's our opinions about them that make them good or bad. It's our beliefs about them that make them stressful.

It is this stress that contributes to our over eating and makes us emotional eaters.

Even happiness for instance can be stressful. "Don't be too happy, you'll set yourself up for a big let down". Because of beliefs of this nature—and there are many others—that keep us from truly experiencing happiness and thus the emotion is diluted with food.

A progressive approach to managing weight involves asking important questions "What is missing? Why are you not getting the results you've been promised from the books you've read and the experts you've consulted?" It is clearly insane to keep using the same old recycled advice from the fad dieting era when the results are so poor. It's more important to gain a grasp on how to handle emotional eating--eating emotional stress than it is to read the scale. Besides focusing on the scale doesn't empower you to be a better more enlightened person, whereas learning how to overcome emotional eating empowers you in all aspects of your life. If you're a sales person, you'll be a better sales person. If you're an assembly line worker, you'll be a better assembly line worker; a mother, a better mother... Overall, you'll build self worth and find that what you really want to eat is far more nutritious and less in quantity than you ever before imagined possible.

Visit Richard Kuhns B.S.Ch.E., NGH certified, this new year. He is a prominent figure in the field of hypnosis with his best selling hypnosis and stress management cds at http://www.DStressDoc.com and http://www.PanicBusters.com. His aim is to make it possible for anyone to manage emotional binge eating. For more information please visit www.dstressdoc.com/BingeEatingEbook.htm

Read this feature from past issues.

THIS MONTH:
Poetry Corner

Our good friend Robin Hierche is having a poetic conversation with poets, her good friends, Darcie Ziel, David Wiley, Dennis O'Donnell and they have offered to share their exchange with us. "Darcie is far north in Anchorage, I am in South East Alaska, Dennis in Washington, and David in Southern California. We perch on the pacific rim, a perfect magnetic migration from north to south. Connect the dots." ~ Robin

This month's topic:
Transition

Darcie Ziel

	
	
Coming Home

The transition between your skin and
mine

is subtle when we're touching
it's hard to tell who's who
the edges blur and
your inhale or my exhale
with each
and it's not always easy coming
home
even if it is home
even if it is you.
The transition between love and fear
is sometimes hard to sense
when we're far apart
we're far apart
in the same room,
something drops
a word, a little death
transition, and then
something rises
a word, a little life
inhale, exhale
the moment of transition
the line between your skin and mine
love and death
exhale, something rises
the transition
to coming home.

Dennis O'Donnell

	

I am alive
I am a living soul
I bear all my wounds
with pride

I have passed through the arms of jealous death
too many time to survive

I have left all my blackened blood behind
for someone else to fathom

my heart,
shattered to a million seeds

blown from a ripe
dandelion.

I am a living soul,
dancing the sad/sweet dance of mourning
for the birds who understand

for the ones whose soft bodies I see
littered on the sand,

the ones whose bones are invisible,
whose wings are finally spread.

David Wiley

	
	
St. Saviola's Vision

At the corner of the balcony
where she stood,
a set of pale blue wings
budding on her shoulders,
a delegation of parrots came,
yellow green and red flags fluttering,
just as it used to be done
at the head of the army,
and commenced a discussion
of tropical fruit.

she recited the hagiology
of dead souls
from the royal archives
of Bohemia,
saluted the sun as it rose
in a grove of trees,
bowed to a pyramid
on the horizon,
and brushed away
a wisp of hair
electrified by the morning breeze.

Voices tied in knots of color
picked their way through
her immediate visions;
all the roads across the front
were bathed in whitish light.

She summoned the soothing tumult
of a waterfall
hidden behind a veil
of discarded robes,
and with a silent signal
opened a field of flowers.
The little blue wings grew longer,
lighter, more colorful,
as buoyant as wishes,
finer than the universe of leaves,
more perfect than Chaos,
the very stuff of well designed nebulas.

But before she could vanish
from this earthly silliness,
before the parrots could leave
for lunch,
one curtain parted
and another feel,
a bell rang in the wilderness,
and a siren sounded
that made the world stop
just long enough to forget.

David Wiley's poem was previously published in his book Designs for a Utopian Zoo. We have his permission to publish it in LadybugFlights.

Robin Hierche

	
	
a warm wind blows across
the leaves in the trees,
the feathers on the wings of the birds,
and the interface between air and water
creating intricate, enduring patterns
to a sailor's open eye.

I exist along the surface
of the two dimensional bubble
of muscle and bone,
assessing energy,
sweeping polarities,
balancing pulse and chakra.

at that place where being
under tension results in physical matter,
I know what to do---
as the wind knows to fill the sail.

	
the nympholept addresses the zendic

the half moon floats eye high
in a black velvet sky
it does not evoke
sighs or reminiscences
but stuns me
out of time and space,
out of mind and heart,
with natural beauty
in this night sky.

the ripples from your stone
thrown into the mirror pool
of my interior being
are beautiful, not frightful,
though you are trying to scare me.
the tiny sailboat that
keeps my heart afloat 
surfs the waves.

the heart in which love dwells
is not a physical organ,
but is no less difficult to live without
than a kidney, a liver, a bowel.

you will find it odd
when I jump into the flames
of your funeral pyre.

Circumstantial evidence
rooted in the soul  
turns into cement.

I once snagged a fish 
though the eye.
When I took out the hook,
the eye came out, too.
I dropped the line back in
and used the eye for bait.
I caught the same fish,
striking at his own eye.
I am a lot like that fish.
You are a lot
like that eye.

Read this feature from past issues.

THE GLOVES ARE ON:
The Fight Against Domestic Violence
from Danielle Joy Linhart

Domestic Violence is a rising problem each day that you can read in the newspaper on the internet or watch on the news. As I turn my computer on and wait for it to connect and sign on to twitter I see all of the daily posts from the courageous organizations fighting Domestic Violence. When I started posting on twitter I thought of it as sharing information about my book on Domestic Violence and how I can prevent it. I have come to realize that I have grown; look up to and admire what these organizations are doing to help and prevent violence against women, children and teens.

One in particular I would like to share is the International Domestic Violence Memorial.

The International Domestic Violence Memorial project is committed to the prevention and elimination of sexual and domestic violence through: the creation of a community-based art project(s) which would utilize public spaces to raise awareness, provide education, and promote community resources to help eliminate various forms of domestic violence.

Their goal is to create a sculpture in the shape of a lantern that would house four elegant mural mosaics and be comprised of 60 hand-painted panels. Totaling approximately 240 panels the mural mosaics would be lit from within the lantern so that at night the lantern and its paintings would symbolize a beacon of hope. With the help of hundreds of artists from across the globe, we hope to convey a strong message that domestic violence does not only affect one gender or age, but can affect everyone and the only way to stop it is through a strong push towards societal change.

Each panel would tell the story of a victim or survivor and would be accompanied by stories in written form so that those who do not understand domestic abuse will have a better understanding and can help overcome commonly held myths in today's society. Once all of the individual panels have been collected we will compile them together so that they form a larger image that portrays various cultures around the globe who are also dealing with domestic violence.

Once the lantern is complete, it would then travel to various communities and public locations such as streetscapes, museums, and hospitals that could be utilized by surrounding organizations that provide comprehensive services to victims to raise awareness, utilize each exhibit for fundraising, and let those who are suffering know they are not alone.

Prior to being unveiled the lantern will be covered by the Quilt of Hope comprised of hundreds of patches from various survivors and family members of victims across the globe. At each unveiling, local shelters and organizations would be invited to participate so that they can provide information about their services to their surrounding community. Local galleries and business could showcase the artwork of victims who have been affected by violence. In addition, education would be provided for businesses so they can better understand how domestic violence affects the workplace and what they can do to provide safe harbor to victims.

I am so proud to know Nasrin Zoghbia, the founder of the International Domestic Violence Memorial. She herself is a survivor and propelled to end violence against women. Ruby as she is called is a wonderful wife, mother with a strong personality who keeps going daily and I can honestly say that I am lucky to know her.

Ruby has also started the Domestic Violence Memorial Membership as a support system for survivors and for those who want to contribute help to the memorial mural itself. It is a wonderful way to communicate your feelings and talk to others that have been in an abusive relationship. There are also links to get an education about domestic violence and you can also share your story. If you are an abuse survivor I urge you to become a member, for it is truly a bright experience!!

As I continue my journey researching these amazing organizations it will open my eyes even more to see that it just takes one abuse survivor to become a fighter and then another one� so on and so forth. The pain turns into wanting to help those who are getting hurt. The pain turns into wanting to prevent more pain to others. Let me just say this I am right there HELPING.

Until next time� remember be True to Yourself and remember to smile, for being sad can only make the rain fall even harder.

Danielle Joy Linhart is the author of From Deep Within A portion of the proceeds from her book will be donated to LoveIsRespect.org

If you know of a woman who will no longer grace our future because of domestic violence, please send us her story, or your own.

Get information on Domestic violence and violence against women at LadybugBooks.com

We invite any of you to contribute on this subject. We feel it is important to continue the discussion of domestic violence.

Read this feature from past issues.

We are looking for your stories remembering women's history. Send in your story and we will publish it.

Women Exceptional Women are Our History and Our Future:

Women

So many of the women we know in here are exceptional women. Take a look at our regular contributors... They can even outshine themselves, and we thought it was a good time to give you a few quick insights into these accomplished women, at least those who currently have exciting news to share. ~Georgia

First up has to be Marcie Brown...
I met Marcie when she was playing her cello at the same San Francisco book store where we were doing a reading of Women on a Wire. It was obvious that she was an exceptional woman and an exceptional talent. Later, we published her audio book, one of our wonderful multi-media books, in this case music and reading:

Four Part Harmony
a novel set in the world of New York doo-wop groups by Marcie Brown, cellist, poet, and novelist. You can hear her music on Women's Music at LadybugLive and this audio
book is punctuated by music from the group and Marcie's own.

And the update...

This is to let you know that my latest CD, "Butterfly Girl" is up for a grammy. If you are a grammy member, and can vote---you can find it listed under- Field 13: American Roots- and then the subset is Contemporary Folk Album...Butterfly Girl is number 14 on that list. (I know- Contemporary Folk? Hmmm----that's where they put it...) If you haven't heard it yet- you can hear samples at: www.marciebrown.com.

Wow! Congratulations, Marcie!!

Audio host Dr. Doris Jeanette, host of Live at the Edge, Fall Off the World, Come Back to Tame Monsters introduced us to our next exceptional woman, Cindy Lee Berryhill. During her interview Cindy talked about the very personal work she had just released "Beloved Stranger" dealing with her husband who lives in a nursing home.

Cindy Lee Berryhill
Beloved Stranger, music to make you laugh and take action.
Find out more at www.CindyLeeBerryhill.com
See the video of When Did Jesus Become a Republican

Now...
You can hear more about Cindy's life, her husband, her music—In her new blog.

I met Zoe Anne Nickolson at a women's studies conference in 2006. I should have known her sooner.

Zoe Ann Nicholson is the author of Matri, Letters from the Mother, The Passionate Heart and The Hungry Heart ~ A Woman's Fast for Justice. She holds a B.A. in Theology, Quincy University, 1969 and a M.A. in Religion, USC, 1975. Zoe is also an inspiring leader for women's rights. She is the author of this month's Your House is on Fire.

Zoe is also active online and writes an outstanding blog at OnLineWithZoe.com. And, right now...
Host: Zoe Nicholson & Pacific Shore NOW
Location:

When: Monday, October 12, 12:00PM
Phone: 949 642-8295
Zoe Nicholson & Pacific Shore NOW invite you to celebrate the National March for Equality at the most wonderful National Museum of Women in the Arts. We can think of no better place to meet and bring together our passion for Equality. Who knows who that might admiring the painting around the corner?

Be there if you can and if not, pass the word!

Read this feature from past issues.

LadybugLive, Audio, Webcasting, Web Casting

Among Friends

Know someone who might want to be a host at TeenTalkNetwork.com? We have two teens on now and both are growing up fast. The only requirement is that they want to do it enough to stick to a schedule. They all find their voice as they go along. Desiree Nelson is older of our teens—she's in her first year of college this year and she and mom, Linda Nelson, are now cross-programmed to our site at LadybugLive—got a scholarship from Discover in large part because of her program. The other, Rae Quigley is a senior this year and has done several shows on how important it is for colleges that you do something outside the usual. So there are lots of benefits for the teen who can do this, not the least of which is the experience itself. It's a great gig for any teen!

If you are a writer and would like to become a NewVoices author or artist, contact:

Georgia@ladybugbooks.com
Please use the subject title: NewVoices Information

It's Not Your Same Old Radio!

"There are people who have something to say and those who have something to sell. We are interested in the ones with something special to teach the world."

For LadybugLive, TeenTalkNetwork, and MooseMeals to continue growing, we need correspondents and readers. The process is quite simple: submissions are by email. If accepted, a reader calls, either our local or our toll free number as directed in the acceptance email, to record. What will you be recording?

We are looking for: readings of original creative work, comment and commentary, and ideas for regularly appearing programming that can be done within this format. We are not able, as yet, to do direct call in shows, but shows that require listener (delayed) response are OK. All of this, of course, within the same guidelines as everything we do: Of interest to women (no particular restrictions). This format might also be ideal for some of those traditional topics, such as clothing and makeup, with a fresh "twist."

Send ideas and proposals to Georgia@ladybugbooks.com

We strive to bring you the best in women's writing.

And...

Keep up to date on what is happening at NewVoices and LadybugFlights by signing up for our monthly announcements!

We know online radio is new to many of you but we also know how rewarding it can be. So, if you need help to get started, don't hesitate to contact Georgia for help... And, hey! Our hosts love hearing from you!

Our teen site, TeenTalkNetwork.com programming is safe — no porn or other unwanted promotions are attached to our files.

The Internet promised and we are delivering.

New programming is always available at:
TeenTalkNetwork.com
MooseMeals.com
LadybugLive

Read this feature from past issues.

print this article separately

Why Am I Still Alive?

Why do American Express and other Credit Card companies think I am a risk?

Can I afford to live in this neighborhood?

I apologize to you, our readers, for this abbreviated article. This has been an overwhelming month and has terminated in some life altering experiences which raised question that I want to share with you.

Yesterday, Georgia, our Editor in Chief and friend to many of you, was at the epicenter of an accident that took the life of a 22 year old young man. Immediately after the chaos of the accident stopped Georgia called me to let me know that she was sitting at the intersection of the road that passes by our business and intersects with a main East-West highway and that there had been a terrible wreck. I ran over to where she was sitting in her car with a somewhat stunned expression. When I asked her to tell me what happened she related the story and followed it with the question " Why am I still alive?"

Georgia was nearly stopped ready to make a left turn across traffic onto our street. The young man, likely not paying attention, came up behind her at a high rate of speed and made a choice to try and pass her by going off the road to the right. As he passed her car, only a hairs-breadth away, he tried to turn back onto the payment and in doing so his tire grabbed the payment and his car swung in a U-turn right in front of her. It was hit by an oncoming truck. The impact threw his car into the air, flipping it over several time in the air and he and his car passed Georgia on the opposite side from which he tried to pass and landed in a ditch—he was dead.

I can't get the idea of this accident out of my mind and replay her question over and over thinking I so easily could have lost the most important part of my life —just like that!

That same day I listened to CNN interview an expert regarding what and why American Express, Chase and other credit card companies are abusing their customers. It turns out that they watch your shopping and spending patterns and if, lets say, you stop shopping at Macys or other upper scale store and shop at Walmart you raise a flag that you are in money trouble and can no longer be trusted with their credit. They discussed other examples of how these companies make judgments, many times unsubstantiated, that have a major impact on our lives. In particular if you live in small town America. In our case we live in Sonora, a small town with high unemployment which over time caused all of the upper-scale stores to close and leave—because they themselves failed at business (bankruptcy), or due to a significantly diminished customer base. THERE IS NO OTHER PLACE TO SHOP EXCEPT WALMART but is that taken into consideration? There are many more examples of this "reactive" operation, but I am sure you get the idea.

This set the stage for me to think about whether middle-class folks could afford to live in middle-class neighborhoods and own middle-class possessions. After making a list of pluses and minuses it turns out that one or two more attacks by the credit card companies could easily push most of the middle-class over the edge. For example they have gone after many of us by doubling the payments on credit cards for no reason other than they want us to go away and give them back their money that we currently hold at low interest (remember those 3% interest rates if you just would transfer your money to their card?).

Perhaps you would like to share your recent experiences relating to your view of the corporate attack on the middle class. If so, email Georgia@ladybugbooks.com and send us your comments. We will continue to follow this war on the middle-class.

Happy Trails,

B.S.

Read this feature from past issues.

Books, Cooks, Looks & Ms. Elani

Dear Friends and Readers,

none of the above

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
ISBN 978-0-385-34100-4

World War II books can take many forms; biographical, historical, fiction and non-fiction. A recently published one, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows fits neatly into none of the above, yet it is a wonderful historical read about Guernsey Island in the Channel Islands during that period. London is just recovering from the problems brought on by the Second World War and a writer, Juliet Ashton, is fishing around for a different subject to write about in her next book. Never did she expect to find the subject in such an most unusual place.

The book itself is set up as a series of letters written from the various characters the main author, Shaffer, finds to tell her story. The main character, Juliet, receives a correspondence from an unknown person, a Mr. Dawsey Adams, who lives on Guernsey. He had obtained a copy of a book by Charles Lamb that contained her name and address on the inside cover. He writes to ask if she might find the name of a London bookstore where he might obtain more work by Mr. Lamb. Juliet not only sends him the address but encloses a small book of Lamb's letters.

Thus begins a friendship through letters, first between Juliet and Dawsey (and ones between Juliet and her boss about the place) that unravel the importance of the small town of St. Peter Port on Guernsey during the war. Dawsey Adams is asked by Julie to explain the story of a roast pig dinner he mentions in his letter. From the answer she receives her interest in the town grows and she decides an article about the role of the Germans on the island during the war would make a wonderful magazine story.

At her request more and more inhabitants of the island write to Juliet and little known information about the people and their resourcefulness emerges. She must visit the island. Her trip there not only changes her life but helps her understand the importance of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and why it has continued to flourish, even when the need for its existence had ended. Mixed among the letters to island people are wonderful memos to others that Juliet has met, including one very forceful man. By the end of the book the reader not only knows the town of St.Peter Port but could easily recognize any of the people if they were to walk by on any street in most any town.

Read this feature from past issues.

YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE

Invest in Students ~ Invest in Change

Zoe Nicholson
onlinewithzoe.com
FB, Twitter & Youtube name: Onlinewithzoe

Several months ago a rumbling began in the LGBT movement, propelled by the cascade of states ready to recognize the pairing of non-straight people and the shocking loss of marriage equality in California. A few national organizations started talking about a National March on the Mall for Equality.

As we are Americans, everyone had an opinion. Many felt and some still feel that it is not the right time because we are working hard in many states, mostly running on fumes, fundraising, collecting signatures, electing politicians who are ready to embrace that humanity is diverse. Others put their heads down, got the required permits and put one foot in front of another. For weeks blogs, posts, tweets were argumentative, contentious, competitive, mostly questioning the timing or defending a national march.

I never questioned for one moment. To me nothing is as effective, productive, long lasting, transforming as a march. I posted the question on Facebook ~ how did your life of activism begin and everyone who responded said it was a march. From the moment the decision is made, an individual begins planning, thinking, dreaming (possibly scheming) about the march. The three hours of walking and listening to speakers is only the cherry on top of the sumptuous sundae of becoming a changemaker.

Today you can effectively participate in politics, movements, marches right there at your desk or on your couch. You can collect signatures, blog, post, tweet, make calls, reach out through a network of your own design. If you can't go to a march for any reason, you can sponsor someone who can. It is an investment with high yield returns. Gandhi's life would have been entirely different without, Herman Kallenbach and the dozens of benefactors who contributed to the ashram and the campaign. You will be confirming someone's ideals and making it possible to see them realized.

One group that has caught my attention is Students for the National Equality March. Through the spectacular social media network of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, this is a national organization supporting students who have the time, the passion, the character to come to Washington DC for the March for Equality but need sponsorship. In addition, members of Students for the National March for Equality will be posting and tweeting, so you can follow minute by minute. This is the new electronic movement; exciting and unstoppable.

Of course the real payoff happens when that marcher comes home. They are, not just changed, but are now a changemaker. They have found that an ideal, manifest in community, is irresistible.

Happily over 150 organizations have endorsed the National March for Equality and are collecting a force for change. You can find out all about it at www.equalityacrossamerica.org The excitement is building. The District of Columbia is voting on marriage equality, Rep Nadler is introducing a bill to repeal DOMA, Vermont has Hubby, Hubby ice cream to celebrate gay marriage. The country is on the March! I marched in 1968, 71, 72, 78, 80, �. and 2009! I hope you will march with me in person or virtually.

Zoe Nicholson is one of our Exceptional Women this month.

From the EDITOR

Authoritarianism and the Butterfly Effect

I looked up authoritarian and the second meaning is: exercising complete, almost complete, control over the activities of others.

Most of us know about the butterfly effect. It is a physics concept that has caught the public imagination over past years, much as the relativity of time did for our parents or grandparents. The butterfly effect is a shorthand description of the complicated interrelationships between actions and reactions described, originally, in Chaos Theory, which is a mathematical not a philosophical discipline.

Ok, now we know what we are talking about, why would I combine these two?

Like the purported impact of that butterfly, the assumption that there are answers has permeated our consciousnesses, creating absolutism and an authoritarian view of the world. We are, as a society, more and more inclined to believe that there is a right answer for everything from how to raise obedient, smarter, and more beautiful children to how to live forever. Look around you. The assumption that everything can be controlled is everywhere:
It is part of the health care debate. It is central to our society's willingness to go to war and to "nation build"—two very undemocratic concepts—to the extraordinary percentage of our population that is or has been in jail, incarcerated not for crimes against individuals but for defying the defined norms our answers set.

The butterfly flapping its proverbial wings and changing the climate is no longer an image that simplifies a complex concept. It has become the concept and our world is looking for those who can pick out the right butterfly that will change everything. As this process goes forward, it is natural, even unavoidable, that those who seem to have the right answer at any given moment will be afforded the accompanying power. Sometimes that is a bully-pulpit power, but sometimes it is actual power where decision-making about constraints that control behavior come into the mix.

Being right feels good and each of us has a right to our own rightness. As desirable as that concept sounds, it, like any utopian ideal, is not the reality we deal with. Last week I talked about followers and each group of followers, divided behind an absolute that has the weight of a butterfly wing behind it and an authoritarian concept in front, is a potential conflict, a potential war, a potential violation of our very human right to our own world view as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Each group of followers is, by their simple existence, leading us toward forgetfulness which embraces the authoritarian, because we cannot remember our highest aspirations if we are not required to think about them, if all we need do is march in the footprints of others.

There are right now (though this number may change by the time you read this) 340 hot wars on this planet. These days, I'm thinking that bug spray may not be a bad idea after all.

Georgia Jones, Editor

Read this feature from past issues.

At LadybugFlights we have always encouraged the participation of our readers. For that reason we have this space, a place where you can be heard. Nothing as formal as an article or a column... Just some venting, self-expression, or a chance to communicate what you are thinking on almost any topic. Send it to us and we will let you know if we can use it!

We love getting the compliments and when we have enthusiastic readers it makes all of us better writers, but there is a special pleasure in being able to put Mary's comments here... It means that I get to remind you about PeaceXPeace. The extra note about the organization this time is a message of hope in Sixty Years, Sixty Voices: Israeli and Palestinian Women. ~Georgia

Wow, wow, wow, Georgia. What an issue! This just gets better and better.

Thanks for keeping me in your loop. If you have time to read our stuff (like my last feature on the Korean "comfort women" and ever want to recycle anything, feel free. Just let me know!

All the very best,
mll
Mary Liston Liepold, Ph.D.
Communications Manager
Peace X Peace

Read this feature from past issues.

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