Nothing harder then a Mother's Grief

Water at the Pier (Joshua's favorite beach) photographJHM©08All rights reserved

Today s somewhat of a teary day for me as it would have been my son Donovan Perri's 37th birthday had he lived. And tomorrow would have been my son Joshua Marion-Roi's 34th birthday.

So I am somewhat teary today as I need to be still and grieve. Donovan died at 2 months of SIDS and Joshua drowned at age 7. I am as ok as one can be but still there is the anniversary grief.

Joshua who lived longer I knew would have been a wonderful man. He was already at a young age, smart, funny, adventuresome full of life. His favorite song which he always sung with a lisp was Wild Things. He loved the movie Star Wars and was physically very strong with powerful legs and used to when I was in college go in the weight room with the football players and work out as much as a 7 year old could. He had been a good swimmer but the water was so cold when we jumped in to pull him out. He had his frog in his hands when he died.

My son had gone into my landlady's unprotected pool to check on his frog when it happened.

I saw the best & the worst of people during that time. The football players were sadden when he died, the firefighters & paramedics wept when they could not revive him. The school and my landlady manuever things quickly so they would not have to take responsibility for their negligence. I received horrible letter from people who did not know my son or me telling me I deserved this and yet at the same time it was one of the largest turnout for his funeral. People still today speak of memories of Joshua. It weren't a lot of people who have fond memories of him.

Donovan though only 2 months old was a sweet baby.

Joshua died Nov 12 and his ashes was flown out to sea on my wedding anniversary Nov 22nd which ironically was also the day JFK was assainated so it is always there. Donovan died on January 15th which is the MLK observation. So the reminders are always there.

Joshua was the spitting image of his maternal great-grandmother, grandmother & I except a boy. My grandosn Chance and granddaughter Mea looks like him.

No mother should ever have to lose a child let alone two and no one should ever say to a mother to get over. There is no over to it. But you find a space and a place to put it so you can go on living, loving & find a new way to have peace

I wrote this poem about them a few years ago:

Gardenias and Lilies
©01

I have gardenias and lilies to enfold you…

And relish in fragrant clouds girdling us, more composed then an early morn …

In the temples of Tunisia.

Or the cooling caverns of Carlsbad.

Memories more vivid then the complexions of Santiago…

Kuba…

At the zenith of Zaire.

So are my memories of that tempo…

While we were still at once…

My mind’s eye wanders and receives…

The heart expanse follows my North Star.

My yearning strains…O Wandering Moon!

Splendid, glorious orbs emanating a sumptuous blaze!

On a backdrop…So deep and rich.

While I desire to be…I forget not.

Those twenty years of nights…Of thine to me.

I kneel in Rosas Blanca…

Amidst a silky canopy.

Intertwined redolent reflections of gladness…

And long ago sadness.

To know my sorrow is to declare…

Missing you...

Missing you…

Missing you.

And the flowers would weep indeed!

For the life I threw away was one I needed to.

But not you…

Never you.

As my sojourn reconvenes…

I’ll take shards of you with me.

And leave crystal fragments of me behind.

O cultivates the fruits of your yearnings.

Placing the harvest in an urn…

Marking it Graceful Manners.

I have, please,I recalled placing in a special vase…

All recollected musings.Keeping it safe with supremeness…

And leniency…

In a vial of gardenias and lilies…

That will forever more..

Always reside with you.

All rights reserved JHM© 10-14-01

Last Dance on Moon's Great Adventure

As I've been mulling over the last few days as to how I will write about the adventure I had been on the last few months with all the wonderful and sometimes not so wonderful stories, events, people and characters along the way I find that it would be too much to write about all at one time.'

So I will along the way as I am entering the "Walking on Air" phase, I will be reflecting back on the last 4 months. I experienced much,learned how to travel pretty lightly yet in style, had my resovoir filled up with love,& caring by many folks who have truly had my back loving me warts and all, been able to move relatively quickly from the parasites, carpetbaggers and leeches who showed themselves from what and who they are extending mercy but knowing I do not need to sit down & have grits with them and along the way gained some wisdom & experience.

And more importantly have found me wherever it was I had left her.

So in true Moon form I am starting with the last first.

I posting a letter written by on the producer Tyler Perry as I thought his words were absolutely inspirational. As a fellow New Orleanian, this amazing young man has accomplished a remarkable way. If any of you have ever read his story and what he's come from to where he is is truly astounding and an example in "they said it couldn't be done, but did it anyway" He is one of those he shouldn't have been able to do it & you would think people would have been uplifted by his accomplishments.

But in true fashion there are always naysayers, hence the reason he wrote the letter. I especially like his remark about "After you’ve done all to stand, stand some more" and his (after he commented about his favorite Bible character Joseph, whose brothers sold into slavery for having dreams "Dream another dream. If one thing fails, try something else. Learn from your mistakes and try it again. So what if it got hard for a season, it will only be that way for a season". I hope you appreciate it as much as it moved me.

The timing for me to get and read this was impeccable since I am leaving in the next few days to embark on a whole new life and time with $20 in my pocket. I only cite this as I was laying there last night realizing I am going to have to do this, but trusting that I will be alright. I am not different from a whole lot of people who are starting new lives, not starting over but because of the climate of the times have to do things differently.

In a few days I am departing to start a new life somewhere other then where I've been. When you have to throw things overboard in order to do what needs to be done is not a easy task to decide which is the most necessary and needed or as someone once told me "not everything that is urgent is necessary and not everything that is necessary is urgent" .

I know I am on the right path and just have to see it to the final conclusion or as Mr. Perry said "After you have done all you can do to stand, stand some more". Now here it is in his words... Nothing has been altered. These are his words:

Everybody Is Not Happy For a Dreamer

Thursday, October 16, 2008

By Tyler Perry

"I’ve been reading a lot of messages on the message board about how the opening of the studio affected you. Some of them brought tears to my eyes, and what has stayed on my mind is that so many of us have stopped dreaming. Listen to me, having no vision is death to your spirit. Why stop dreaming, because one of them didn’t come true when you thought it should? Why stop now? You’ve come so far. Listen to me, when I started building this studio I wasn’t thinking about being the first black person to do it. I wasn’t thinking about how many acres it is. I wasn’t thinking about what it would feel like to own it.

I was just following a dream. I am no different from you. If you can make your mind line up with your spirit, man, and your dreams, then your dreams will become your reality. It has to. It has no choice.

Now hear me here for a moment, if you will. I know that a lot of different kinds of people from a lot of different backgrounds and faiths read this email, but I want to share something with you, if you’ll indulge me for a second. One of my favorite stories in the bible is of Joseph. Joseph had a dream and his brothers wanted to kill him for dreaming. Sometimes when you dream you will go through all kinds of hell to see it come to pass.

I used to tell people that I thought I could do plays and movies, and when I would tell them they would get mad at me, talk about me and eventually try to discourage me. When I started to do plays in the beginning things started to fall apart and these same people would laugh and say things like see, "I knew you couldn’t do it." Where am I going with all of this you ask?

Well right now in these times in our country there are lots of you who are wondering how you’re going to pay the mortgage or the rent, or feed your families. And there are lots of you who have lost your houses and jobs and the very same people that brought over the house warming gifts are laughing at you now. I have been there. I understand the hurt, but I’m here to tell you don’t let it get you down. You know what you say to them? "Sooooooo?"

I admire and respect people so much that have a dream and go for it. Don’t ever lose that go for it attitude because you will see your dreams come true as long as you don’t operate in fear. After you’ve done all to stand, stand some more. So what happens when you had this big dream and it seems to be falling apart? You seem to be losing it…what do you do?

I look to this story of Joseph, and you really should read this bible story. It’s fascinating. It is so parallel to what is going on right now in this country. But this is what happened. When his dream seemed to be falling apart he did something awesome.

The Bible says Joseph dreamed another dream, and that is what I wanted to talk to you about today.

Dream another dream. If one thing fails, try something else. Learn from your mistakes and try it again. So what if it got hard for a season, it will only be that way for a season. I cannot even begin to tell you all the times I failed, but every failure in your life will bring your dream closer to you. I know that sounds crazy but it’s so true. It’s okay to fail, now get up and keep dreaming. Don’t stop dreaming because you may have lost something. When I was doing plays for the first time, my dream was that 1,200 people would come and sell the place out. Only 30 people came. It crushed me.

But I didn’t stop. I kept dreaming.

I believed and dreamed all the way down to living in my car. But I kept dreaming, and when I was at my lowest I would talk to God. Sometimes all I could get out of my mouth was "Jesus help me," but that was a prayer I prayed a lot.

And you know what else I did? I got out and encouraged myself. When I was homeless and sleeping in my car I would hustle up enough gas money and drive down to the nicest neighborhood inAtlanta where there were beautiful homes and I would dream and say "one day." On Sundays, I would go to open houses. I would go to the dealerships and test drive whatever kind of car I thought I wanted. Now I know these are material things but you would be surprised as to what it would do to help you see that all things in your dreams are possible. It’s hard to see a dream come to pass, but if you believe, it has no choice. Everywhere you look you see all of this talk about the economy and gloom and doom.

Turn that mess off. Stop letting that get into your spirit. Tune it out, watch things that will encourage you. Listen to things that will uplift you.

Now this part is to a certain group of people, not to everyone. This is for the people who have been feeling like they are being led by God to do something in these economic times that most people will think is crazy. The ones who may not have a dime but are feeling like something great is about to break free in their lives. You are so right if this is what you’re feeling.

I have a suggestion if you’ll take my humble advice: Have no fear! Only believe! Give thanks for where you are. I know that may be hard to do, but there is a liberty in being thankful. And lastly, give, give, give. The reason I’ve fed thousands of families, paid rent and taxes for the elderly, dug wells in Africa and helped establish churches and built homes for poor families is because I know the power of giving. You reap what you sow. If you want favor from God, sow it into someone else.

God bless you and know that this too shall pass, and you will be so much better when it does".

Tyler Perry

To consist is to persist...

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristole

The Littlest Thing can make a difference

"Overhead" photograph shot in Eugene,Or All Rights ReservedJHM©08

“Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs step at a time~Marked Twain

Every giant leap forward is in reality a series of baby steps. For every major breakthrough you see in your performance, don’t forget all the hundreds of little things that had to happen, day after day, for that to happen. Habits are the basis of improvement, but they don’t happen overnight. The easiest – and most difficult – way to improve your life is to make or break a habit. It’s easy because habits are built one single action at a time. It’s difficult because you need to be consistent. It’s much more of a mental game than a physical challenge. If you don’t see progress right away, don’t be discouraged. In fact, some of the habits you have right now have been a lifetime in the making and repeating. They can be as stubborn as a mule. It might take some coaxing to get them to move.

Say it So quote

"Ambered Light" photograph All rights reservedJHM©08

Don't let your coals go out. Blow on them. ~Author unknown

Nothing from Nothing Leaves Nothing.

Ascending Moon photograph All rights reservedJHM©08

It is the person who has done nothing who is sure that nothing can be done~Ewing

The best way to persuade someone to your point of view is to prove it. While others talk about why something can’t be done, leave them alone with their fault-finding and just go out and show them wrong. This strategy of action works to battle self-criticism too. You may have been born with the confidence to face any challenge, but most of us start off feeling like there’s nothing we can do. You can do more than you think, but if you never try to prove it, you’ll never convince yourself of that fact. Experience is the best teacher around. It’s also the best confidence builder. The more you do, the more obstacles you overcome, the more you realize that anything is possible. When faced with the unknown, it’s a great feeling to know that no matter what happens, you can handle it and find a solution.

Martha Beck's Anti-Complain Campaign

One of my favorite articles that I am now putting into practice. I reread it at the right time in the right space for me to get it...

By Martha Beck

At 63, Minnie is one of the youngest people I've ever met. She sparkles, and not just because she's dressed in a fabulous buttercup-yellow tank top bedecked with rhinestones and sequins. Everything about Minnie, from her laughter to the successful businesses she's created, seems to shine.This radiance didn't come easily. Minnie was once a young widow, grieving the death of her husband and one of her two children. When I ask how she rose from this desolation to her success as a mother and a professional, Minnie thinks for a minute, then says, "I just got tired of hearing myself whine. I harnessed my complaining energy and used it to create a really good life."

This isn't the first time I've heard such a story. While many people spend whole lifetimes complaining, most of the high achievers I know divert the energy of frustration away from complaint and into success. I've tried both paths. I can enjoy a good whine the way connoisseurs enjoy a good wine, but eventually, like Minnie, I get sick of my own petulance. Then I embark on something you might want to try: a "venting fast." It's not for the fainthearted, but it's a powerful way to create a better life.What's a venting fast?On the surface, it's a simple thing.

Here are the instructions:For a period of time, say a week or a month, stop complaining aloud about anything, to anybody. When the urge to fuss arises, vent on paper. Start with the words "I'm upset about." Then describe whatever's bothering you. Think of at least one thing you can do to actually change the frustrating situation. Write it down. If you can't think of any positive action steps, simply continue to resist venting out loud. Eventually, your frustration will increase until you think, "I'm so upset I just want to…" Write down what you want to do.

Do it. Divorce the guy, cuss in front of your fundamentalist sister, put off lunching with the passive-aggressive "friend" until the end of time. If you think that a venting fast requires willpower, you're half right. After a few whine-free days, you'll find that it also requires courage—possibly more than you've ever used. To understand why anyone would put themselves through a venting fast, it helps to know a little about the psychological dynamics of complaint.



All Steamed Up Complaining is as useful for people's minds as a whistle vent is for a teakettle. We use the phrase "let off steam" because frustration affects our behavior the way heat affects liquid in a container. As the level of negative emotion rises, we feel mounting pressure. We can handle this pressure in the same three ways we can handle steam:

Option 1: Explosion Many people try to deal with the hot vapor of irritation by simply choking it back. This leads to behavioral explosions, as you can learn from anyone who's ever tried to be the perfect, unruffled mother, only to find herself locked in the bathroom punching towels and using language that would make pirates faint.Or maybe that's just me.So here's another example:

The nursing staff at an inner-city hospital once told me that although treating drug addicts and gunshot victims was a scary proposition, the most terrifying thing they ever had to face (no offense—I'm just repeating what I was told) was a partially anesthetized nun. Dramatic things happened, the nurses averred, when a holy sister from the neighborhood convent was "going under," drugged just beyond inhibition but not yet to oblivion.

The nurses told tales of physical violence, of naked escapes from the OR, of destructive rampages through other patients' rooms—all perpetrated by brave, godly women who in their right minds never vented about anything.Apparently, even those of us with the awesome self-control of religious renunciants occasionally need to release psychological pressure. You wouldn't want to emerge from an appendectomy to discover that you've decked the entire surgical team with your own IV rack, would you? That's where a strategy of controlled release comes in.

Option 2: Venting The effect of emotional venting is to sustain an unsatisfactory status quo. Most people think the opposite, that complaining is part of an effort to change an unsatisfying situation. Nope. Complaining lets off pressure so that we neither explode with frustration nor feel compelled to take the often risky steps of openly opposing a difficult person or situation. Keeping emotional pressure tolerably low doesn't change problematic circumstances but rather perpetuates them.For instance, Regina is a Mexican-American whose white racist parents-in-law treated her abominably. She complained about this to her husband every day. When I asked why she talked to her husband, she said she was starting an information chain: She would force him to force his parents to change. How long had Regina been employing this strategy? Twenty years. And the effect to date? Nada.

Mike worked for a pompous boss who gave his subordinates little direction and less support. The underlings spent their work hours muttering angry stories and following the soap opera of office conflict. Mike came home exhausted, not from working but from venting. And things at work kept getting worse, not better.

College sophomore Dinah spent hours with her friends ranting about a certain high-ranking elected official, who shall remain nameless. This, Dinah told me, was activism. I said it looked more like passivism—neither activism nor pacifism but an excellent way of feeling intelligent and important without studying.


These venters thought their chronic complaining was "powerful civil disobedience." Actually, it was disempowering uncivil obedience.

By allowing emotional pressure to dissipate without action, these people were able to sit indefinitely in predicaments that pushed them to an emotional boiling point. Now, in situations you don't want to change, this can be a good idea. I was a better mother to my toddlers after a session of recreational complaining with other moms. Having vented about our sleep deprivation, boredom, and longing for adult company, we'd return to the field of battle—er, motherhood—able to focus on the sweeter aspects of parenting. In Minnie's case, venting helped ease the anguish of losing loved ones. Without it, she might not have survived her grief. But even she reached the point where venting felt excessive, like an illness rather than a cure.

Then it was time for Option 3: creating a steam-driven life.


Option 3: Harnessing the Power of Frustration"It is not that I do not get angry," said Gandhi. "I do not give vent to anger." On another occasion he wrote, "As heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world." Gandhi was describing the power of a mind that refuses to vent frustration, channeling it into productive action the way an engine harnesses steam heat.If you want to know how much change this can cause, consider the millennia that humans spent watching vapor rise from their cook pots before a 17th-century genius thought, "Hey, I think all that steam could drive a piston." Et voilà: the Industrial Revolution. A mere 200 years later, people were walking on the moon.

This is the level of transformation that can occur when we stop complaining about our circumstances and begin channeling our emotional pressure into positive action. Look how Gandhi changed the world. He was one of the great peacemakers in all history! Right up until someone shot him!Oh, yeah. That.Make no mistake, a venting fast is risky. Without the option of complaining, you'll have only two choices for dealing with emotional buildup: explosion or positive action.

The first will damage you, your relationships, your life. The second will fundamentally alter the status quo, and the status quo, by definition, resists change. If you follow the venting-fast rules above, you're almost certain to break implicit or explicit social rules that now govern your life.

Prepare to find this terrifying.

When Regina stopped complaining about her in-laws, her emotional steam pressure quickly rendered her unable to tolerate their company. One day, when her father-in-law made a racist comment, Regina stood up and took a cab home. "I was terrified," she told me later. "But I had to do something." The ensuing argument between Regina's husband and his parents was the beginning of overdue but impressive change. Faced with the choice of being respectful or losing their son, the bigots began showing respect.

Mike's story was simpler. When he stopped complaining at the office, he became so sick of his boss and bored with his co-workers' venting that he sought, and found, a job he liked better. The end.Dinah stopped joining in college vent-fests, but her political discontent continued. She'd always been a mediocre student, but the energy she'd been pouring into complaint now drove her to study political science. Diligently.

Dinah is now in law school, thinking up ways to create a just society, rather than simply criticizing the people in power. When she runs for office, I'm voting for her.


I Will Vent No More ForeverIf you try a venting fast and survive, you may find yourself heading in new, exciting directions. You may even decide to do what Minnie did: commit to an entire life without complaining. "I have a rule," says Minnie, smile and sequins flashing. "I'm not allowed to whine about anything I can change. And since I can always change my attitude, I don't expect to find a really hopeless situation in this lifetime."I admire this position enormously, though I don't think I'm quite ready to emulate it. Recreational complaining, the sense of steam leaving those emotional vents, is still perversely enjoyable for me. Maybe someday I'll be like Minnie, who's more vibrant and successful in her seventh decade than most people are in their third. Maybe I'll go on a venting fast that lasts the rest of my life. Until then, my existence will fail to match its potential. But I'm not complaining.At least that's a start.

Martha Beck is the author of The Four-Day Win (Rodale).

Walking on Air..Here I am

I am not sure where I am going with this, but I figure I'll know at some point.

But what I do know is today I am very tired. So tired I want to take my marbles and go home.

No amount of my talking to myself will convince me that it is not time. Time to do what I don't know, but I know I want to go home.

The last couple of mornings as well as randomly this last month or so I had for a moment and overwhelming need to cry, but the tears do not come. People who know me very well, (not the ones who have convince themselves that they know me), know that by nature I am not a crier. It doesn't mean I do not feel deeply and fiercely because I do, i just don't display visible tears easily.

But I have felt urges to cry, wail, moan and weep. This may indicate for me the releasing of something of ready to go to the next stage which entails for me walking on air.

If I am up to it will I have no choice in this matter though we do know there is always a choice. And I can choose not to do it or I can make the move and step.

So I will see where it is I am going because I surely don't know.

What I do know is I am going to whatever it is I am going to do though I don't know what I will do once there.

And if you can figure that out you are a better woman then I am and please, let me know what it is will ya?

Moon

Taking responsibility for your Success

Photograph shot in Durham,North Carolina All rights reservedJHM08

The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.
- Swedish proverb

We all need support from other people. Love, encouragement, words of advice and friendship will help you get through the important stages in your life. When people are in your corner, you feel like taking on any challenge. As important as help from others may be, though, it all has to start with you. If you're waiting for someone to solve your problems, or wondering when someone is "going to do something about that," you may be waiting a long time--unless you look to yourself first. Take responsibility for your own situation and think of what concrete steps you'll take today to help it. If you're going to need help, it's only fair that the person with the most at stake (you) is willing to make the most effort. When someone is pulling you out of a hole and has grasped your hand, you still must take the first step to climb out, or you're just going to be hanging there.

Thanks Sparks People www.sparkspeople.com

Moon-ism : It is not the only place, but the best place. We all have different skill levels, ability, strength and circumstances. It is also about finding the balance between self sufficency and be wise enough to know and ask for assistance when needed. And the one who could assist to do so freely, generously without judgement, criticism and condescension.

Surrounding Yourself with the Right People

" Higher Up" Photograph Cultural Arts Center Greensboro,NC All Rights ReservedJHM©08

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you, too, can become great."~Mark Twain, writer and satirist

It's easy to recognize a perfect candidate for your support team. Just look for someone who has a way of making everyone else around them better: someone who succeeds by developing other people and letting them in on the fun; someone who is genuinely happy when other people succeed. That's the person you want on your side. The pages of history are heavy with tales of the misguided who were proven wrong while insisting something couldn't be done. Why put up with that? Believe in your goals enough to know that you shouldn't stomach people who don't. It's okay if you're the only one who believes in your dream. But someone who truly believes in YOU should help you believe that if anyone can do it, you can.

www.sparkspeople.com

Read in a Chinese fortune cookie

B~llief" photograph Shot in Pontiac, Mi all rights reservedJHM©08

To Affirm it is to firm it

Walking on Air~No one said it would be easy...

"On the Bench" photograph Greensboro, NC Amtrak Station all rights reservedJHM©08

This was a very timely comment sent to me by someone when I needed to hear it most. And I put my 2 cents next to it...

Love the people who treat you right. (Find something good even when they don't)

Forget the ones who don't. (But do no harm)

Know that everything happens for a reason. (Though sometimes the reason don't come to you right away)

If you get a chance, Take it!! (You are now walking on Air)

If if changes your life, Let it!! (I promise it won't hurt...much)

Nobody said it would be easy... (but it is necessary)

How Do You React to Setbacks?

"On the Rocks" Photograph~ Pugent Sound Seattle Washington all rights reservedJHM©08

The ultimate measure of a (wo)man is not where (s)he stands in moments of comfort, but where (s)he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

~Dr.Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights icon

When problems come up, how do you react? Do you look for blame, or do shoulder what you can and try to repair it? Do you throw up your hands and look for an easier way, or do you learn, adapt and keep pushing? There's a lot of talk nowadays about 'personal responsibility'. That's great. But it's usually brought up only in finding fault. It's true that to show 'responsibility' is to own up to your role in the problem's cause. We don't often hear about the other side of responsibility--an obligation to be part of the solution. Even when a hardship is not your fault at all, you can--and should--do what you can to fix it. Your skills and abilities create an obligation that only your character can fulfill.

Thank you Sparks People http://www.sparkspeople.com/

Berea College, Berea Kentucky
Cincinnati Airport
The Square ~Berea, Kentucky

Today is a most unusual day, because we have never lived it before; we will never live it again; it is the only day we have.~ William Author Ward

-Storybook Memories- Beauty in all places

Fall~ SHot at Whole Foods
"Misstep is not a Mistake"~ SHot at Whole Foods in Durham, NC
"In the Clouds"Downtown Greensboro
On A Cloudy Day~ Bennett College Water Tower behind Elon University's Graduate School apartments

Photographs All rights reserved JHM©08

A person is neither whole nor healthy without the memories of photo albums. They are the storybook of our lives. They provide a nostalgic escape from the tormented days of the present.” Patrick Garry

On Track...

" On Track" PhotographJHM All Rights Reserved JHM ©08 Amtrak Station-Greenboro,NC

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”Mahatma Gandhi

Seeing things in a Different Eye

Entrance~ Greensboro Amtrak Station, North Carolina
Benched~ Amtrak Station Greensboro, NC
Light it up~ Amtrak Lights on the Tracks
Southern Rail Map: Greensboro Amtrak Station
" Sculpted Skylight"- Public Art Greensboro Public Library

- Photographs All Rights ReservedJHM©08

How lovely is this?

More Wanderings

Pegasus Public Art at the Lexington Airport, Lexington, Kentucky

You cannot depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus~ Mark Twain

On the Wdge of the Waters-Eno River

Round & Round Wheel -Paper Mill

Reflection on Eno

Water Logged-Eno River-Durham North Carolina

All Rights reservedJHM©08

Another Time ..Another Place

Photographs rights reserved JHM©08

We can’t become what we need by remaining what we are~Max Dupree

I was taken to a place in Durham, NC that I did not know existed last week. And my guide was a mathametician, a colleague and a fellow New Orleans that relocated to Durham after the Katrina Diaster. She found this place with she used as a respite to aid her as she process and healed her life.

The place is called "The West Point on the Eno" with the Eno being the Eno River. And it was gorgeous, peaceful and lush. We walked around and I left her at one point of the river to search and was satisfied in much of what filled my eyes.

One of the things that intrigued me was this old paper mill that was wonderfully intact and as I walked across the brdge and looked around it made me think of the people's whose lives once upon a time was dependent on this simple but complex structure for their livelihood.