Our Stained Souls

Standard

Our Stained Souls
By Bernadette A. Moyer

change-1

Our shared humanity and yet so many of us have a stained soul, I read posts on social media and my head just spins. I see and hear things on the news about “the enemy” that took a pilot and put him in a cage and lit him on fire to watch him burn?

The person they claimed is the “mastermind” behind the attacks in France is on video and states that “dragging humans” behind his vehicle is more fun than the feeling of skiing or driving snow? And I can’t begin to imagine the female who is seconds away from self-exploding and calls out “help me help me” so she can take other innocent people with her.

These people are without a soul …

Then I read social media posts that state you can’t be a Christian and a Republican at the same time? Or that we should take or shouldn’t take Syrian refugees … the argument as to why we should and why we shouldn’t? Yet I see homeless people here in our country and veterans who served our country who don’t have a job, or a place to live or food to eat?

We want “blood” we want people to pay for their crimes in an almost inhuman way … that somehow a “prison sentence” will make all of Jared Fogle’s victims new again? It won’t, it won’t take their pain away it won’t restore them. I have zero sympathy for what he did and know all too well the many ills and the numerous challenges that the sexually abused will suffer. He is sick and needs treatment.

What happens to the cities that become flooded with illegal immigrants? Who will house them, feed them and employ them? Who will pay for them to be here? We have numerous soup kitchens in our city that literally have lines of people; men women and children waiting to receive their only hot meal of the day. They come needing food and needing clothes and needing care.

I watched “Black Lives Matter” and it would never have occurred to me otherwise? Except that I know for a fact that the large majority of the homicides currently taking place in Baltimore city are black people killing other black people?

And I am sorry but this college thing … if you are paying for a school you pick one that is in keeping with your values? We vote with our dollar, don’t we decide where to send our kids and where we will go for an education?

So when I see Towson University “sign a pledge” that came from the black student population, I think weren’t you already including all people? Was there discrimination going on there?

Our President went to other countries and bad mouthed almost half of the population here in the United States? Doesn’t he realize how bad that makes him look? He is the leader of this country and takes a crack at the opposing party of the country where he presides while on foreign ground?

There is so much anger in the world today, people are frustrated and dismissive and so quick to take a side? We are fighting mad but unsure what to do with our frustrations and anger?

There is a large sect of people that want “free” healthcare and “free” education, we ALL know it is NOT “free” who is supposed to pay? Pick up the tab? Even the insurance providers can’t make it work and they are the most motivated because it is their business, and yes people health care is a business.

Where is our value system? Do we hold the same value for what was given to us compared to what we ourselves worked for? When I was a kid the 10-speed bicycle that was given to me at Christmas was stolen while I was playing tennis with a friend. I threw it down and never locked it up when I returned for it, it was gone. The next bike my parents made me save for it and pay for it myself, it wasn’t near as nice but I took much better care of it because I was the one who paid for it.

Today’s young person seems foreign to me; they have demands and expectations that don’t jive with real life? They want FREE everything and even “safe zones” and to govern words that can’t be used because they are hurt by them?

I can only share what I learned in my lifetime, to the youth of today with your never ending “list of demands” toughen up! Life is not easy, you will be challenged, you will see and hear things that you don’t like or approve of … that’s life.

Get a soul, your strength comes from within you and not outside your body, getting along with other people means that you just may see things and hear things that aren’t “safe” and words only hurt you if you allow them to hurt you!

When your soul knows who you are and what you are all about … and when you are developed and matured you will easily brush off words that you don’t like and you will create your own “safe zone” in life. You can’t expect other people to give you everything without your willingness to work hard. The things you work for you will appreciate more.

If you want “free” work hard so you are in a position to be the giving one … I’ve known many successful people and I know them all to be generous and to be givers. And most don’t need to be asked or told to be generous.

If you are unhappy in the ways of the world, rather than “demand” change, how about being the change that you wish to see in this world? It starts with you. It starts with a soul, a soul that refuses to become stained by those that wish to breed more hatred; violence and discrimination … become the soul that you want to see in others …

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

Effective leaders know that you model the behaviors that you wish you see in others … it always starts from within … change your thinking and change the world.

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer

NEW BOOKS! Along The Way and Another Way on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

We Are Getting Older

Standard 
We Are Getting Older
By Bernadette A. Moyer

IMG_4628 [3074260]

Yep! It is a fact of life we are all getting older. I first noticed this “age thing” when I looked at new drivers and was like “so they let 12-year olds drive now?” They just looked so young to me.

Then I noticed it with my lines in my face, tougher skin and less smooth hair. I was showing signs of aging.

You know all that crap about your parents how they looked, how they aged and acted and now it’s our turn, ugh!  I find I have more patience but less tolerance, if that makes any sense? I know what I want and I am willing to wait for it and I know what I won’t tolerate and will just as quickly dismiss it.

My new “decision basing lens” now goes like this, “I am going to die one day and so I am doing it, or getting it or going there.” If I want it I go after it, I am getting older. People have died my age. My parents died age 76 and age 78 so it looks like 77 could be my number?

Regardless I learned a long time ago, “life is for the living, live it!” One day I will be gone from here and a memory to some and nonexistent to others. So all this self-induced and self-created drama I am not playing. I wasn’t into it when I was younger and I sure as hell won’t be tolerating it now … I’m getting older!

I still have my little girl laugh though and I still have my faith, aging has not touched these areas of my life.

Because I am getting older, I turn more things off and more people are tuned out. If the news is all bad, I don’t allow it to sap my natural high and energy and just like people that bring zero-net gain to the table. Sorry, life is short and my choice is to be with people that make me think and make me dream and make me want to get closer to them.

I still have that natural curiosity; I want to know everything about the people I care about. I think I might have become my grandmother on this one, she would sit you down across from her and usually her opening line was about “your people” and “where did they come from?’ Oh no I used to find that invasive and now I am getting older and aging and I do it?

Where I may have an open heart like a child I have the wisdom that comes with aging … I know who I am and I know what I like, what I am willing to accept and what exactly needs to be discarded.

Earlier today I heard from a reader who read one of my most popular blogs, I didn’t write it for the sake of popularity I wrote it because it was my experience and it was what I learned. I wrote about my faith and this guy tried to challenge it.

The younger Bernadette would have “walked right in” to that argument, discussion and debate, but the older Bernadette was like “who cares?” You have your opinion and I have mine. It isn’t my job or my desire to recruit you to my thinking and/or to try and change your mind.

I suspect someone pointed out my blog to him and he felt “guilt” his words not mine. Lately I write many political blogs for a particular site and I get pretty beaten up there, years ago it would have bothered me, today I am like; well I am getting read and generating a response, good enough. You see I am getting older, we are all getting older!

I no longer care who agrees with me, the far worse outcome would be 1) not being read at all and 2) no feedback or comments. I mean even a negative comment is better than no response at all, I got him to feel something, as I age that is good and good enough.

Selfies, we are living in a time when taking “selfies” is the norm, I am just as guilty as the next but the truth is that it isn’t that I think I am good looking, it is because I am changing, I am getting older and it shows. Lines on my face, eyes that aren’t as open, face that seems to be puffier and I could go on and on … I am getting older … we are all getting older … those photos document now before later arrives. And “aging” arrives all too soon, I ‘ve learned …

“Oh mirror in the sky, what is love? Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail through the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life?” from “Landslide” by Stevie Knicks

I still want to be wowed though, I still want to get excited, do new things, and see new people and new places, so maybe I am really not that “old” after all?

What I know for sure is that I am going to die one day and right here and right now … I want to live and I want to learn and I’ll take this “aging thing” over the alternative …

We are all getting older, maybe not such a bad thing after all …

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer
New books! Along The Way and Another Way on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

Health Care … In My World

Standard

Health Care … In My World
By Bernadette A. Moyer

“America’s health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system>” Walter Cronkite

We have done absolutely nothing to address the real problem with health care; it is the costs, period! There is no reason on the face of this earth that an aspirin administered in a hospital should be billed for a few hundred dollars? And this is routinely done.

That ambulance ride that drives less than 3 miles is costly at over one thousand and two hundred dollars and it is because of all the risks associated with transporting and administering care. These costs are not just about the salaries of the trained staff but they are about the need to pay medical malpractice insurance premiums.

It doesn’t matter if it is Obamacare or any other type of medical insurance; we have failed to address the root of the problem, the high cost of health care. Much of the costs are driven up by lawyers and their lawsuits and by insurance on the hospitals and all the doctors, nurses and such.

Catholic hospitals always accepted patients and it was not about their ability to pay, if someone, anyone showed up at a Catholic hospital and needed care it was administered because that was what they believed was the right thing to do and for them, what God would have wanted them to do.

Insurance companies continue to get rich, medical coverage is lessened and medical insurance costs are increased and we are still buying it!

In my world everyone would have access to health care even the homeless and those without an ability to pay. I would build free clinics and create services and jobs and this would be afforded the same way that most nonprofits are run. The money would come from donors, appeals, grants and fundraisers.

“If you build it, they will come.” President Theodore Roosevelt

The VA has clinics but sadly like much of our government run programs it is not run effectively because the people in charge are not of a business mindset. Today the most successful nonprofits have learned to embrace some of the principles of running a successful business.

I do not believe the current insurance providers for medical care in our country the United States of America have the best interest of its people at heart. It is the insurance companies that are winning and getting richer and the people being charged outrageous premiums for even lesser coverage that are losing … and continuing to pay these high costs for healthcare has literally done NOTHING to address the real problem.

When an insurance company decides what is covered and needed over the doctors who are medically trained, we have already lost …

And what about “dental insurance” that caps out at $1,000 or $1,500 a year, how much work can you get for that minimal cost? Very little and many people according to my dentist have opted out of dental insurance and would rather just pay their dentist directly.

So many people are confused by the current medical insurance options we are all facing and few people really understand it, so what got better for us? When politicians decided they were the “gate keepers” for our medical insurance needs? And decided what we needed and helped to increase the costs also deciding that their insurance was different from the majority of people?

If the insurance plans being offered are not good enough for our President and our politicians they shouldn’t be good enough for the rest of us either.

Having said that no one in this country should ever have to go about without their medical needs being met … and in my world all people would have medical care. There is another way … there is always a better way and another way …

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer
NEW BOOKS in 2015! Along The Way and Another Way of
Facebook-20150823-015913

To Know Someone’s Heart

Standard

To Know Someone’s Heart
By Bernadette A Moyer

“If you want to know someone’s heart, you have to know what breaks it.” President George H. Bush

During a recent television interview with the elder President Bush part of the discussion was about a child they had that passed away as a toddler. I can’t imagine the pain that is associated with having a baby and seeing that child suffer and then ultimately die as a young toddler. It almost seems too cruel to even imagine.

When asked about this loss and the heartache the former President replied with the above quote. For days now I have reflected upon that statement as we do learn so much about another person by what breaks their heart. We all have something and/or someone in our lives that with their loss could literally break our hearts. It could be our mother or our father or a dear friend; it could be a spouse or even a child.

Losing a child is probably the most unnatural loss of all as a child truly represents the future, and comes far too soon for anyone to truly conceive.

In the last day I have received two lengthy e-mails from people that only know me through my writings. It is a common occurrence for me to receive these kinds of messages. They write to me because of the loss and heart break they are experiencing because of an estranged child.

This is where their heart lives as the parent of a child that they loved and raised and who has ultimately decided to delete mom and dad from their lives. To parent any child is to know the depth of your own heart.

“Making a decision to have a child – it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart walking around outside your body.” Elizabeth Stone

I don’t believe we truly understand the depth of our ability to love until we birth a child. There is absolutely nothing else like it!

Then there are other loves that also show our hearts. A very dear friend is mourning this week just a year ago her longtime friend of over 4-decades died of cancer. She was just mid-50 with a husband and two sons and grandchildren. I see my friend who is brokenhearted and I see her heart. She has the capacity for love.

Losing a love does reveal many things about us; it reveals how we carry on and how we face what comes next. With any heartbreak we grieve the loss. Our broken heart humbles us and it opens us up in our vulnerability.

One of the greatest gifts that we share with others is when we share our loves. To truly know another we must know where their heart lives and for most of us that includes our family and our friends. It includes the people that matter most to us.

When someone passes on or leaves us it does not mean that we still can’t enjoy and feel the love that we shared. When I see a clock and the time is 3:33 I think of my old friend and mentor Ed who died many years ago, I smile and I say a prayer. He liked those numbers and played them often in the lottery.

And when I catch a clock at 2:41 the time of day that my daughter was born I instantly say, “God Bless her wherever she is and whatever she is doing!”

Today my heart lives most closely with my husband and our son who is still at home with us and our two precious pooches. Like most people I also share my heart with a close knit group of friends and my writing is where my heart lives.

I no longer allow my heart to live in the past as I have learned that love is a living thing, it is okay to reflect fondly on past loves but to stay there is to be stuck and to cease moving forward. To seek more love and new love we must be willing to take the steps that are ahead of us while letting go of what was behind us. Easy to say and often difficult to do.

We all know that to love is to risk loss and yet without love we cease to live. To really know someone and to really know ourselves we do in fact need to not only know about our hearts and their capacity for love but also what breaks our hearts …

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer

NEW BOOKS! Along The Way and Another Way on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

lost_love_facebook_cover_image

When Your Holiday Season is Shaping Up to be Less Than Norman Rockwell Like

Standard

When Your Holiday Season is Shaping Up to be Less Than Norman Rockwell Like
By Bernadette A. Moyer

“Tis the season!” For some people and some families the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are wonderful and a time for cheer and for celebrations!

And for other people it may be a time of dread. Recently I read a social media post that stated “wish I could just fast forward to January” they knew they would struggle with the holidays and with their fractured family.

Sometimes the dread comes from a job loss or an illness or a death in the family. Many adults with children feel extra pressure to provide a “magical holiday” experience for young children on a very tight budget. We see images on television and in our stores of abundance and an expectation that we can and will all afford these celebrations.

Truth is some people just can’t do it, they can’t keep up because of their finances or because of their grief.

What we need to remember is that although the holiday season is often dubbed as “the most magical time of the year” this isn’t necessarily the case for every single person.
Some people actually suffer from the “holiday blues” and for them this could be the saddest time of the year. Even in families where it appears to be “Norman Rockwell” like, it isn’t always perfect!

I’ve had absolutely great holidays and I have had a few where I just wanted to pull the covers over my head, go to sleep and wake up when it was all over. One year I had no family, no money and was starting all over in my career and at this time I had a little girl that was counting on me to make it special.

Another year just months earlier we experienced a child estrange and this could have potentially thrown us all into a holiday funk, but it didn’t.

The first sad Christmas I ever had I vowed it would never happen again and that year I made food, we went to the first screening of a newly released film playing in a local historic theater. So by 9:00 in the evening we were snug in our beds. The next day I woke up refreshed and stronger for the experience. That year was the bench mark for what I never wanted to happen again.

The years of the recent estrangement we changed all traditional holiday plans and headed to Key West. According to our son it was “the best Christmas ever!” Christmas day we were sitting on Smathers beach taking in the hot sunny weather. Not at all traditional for a gal born and raised in the Northeast but still a happy holiday!

You can and you will get through the holidays and I am convinced that the sad ones are designed to make us appreciate all the happy ones. I also believe the sad ones serve as a shake-up that it just may be time to try something new and different for the holiday season.

Remember not every person out there is happy and having an easy time of it. Holidays bring about past memories with family and friends. Some for happy memories and some may drive home for us our lost loved ones.

Tips for Handling the Holidays Alone

1) Don’t pressure yourself, go with your own flow!
2) Take in the FREE sites, shopping malls and heavily decorated areas may make you feel better.
3) Grab a coffee or a meal out, learn to be alone and to be okay with it.
4) Churches have all kinds of Bazaars and cookie sells, support them and take home a few treats.
5) Volunteer at a hospital, or food kitchen or pet rescue center.
6) Go to the public library and stock up on must reads and films to view.
7) Write! Write letters, cards, poetry, notes, express yourself!
8) Contribute a toy for Toys for Tots or other meaningful charity.
9) Go see a new movie, a new play or a live concert.
10) Gather with friends and family and people that love you!
11) Make new traditions and travel.
12) Don’t want to be in the public? Pamper yourself.
13) Stock your refrigerator with healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables.
14) Take long hot bubble baths.
15) Get your music, books and movies stacked up and ready to that when the holidays arrive you have your entertainment at your fingertips.
16) Sleep! Often when we are sad and depressed we are lacking proper rest. Give yourself permission to sleep it off.
17) Paint a room or engage in a mini home improvement project.
18) Do something productive, the end result will make you feel better.
19) Make cookies, make food.
20) Can’t afford to travel? There are amazing television shows and archived libraries that have travel destinations recorded for viewing, imagine yourself there!

No matter what is going on in your life and what circumstances you find yourself in this holiday season, just know that this too shall pass. Sometimes a down year is just what we need to inspire us for the next year. Not every holiday season is going to be “the most wonderful time of the year.”

Count your blessings, find gratitude in what you have, focus on what you have now and not on what has been lost and you are sure to find the holidays as peaceful as they can be. And if this is the holiday season that grief prevails, remember that grief can be a gift.

You can and you will make it through the holidays …

Grief teaches us many life lessons and tears are the shedding so that the old can be let go and the new may be embraced. After the rain, the sun always returns and so often shines even brighter!

The holidays are coming, so what is your favorite holiday movie? Or your favorite holiday music?

For me, I love the movies; The Holiday and The Family Stone and for the classic movies; Irving Berlin’s White Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life. And for Christmas music I enjoy Aaron Neville’s version of Such a Night and when Bing Crosby teamed up with David Bowie for Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Remember 2016 is a new year and a chance for all that is good and wonderful, believe!

Feel free to share your story by writing me at bmoyer37@aol.com and “like” my page at http://www.facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer

This article is Included in my new book titled; Along The Way at Amazon and Barnes and Noble

47217-Thanksgiving-Dinner-Table

Pen to Paper

Standard

Pen to Paper
By Bernadette A. Moyer

writer

What motivates us to write to actually sit and put pen to paper? What motivates us to get in front of our computer and use our words to express ourselves?

How often are we motivated by a feeling? We write that angry letter when a business we trusted fails us or that glowing letter of recommendation when we are looking to help someone get ahead in life. We write about what we know and about what we love. We write our story and we share our experiences and our struggles and our joy.

Many times as an author I have been asked to speak. In 1998 when my first book came out I was immediately interviewed by our local television station. That same year I was asked to be a part of an author event. I was mortified.

The author line up was impressive with a local celebrity who was a television sports anchor, a well-respected Christian author, a couple of others and me. I asked to go first since I had such anxiety and the least amount of experience of anyone on the list.

I will never forget my opening line as it was a huge hit and I have used it over and over again. “I write so I don’t have to speak and yet here I stand.” I said. And the group went wild with laughter.

Recently I had two new books come out and now I am booking events. At some of these events I will actually have to speak to a crowd. To do a reading or to talk about why I write and what inspires me to put the pen to paper.

My son the artist told me that for him and his artwork “it starts with a pencil; it always starts with a pencil.” And then when he is satisfied after erasing and changing he uses ink to outline and it becomes pen to paper for him as well.

When I first started writing I always wrote with a pen and paper, it was a personal experience and writing on the computer initially felt less personal. Today I still use pen to paper often, but not all of the time. I have several “writers” programs that make the computer so much more efficient.

I have been around many songwriters through the years and they are all about “pen to paper” jotting down their words and sometimes the notes. It is so personal when we use our hands and bring our words together to bring our thoughts to life.

Personal cards and notes are always more special than mass produced cards and notes. It is kind of like a homemade cookie versus a store bought one. The store bought cookie might be great but there is something special and organic and more personal when it is made by hand and with love.

Our words are our signature, how we express ourselves and even our style of writing comes across in a much more personal way when it is actually our hand using a pen and bringing it to paper. One of my favorite authors is SARK and all her books are handwritten with colored pencils and printed by hand and not with cursive writing. Part of her appeal is that unique look that she has created for herself that is undeniably SARK. It is her own personal style.

My first instinct is always to jot it down to bring that pen to paper … for this writer that is what makes it so real and so personal and made with heart and soul and with love. So here is to all those who create and bring that pen to paper …

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer
Two NEW BOOKS! Along The Way and Another Way On Amazon and Barnes and Noble

IMG_5749

Life and Death

Standard

Life and Death
By Bernadette A. Moyer

Well it’s not life and death, is it? That was my line which used to be my litmus test in every serious situation and most often it wasn’t life and death. So that was the first screen used to diffuse the situation.

Is it “life and death?”

Over the summer a longtime friend from my real estate days when we became Realtors and real estate partners in the mid-1980’s learned that she has breast cancer. Her decisions now are based on “life and death” as her first series of radiation and chemo did not rid her of the cancer. Now she is facing a double mastectomy.

The last time I saw her was at our beach property as she was going out on the dock and onto her family boat with her husband and adult children, their spouses and children. She was so happy. She told me about her new business that she owned and was operating. Every single year we receive their family Christmas cards complete with the entire family photo.

She was living the dream! Then one day she was literally stopped in her tracks now making life and death decisions. She is humbled, asking for help and for support and facing a serious next leg of her life journey.

A few days ago our Governor here is Maryland made statements stating that during all his chemo treatments for his cancer, how he was inspired and repeatedly listened to Tim McGraw’s song; Live Like You Were Dying.

“When that moment came that stopped me on a dime, And I spent most of the next days, Looking at the x-rays, And talking ‘bout the options, talking ‘bout sweet time” (Live Like You Were Dying, Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman)

I think most people, myself included, live like we have an endless amount of days ahead of us and yet we all have a limited time here. Unless of course death and an illness or other tragedy hit us and then we think about our “life and death” decisions.

Death is the ultimate teacher, the one that forces us to look at our own mortality. It is a chance to find our hearts and connect our souls … again.

“And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter. And I gave forgiveness I’d been denying. And he said one day I hope you get a chance to live like you were dying.” (Live Like You Were Dying)

Imagine if we all lived like we were dying and like it was our last days? How would we spend them? What have we put off that is important to us and yet we haven’t taken the time?

Who should we be more loving toward and who needs our forgiveness? I write about it often, my own mantra, “Life is for the living, live it!”

Please pray for my friend Lenore and all those facing life and death decisions …

NEW BOOKS! Along The Way and Another Way both on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer
http://www.bernadetteamoyer.wordpress.com

FOTD82

Everyone Has “A Story”

Standard

Everyone Has “A Story”
By Bernadette A. Moyer

Everyone has a story! We all do! They say, “Writers are observers of life.” Every few months if not every month I hear from someone that thinks they want to write and they have a “story.” They have a story to share. Usually it is about something they experienced and learned from and wish to share with other people.

I think we all crave a “connection” the ability to connect to others and find common ground and share. We are all more alike than not. That is probably why I have a hard time when people do things to others that they wouldn’t want done to themselves. But that is another story.

When I am approached my answer is always the same, “just write! Jump in and start!” For most of us our “story” is already written we just need to get it down and share it. Often times the hardest part is the jumping off point and just getting started. Most often I find after starting is just flows and takes on a life of its own. It is for me, a truly organic process.

I also ask the same question, “Who is your target market audience?” If you are writing for yourself that is a diary or a journal. If you are planning to write your story and you wish to share it with an audience, who is that audience? What group of people will read your written work? What do you wish to accomplish by writing and then sharing?

Most everyone can relate to someone else and their experiences. We are not alone. There isn’t something that has happened that someone else hasn’t already experienced but the difference might be how we handled it and what we learned from it. Can we now inspire another person with our writings and our story, our life experience?

I have also heard it said that you need to have a certain amount of life experiences that most often come with age, until you really have something to write about and that is worthy of sharing. I always encouraged my kids to write. Many times they would ask me, “But what should I write about?” I always had a list that I could just rattle off things like 1) what is feels like to be a twin 2) what it feels like to know that your birth mother died and you never got to know her? 3) What you had to do to become an Eagle Scout 4) baking your first cake 5) first dates and the list goes on and on.

We all have “a story” and we all have something we can share. Stephen King wrote a book years ago titled, On Writing that I found helpful. I also used to read books about marketing your story and your book. There is no greater high for a writer than to be read, to be understood and to have that reader connect. I have often said, “That is my paycheck” when someone reads me, gets me and can connect to me from something I have written and shared.

There is a lot of healing for many people in writing, I, myself included and everyone has their own form. I think of it as an art form, the way we express ourselves and how and what we share. Just like an artist with a painting. That art makes you feel something and it is an expression from the artist. Writing to me, is that same experience. It should make you feel something.

So here is to all the writers out there that have a story to share, my advice, just write! Jump in and just get started, you never know where it will lead until you write it! Write!

http://www.bernadetteamoyer.wordpress.com and http://www.bernadetteamoyer.com
New Book! Along The Way available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer

cropped-facebook-20151023-033636.jpg

My Maryland!

Standard

My Maryland!
By Bernadette A. Moyer

Some of the best things about Maryland is that we have it all here, literally known as “America in Miniature” because so much is here in our 10,460 square miles of land and water. We have the ocean and we have the horse farms and we have the best crab cakes you will ever eat.

Our state is diverse with ethnic groups of every origin. Maryland is also called the “Free State” because of Maryland’s long tradition of political freedom and religious tolerance. There is money here and part of Maryland is so close to Washington D.C. that many end up living here who are involved in politics.

Annapolis Maryland is the capital of Maryland and the county seat of Anne Arundel County. And Annapolis is known as “America’s Sailing Capital” and home to the United States Naval Academy.

Marylanders are proud of their home grown corn and tomatoes. The annual Preakness is held here in Baltimore for 140 years now and is the second leg of the Triple Crown after the Kentucky Derby and before the Belmont Stakes.

Baltimore City, Maryland is the home of the professional baseball team with the Baltimore Orioles and with professional football in the Baltimore Ravens; we have two state of the art stadiums with Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Stadium. Oriole Park recently won yet another award as the #1 baseball stadium in the league because of its design.

The Inner Harbor in Baltimore City continues to be a tourist destination with a water taxi system and paddle boats among other water vessels. The views from Harbor East include beautiful homes, walkways, docks, piers and boats.

Little Italy retains its “old world charm” with many fine Italian restaurants, pizzerias and bakery. The brick sidewalks and tight little streets are home to several Catholic Italian festivals every single year.

We are not without great theater and museums either with The Baltimore Lyric Opera House, The Walters Art Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art. Currently the series VEEPS and House of Cards is being filmed here in Baltimore. Classics movies like Diner, Tin Men, Cry-Baby … And Justice For All and many more have been filmed here in Maryland.

Today there are currently 55 colleges and universities in the state of Maryland. Top ranking schools like University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, Towson University and Goucher College are not just home grown favorites but draw students from across the country and internationally.

We have really good hospitals here too with Johns Hopkins Hospital, University of Maryland Hospital, Mercy Medical Center, Kennedy Krieger Institute and the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and others. People come from all over the world for Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Maryland has been home to many famous people like Cal Ripken Jr, Michael Phelps, Jada Pinkett Smith, Toni Braxton, David Hasselhoff, Edgar Allan Poe, Montell Williams, Linda Hamilton, Tom Clancy, Frank Zappa, Barry Levinson, John Waters, Frank Perdue and others.

But it really is about the everyday people that make Maryland so special, people that have that balance of pride and humility and most have a desire to succeed and to do better for themselves and their families.

My husband was born and raised here; he has lived in Baltimore City and now resides in Baltimore County. After 35 years he retired from the City of Baltimore. Like most native Marylanders he is proud of his home teams in the Orioles and Ravens and a huge fan of both teams. He is Maryland through and through.

Me, I am a transplant from Pennsylvania but have called Maryland “home” for over 32 years now. We are well travelled and we have flirted with moving out-of-state but truth is that my Maryland is our Maryland and we are happy here and then again why wouldn’t we be with a tagline like “America in Miniature” we believe that we have the best of all worlds and we have it all here in Maryland!

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer
NEW BOOK! Along The Way available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Photo by my friend, author, artist, photographer, beloved teacher and
fellow Marylander Rus VanWestervelt

Facebook-20151018-111140

A Snap Shot

Standard

A Snap Shot
By Bernadette A. Moyer

It’s that wonderful time of year again when all the trees are changing colors and the air is crisp and clean and you just want to enjoy the outdoors and take it all in before winter weather arrives.

I walked to our corner mailbox to drop a few letters inside and at the mailbox I looked across the street and witnessed one of the most beautiful orange leaves on a big tree that had turned colors. The sun was streaming through it. I wanted to capture the moment and grabbed for my cell phone as I stood there and clicked away at taking a few pictures.

At this same time a lady from our neighborhood walked by with her dog and said, “Oh wow taking a selfie at the mailbox for Happy and Chipper?” I laughed and waved her off as my husband had just appeared to pick me up since we were headed out together for the day.

Then I quickly turned to her and said, “No selfie actually look at that beautiful tree, that tree was what I was taking pictures of …”

Sometimes we see something and we think we know what we are seeing when in fact our snap shot view isn’t correct. We presume to know.

Recently we went on a trip out of town when my son sent me a picture of the house and front yard. I thought he was showing me that he cut the grass. My response was “good.” Little did he know that I missed the message, or did I know at the time he was showing me that the contractor we hired had come by and installed new hand rails.

I totally missed it. What my son was sharing was not at all the snap shot that I had in my mind. Sometimes we totally miss the picture and in doing so miss the message.
We are often so quick to glean our own conclusions that we totally miss what is actually happening. We think we see something that we totally missed and in our snap shot view we may get it wrong.

One of my favorite phrases is “suspend judgement” wait until we have the total picture before coming to any conclusions. What we think we see in a “snap shot” moment just may not be the complete and total picture, and it may not capture the entire story …

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer
NEW BOOK! Along The Way available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Facebook-20151018-071343