Posts Tagged ‘ Role models ’

Dreams and lessons

May 21, 2010
SHEEP

Crossroads readers will know that Carol Mason is a new friend. Our introduction is a lovely triangle. I live in British Columbia, Canada. She lives in New South Wales, Australia. A mutual friend in Western Australia introduced us. In this guest post you’ll see why we clicked. Recently a 16 year old Australian girl,...

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Not in our school

May 12, 2010
GunnHS

A Gunn High School teacher got wind of Westboro Baptist Church’s plan to picket Bay Area schools. The “church” is the virulent anti-gay movement headquartered in Kansas and headed by extremist Fred Phelps. Their Web site is so hate filled I’m not even going to link it here. Look it up if you want...

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A launching pad, not a prison

May 9, 2010
Mother in early twenties

Single mothers were rare among my circle of friends in Twin Falls, Idaho, but I was lucky. I got the best. Mother was a good teacher. Here are four of her lessons. 1.  Decisions have consequences, for which I alone am responsible. I hit the “terrible twos” at the age of three. Until then...

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Digging deeply in memories

April 29, 2010
Joyce Holm

When we left the movie theatre last night, I couldn’t talk for an hour. I love going to films, but they usually don’t hit me in the solar plexus—or should that be soul-er plexus?—the way this one did. The movie was Crackie, a Canadian production filmed in Newfoundland. Mary Walsh is a natural as...

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A Good Day

April 20, 2010
Steindl-Rast

It’s the love in his eyes and voice that bring a lump to my throat when I look at his online photograph or listen to the video below. Brother David Steindl-Rast is a Benedictine monk with a knack for making time-worn concepts seem fresh and new. Theologian Henri Nouwen describes him this way on...

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If you only had 37 days…

April 5, 2010
Smithsonian Institution photo

Between his diagnosis with lung cancer and his death, Patti Digh’s stepfather had just 37 days to live. The searing process led Patti to ask what she would do if she had only 37 more days. It was a tough question. As she says in an interview on Evolve, “The school lunches still need...

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Celebrating love

March 28, 2010
Eva

On February 11th, Eva Dien Brine Markvoort recorded the last video entry for her popular blog (see below). Six weeks later, on March 27th, the 23-year-old lost her long battle with cystic fibrosis. Eva invited the world along on her journey. In her first entry, dated July 15, 2006, she was honest about her...

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Days Like This…Words of Gentle Tolerance

March 25, 2010
Tolerance

When I was a child, I was fortunate to have loving adults like Mr. Brolly in my life. The warmth of this four-minute animated film from BBC Northern Ireland brings them to mind. I caught courage from them because they cared enough to share their wisdom. Today families are pressured to teach their children...

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When we find our stories, we find our path

February 26, 2010
Chicken sculpture

Stories are valuable precisely to the degree that they are for the moment useful in our ongoing task of finding coherency in the world. ~William Kittredge, Owning It All (1988) When I left Rochester, New York, to move back to Seattle, one of my last storytelling events was an evening of stories with the...

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The Rainbow Lady’s Legacy

January 26, 2010
Dee Dee Rainbow

“The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask. I have shed my mask.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea Dee Dee Rainbow shed her mask. Rainbow-striped eyelashes, flowing rainbow clothes, rainbow makeup, rainbow jewelry,...

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