Quotable Thursday

George Eliot 19th Century Woman Writer
"from a painting by D'Albert-Durade,
made when the novelist was thirty years of age

"Yes! Thank God; human feeling is like the mighty rivers that bless the earth; it does not wait for beauty—it flows with resistless force, and brings beauty with it."
---George Elliot, Adam Bede

This is for all the women writers I know. Pam of Teratali Reiki and Counseling, this is for you too. This is also for the Women's Blogger Directory of which I am a part. We are women hear us roar!!!!

Today I am posting a quote I recently saw that expressed how I feel about expressing feelings. As you can see, it comes from a writer from the nineteenth century. She was a brave forerunner for the women who are now commonplace as authors. Yet at the time she wrote it was highly unusual for women to be well known authors. She lived from 1821-1881 and during that time she constantly challenged the accepted mores for time in which she lived. In this biographical information we can see why she might have written this about feelings.

Unfortunately, George Elliot whose real name was Mary Ann Evans/Marion Evans, was unable to write under her own name. In fact there was a controversy over her first novel, Adam Bede. Impostors tried to take credit for it. When it was revealed that she had written the book all was solved.

There is more about this fascinating author, but I have to get to my guest author. So that is all for this post. Please see the following post to learn about Cynthia Polansky and her writing.

In the meantime, I'm so glad that people like George Elliot came before us and women no longer have to disguise their own identities to publish major works. I don't think she has been paid enough attention by modern writers. I do remember reading Silas Marner in high school and not really appreciating it. If I had known that George Elliot was really a woman I wonder how much more interest I would have had in it.:) Come to think of it my teacher never told us it was written by a woman or else it just didn't sink in, which is probably because I was so bored and didn't pay attention.:)

Quotable Thursday and Apologies for no Guest Author

Salmon Rushdie

I thought we would have a guest author today, but that has not happened yet. So since this is Quotable Thursday I will leave a quote for Pam from Teratali Reiki and Counseling here. My quote for the day is from Salmon Rushdie:

"A poet's work is to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep."

- Salmon Rushdie

I am sorry that we don't have the guest author as planned. It is a matter of internet kris-cross. I sent her the questions, but unfortunately though she returned the answers, they got lost somewhere in the outer reaches of the internet where email goes to die.:) I have no idea where it went, but we are planning for next Thursday. So please come back for the interview. In the meantime I will be giving you more information about Cynthia Polansky and her writings.

In the meantime I am a member of a group called acewriters and today I was sent an email from one of the group, Betty Butler, who is an extraordinarily good poet and has actually been doing an angel's work for awhile. She has allowed me to post her poem and the story that goes with it. She had me in tears by the end of the story. Here it is:

A TheraHarpist's Prayer
by Betty Butler

As I dedicate my life this day


To the service of all those who come my way


Let my music, my words, my voice be a start


To touch each one with healing of their heart.


When at last the day is done,


If I've helped someone, just one,


Let wisdom, joy and peace fill me,


And rejoice that it was done as if to thee.

(c)2000 Betty Butler
Healers Of the Heart Theraharpist (TM)

Now here's the story. Warning: Read it with tissues close to you. You will need them.

Betty Butler on Inkwell, Inc.


A Fragile Life

My regular station is Friday afternoons from Noon to 3 at the Hospice here. I had just finished my "shift" and was just finishing my last song when the Firemen noisely brought in a comotose patient on a stretcher and her social worker followed close behind. The social worker ordered me to follow them to the patients' room to "help the transition go better." I complied. I played several songs while they transferred her to the bed and they left the room. The social worker motioned for me to follow her into the hall.

The social worker said she was going out of town for the weekend and that I was now "it." I told her I was a grief counselor, not the case worker, and that I left at 3. She said, "well you can't now, you have to stay and be with her until the end. It will only be an hour or so."

I explained I had a school age child getting off the bus in 20 minutes and I had to be there to meet her. The charge nurse came to mediate and confirmed my situation and that if anyone was in charge it would be her. I went back into the room to get my harp and said out loud, "I have to go home for a little while, but I will be back to play more music for you."

When I got home I found my front door wide open, the dining room table had jewelry box drawers upside down, and the den double french doors swaying in the wind pulled off their frames. I ran to my harp room, my other harps were safe. Then I ran out the back door to my neighbors to call police and then wait for my daughters. The next four hours were consumed with police, house searches, drama, and my guys having to board up doors until the next day. After dinner my husband had both girls under his wing and he asked why I was acting so agitated since the house was barricaded. I told him I wasn't frustrated about the robbery and our wedding rings being stolen so much as I felt I was breaking a promise to my comotose patient. He said, "She doesn't know you aren't there, but if it will make YOU feel better, go."

I got to the hospice at 9PM. The charge nurse smiled and said, "She hasn't died yet. She's waited ALL this time just for you. She should have been gone hours ago." This woman was ancient, only 80 pounds and had already outlived family and two of her lawyers!

I went into the dimly lit room, sat next to her bed and bedside table. I whispered, "Lizel, I am back. I will play some music for you and you can relax and breathe easy now." I played for ten minutes and there was no change. Then I noticed the bedside light was burning hot on my right arm but I didn't want to shift away from her. As I brought my gaze back to her, she had rolled over on her side in fetal position facing me, not laying out straight. I continued to play every song I knew, some improv. At ten till ten she straightened out on her back and let out a big sigh. Intuitively I began to play 'Till we meet again.' She sighed again and there was a smile on her skeletal face, showing huge teeth! Then her mouth closed, her face muscles relaxed and tears were coming down the sides of her eyes. (I've learned in my hypnotherapy work, this is a natural relaxation state for tears to release, this was not tears of joy or sorrow.

I matched my chords with her breath. I started watching the clock, the inhales were a minute apart. About ten o'clock the inhales were 2 minutes apart. I sycronized with her, and pulled long resonating chords (G) at each intake breath. Then at 12 minutes after ten I noticed it had been 3 minutes since the last one, I turned to look at her face and she was indeed gone. The room was now very cool, the lamp didn't seem hot at all, my arm was very cool as was I, there seemed to be a light breeze like the air conditioner but this was winter. I continued to play for another 20 minutes. Used Healers' of the Heart(tm) naturally .. most often..thanks Cyndi.

When I walked out to the hall with my harp and case the two nurses at the charge station were crying. They said, "thank you for playing for her. We don't get time off to go to patients' funeral and there won't be one for her since she leaves no one behind. So you actually played her funeral service here for her. We loved her so much and you gave her that gift."

The charge nurse came down the hall with her arms wide open. She took me in a hug and said, "Thank you for coming back. She waited for you. You did the right thing all along. God bless you for k eeping your promise, for her and for us."

If ever that was pay back, that far exceeds any hard cash... this was heart cashing in.

{Copyright Betty Butler, MA, NCC, CMP, CHt Healers' of the Heart(tm) Outreach Grief Counselor, Hypnotherapist, EPEC trainer (Educating Physicians On End Of Life Care) 2006}

Check out this article about Betty in "Latter-Day Woman". You will see why I call her an angel.:)

If you are in need of grief counseling, please email Betty:

bbutler102000@aol.com

That's about it for now. Thank you to my readers and any new readers who happened to visit here. Again, no guest author today due to the irregularities of email and the internet. Sucks doesn't it?:)

How Can a Saying From Confucius Help Teachers?

I have so much to talk about that I will probably need to make another post.:)

First of all I missed Quotable Thursday on Pamposh Dhar's Teratali Reiki and Counseling. So here is my quote, which I found in a book called Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It by Kelly Gallagher. Being a former teacher you can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can't take the classroom out of the teacher.:) I like to imagine being in a classroom and teaching my way. This author and I think alike. It's refreshing.:)

"Learning without thinking is labor lost; thinking without learning is dangerous."

-Confucius

Mr. Gallagher starts his book with this quotation and I believe that this is exactly what is wrong with our country today. Many people were taught too much without having a chance to do any thinking about it. They went through school and learned some facts and connected them to where their teachers told them to, but teachers didn't have enough time to go into any of the areas in depth. So if these people didn't go to college where they might have dealt with these subjects in a deeper fashion, they have these unrelated facts in their heads. Add this to the fact that some people have certain beliefs that they just know are true. They have basically learned without thinking and later in life they have thought without learning. All thought needs to be combined with learning or you have basically dogma, which is a belief that you have on trust. People who have been taught to accept everything they learn without thinking about it will of course believe everything that anyone is thinking without asking for facts to back it up. Here we have in a nutshell the reason why even though Bush was basically the antithesis of what anyone would consider presidential, he still had thirty per cent who approved of him. This explains why people will accept the idea of Creationism.

Have you ever noticed that once you have learned about something you want to learn more about it? Humans learn by making connections with something we already know. The more you know about a subject the easier it is for you to learn more about it. We gain more connections by looking at things in different ways or thinking.:) Thinking is a necessary tool for learning. It helps us to examine what we are learning in various ways so we can find all the connections to ourselves that we can. The more you feel connected to what you learn the more you will want to learn it. If only some teachers understood this concept the educational system would be turning out fantastic students. Instead they are forced to push learning into kids like you would feed a reluctant toddler. Actually, when people are open to learning it is the easiest thing in the world to teach them.:) One example is any advanced class that you have taken to get a license or for an upgrade in pay. The people you are with are interested and interacting with the teacher for the most part. You wonder why this kind of interest is not seen in high school classes. The truth is that an affinity group that has a stake in their own learning is not an unconnected class of adolescents who would rather be texting their friends or on their IPods or playing Wii than be in that class. They don't see the carrot at the end. :) Maybe it would be a better idea to give them more motivation to learn than good grades. Just a thought I had and all from one quotation from Confucius.

What does everyone think about this? Sorry no interview or highlight this week. I will highlight someone's fantastic blog on Monday. Have a great Friday!! It's Memorial Day Weekend so enjoy the rest.:) More on my next post! Out-Numbered has led me to yet another great discussion. I can't wait to tell you about this new place that I've found and the discussion on this woman's blog. But that will be my next post tomorrow, which is really today now.:)

I Discover the Koto

Anthony Trollope

It's "Quotable Thursdays" over at Teratali Reiki and Counseling and here is my quote for today:

"Of the needs a book has, the chief need is that it be readable."

___Anthony Trollope (April 24, 1815 -December 6, 1882)

I have to say that many books that people have raved over have not been readable to me. That is my main criteria for reading a book. If I get through the first couple of paragraphs and I can't understand or don't like what I'm reading I don't usually get the book. In rare instances, when the reviews have been fantastic, I will slog through boring or over-detailed writing to get to the rest of the book. It has usually been worth it with my favorite authors. But it is rare. Of course, readable has two sides. Who is say that what is readable to me is readable for you? So readability is strictly someone's opinion. That's why there are so many different publishers.:)

I'm hoping that when I send out my novel again that one of those publishers or agents will find my book "readable".:)

So I'm hoping everyone had a great Mother's Day. My apologies for not putting up a blog sooner, but I was hoping for more comments and questions for the last one. After all I'm offering a book from my own collection as a prize to the winner of the drawing. So far it's only going to be three or four people. Come on guys, you still have a chance. Go over to to the last blog and leave your comment.:) I'll hold off until Friday for all of you late comers to do it.:)

A Koto - the national instrument of Japan

On Sunday I had the pleasure of celebrating Mother's Day by attending a recital/concert by on of my family members held at Steinway Hall, which is a domed area inside of the Steinway showroom on 57th Street in Manhattan. Paintings of John Steinway and other celebrities from that era adorn the walls and marble columns make you feel you are back in the era when piano concerts were the norm for our enjoyment.

When you walk in the first thing that you see is an enormous Steinway grand piano that dominates the room. This was so large that I couldn't see the smaller piano next to it, but since there was a duet perfomance at one point I knew there had to be a piano. All we could see, and we were in the first row, were her feet tapping on the pedals and her face and arms. But the music that came from these two pianos was magic.:)

Besides the pianos there was the usual accompaniments to piano, a violinist and a celloist. However added to this group was a young woman seated at an instrument I had never seen. It looked like a guitar set on its back with a wooden backing and legs. It was called a Koto. I couldn't believe the sound of the music that came from this instrument played by a woman who looked like a teenager and who had hands that flew across the strings pressing here and plucking there. She wore picks on the ends of the fingers of her right hand and used the left as you would play a guitar. The music sounded something like in between a harp and a guitar. Incredibly modern at the same time as harking back to much more ancient sounds. Combined with the piano it was one of the most unusual concerts I have ever heard. I am including a video so you can hear and see how this instrument is played.

Okay, that's all for today. I'd be interested in knowing what you think makes a book readable to you. Please let me know and I'll post the answers in my next post.:)

Until the next time, we have to wait one more week to find out about American Idol, but can I say that I let out my breath tonight after my daughter and I sat on the sofa clutching each other's hand and praying that Adam wouldn't be eliminated.:) I can live with Adam and Kris. Both are really good in their own way, but I hope Adam wins. He is awesome!!!!