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 |   My journey through (and beyond) the valley with Cancer as my companion. |
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Dear Friend: This is not a Blog about writing! (I already have one of those.) This is a blog about a journey I am taking with illness. I have recently been diagnosed with Cancer. My goal is honest therapy as I progress through, and beyond this new reality in my life. I hope that, somewhere along the way you will find some words that will help you too. While this is, in fact, an interactive Blog, I hope that you will scroll slowly down this page. For you see, the front of this Blog IS my journey. The entries are conversations that are held along the journey.Yes, there is a lot on it--before actually getting to the Blog entries. But, I hope that by the objects and words which appear before the Blog itself, you might come to understand just a little bit about me, and my journey, and some truly amazing friends who have agreed to journey with me. I hope that you, too, will choose to accompany me on my walk--through the Valley. I invite you to join me, and discover the wondrous truths, meet some truly amazing people, and share those "memorable" moments this journey will undoubtedly present. Come along, won't you? In His Care, ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Would you like to help me help others? I found this amazing organization, and I am proud to be a sponsor. I hope you will check it out. It's called The Network For Good.  ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "RISUS OMNIA - INCRUMENTUS PER DEDECUS - SAPIENTIA PER DAMNUM" ("Every thing is funny - Growth through humiliation - Wisdom through loss") ~Leunig~ The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse. ~Helen Keller~ "If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people." ~Virginia Woolf~ ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "There is strength in truth." ~The Barton Family Crest~ ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” — Helen Keller, American social activist, public speaker and author (1880-1968) I have moved the list of my thanks for those who have helped to make this little Blog so very special. I hope that you will take a moment to read the list, growing every day, and let these fellow travellers along this journey know that you appreciate the contributions they make to our walk together.
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please feel free to click on the Blog Rings icon below to be transported to some of the very best of the Best Bloggers around WDC. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** If you are new to WDC, or to our Blogging community, I highly recommend the monthly edition of "The Blogville News". Feel free to click below, and let Scarlett   know that a Blogger sent ya!Hey! We've started a Christian's Blog Ring on WDC. Click on the logo, and join us! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Budroe
 Ring LeaderI have three publications at the moment. Here is a link to purchase my latest one. Buy a great read, and help a fellow writer out, Okay?  ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Once again, a music moment underlines the vagarities and tragedies of life. Yesterday, in the community of Overland Park, Kansas-a suburb of Kansas City, three people were killed by hate. The attacks took place at a Jewish Community Center, and at a Jewish Nursing Home a short distance away. The last words heard by the killer as he was ranting in a police vehicle about to deliver him to jail was "Heil Hitler!". Two of the victims, killed at the Jewish Community Center, Dr. William Lewis Corporon (A Methodist) and his grandson, 14 year old Reat Griffin Underwood (A Methodist) were arriving for Reat's performance in a singing competition. The third victim, killed at the Jewish Nursing Home, was Terri LaManno (A Catholic), aged 53, was visiting her mother as she did every week. The killer is a very well known White Supremacist, former organizer and leader of the paramilitary group North Carolina Ku Klux Klan, and rising star in the Missouri and Kansas White Supremacist Movements. Identified as "a raging racist, and white supremacist who idolized Adolf Hitler by the Southern Poverty Law Center (and others), he is now incarcerated facing multiple counts of premeditated, aggravated murder. His arraignment is set for today. Sometimes, when we hear of such tragedy, we do not connect to them in any meaningful way. A Grandpa, and his Grandson died together yesterday. A daughter lost a father; a mother lost her son. A mother lost her devoted daughter. Survivors lost their innocence. Why? Because of hate. Nothing more. Here's a short clip of that grandson, singing. [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] Last evening, Reat's mother, Mindy Corporon, spoke at a remembrance gathering in the family's home church in Leawood, Missouri. She identified herself only as "the mother of the teenager killed today at the Jewish Community Center". She thanked those who were gathering around her families, and asked for privacy for their grief. She acknowledged the other victim, as well while admitting she had no personal information about them. This is what hate was forced to confront last evening in, of all places, a church: [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] It never fails to amaze me how people attempt to justify their hatred for others. Or how they act out that hate with such casual arrogance as to believe it is acceptable behavior. Yesterday and last evening were hate-filled times for me that ended with my possibly making a fool of myself about it. If there is anything to learn here, I don't know what it is. There's nothing to reveal that will be earth-shattering or paradigm shifting for anyone. The usual formula is that first, lies are generated for the purposes of hate, and fear. Then with all the casual arrogance possible, propoganda is created to not only justify the hate, but to approve it's general use. Individuals exercising their newly discovered hate then begin experimentation to see if they can get away with hateful acts against those they know, and most especially against those they do not know. Then, hate and hateful acts create their own legitimacy through repetition until hate is normalized within a group, or a community or even a society. That is when the truly abominable acts begin, and people begin to die. Horrific events fully utilizing the most powerful tools of hate: Words and weapons. Hate only wins when we, the observers of it, permit. Fear and hate are illusory, tools for those who would ursurp reason with unreasonable action. But there is some good news, too. Hate doesn't always win. We cannot reply to hatred with hate. The only result from such response is that hate grows. That's the example of Mindy Corporon, a person with some truly powerful motivation to hate. That was not her response last night. It should not by my response today, or our response tomorrow. May all the victims of hate find peace and rest. May we all dare to stand as witness to hate until it has no place in our societies ever, ever again. May we all remain, In His Care, Budroe |
| I have long said that The Holy Bible was God attempting to communicate to His Children, and that music was His Children's way of trying to communicate with their Dad. It's not too often any more when I experience that. Today, I did. My response to it was emotional, and sublime. I hope you will respond to it, too. [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] In His Care. Budroe ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
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