My Corner

Monday Musical Memory: Song and Poem for Graduates

Today, I’m giving you a two-for-one special. Not only will I sing a song with a powerful message for graduates but I’ll also read a poem I wrote several years ago that I share with those in my life who are graduating. This year, my niece Ana in Florida and my cousin Darby in Colorado are graduating from high school and college respectively.

In The Sound of Music, the Reverend Mother sings this song to Maria, encouraging her to follow her heart. At the end, the song serves as a background for the family’s escape from Nazi-occupied Austria. When I was in fifth grade at the Arizona State School for the Deaf & Blind, I sang in the school choir, and we performed this song for the commencement ceremony at the end of the year. Ana, Darby, and anyone else graduating this year, this poem and song are for you.

Graduate

Go out into the world–never look back.
Reach for the top–always look forward.
Aim as high as you can.
Dream as big as possible.
Use your mind, heart, hands,
and know you can do anything.
Trust your instincts.
Energize your life.
***
What do you remember about graduation? Did you receive gifts from family and friends? Were you in the school choir that performed during the commencement ceremony? What song did the choir sing?

My Books

My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds

That’s Life: New and Selected Poems

How to Build a better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver

We Shall Overcome

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WRITER’S GRAPEVINE MAY 19, 2019

Tell It to the World Marketing offers a variety of services to authors and businesses at reasonable rates. This week’s issue of its newsletter is packed with information about upcoming and available books, a review, and more. You can follow the blog to receive this weekly publication plus other posts. Enjoy!

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Song Lyric Sunday | “Nightshift” – Commodores

I no longer participate in this challenge, but I can’t help re-blogging Felisha’s response to this week’s prompt, “time.” The song she’s featuring was popular when I was in college. It’s about being up all night, something I’ve never liked doing, even when I was in college. Maybe that’s why I decided to become a music therapist. They don’t usually work night shifts. Stay tuned tomorrow for more music and memories.

Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear…

This is in response to the Alabama legislature’s decision to ban abortions in the state unless the life of the mother is in danger. Rape is one thing, but when a woman chooses to have sex, not realizing or caring about the consequences and decides to end the life of an innocent child, that’s wrong. Life is precious, and birth control isn’t always effective. Babies don’t choose to be conceived or born, but unless the life of the fetus and/or mother is in danger, every fetus deserves a chance to live.

Stevie thinks Alabama’s male legislators need to be educated about what it’s like to be a woman with an unplanned pregnancy, but if anyone should be educated, it’s young people. The message they should be given is this. If you’re not ready to start a family, don’t have sex. If you get pregnant accidentally, either raise the child in the loving environment he/she deserves, or find the child a good home. If my mother decided to have an abortion in 1961, I wouldn’t be here.

Now that you know my view, read Stevie’s post. Then, you can let us both know what you think.

Stevie Turner

Alabama’s State Senate approved a bill by 25 votes to 6 to outlaw abortions in almost all cases except where a mother’s life is at risk.

The senators who approved the bill were all men. Surprise, surprise ….none of the 4 female senators backed the bill.

I felt quite angry when I read this on my BBC News app. Why are these men interfering with women’s rights? In my opinion a woman should be in control of her own body and have the right to terminate a pregnancy if she so wishes. Men have no idea of the thoughts and feelings a woman might have towards an unwanted foetus growing in her body. If men could give birth, how would they feel knowing there is an unwanted baby growing inside them, maybe due to rape, that they will have to curtail their career to bring up, and possibly also suffer…

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Thursday Book Feature: Our Souls At Night

Our Souls At Night

by Kent Haruf

In Kent Haruf’s last novel, published posthumously, Addie, a widow, is lonely after the death of her husband. In desperation, she asks her long-time neighbor, Louis, a widower, to spend nights in her bed, keeping her company. Their relationship blossoms from friendship to romance amid gossip from people in the small town where they live and despite their families’ objections.

From the beginning, this author takes us directly into the story with little description of the setting. As the story progresses, we learn about our main characters’ lives through dialog instead of paragraphs of narrative back story. All this make Our Souls at Night a sweet story about two people finding happiness in their older years. The ending, though, leaves a lot to be desired.