Joni Eareckson Tada: Encumbered, But Unlimited

I will admit that I am given over to complaint. I have fibromyalgia and some days I'm in so much pain that I just wander around the house muttering about it. I shouldn't whine: I have plenty of good days and much to be thankful for. Yet, sometimes it's difficult for me to move beyond how lousy I feel.

Then I think about Joni Eareckson Tada, an extraordinary woman who has encouraged millions of people worldwide.

In the late 1960s, Joni was paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident. She was 17 years old at the time. When many people might have given up on their existence, Joni fought hard to maintain hers. Years ago I read her biography and was in awe of her endurance. (Remember, medical practices have come a long way in 40-plus years!) Joni's story was so compelling that books were written about her life and a movie was even made.

More than a decade later, Joni and her friends had answered so many letters from fans and other people who were either disabled themselves or had physically challenged loved ones, that a ministry was born called Joni and Friends. Millions have been touched by this ministry.


Limited edition artwork available for purchase.
Click here for details



But wait...there's more!

During her time in rehab, Joni learned to paint -- by holding the brush in her teeth! There are some days when I can't even hold my toothbrush between my teeth, let alone a paintbrush!!

However, Joni found a way to hone her artistic abilities, and her strong faith is evident in her incredible and beautiful artwork. Many of her paintings have been printed onto greeting cards, note cards,  Christmas cards, and framed artwork.

But the fact that, through her struggles and striving just to maintain everyday life, Joni thinks of others and reaches out to them -- that's amazing to me. Today, Joni and Friends has 13 different ministries which seek to help people learn how to better cope with their disabilities. These organizations also encourage the physically challenged and their loved ones to tap into their God-given gifts. We all have them. Everything is possible with God.

So tell me about your limitations -- or UNlimitations.

Agatha Christie - Queen of Crime

In the realm of female novelists, it would be hard to find a woman of greater achievement than Agatha Christie. After William Shakespeare, Agatha Christie is the best-selling fiction writer in the world, having sold approximately four billion copies of her novels. She is also the most widely translated individual author, with her books translated into 103 languages. Her play, The Mousetrap, is the world’s longest-running play with more than 24,000 performances since it opened in London on November 25, 1952.

In addition to being named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, she collected literary awards the way other women collect bracelets. Her stellar career was long and prolific, encompassing 66 detective novels, 14 collections of short stories, and 14 plays. But did you know she also wrote 6 romances under the pen name of Mary Westmacott? Here are some other interesting facts about Dame Agatha.

· She was born in Torquay, Devon, England in 1890, and never had any formal schooling, having been tutored at home by her mother and governesses.
· During WWI, she worked as a hospital nurse.
· On Christmas Eve, 1914, she married Archibald Christie, an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps. They had one daughter, Rosalind.
· In 1926, after her husband announced he had fallen in love with another woman, Agatha disappeared for 11 days. When she was finally located at a hotel in Yorkshire after a massive national manhunt, she refused to give any account of her disappearance. There has been much speculation on the cause, from hysterical amnesia to an attempt to convince the police her husband had murdered her.
· In 1930, she married archaeologist Max Mallowan and accompanied him on many of his digs in the Middle East, which she used as a setting for several of her novels.
· During WWII, she worked in the pharmacy at University College, London, where she picked up an intimate knowledge of poisons that she later put to good use in her stories.
· Her detective, Hercule Poirot, is the only fictional character to be memorialized in an obituary in the New York Times.
· It took 5 years and 6 rejections before her first book was published.

And my favorite Agatha Christie quote: “The best time to plan a book is while you’re doing the dishes.”

Dr. Jane Goodall

Even at an early age Jane Goodall loved nature. In 1957 she went to Africa for the first time. There she met Louis S. B. Leakey, famous archaeologist and paleontologist. Impressed with her interest and knowledge, he hired her as an assistant then asked her to study a group of chimpanzees in Tanzania with the hope of learning more about our own evolutionary past.

Her first weeks at Gombe were frustrating. The chimpanzees shied away from her, so she had to study them from a peak where she could observe what they did with her binoculars. Her notes revealed many things formerly unknown about chimps. For example, it was thought that chimps were vegetarians. Goodall saw them hunting and eating small mammals. It was also thought that what separated humans from chimps was the use of tools. Goodall, however, witnessed a chimp she named David Graybeard using a stick, stripped of its leaves, to probe a termite mound. When she reported this information to Leakey, he wrote, “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man’ or accept chimpanzees as humans,” emphasizing the importance of Goodall’s discovery.

Goodall made many observations in Gombe that were published in National Geographic, with captivating photos by filmmaker/photographer Hugo van Lawick. As the level of support for the Gombe study increased, the pair was able to build a permanent camp with chimp-proof buildings and to hire more researchers. The Gombe Stream Research Center was born.

Chimpanzees, Goodall found, were emotional creatures, exhibiting both altruistic and violent behaviors similar to humans. She continued to study chimps at Gombe even as she traveled worldwide promoting conservation. Her book, The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, was published in 1986 and documents her 25 years worth of research.

Goodall started as a scientist and made the shift to activist. Today, she is on the road more than 300 days a year. She lectures, meets with government officials, makes television appearances, does interviews, and raises money for conservation causes. Reaching out to young people is of particular interest to Goodall. She views them as pivotal to protecting the planet. She developed a special program, Roots & Shoots, to get young people involved in global issues and to empower them.

Jane Goodall is a true example of a woman of achievement. She has made a difference in the lives of many, both human and chimp. Her energy is contagious. Her message powerful. We can learn a great deal from someone with her spirit.

I wrote my character, Dr. Nivia Charu, in LAZULI MOON while reading biographies of Dr. Jane Goodall. Although, Nivia is more interested in artifacts than animals, her passion was modeled after Dr. Goodall.

Blurb:

Three people search for the legendary Lazuli Moon in the Valdivian Rainforest.
Two of them will find a treasure they never expected.
One won’t live to see another day.

Archaeologist and professor Dr. Nivia Charu can’t let the Lazuli Moon remain hidden forever. With her teaching position threatened and no funds for an expedition, Nivia fears the blue diamond fabled to have healing powers will never be unearthed.

Physician Dr. Benjamin Forrester wants to cure his uncle’s cancer. His attempts at manufacturing a remedy, however, have failed. Desperate and out of options, Ben needs a miracle, and Nivia may just hold the key.

Up against a crazed boat captain and ancient curses, Ben and Nivia join forces to seek the Lazuli Moon. What waits for them in the depths of the rainforest will either make them famous or kill them.

Download LAZULI MOON today!

Chris

www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com

A spunky Iowa girl: Carrie Chapman Catt (by J L Wilson)

I thought I'd spotlight an Iowa girl for my first post this month, and a Minnesota girl for my last post. Iowa is my new home (and my old home: I grew up here), and Minnesota was my adopted home for 20 years. I'll talk about Justine Kerfoot in my last post, a woman who awed me when I met her and who remains a legend of the Gunflint Trail.

But for now, I'll talk about Carrie Chapman Catt. Like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, CCC was an advocate of equal rights for women and the ratification of the 19th Amendment. I did a lot of research about CCC for a time travel book that I plan to write (whenever I get the time: how ironic!)

CCC was fascinating to me because she did  a lot of campaigning -- hands on campaigning, taking a train "Out West" on a propaganda tour. It's that train ride/tour that figures heavily in my book (again: once I get the time to write it). She also helped organize the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, she founded the League of Women Voters, worked on committees that examined issues about child labor.

What motivated a girl in the 1880s to go to college, working her way through school by washing dishes and teaching? She was the only woman in her graduating class, a rare accomplishment. She became the first woman in the nation to be appointed a superintendent of schools. She later traveled to San Francisco and became the city's first female newspaper reporter, then she returned to Iowa to be a professional writer and lecturer.

When I think of women like this, who bucked convention and followed their hearts (and consciences), it's amazing to me. Are today's young women up to the challenges of the future? I'm not sure. But I suppose my parents (who endured World War II) had the same reservations about my generation, the Baby Boomers. Were we up to the challenge of the future?

I'm not sure ... I suppose only time will tell (there it is again, that pesky reference to 'time')

Maya Angelou: Global Renaissance Woman -- Vonnie Davis

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope. -- Maya Angelou 

Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential female voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker and civil rights activist.

She was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928 and raised by her grandmother in Arkansas. During her young years, Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture.

As a teenager, her love for the arts won her a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco's Labor School. At the age of fourteen, she dropped out to become San Francisco/s first African-American female cable car conductor. She later finished high school, giving birth to her son a few weeks after graduation. As a young single mother, she supported her son by working as a waitress and cook, however her passion for music, dance, performance and poetry would soon take center stage.

I believe that every person is born with talent.-- Maya Angelou

In 1954 and 1955, Dr. Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. She studied modern dance and later danced on television variety shows and, in 1957, recorded her first album, Calypso Lady. In 1958, she moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, acted in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks and wrote and performed Cabaret for Freedom.

In 1960, Dr. Angelou moved to Cairo, Egypt where she served as editor of the English language weekly The Arab Observer. The next year, she moved to Ghana where she taught at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama, worked as feature editor for The African Review and wrote for The Ghanaian Times.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. -- Maya Angelou



During her years abroad, Dr. Angelou read and studied voraciously, mastering French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language Fanti. Soon after her return to the United States, she became the Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership conference. After King's assassination, with the encouragement of her friend, James Baldwin, she began work on the book that would become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

The list of her published verse, non-fiction and fiction now includes more than thirty bestselling titles. A trailblazer in film and television, Dr. Angelou wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the 1072 film, Greorgia, Georgia. Her script, the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Dr. Angelou has received over thirty honorary degrees and is Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University. She's been a shining example to many women, no matter our race.

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! -- Maya Angelou

Back in the nineties, I was a non-traditional college student at Penn State. One day, I was in the library showing a young student how to do research when the student, Erin, spied books by Angelou. "Oh, I love Maya's poetry," she oozed. When I told her I'd never heard any of her verse, Erin pulled a book from the shelf and opened it to the index. "Here, I'll share my favorite poem." Suddenly she was the teacher.

She flipped through the book until she found the page she sought. "My mother read this poem to me almost every night. It's my ultimate favorite: Phenominal Woman." Then she began reading it to me in a lively jazzbeat, with a cadence I'll never forget.

                "I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please,

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees.

I say,

It’s the fire in my eyes,

And the flash of my teeth,

The swing in my waist,

And the joy in my feet.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered

What they see in me.

They try so much

But they can’t touch

My inner mystery.

When I try to show them,

They say they still can’t see.

I say,

It’s in the arch of my back,

The sun of my smile,

The ride of my breasts,

The grace of my style.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Now you understand

Just why my head’s not bowed.

I don’t shout or jump about

Or have to talk real loud.

When you see me passing,

It ought to make you proud.

I say,

It’s in the click of my heels,

The bend of my hair,

the palm of my hand,

The need for my care.

’Cause I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me."

To all you phenomenal women who've stopped at Roses of Prose today--and ALL of our blog readers are phenomenal women, every one--remember, we were all meant to shine. Be a strong woman. Be a "she-ro." Be phenomenal!

Margaret Tanner's Unsung Heroine

I have no picture to post with this. There are no newspaper cuttings, no articles in magazines or books. Few even know this lady’s story.

Born in a family ravaged by the Great War (1914 -1918), her father had his lungs poisoned by mustard gas in France in 1917. He returned to his farm, but never recovered, thus dying young and leaving a widow with 8 children to struggle on alone. Where were the male relatives, the uncles and brothers who might have helped the bereaved family? Sadly, the battlefields of France and Belgium had taken their lives or their health.

For years this unsung heroine, with the help of an older sister, milked 40 cows in the morning, then they rode their bicycles 8 miles into the nearest town to work, and after they returned home in the evening, they milked 40 cows again and did other farm chores. Needless to say, they handed their weekly pay packets, unopened, to their mother.

Years passed, and when the younger siblings were old enough to help, things became easier. The lady was able to enjoy a social life.

 As the black clouds of World War II hovered overheard, she became engaged to a young man before he marched off to war. And she waited, like thousands of other women, for her man to return, stoically working in the munitions factory and helping with the war effort.  Soon the love letters stopped, her soldier was listed as Missing In Action, believed Prisoner Of War. For two years she didn’t know whether he was alive or dead, but finally the news came. He had escaped his captors.

On his return home they married, had three children and settled into suburbia. Money was tight, but having been trained at a young age to be frugal, she managed to keep things going, and all was well.

But fate had another cruel card to play. A slow moving muscle wasting disease. But did she give up? No. She enjoyed her children and grandchildren, took holidays with her husband and did charity work. All the while, this hideous disease spread it’s ugly tentacles throughout her body, sapping her strength, but never breaking her spirit.

After her husband died, she stayed in her own home for a few more years.  The disease spread, hungry and evil, it could not be stopped.  Finally, when she could no longer walk, she bravely set about finding a suitable nursing home.

Thankfully, she died before she had to leave her beloved home and cherished memories.

How do I know all of this? The lady was my Mum.

My message to everyone is – cherish your mother while you can, because the world is a sad and lonely place without her.

Please raise your cyber glasses of champagne, and drink a toast to yet another unsung heroine.

 http://www.margarettanner.com/

Why Feminism is Important to Me

Laura Breck

One of the strongest influences on my life was my sister, Mary. She was quite a bit older than me, and a strong feminist. To her, a feminist was someone who cared about other women. Not a militant force intent on promoting all things female over all things male, as some have categorized feminists. She truly cared about the plight of women, whether it be domestic abuse or illiteracy or discrimination.

Mary attended college and received her bachelors degree in nursing. As an RN, she chose to join the US Army and was stationed in Germany. After her tour of duty, she came back to Minnesota and taught nursing at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

She never married, but loved children. In her 40s, she headed back to school at the University of Minnesota to pursue her masters degree in nurse midwifery. She 'caught' over 300 babies in her career as a midwife, and kept a scrapbook with a photo of each one of them.

She was well loved by her clients, many of who became lifelong friends.

In the late '90s, she was diagnosed with an extremely rare blood disease. She was given six months to live. And I was devastated. She'd taught me so many things. I learned about eating organic and natural foods from her, how to make ice cream, how to drive a stick shift. It seemed impossible that I would lose her. I always imagined we'd grow old together.

She didn't take the diagnosis lying down. She researched every possible treatment and cure, chemical and herbal, spiritual and physical. She moved to Oregon for a time because a doctor there was performing experimental treatments. When that failed, she moved in with friends in Zuni, New Mexico.

If you've ever been to that part of the world, you'll know what a beautiful and raw land it is. The Zuni people are Native Americans whose main source of income is the beautiful silver and turquoise jewelry they create.

She lived there with the couple who were the pueblo's physicians, and their four children. She dedicated her time to educating the people on healthy lifestyles during pregancy and nutrition and care of infants and children. I visited her there, and saw how close she'd become to the residents. And how much she loved every day of her life there. One morning, she didn't wake up. It had been nearly three years after she'd been diagnosed. Two and a half years after she was supposed to be gone.

I miss her every day, and often feel her touch and her guidance in my struggles. When I think of women who have achieved incredible things in their lives, I think of Mary, who in her small but urgent way, made such a difference in so many people's lives. Especially mine.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Laura

LauraBreck.com

Secret Vegas Lives

Scandalous L.A. Desires

both available from The Wild Rose Press