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 LIVING HAPPY     
UPLIFTING, THOUGHT-PROVOKING NEWS FOR OUR MIND, BODY,AND SPIRIT   

From Carole Kane


  Vol. 3  No. 2                                              February 17, 2013 

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Click here to meet our writers, read past issues, and see comments

 

www.livinghappycenter.com  

 

in this issue
Family Fun - Acting Up to Sell My "Dream" - by Carole Kane
A Place to Be - by Dimitra Savvidou
A Tale of Two Palaces - by Dr. Brad Holway
Letters to my Daughter: "Happy First Birthday!" - by Debbie Sanchez:
Poetry Corner: Field of Clover - by Frank Clark
Think a little, laugh a little

 

Dear Friends,

carole jan 13 13 

Welcome to Living Happy,  a nice way to feel and be our best!  Rather than concentrating on all the "bad" news in today's media, Living Happy is  about good, interesting, and fun things for everyone.

 Let's work on keeping our mind, body, and spirit in harmony.  Keep informed!  Keep fit!  Eat well!  Laugh!  Love! and give thanks!  If we do all this, we can earn our "MBS" degree every day!  (yes, MindBodySpirit Degree). 

    

We begin this issue with "Family Fun:  Acting Up to Sell My Dream", which tells how we made a video to promote my latest book.  It's evident I am not going to get an Academy Award for this "performance" - but it was such fun to do!  You can watch the video from the link in the article.

Next, Dimitra Savvidou brings us to her adopted home in Zambia, "My Place To Be".  She tells of the timeless marketplaces and the contrasts of modern and old, a place where there is no rush, "tomorrow is another day.  No wonder Dimitra wants to live there!

Then, on this Academy Awards Ceremony weekend, Brad Holway tells us about two incredibly ornate movie houses from the past, during the Golden Age of the Silver Screen, when going to the movies was a very special event.  It was an elegant type of entertainment, probably unimaginable to today's younger generation.

 In "Letters to my Daughter", Debbie Sanchez celebrates the wonders of her little girl's first year, in "Happy First Birthday!"  Her love and her beautiful message to Lani give hope to anyone who may have a child with a disability of any kind.  Debbie's underlying message:  It doesn't matter.

We wrap this issue up with Frank Clark's "Field of Clover" - a lovely, evocative poem that shows a completely different side of Frank's writing talent.

I'm sure you will enjoy the entire Newsletter;  but let us know anyway - We LOVE your feedback!  

 

Please feel free to contribute, comment, or criticize to your heart's content.  Just click here:  comments  and talk to us.  Thanks!

 

Happy reading!

 

Love, Carole XXX OOO

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Family Fun - Acting Up to Sell My "Dream"         by Carole Kane

It's a wonderful feeling to finally publish a book!  But despite all the work that goes into that, it's even more work letting people know that the book exists. 

One of the greatest ways to promote an author's work is a video about the book.  God bless YouTube - this is now available to all of us!  Of course, making the video is another whole set of skills - but my family and I really enjoyed creating it together.

I congratulate them for their wonderful portrayal of characters who live in my head.  They all managed to get into the manuscript!  And daughter Sue made the technical part seem easy (because SHE did it!).

I hope you will enjoy this as much as we enjoyed making it. Just click on the arrow below to see the video.  And rest assured, Nala will be in my next book.

Carole Kane writes
Carole Kane writes
"A Dream of Roman Candles"
with a little help from her characters!

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A Place To Be                                                        by Dimitra Savvidou

 

A place to be, a place to exist! This photo was taken almost twenty years ago. Today this market is still there, colourful, noisy and present.

African Market  Kitwe
African Market, Kitwe 1994 

My "place to be" is a multi nation realm. We merge in multi cultures, multi religions, multi food, multi fashion and multi architecture, but still a market such as the one at the photo will prevail! The Zambians say, "You can take me out of the bush but you cannot take the bush out of me!" The roots are strong, the genes developed.

 

I just love those markets, as they are so colourful and full of life, smells and smiles. When I walk along the streets of this town called Lusaka, I feel home. The variations plus the conflicts are great. I never get bored, I never live a monotonous life, all is possible and all is impossible!

 

Life is hectic and all at once life is slow! Life is hard, moreover life is laying back! The concrete skyscraper is built next to the humble colonial type house that is transformed to small individual shops. Driving on wonderful, well maintained tar roads then entering in the so called dirt/soil secondary roads full of potholes and dust. From one hand, one sees those nice traditional open markets and a bit further those Shopping Malls equal in glory to any Western type ones! As the heavy tropical rain pours...at the other end of the skies, the sun smiles at humanity!

 

A mixed world open to any possibility with a great hospitality towards to any developer, a fact that allows vibrant benefits or catastrophic setbacks, regarding a genuine future development. A place spoiled by the international donors; a place that uses the donors and is used by them; a quite balanced relationship! Over and above, it is a place where peace triumphs throughout all rough times.

 

A place that, when the Government unquestionably maintains the wonderful indigenous trees the citizens, contrarily, cut those proud tree branches for wood. When one complains, they respond: "no harm, it will grow again"...a true declaration!

Above all, a place where everybody carries on believing and hoping, waits on the queue uncomplaining, travels tolerantly squeezed in the public transportation, walks in a soothing and peaceful way as there is no rush...tomorrow is another day. Somehow, still the earth keeps going round and round, life and death replacing each other...  

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A Tale of Two Palaces                                         By Dr. Brad Holway

 

During the 1920's amazing, ornate "movie palaces" sprang up throughout America; they appeared in any place where they was a sufficiently dense population to support them. As well as films, they featured concerts, vaudeville shows and legitimate theater; they were also used for political meetings, lectures, high school graduations, and so forth. They were huge and their interior design was absolutely "over the top" - each had a theme - anything from Ancient Egyptian, Mayan-Aztec, Spanish-Moorish Baroque, Ming Chinese, spooky Gothic or Greco-Roman.

 

As society began to change and television became ubiquitous, the great movie palaces began to fall on bad days. Many were demolished and others were converted into churches and catering halls. Some were lucky enough to be reincarnated as concert halls or "art movie" houses.

 

Valencia Theater Jamaica New York
Loew's Valencia Theater, Jamaica, NYC
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters
  

I grew up in New York's borough of Queens, which featured two such grand movie palaces, the Loew's Valencia in Downtown Jamaica and the RKO Keith's in Downtown Flushing. The Valencia, as befitted its name, featured an interior done in a Spanish-Moorish style. The Keith's was more dark and Gothic in nature, filled with leering stucco gargoyles that glared at you from the shadowy walls. Of the two, I thought the Valencia was more impressive, but both were absolutely grand in an exaggerated way, like a wedding cake at a royal marriage.  

RKO KeithsTheater Flushing, NY 


It has been decades since a movie has been shown at either movie palace; the projection booths lay empty. The Keith's has fallen on evil days; it was bought by an unscrupulous developer some thirty years ago and much of its elaborate interior has been destroyed or heavily damaged. The present owner wants to demolish it and build a high-rise apartment building on the site. A friend of mine has organized a grassroots organization to save the Keith's, but I am not optimistic concerning its fate. Destiny has been kinder to the Valencia. It is presently a church and its ornate interior decor has been meticulously preserved. I am happy that the Valencia has responsible custodians and I hope the Keith's can be saved despite its damaged state.

 

The age of the great movie palaces is over, but some of these wonderful places remain to remind us of the Golden Age of the Silver Screen.

 

Letters to my Daughter                        by Debbie Sanchez
 

When I found out that my daughter was going to be born with a disability, it took me some time to come to terms with it. Someone sent me an essay from Chicken Soup for the Soul about a woman with a hand like my daughter's (missing fingers on one hand), and how it had affected her life. That was a turning point for me. Perhaps someone who needs to will read these letters and it will make a difference and help them the way a stranger once helped me.

Installment #5

 "Happy First Birthday!"    

Dear Lani,  

  

Happy Birbaby first birthday puppythday! It's a grey December day just like it was last year, when I didn't even know I was in labor - I made it to the hospital just in time! You were in a hurry to get into the world and you've maintained your feisty attitude throughout the year. I wonder if you will always be such a fighter. I've suffered a few painful losses this year, but in spite of the difficulties it has been the best year of my life because of you. You have made every painful thing I've ever had to endure worth it. I tell you that every time you do the "finger thing".

   

You do this thing with your finger when you want to tell me that you love me. You smile this goofy little smile and look right into my eyes and extend your arm and point your index finger at me. I touch it with mine, and that's how you tell me that you love me. When you do that, I tell you, "You are worth everything I ever went through, Lani."  It's funny - I didn't think I was going to have kids. I thought I didn't need any. I thought I was living. You opened a door in me to feelings I never imagined, and I can't believe that the door almost remained closed forever, and that I almost missed this.

 

You have been the happiest, most delicious baby from day one; you slept through the night two weeks after you were born. You are always laughing and babbling in your own special language. I can't wait until you start talking so that I can find out what you are trying to say.

 

 ...to be continued

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Poetry Corner   
 
 
clover field  

   


Field of Clover
by Frank Clark

 

  

County Limerick, Ireland

 

Mo mhile gras' (Gaelic)                                                                                             Pronounciation:  Moh veela grah                                                                                   Translation:  My fair darling.

 

In a field of clover.                                                                                                         A hidden charm fog over.

 

It glistens in the night.                                                                                                   A gem that is so right.

 

Luminescent green, a wonder never seen.                                                                   Aglow beneath the clover, a love it will redeem.

 

Meet me there at midnight, something to delight.                                                     Underneath the bed of clover, brilliant, out of sight.

 

You'll never know luck, my darling, til you see it there.                                                 A lover's gift for you.  My heart will glow for you.

 

A glistening emerald shamrock, beneath a field of clover.                                             Lucky me.  Lucky you. Luck and love, forever more.

 

Read more of Frank's work at  www.frankclarkshortstories.com 

    

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Think a Little, Laugh a Little
cartoon gingerbread man blood sugar too high

Fred, 85, and Mabel, 79, are all excited - they're getting married! They go for a stroll to discuss the wedding and on the way home they pass a drugstore and go in.

 

Fred asks the man behind the counter: "Are you the owner?"

The pharmacist answers: "Yes."

Fred: "Do you sell heart medication?"

Pharmacist: "Of course we do."

Fred: "How about medicine for circulation?"

Pharmacist: "All kinds."

Fred: "Medicine for rheumatism?"   "Definitely."

Fred: "Medicine for memory?"   "Yes, a large variety."

Fred: "What about vitamins and sleeping pills?"   "Absolutely."

Fred: "Medicine for loose bladder, and gas pills?"

Pharmacist: "Yes, there are lots of those with plenty of generics."

 

Fred: "Perfect! We'd like to register here for our wedding gifts."

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Remember This: 


 Too often we underestimate the power of  a touch, a smile, a kind word,
 a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring,
 all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
 - - Leo Buscaglia
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Your Space - For Guest Writers, Ghost Writers, and Commentators

 

THANK YOU! to Dimitra Savvidou, Brad Holway,  Debbie Sanchez, and Frank Clark for making this issue so interesting, uplifting, and entertaining.   Kudos! 

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Would you like to submit an article, around 250 to 300 words?   

     

This Could  be YOU!

Remember, every writer in the Living Happy Writers Group started out by offering a story or article.  You are invited to join this eminent group.  Just submit a story or poem - click here to send it:  Submit an article or poem or story here  I look forward to  reading your work!   

  - - Carole - - 

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