I love writing. I could lose a whole day absorbed in the imaginary world creating and writing. I have written four and a half books so far. Only two are published as of today; however, that will change soon with the publication of my third book called Living Red. It is a young-adult fiction about eighteen-year old Peyton as she searches for truth while struggling with the secrets her Grandma Ava is sharing with her. When she wanders into a local Art Gallery, Peyton is drawn to Dallas and to the sunsets he paints in ways that she can’t explain. Although the world is making major advances in communicating with one another and even traveling through thought as they grows closer and she discovers more about life that surprise her, she realizes that everything is not as simple as it seems.

Getting back to the idea of being inspired brings me to my fourth book. The entire first draft just flew out of me, but these second and third drafts are where I get stuck. I know that it needs revisions and edits. It is not perfect, but I want to work on my next one. The ideas are there; however, to move to the next, I need to complete the next couple of drafts of The Little Stone House on the Corner. This one is an inspirational fiction book about the power of a magical house, a little house on the corner made of simple stone where extraordinary things happened to those who lived there, so it should encourage and inspire me just by writing it! A few weeks ago, I decided to sketch the little stone house to kick my imagination into high gear. What helps you to stay engaged in your work or in your creative process?

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And read more positive thoughts Looking For The Good

All through my day, no matter where I go, or what I do, I am always looking for the good in people, in the world, in my life or even just in my day.

We’re now entering the period where events from the spring had been rescheduled for. And organizers are now deciding to throw in the towel and do the big public gatherings next year–maybe. The Illinois Craft Brewers Guild had hoped to still put on the “Beer Under Glass” event at Garfield Park Conservatory. This opening event for the cancelled Chicago Craft Beer Week was moved from May to a tentative fall date. Now it’s been cancelled entirely and hopefully rescheduled for May 14, 2021. Ticketholders are being urged to donate their ticket price to the ICBG and the Conservatory, convert their tickets to the 2021 event, or request a refund.

Friday, July 31

Saturday, August 1

Sunday, August 2

Cheddar and Orion Drake (aka Colby Jack, white and orange) are a pair of 3-year-old BFFs. They were adopted from HPC as kittens and now are back, needing a new home.

They have a Instagram @cheddarandcolbyjack if you want to see their antics and photos from the past 3 years! Cheddar and Orion Drake are a bonded pair that are yin and yang but together make a great duo.

Cheddar is a cat’s cat. He is a hunter, climber, explorer, and the first to come out of the shell to make sure surroundings and people are ok. He is the vocal cat of the pair. He will let you know when he wants you to rub him.

Orion (Colby Jack) is your laid back cat and barely makes noise if he does something is serious. He is the lap cat who will once comfortably lay on you and let you hold like a baby. Feeding time is his favorite and it shows as he might need to go on a little diet. He startles easily and is quick to hide, he will take longer to get comfortable.

Both cats have never been around dogs and are strictly inside cats. They can deal with children who are gentle. Quieter homes probably best but they adjust to their surroundings. They both love bags, boxes, and scratch posts or boards and the more you have the better. Neither are big on toys but enjoy things that wiggle or lasers. They both kneed or paw humans and comforters or anything soft. They have been sharing a litter box and food bowls (Orion eats a little more) all their life with no issues.

To meet this orange yin/yang pair, write to us at [email protected] !

Hyde Park Cats is a local, all-volunteer group dedicated to helping stray and homeless cats in and around Chicago’s Hyde Park. We received our 501(c)(3) status in 2014 and have had over 1,200 adoptions since our founding in 2008. See all our adoptable kitties on our webpage: http://hydeparkcats.org/adopt/

All of our cats are in loving foster homes, which means the cat you adopt will be familiar with the sounds, smells, and movements of life in a home and accustomed to living with humans. He or she has been interacting on a daily basis with people who know this particular cat intimately, and the foster mom or dad can tell you all about the cat’s individual personality, habits, preferences. You can’t judge a cat by its cover! And while we can’t predict the future or know everything about a cat, we can help you choose the cat who is right for you. We have an adoption application and an adoption fee, $125 for the adoption of one cat, or $250 for a pair. This fee goes towards covering their vet costs. All cats adopted out by us are neutered/spayed, micro-chipped, tested for FIV/FeLV, and treated with Revolution.

Brother sister pair Herb and Peaches are looking for a home together. They are about two years old and both love their toys. They are the best door greeters, Herb is front and center if the door bell rings while Peaches hides behind him but she’s always there.

If you call Herb’s name he’ll come running. He loves belly rubs. If you’re busy and he wants to play, he’ll roll on the floor and purr. He also loves treats but he’s very patient and considerate of Peaches. He lets her have her treat first, he lets her decide which bowl she wants to eat from and he’ll choose last. Herb loves his sister, if he’s resting and she wants to play he’ll oblige her every time.

Peaches “The Princess” Malone Peachy as we call her is very sweet, she will sing you a song if you pull out a wet Applaws’ treat, or open a can instinct wet food. If you want anything at all from Peaches just present a wet treat and she’s all yours. She’s our left pawed princess, she places that left paw atop of the right paw and poses for mommy all the time. She uses that left paw to tap me when I’m walking by, if you ask for a kiss she’ll give you her left paw. She’s a very mellow kitten until her brother comes around and then her SUPER PLAYFUL side is exposed. She LOVES HERB, its the best sibling relationship I’ve ever seen in kittens. She follows Herb around the house and pounces on him whenever she wants to play. If Herb disappears in the house and she can’t find him, she’ll MEOW so loud that we all jump. When Herb appears they both fall on the floor and snuggle. She loves her brother, wherever he goes you can rest assure Peaches will follow.

To meet them, write to us at [email protected] !

Hyde Park Cats is a local, all-volunteer group dedicated to helping stray and homeless cats in and around Chicago’s Hyde Park. We received our 501(c)(3) status in 2014 and have had over 1,200 adoptions since our founding in 2008. See all our adoptable kitties on our webpage: http://hydeparkcats.org/adopt/

All of our cats are in loving foster homes, which means the cat you adopt will be familiar with the sounds, smells, and movements of life in a home and accustomed to living with humans. He or she has been interacting on a daily basis with people who know this particular cat intimately, and the foster mom or dad can tell you all about the cat’s individual personality, habits, preferences. You can’t judge a cat by its cover! And while we can’t predict the future or know everything about a cat, we can help you choose the cat who is right for you. We have an adoption application and an adoption fee, $125 for the adoption of one cat, or $250 for a pair. This fee goes towards covering their vet costs. All cats adopted out by us are neutered/spayed, micro-chipped, tested for FIV/FeLV, and treated with Revolution.

Tata is a very handsome, sweet and gentle, two-year-old, Calico male Abyssinian guinea pig looking for a loving guardian.

This little guy was given up with his guinea pig wife and kids when their family no longer had time for them. He and their female produced an accidental litter when put in the same cage for a “play session.”

Tata eats a diet of unlimited Timothy and Orchard hays, limited pellets, and I offer him fresh vegetables including romaine, red leaf and green leaf lettuces, tomatoes, oranges, cucumbers and cilantro, etc.

Please read up on guinea pig care and diet before adopting by visiting this excellent web site http://www.guinealynx.info/.

He would love a home with people who will handle him daily, keep him well fed, and keep his habitat nice and clean. He allowed me to easily trim his nails and hold him.

If you’re interested in meeting and possibly adopting Tata, please contact [email protected].

He is being fostered in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.

His adoption fee of $35 benefits the Friends of Petraits Rescue. For an additional $100, we’ll include a kit of everything you need to care for him including food, cage, hay, litter, hidey hut and water bottle.

Describing Walter Mercado is like writing a limerick.

He was a wildly flamboyant clairvoyant,
Homosexual, metrosexual, straight or bi.
“I am who I am,” he said with a sigh.
Beloved by the Latino community,
Mucho, mucho amor was his immunity.

The Netflix documentary about astrologist Walter Mercado, titled Mucho Mucho Amor, is worth viewing for several reasons: the eye-popping display of his outrageous and extravagant personality, his influence on the Puerto Rican populace from top to bottom and his unapologetic life style that he inhabited without change in public and private. What appealed to me most, however, he was the genuine article, true to himself, never pretending to be someone other than the personality he presented both in front of and behind the camera.

That’s what stood out for me. He was gaudy and glitzy on the outside – gay, trans, bi, metro, no matter how he was described and occasionally jeered – but inside, at the heart of Walter Marcado, there was the person of integrity, true to himself, unwavering. How many of us can say we held firm to an unswerving presentation of our true self when we interviewed for the big time job, chatted with the film star sharing our first class seat on the flight to LA, or talked to the class at our child’s “My Dad’s Job” day?

It’s human nature to want to be popular with the “in crowd,” to look cool in the eyes of others. But there’s a price when we betray our core values in order to be liked by others; we end up not liking ourselves.

I think I previously wrote about the column I read in the Halifax Globe and Mail while vacationing in Nova Scotia a while back, but it’s worth re-telling.

The article described in down-to-earth words the difference between being genuine and putting on a façade. The columnist pointed out that the rural farmers and fishermen of rugged Newfoundland put up the clapboard on their houses “rough side out.” Mainlanders, on the other hand, applied it “smooth side out,” which meant that it would have to be re-painted every five years.

To the hardy islanders this was an abnormality they couldn’t understand. “In Newfoundland,” a taciturn old-timer explained, “we puts the rough side out and when we paints, it lasts a lifetime.”

The moral of the allegory still resonates with me years later. It is so damn tempting to put on a face that is “smooth side out” when I want to fit in, rather than just be who I am, letting the true persona that is me present itself as unpretentious “clapboard” that doesn’t have to be painted over in order to look good on the outside.

Walter Mercado, for all his ornate capes and overstated refrain, “mucho, mucho amor,” was unpretentious at his core. He knew that when we embrace our true nature, we nurture our connection with the source of who we really are and make it possible to connect with others honestly and enduringly.

The Chicago Blackhawks released the below press release.

A Note to Our Blackhawks Community,

On July 7, the organization made a commitment to expand our efforts, serve as stewards of our name and identity and raise the bar even higher for our ongoing dialogue with local and national Native American groups. We thank these Native American partners for their consistent insight throughout the years, as well as the other Native American organizations and community members who reached out over the last few weeks to share their feedback on how we can best utilize our platform to better educate the public and serve the Native American community.

As we prepare to return to play and represent you in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers in Edmonton, we want our fans to be very clear on what it means to be part of the Blackhawks family, regardless of whether we can be together in the arena. We have always maintained an expectation that our fans uphold an atmosphere of respect, and after extensive and meaningful conversations with our Native American partners, we have decided to formalize those expectations. Moving forward, headdresses will be prohibited for fans entering Blackhawks-sanctioned events or the United Center when Blackhawks home games resume. These symbols are sacred, traditionally reserved for leaders who have earned a place of great respect in their Tribe, and should not be generalized or used as a costume or for everyday wear.

Today, we also want to share that the Blackhawks are building a platform that will further integrate Native American culture and storytelling across our organization – from broader community engagement and front office staff education to an increased presence within our game presentation, around our arena and across all of the team’s digital channels. Education will be our beacon, and these efforts will continue to honor Native American contributions to our society, including Black Hawk’s legacy, as well as showcase that those achievements are not limited to history books and museums but thriving right now within our military, business, the arts and more.

Additionally, we are currently working to establish a state-of-the-art new wing at Trickster Cultural Center, the only Native American owned and operated arts institution in the state of Illinois. The Chicago Blackhawks Cultural Education Center will include Native American artifacts and integrate a greater use of technology to create an interactive space for students throughout Chicagoland, Northwest Indiana and Southern Wisconsin to visit as part of their core curriculum.We look forward to continuing this dialogue and sharing additional updates on these plans with you in the months ahead and thank you for joining us in this important and ongoing conversation.

Chicago Blackhawks