An Open Heart in 2008
December 28, 2007 | 1:18 pm
When the Christmas gifts had all been opened, the sugar cookies just about gone . . . when my sons and my sister had returned to their homes, my father-in-law to his . . . the holiday linens washed, the dogs asleep with memories of a full house and beef tenderloin dancing in their noggins – I lay on the couch and thought about what it meant to have an open heart in 2007.
On 9/11/01, I was to be, in the morning, at the World Trade Center. I slept in. Every year since then seems to be a gift to me. It’s amazing to me how much time has passed since that sunny fall morning when my sister, Joan, my son, Bryce, and I were in Manhattan. Three Ohioans there on a big trip away from home. We returned with a story of unbelievable luck. My heart did not feel too open at that time.
On 12/30/05, I nearly died when I had an allergic reaction to CT dye during a trip to the emergency room for chest pains. I spent New Year’s Eve alone, hugging my two dogs, Jackie and Tyler, near to me, feeling so much love and appreciation for their presence. “They would have missed me if I’d died,” I thought, in a way only sad, empty-nest women can whine after Christmas is over and there are no special plans for New Year’s.
In 2007, I wrote a book, married, moved into a new home and found more happiness and peace than I’d ever known. I had to find a new home for three of my parrots, but I opened my heart to my husband’s dog, Farley, and found yet another sweet canine soul to love and to be needed by. 2007 brought many opportunities to change, to grow, to reflect. It wasn’t a perfect year, but it was a full year and my heart and mind were open.
This is a conscious decision for me, though, this keeping the heart and mind open. I’m an introvert by nature, and, at times in my life it has seemed so much easier to fold in on myself. To close doors, to stay in, to live a small life; never stretching, never passing Go. But, in the long run, like Meryl Streep’s character said in “One True Thing,” “It is so much easier to be happy.” My mother has always encouraged me to “get out more.” She was right. Getting out more opens our hearts, and home seems that much better, our lives that much richer.
This year, I encourage you to open your heart. Need specific instructions? Purchase one of DreamTime Publishing’s new books on a subject that appeals to you. They have many in the Open Your Heart Series – from pets, to writing, to singing, to skiing, to geocaching, to basketball, to gardening, and more.
Begin to say yes! Begin to think “I can!” Decide “I will.” After all, that’s all the New Year’s Resolution any of us really needs.
Happy New Year!
Janice Phelps, Author of “Open Your Heart with Pets: Mastering Life through Love of Animals.”
Posted by: Opening the heart — jphelps
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A Strange and Wonderful Gift
December 26, 2007 | 7:04 pm
My family celebrates Christmas, and this year I received a special gift from my mother-in-law: a piece of polished amber that had belonged to her mother-in-law, my husband’s grandmother. She had brought it to America with her from Poland, and when she died my mother-in-law inherited it.
The circumstances of her arrival from Poland bear commenting on. The family was poor and a decision had been taken to send my husband’s grandmother, then thirteen, to live with extended family in Philadelphia (one gathers that the reason was less her potential to prosper in the new world and more the fact of thus having one less mouth to feed, though the specifics remain murky). So there was a family trip to a seaport, at which time –– and not before — the thirteen-year-old was told that she was in fact getting on the ship in the harbor and leaving everything and everyone she had known … forever.
I try to imagine that girl, the fear, the rebellion, the horror that she must have experienced upon hearing that news. And then there was this piece of amber. Had she already been carrying it around in her pocket? Or was it pressed upon her by anxious parents as a good-luck talisman? Either way, it was one of very few articles she was able to bring with her from “home,” and even though she lived in the United States for another seventy years, I cannot help but imagine her touching that amber and touching the memory, the last time she saw her parents, the last time she saw her homeland.
And now it is mine.
I keep touching it, too: it draws one in, like a Arab worry-stone, like my own rosary beads: a physical grounding in something that transcends physicality. I feel connected to that girl on that long-ago dock, I feel the amber in her pocket, her fingers wearing it down, and my own fingers slide over it with wonder.
It reminds me of the millions of stories we all have, the stories of our forebears, the stories that help to make us who we are. And as the new year begins, it’s not a bad thing to look back on, to rehearse the oral histories that have come down to us, to remind ourselves of who we are. Stepping into the future through the past, and possibly — just possibly — learning a thing or two along the way.
And a very, very happy 2008 to all!
– Jeannette Cézanne
http://www.JeannetteCezanne.com
Posted by: Opening the heart, Difficulty, Overcoming difficulty, Overcoming obstacles — jcezanne
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Lost But Not Forgotten
December 19, 2007 | 1:43 pm
I haven’t been geocaching much recently — a terrible admission from someone who wrote the book on it! — mostly because of either bad timing or bad weather; but it’s never far from my mind.
In fact, I’m planning the placement of my next cache as we speak!
I’m teaming up with a fellow cacher (and history enthusiast), “MuchAdo,” to put together a cache that will take participants on a tour of Manchester, New Hampshire. But wait, those of you who have read my book are saying, isn’t that already one of your caches? Indeed it is: Dark Satanic does take cachers on a tour of Manchester’s mill history. This is a different sort of tour.
It’s a tour of places that are no longer there.
Manchester has a plethora of them: the old zoo, washed away in a flood; the grand hotel with tram access, gone with the passing of the era of grand hotels; the city jail, of which only the doorway remains; and many, many more places. And as MuchAdo and I work with the concept – mostly done over microbrews at Millie’s – I keep wondering about all the other ruins, all the other lost places in all of our communities, the places that once were important to people who used to live where we live now.
What is the point in keeping up with them? Why should these places mean anything to us now?
It’s a little like families, I think. We may not be our pasts, but our pasts are part of who we are. Just as we inherited our families’ DNA, we inherit the stories of the places where we live. Remembering them will keep them alive; and maybe we owe that to our communities, to our history.
What are the lost places in your community?
– Jeannette Cézanne
http://www.JeannetteCezanne.com
Posted by: Geocaching, Opening the heart, Learning something new, Joy — jcezanne
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Opening Your Heart
December 12, 2007 | 12:44 pm
It’s something that I keep coming back to … as I promote my own books and the series as a whole, I’m always talking about opening the heart; but I really wonder what that means to different people.
I think about it every time I do manuscript consultation on an Open Your Heart book, finding that even within our series, authors have very different concepts of what opening one’s heart means, both in terms of how much they’re willing to open up … and in terms of what they feel is appropriate to share with readers. And I think about it every time I’m on a radio show or doing a print interview, as the interviewer reflects back to me her or his conceptualization of what I’m expressing.
It makes me wonder what a reader is thinking — is expecting — when she picks up one of the series books and opens it to the first page … to a random page … and reads some of the words there. What is he looking for? Does the book he picked up respond to that need?
What is opening the heart? What does it mean to others? What does it mean to you?
– Jeannette Cézanne
htp://www.JeannetteCezanne.com
Posted by: reading, Opening the heart, Learning something new — jcezanne
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Books, The Initial Spark
December 10, 2007 | 2:01 pm
There is nothing more powerful than the words we use as individuals and as a society . . . words to challenge, inform, motivate, subdue, intimidate, entertain, threaten, instruct, sell, change, or comfort. When our words are put on paper and bound between covers they become a fixed entity that, in a way, takes on a life of its own. Our thoughts become words and our words become books.
Until age thirteen I lived a very physical life: dance lessons, hiking in the woods near our home, and skating on a nearby pond. But I was set back with a prolonged illness at the start of high school, and it was then I began to discover the magic of books. The library in the small Ohio town where I lived with my parents was a pleasant summer’s walk away, holding ideas and stories that took me beyond the limitations of an insecure adolescence. I checked out as many books as I could carry the mile or so back home. I didn’t learn about other ideas, religions, governments, and centuries at my local school. School was the place I had to go to before I could go to the library. When I was able to work in the school library, well, that helped quite a bit.
I remember one afternoon when my father came to pick me up outside a secondhand book sale and was astonished to find me standing on the sidewalk with three large cardboard boxes full of books. My mother kindly made room in the hall closet for the complete set of twenty or so antique, embossed, oversize hardcover books on classical music and voice training. One treasured find was a book that opened to reveal fold-out newspaper articles written as if at the time of the Old Testament: “Moses Parts the Red Sea, Enemy Dies by the 1000s!” “ ‘I Respect My Father’s Judgment,’ Isaac States, as He Returns from Mountain Trip.” “ ‘I Never Looked Back,’ Lot Assured this Reporter.”
One of my clearest memories is the arrival of several boxes to the home of my high school English teacher who lived in the same apartment complex as my family. I don’t remember her name, but I remember her encouragement of my interest in books and art, and it was my good luck that she put me on the team publishing our school’s first literary magazine.
When the boxes of printed and bound magazines arrived, it was quite an occasion. I remember vividly how they smelled of ink and how the paper felt. That sense of delight hasn’t diminished for me: decades and hundreds of books on a wide variety of subjects later, I still feel happy anticipation cutting through the packing tape, and pulling out the first printed copy of a new book.
–Janice Phelps, Author of “Open Your Heart with Pets.”
Posted by: Opening the heart — jphelps
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Pets and Language
| 1:48 pm
The media was abuzz a while back about scientific findings regarding dogs who “are much smarter than scientists have thought.” Thousands of dollars of research might have been saved, had they spent anytime at my home, or observing the lives of many of my friends who also have dogs. In the past thirteen years, I have been guardian to six dogs (three of whom died, at advanced ages, during the Dec 03 to Dec 04 period), including the three dogs who live with my husband and me now. Here’s what I could have told scientists:
1) Dogs know when you are happy, sad, busy, angry, worried, ill, and in love.
2) They know when you mean it, don’t mean it, aren’t sure if you mean it, and are consulting dog behavior books to find out if you should mean it.
3) Dogs know that exercise is good for you.
4) Dogs know that high-protein diets make them happier.
5) They can find their way around the neighborhood and communicate with the neighbors.
6) They understand that mail comes six days a week and sometimes what’s in the mail is worth yelling about.
7) Dogs realize that fashion isn’t important.
8) Dogs are comfortable with all their body parts and the body parts of those they love.
9) Dogs are not afraid of other dogs bigger than themselves. In fact, the smaller the dog, I’ve found, the more emphatic they are to express their bravery.
10) Dogs can tell who is naughty and who is nice.
I don’t think the problem is that they can’t talk with us. Think about it, there are a gadzillion species of animals. Anyone with pet birds has learned the importance of body language and how tuned in a parrot can be just to the way you hold your shoulders. My hearing-impaired son has always had a sixth sense about the expressions, moods and body carriage of those around him. So, back to animals, if there are way more species of animals than the one species of humans, maybe we should be learning more about their language instead of studying whether or not they know ours.
—Janice Phelps, Author of “Open Your Heart with Pets”
Posted by: Opening the heart — jphelps
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Before Purchasing a Holiday Pet, Consider This…
December 6, 2007 | 4:40 pm
Adoption and purchases of dogs, cats and parrots increase during the holiday season as pet shops present customers with adorable puppies and kittens and not-for-profits vamp up their community adoption efforts. How can parents, and others, make a responsible choice regarding adopting a new pet?
Janice Phelps, of Pickerington, Ohio, and the author of “Open Your Heart with Pets: Mastering Life through Love of Animals” (Dreamtime Publishing, 2007), notes three key components to keep in mind when considering a new pet. First, take the time to acquire knowledge about the species or breed that you are considering. Through books, websites, and online interest groups, discover the good and challenging aspects of this particular pet.
Second, gain perspective. In other words, after learning about a particular breed of dog, for instance, think about how life in your home would be from the dog’s perspective. Would it get enough exercise? Would there be enough human attention for the pet? What does this animal need to be healthy and well adjusted?
And, lastly, act responsibly. Make a choice in December that will work for the pet and your family in January and February—months when holiday pets are often relinquished to shelters or returned to pet shops because they have “behavior problems” or “aren’t a good fit.” By taking the time to do a bit of research in advance, and avoid impulse purchases, families can ensure their new pet will be a positive addition to the family, one that will be around for years.
Parents might consider giving their child a stuffed animal and a coupon on Christmas morning, for a pet purchase or adoption after the holidays. In this way the child will learn the most important skills of pet ownership: how to responsibly love and care for a living creature that is dependent upon humans for survival.
—Janice Phelps, Author of “Open Your Heart with Pets: Mastering Life through Love of Animals”
Posted by: Opening the heart — jphelps
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Pleasant Surprises
| 8:36 am
I had a very pleasant surprise this week indeed. I was attending a conference in Boston, and happened to sit beside a woman from Texas during one of the sessions. “Everyone’s so nice here,” she said at the break in the lecture.
“Huh?” I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly. We in New England are known for being cold and surly, by comparison with the rest of the country … certainly not “nice.”
“Oh, yes,” she affirmed. “Everyone’s been kind, has gone out of their way to help me. Nicer than they are at home. People in the street, when I ask for directions …”
More amazing still. It snowed recently, it’s freezing cold, and sidewalks in Boston are iced over. And in that climate people are taking time to be helpful?
It gave me hope, that encounter. That maybe people are nicer than the news would have us believe. That we all still have the capacity to be kind to a stranger. And I found myself inspired by it, smiling more at people throughout the day, stopping to give money to a shivering homeless man on my way to the subway, not getting quite as upset as I normally might when I realized I’d lost one of my gloves at the conference.
It’s contagious, this “nice” thing. Wouldn’t it be great if we could all catch a little?
– Jeannette Cézanne
http://www.JeannetteCezanne.com
Posted by: Something completely different, Opening the heart, Happiness, Being Peace — jcezanne
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Pets and Scrapbooking
December 5, 2007 | 3:05 pm
One of the fun parts about writing about pets is the chance to become immersed in a subject and, at times, go off on wonderful tangents that lead to surprising places. This is what happened when I came across “Pet Pages Unleashed! Fetching ideas for animal-inspired scrapbook pages” From the Editors of Memory Makers Books. (ISBN 978-1-892127-72-3).
This is an inspiring book, 8.5 x 11, paperback with color photographs, that offers readers dozens of ways to incorporate the family pet into memory books or collages that can be framed and displayed on the wall. The book is divided into four chapters: 1) Welcome Home, pages dedicated to new pet additions to the family; 2) Animal Behavior: pages that capture quirky pet antics, habbits, activities, and mannerisms; 3) Pet Personalities: pages that portray the unique characteristics and qualities of pets; and 4) Pets and Their Favorite People: pages that pay tribute to the bond between pets and the people who love them.
I appreciated the variety of pets represented in this book. Beyond cats and dogs, there are lizards, rabbits, turtles and even a beautiful crab. The page / collage examples are large enough to see just how things were put together, plus the book gives the materials used in each collage, the brand name of materials whenever possible, plus there is a resource list at the back of the book with websites of where to get materials.
The “Pet Page Topics” offered to help readers know where to start includes commemorating:
- How your pet joined the family
- adoption day or lineage
- Growth Chart
- Personality traits
- Special talents and tricks
- A day in the life
- House rules according to your pet
- Favorite possessions
- Holidays with your pet
- Pet Birthdays
- Childhood/past pets
I recommend “Pet Pages Unleashed!” to anyone who wants to undertake creative activities that will strengthen the pets bond within the family. This book would also offer ideas for parent/child or classroom activities. And, the samples include old-fashioned cut-and-paste collage along with samples created using the computer and software such as Photoshop.
I came across this book at my local library. You might find it at yours, or on Amazon. There is still time to use the ideas in it to make a great holiday present for the pet lover in your life…. or for you!
–Janice Phelps, Author of “Open Your Heart with Pets: Mastering Life through Love of Animals” 12/5/07
Posted by: Opening the heart — jphelps
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