~~A BOOKWORM AT GIRL SCOUT CAMP In the 1950’s my family moved from a little Missouri town to the small town in Indiana where my father grew up. We lived with our grandparents for a few months while my father started a new job and we found a house to rent. My little brother and sister, ages six and five respectively, roamed my grandparents’ big back yard and the neighborhood, but I asked if I might read the old books I saw in the parlor bookcases. My grandmother, usually so strict about us not touching her possessions, gave me permission. I read from books that far exceeded my s ...continued...

I'm in the woods a lot during summer. Yes, I know it's hot and sweaty. There's ticks, snakes and poison ivy to contend with. Still, summer is the best time to look for great ginseng habitat and since I'm all about restoring this wonderful herb to our property, I hike the woods in summer. As of this writing it’s mid-June. Here in the Ozarks, the ginseng plants have green fruit and some still have flowers and no fruit, some have very small fruit and are finished with flowers. The older plants have more berries than the younger ones. All of the berries at this point ...continued...

I have commitment and relationship problems because when I was little my parents would make fun of me for liking boys and say I was too young to like anyone. As I grew older the thoughts scarred my mind and now at 20 I have yet to have a boyfriend. My sister has a boyfriend of 2 years and every time I talk to a guy my parents tell me its a waste of time and that I don't need anyone... Now I'm stuck telling myself that. I don't even know what "love" feels like, or what being a girlfriend is like. I am just the lone runner trying to reach the goals of a champion, and ...continued...

I was born into a world that was unfit and hopeless. My first memory is of me in my grandmother picking berries in the field. I was the first child born to my mother and was the least important thing in her life. She met a guy and start having kids by him but I didn't like him. he use to call me dumb and stupid and beat the shit out of my mom. I tried to help her but i would get thrown like a feather. One night he decided to teach me a lesson. my mom had went to bed and on his way to the bath room he would slip in to my bedroom to play a game called " don't tell mommy& ...continued...

Today we hit 89 degrees, no, not the temperature but 89 degrees north. We are now a little less than one degree away from the North Pole. We have traveled over 60 miles north from our start point. Keep in mind, this does not include any traveling we did moving every other direction to get around open leads, ice boulder fields, or pressure ridges, needless to say we have accomplished alot in the past 6 days (or was it 7 days? Hard to keep track). We are expecting one resupply to get us more fuel and food for the dogs, but we have a great team and everyone is motivated to push hard and get to ...continued...

We meet again for the second time on the birthday of his closest friend my cousin and cousin is also his bestfriend they are together in playing basketball, roaming around and do stupid stuff... On that day something happened unexpectedly, he is seating beside me, when I'm already drunk I tried to touch him in his private parts... He didnt react he just let me of what I'm doing... I thought he is the kind of guy who wants play with me... But I guess I'm wrong after that drinking session he told me that he wants me to go at the lodge with him I answered him& ...continued...

What in Sam Hill? We all know what it means, but where did the saying originate? Idioms, to make a long story short, are actually sensible nonsense, yet hit the nail on the head in a New York minute. We know what these phrases mean; we all use them. But where do these funny and nonsensical statements come from? Since when can you know the ropes, knock on wood, wag the dog, hold your horses, or go the whole nine yards and still know that you didn’t bite off more than you could chew. In my story, An Abduction Revelation, I used many idioms that we use in our every day conversations. ...continued...

18 years later In February 2011 an Ecuadorian judge ordered Chevron to pay some $17 billion in fines and punitive damages over the environmental contamination in Ecuador. Water is the source of life. Without clean water we can't survive. (Emergildo Criollo, leader of the Cofan people, Ecuador) Chevron, not surprisingly, said it would appeal the ruling, calling it “illegitimate and unenforceable.” Eighteen years before, when the suit was first filed in a New York court, Chevron fought to have the jurisdiction moved to Ecuador because the ...continued...

One of the national lawn care companies states in its sales brochure that it’s got chemicals for early spring to deal with “winter stresses” In the early summer it has chemicals to help you “prepare” for the nasty summer. In the early fall the candy man has the elixir to help your sensitive mono-turf recover from the “stresses of summer.” And of course they promise winter protection for your lawn’s “winter survival.” How did nature survive before humans developed all these chemicals and tools to create and protect our precious, artifi ...continued...

Living in El Monte, California, She had been in an abusive relationship off and on for several years. One day this man she was dating, decided he was gonna take a trip to go visit his parents in another town. As she waited for him pregnant and patiently, and in communication, realizing 1 week pased, then 2 weeks came around finally wondering why a month has already gone bye, and he wasnt home yet. As time passes she has found that while visiting his parents he was really visiting his fiance' and with in that time he got married to his fiance' and made her his wife. Finally 8 months kater s ...continued...

I was born in London in 1952 to Irish born parents. They both came from Monkstown, a pretty village on Cork harbour about eight miles from Cork city. It was here that I spent my first twenty summers. This wonderful experience caused me to view Ireland through rose-tinted glasses for ever more. Before the opening of Cork airport, in 1961, our annual pilgrimage started on a train from Paddington Station, in London. It took us to Fishguard, a port on the Welsh coast. Then we boarded the Innisfallen ferry, which passed Monkstown on its way up the river Lee to the docks in Cork city. The first p ...continued...

FRIDAY, JUNE 03, 2005 [first published] SLICK OUT "Here they come. You ever notice how kids and bovines travel in herds?" These were the last words I heard him say. Twenty minutes later the state of Missouri executed Richard Adrian Marsh. At 12:01 a.m. on December 1, 1997 he was pronounced dead. I met Richard Marsh when I was writing an article on the state's legal system for a Kansas City magazine. It had taken six months for him to agree to see me. What finally persuaded him was an article I'd written several years before while living in Florida. He was born in ...continued...

The lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the government, the government should not support the people. (President Grover Cleveland, while vetoing a bill offering financial aid to the poor, 1887) Collyfoxing By coincidence I happened to see a YouTube video put up by Jon Ritzheimer a few weeks back, one of the gang leaders that occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and who is now in jail. He stood in front of a table piled high with dozens of dildos that his detractors had sent. What struck me, however, was the seemin ...continued...

North Pole ...continued...

I have a new devotional book out called Looking Deeper: A 366 Day Devotional. It's available in paperback and e-reader for your tablet or phone. Go to Amazon.com at this address: http://www.amazon.com/Looking-Deeper-366-Day-Devotional/dp/1500415731/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1406742308&sr=8-2&keywords=god%27s+little+Miracle+book+III Here is a sample of what you'll find inside. January 4 Psalm 91:11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. In my book, God’s Little Miracle Book III, I share a story of a woman ...continued...