Go Snow!

There are two ways to take this: Either 'Go Snow, snow your little heart out, Have fun!' Or: Leave! We've had enough already! The Blue Jay skidded in to land on the patio table this morning and found himself up to his ears in snow. The Sparrows can't be found, and the reason I know there are Chicadees pecking at the seed is that every so often I see a flurry of snowy and a little black cap. The Canada Geese stopped by on their way back North and they're sitting out there on a sandbar looking like ice cream cones saying, "Seriously?" This is The South y'all! What's going on? And my ghost friends have melted into the fog. Not a single see-through person to be found. We have Snow geese why not Snow Ghosts? (Okay, sorry, my brain has melted into the fog too apparently.) I wanted to pen something inspiring but inspiration has flown the coop. Even the house ghost I wrote to you about had a couple of weeks ago has left. I could tell you about the Civil War ghost I found at an old confederate hospital just outside Charlottesville who asked for a ride back to Pennsylvania. Or the W.W.2 ghost that lived in an apartment in New York City - he went down with a submarine. Strangest thing that. When he popped in I could actually feel water rising around my legs. Or there was the Scottish miner in Grand Lake Colorado - cheeky fellow. And a big husky guy who was travelling with a wagon train, taking his family out west. They were trying to get through the mountains before winter set in. Or the children dancing in an old house in Williamsburg ... So many interesting folk. And you will meet them - as soon as the print copy of Rainbow Rising is released. In the meantime, as I wait to hear from the publisher, I'm working on Book 3. Have you ever met a baby before it was born? Or listened to a child tell you where she came from? Before this earth, in that time Before. Fun! It's writing well, another non-fiction, and if you'd like to include your own experience in it, it's about young children, and also people who are leaving our earth - who see and know so much more then we do. I would love to hear it. Just email me at giniabrock@aol.com For now, our dusting of snow has turned into four inches and still snowing. I hope the sun is shining where you are. Soak up a little for me. And send our big star to Virginia.

A Spirit to Show the way

Last Thursday I visited an old lady friend who's spending her last days in an extended care facility. (The nice name for a Nursing Home, which strikes fear into the hearts of the bravest people I know.) She's very old - well into her nineties - but she still reads and gets around shakily in a walker. Her mind when she's clear is very clear. Her innate intelligence is intact, only clouded sometimes by physical old age. But there's something else going on. Now that the strong physical senses of sight, hearing, etc. are weakening, the spiritual sixth sense is able to break through, stepping forward, taking the lead, and I believe, leading her to the next place. All last week, she spoke with visitors about a beautiful,shining hospital, a lovely place with caring people and a doctor she loved. She asked me when I visited, if I would take her there. I asked her where it was and she said, "In Washington, and I want you to get me there!" Washington was her lifelong home. It's possible she's remembering a long ago hospital stay where she had a good experience. But she's painting it in out-of-this-world adjectives of beauty and love. She can't seem to find enough words to properly describe this place. I heard that while she was speaking to one of doctors, she confided to him that not only was she in this gorgeous place, but her husband, himself a doctor , was on staff there, taking care of her.(He was a doctor before he died several years ago.) So where is she? I believe she's in between planes, getting ready to transition. Is it possible that she's being guided by her spirit, being shown a place of beauty, in familiar surrounds to make her feel at home; to make her reach out to that place? I think so. People who have crossed over into that spirit world tell us that it's very similar to earth only much, much better. Is this what my old lady friend is being given glimpses of? So often we hear stories of people who are dying, suddenly breaking into smiles, reaching out, mentioning names of people who are long gone - Isn't it a lovely thought that there are people waiting for our ferry to land ... and a spirit to show the way. Believe.

Things that go Clatter ... Clatter

Okay, everyone - Ghost alert. Just before I went to bed a couple of nights ago, I looked out of the kitchen window on to my walkway, and noticed that one of the solar lights was blinking on and off. Of course it was - I'd be blinking on and off in this cold too. So I went to bed, tucked myself in with a book and shortly thereafter turned the light off. I lay there, I'd be asleep soon. I closed my eyes then popped them wide open wondering if I shut the fireplace doors... Better check. No. Of course I did. But maybe I didn't ... Not wanting to wake up in a cloud of smoke at 2:00a.m. so up I got , padded through to the living room - and closed the fire place doors. But wait - as I leaned forward to close them, the television blared on. Seriously? It was off. Firmly turned off when I went to bed. The remote was on the coffee table six feet behind me. Hellllooo? The announcers were talking loudly about the missing Malaysian plane. I was the first inkling I had that there was a possible disaster looming in the South China Sea. So I watched for about a half hour and went back to bed. I climbed in, turned the light off and closed my eyes. Then, clatter, clatter, clatter, bump, bump!! What th' ... I sat up, jumped up, and walked down the hall to find the cause. My printer light was on and the machine spluttered once as I stood there in the doorway - and was quiet. It was plugged into the wall - but it wasn't plugged into the computer so no one gave it the signal to clatter ... If I was an electrical engineer I'd probably figure this out perfectly rationally. But I'm not. So, to my way of thinking, even if there were three perfectly rational reasons for all this .. they happened. 1,2,3... Three signs that someone out there wants to chat. And they're fooling with my electronics. This is something they like to do. I think spirits can ride electrical energy into our third dimension from wherever they are. It's a lot easier for them to negotiate than our murky, swampy, heavy earth dimension. They frequently use electricity as a conduit. I'll keep you posted. I'm not sure who it is yet, but think there's a ghost in my house. And keep an eye out for lights blinking on and off, music playing unexpectedly, or a telephone ringing unaccountably. You never know. Someone may be trying to reach you. Probably someone you love. See you soon!

The Owls and the Pussy Cat

My poor cat's nerves are shot. Here's why: About a year ago a young female cardinal took a shine to its reflection in my dining room windows, and has been trying to peck its way in to make friends with the stranger for twelve solid months!! While, I love these guys - especially the boy cardinals with their scarlet plumage - this is going over the top and driving me up the wall. Why won't it stop? I'm beginning to think its suffering from shaken bird syndrome - it's brain is scrambled from all the head banging. It's particularly annoying because every so often (ten times a day) it'll throw in a 'rat-a-tat-tat that makes me think there's someone at the door. Miss Kitty viewed this drama being played out from one of the window sills, fascinated by all the thumping, and dreaming of little cardinal drumsticks. For a while she was mesmerized but about six months into this she got bored and decided that the moths that fly around the outside lamps at night are more fun, and switched her viewing site. I've tried everything I can think of to stop this nonsense including a big wooden bird strategically placed, a decorative scare crow perched either inside the window or, more boldly outside in a nearby shrub. The bird is fine with that ... I put large pictures of full face friends and family in the window. It found another window. Then just recently a handsome, bright red male showed up and I thought, "This'll do the trick!" She'll soon be sitting on eggs. Not a chance - the guy stayed about a day, watched the loony tunes and made a break for it. Then a bird shrink showed up. "Make some cut-out owls and put them in the window!" He advised. Good idea! So, I got to work with construction paper, scissors and markers and after several hours and a full waste paper basket I had two passable creatures that look like hybrid owl/cat/bats. Miss Kitty blinked and then stared at me with disdain as I taped them up on the windows. And went back to washing her face. The bird bought it!! Yes she did! She stayed away for an entire day. And back she came at 6:00 a.m. the next morning. What we need, I decided was sound effects. So at about mid-morning I cracked the door open, cupped my hands around my mouth and made owl noises. Twooot twooooo! Repeat. Twoot Twooo. The head banging stopped. This was working! Buoyed by success, I hooted again - and then again just to let it know this was one bad owl. No bird. There was a scuffle behind me and I turned away from the door to see my cat flattened on her tummy on the floor, ears pressed back against her skull and her eyes bulging. When I opened my mouth to say something, she slit her eyes, hissed, spun on her heels and fled down the hall to my bedroom. What on earth ... She's been there for two days. The bird's gone. But the cat's freaked out and thinks I'm part of the hybrid thing, and what's more, I can speak owl. That must have been a really good owl sound! Who knew ... I wonder what I said. Call if you need an owl impersonator. (But give the cat an advance dose of Benedryl.) Miss Kitty finally emerged when I opened a can of tuna for lunch. Woot Woot!

March On!

Hi Everyone, I've missed you. The blog has suffered due to an extreme push to get Rainbow Risingout in print. This, I've discovered, is harder than it looks. When I first decided to try publishing on my own instead of going the traditional publishing route, I asked for advice and listened to a lot of sages who had published successfully and soon I was riding high on things like, 'It's a snap!' 'No problem!' 'Follow the instructions - easy as pie.' And the one I really liked, 'You'll have your book up and running like clockwork in a couple of days' YESSSS! Not so fast. It's about three months since I started down this road. I must have really irritated the computer gods. Which doesn't surprise me. I don't speak their language for one thing and you cannot get along in a foreign country if you don't have a rudimentary grasp of the language. We know that. And forget 'RUDIMENTARY' in France. I you spoke it with the same fluency as Racine or Voltaire, or Napoleon for than matter - they still wouldn't understand you. However - I digress. What pray, is a hash tag? Smash Mouth (or is that a punk rock group?)Doesn't matter - no comprendez! So, I took my dilemma to a bunch of fellow writers who had gone this route, and got a variety of well-developed answers from well-developed writers who are as right-brained as I am - all of us trying to be techies! Not only did I get a variety of answers, we all had a variety of different computers which didn't agree with each other. What worked on one was smartly rejected by another. My poor computer which has served me faithfully in composing three books finely snapped under the strain. It's a snap! The mother board went up in a puff of smoke. Huge problem. So then I had to get the new computer up and running like clockwork. This isn't going to happen in a thousand years!! Whole new set of temprementalities embedded this baby. And last week it became so stressed out and infected with virus's and unmentionables, all of them according to my computer fixer, multiplying like rabbits - Trojans?? I thought they were supposed to stop that kind of thing ... but no - in computerville they spread the multiplying diseases like with an intensity never seen before. But as you can see, I'm using the new computer, typing very gently and speaking encouraging words to it as we go. I hope it learns my language very quickly so I'm doing everything I can not to aggravate it. Rainbow Rising is going through the proofing stage and if all proves to be well and not in violation of anyone's codes etc... I will be very happy to be able to present you with this new book - very soon. In the meantime, Miss Kitty has been under my bed for two days - a complete wreck. Her nerves are shot. More on that and the owls tomorrow. Happy March, everyone. I'll see you soon.