I'm Running Away...

The snowfall on the first day of spring was the straw the broke the camel's back for me. I'm running away for a week someplace warm.

Really warm.



See you in April!

Celtophile Monday - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Three minutes of Irish bliss, accompanied by the the late, great Bothy Band. Enjoy!

Warning: Profanity Ahead!

Thanks to J.C. Wilder for the link to this! Every word is true...

Lighthearted Thursday Thirteen

Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.
Bill Cosby

When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half.
Gracie Allen

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. Tom Clancy

You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.
Joe E Lewis

Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the brain as marijuana. The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two but can't remember what they are.
Matt Lauer

I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Winston Churchill

Americans have different ways of saying things. They say "elevator", we say "lift" ... they say "President", we say "stupid psychopathic git.
Alexai Sayle

Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?
George Carlin

When I was young I was called a rugged individualist. When I was in my fifties I was considered eccentric. Here I am doing and saying the same things I did then and I'm labeled senile.
George Burns

I do benefits for all religions. I'd hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality.
Bob Hope

Never take a job where winter winds can blow up your pants.
Geraldo Rivera

Never pick a fight with anyone who buys ink by the barrel.
Anonymous

When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before.
Mae West

See more TTs!

Guest blogging today!

I'm a guest over on The Bradford Bunch blog today. Come on over and take a little tour inside my mind. I know, scary thought, eh? :)

Also, it's Read An Ebook week all week over on the Samhain Cafe. Join us to chat with authors, read excerpts, and ebook giveaways!

Thursday 13 - John O'Donohue

Thirteen quotes from the late Celtic Christian philospher, poet, scholar John O'Donohue. Probably the closest thing to a true Druid I'll see in my lifetime.

1. Negativity is an addiction to the bleak shadow that lingers around every human form ... you can transfigure negativity by turning it toward the light of your soul.

2. Often regret is very false and displaced, and imagines the past to be totally other than it was.

3. It is strange to be here. The mystery never leaves you alone... We take each other's sounds and make patterns, predictions, benedictions, and blasphemies. Each day, our tribe of language holds what we call the world together. Yet the uttering of the word reveals how each of us relentlessly creates. Everyone is an artist. Each person brings sound out of silence and coaxes the invisible to become visible.

4. Time is eternity living dangerously.

5. A friend is a loved one who awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you.

6. When two people come together, an ancient circle closes between them... When you really love someone, you shine the light of your soul on the beloved.

7. The judgmental eye harvests the reflected surface and calls it truth.

8. In the presence of great music we have no alternative but to live nobly.

9. There is so little patience for the silence from which words emerge or for the silence that is between words and within them. When we forget or neglect this silence, we empty our world of its secret and subtle presences. We can no longer converse with the dead or the absent.

10. Frequently, in a journey of the soul, the most precious moments are the mistakes. They have brought you to a place that you would otherwise have always avoided.

11. Our bodies know they belong; it is our minds that make our lives so homeless.

12. Once you start to awaken, no one can ever claim you again for the old patterns. Now you realise how precious your time here is. You are no longer willing to squander your essence on undertakings that do not nourish your true self; your patience grows thin with tired talk and dead language. You see through the rosters of expectation which promise you safety and the confirmation of your outer identity. Now you are impatient for growth, willing to put yourself in the way of change. You want your work to become an expression of your gift. You want your relationship to voyage beyond the pallid frontiers to where the danger of transformation dwells. You want your God to be wild and to call you to where your destiny awaits.

13. Beannacht

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

View more Thursday Thirteens!

Ecataromance.com Review: Beaudry's Ghost

I don't normally toot my horn like this, but I just got this review for Beaudry's Ghost from Amelia Richard at ecataromance.com. The more I read, the farther down my jaw dropped. It's quite possibly the most amazing review I've ever received!

Carolan Ivey has crafted a fascinating scenario for her paranormal story, as the imaginative author lets readers experience a multitude of emotions from the often heart-pounding circumstances. The numerous conflicts faced by the characters are frequently chilling and always packed with powerfully intense feelings.

After the death of her twin brother while serving his country, Taylor Brannon feels as though her life has no direction anymore, not even when working at the museum. Both she and her sibling loved anything dealing with the Civil War, so she decides to take his place in the re-enactment of a battle along the North Carolina coast. Although she hoped the event would bring some peace to her life, she quickly finds herself thrown into a frightening nightmare.

Although Jared Beaudry was killed by a ruthless Southern officer in 1862, his spirit still roams the area where he suffered and was even wrongly dishonored as a Union soldier. When he comes upon the group of re-enactors, Jared is helped by another ghost in the hope of finally getting retribution for his death so he can move on. Unfortunately, when he takes possession of the body of another man, he changes more than he could every have imagined.

When Taylor realizes her friends are acting strangely, her psychic abilities tell her they have been taken over by the spirits of the original Civil War soldiers. Her capabilities also let her know the Union prisoner is actually the man whom all believed was just a legend. With her being the only one who can see the truth of the situation besides Jared, she feels staying to fight for the lives of those men she knows is her only option. However, as Taylor learns more about Jared and the disturbing chain of events he had to live through during the war, she finds herself potently drawn to this man and his tragic life.

With heartfelt moments and tension-filled situations, Carolan Ivey brings out the deepest of emotions in her story. Though rather long in length, readers are compelled to quickly keep reading the pages in order to discover what will occur next, plus all its content just means more enthralling scenes. From the first mysterious supernatural event to the riveting conclusion, the suspense mounts as totally unanticipated twists constantly arise. The way this skilled author smoothly blends history and fiction in BEAUDRY’S GHOST is ingenious, as one comes to completely believe each mesmerizing occurrence could possibly take place. Creatively thought out in each scene, this distinctively innovative story intrigues with the out of the ordinary circumstances always surrounding Jared and Taylor. The lives of this couple are portrayed with a depth not typically shown in a story, as unusual heartaches and tribulations presently consume them. They both have an enormous amount of determination, and neither is willing to give in when faced with impossible odds. The inner feelings of Jared and Taylor are passionately depicted, resulting in convincing sincerity between them. Hopefully there will be a sequel, as there are significant questions just begging for an answer. BEAUDRY’S GHOST is continuously gripping with intensity, as reality and the supernatural collide at every turn.
~Amelia Richard

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John O'Donohue, 1956-2008

Sorry, folks, I just don't have the heart to put out a regular Celtophile Monday post. Today's regularly scheduled post is dedicated to the memory of John O'Donohue.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

"The inner music never abandons you."