The Parent Curse

Once, along time ago, lived a little girl who had been given a special assignment at school. The little girl was very proud of her assignment on Florida History. It was a big girl project just like they would get in high school. She sent off for all of the brochures like her teacher told her, she took many notes,and borrowed lots of books from the library. She only forgot one little detail.

To write the report. So the weekend before it was due, she wrote and she wrote. But it still wasn't right. The little girl did the only thing she could think of and went crying to her mother for help.

"Mommy, I got all my research done and I've written my draft but it has to be typed and put on the board and it's due tomorrow", the little girl wailed to her mother, at 10 pm at night. The mother loved her daughter, so she tsked at her and hugged her, and said,

"It will be all right. I'll help you." Mother sat at the typewriter (i said long ago,no there was no computer, now hush and listen) typing up the paper, correcting the daughters spelling and grammar mistakes, until the early hours of the morning.
At last they were finished and the little girl hung the finished report on her poster board.

"Good night, sweet heart. Let this be a lesson to you. Never put off the writing of the report until the last minute." The Mommy hugged her daughter and tucked her in bed.

"oh I learned my lesson." The little girl solemnly swore and she snuggled down to sleep. And she meant it.

Until her first Science report a few years later when she forgot again. "Mom!" the cry went out. Again the mother sat up most of the night with the daughter.

"Learn from this." the mother warned

"I will. I did." the little girl answered.

Until a few months later when her History report was due.

"Mom!" "Learn from this." "I did."

and so the cycle repeated its self for a long time.

Never once did the Mother complain or carp on the girl. She just helped and then said learn, and she would smile this secret little smile that the little girl could never really understand.

Years later the little girl was all grown up and had children of her own.

"Mommy!" the little child cried "I have a report due tomorrow and I have all the research but it isn't written! Can you help me?"

And the little girl's heart froze in her chest. She should have listened to her Mommy and learned. Because she now understood the secret smile and that her Mothers curse for her had come back quadruple fold. How many nights would she lose sleep helping her children to learn a lesson she never did?


sorry Mommy, but can we talk truce here? I learned my lesson I really did!

A reminder....

Some times life starts throwing things at you and causes you to get bogged down in doubt, self pity, and confusion. This had been happening to me lately. My sister sent out her christmas cards early this year. The one she sent me had a handwritten note in which she reminded me...



"Rebekah- If God saved Ruth from being a poor widow, Easter from being a self pitted poor girl and Daniel from the lions den, just when they began to question...what makes you feel so bad? Just step out and feel that solid yet invisible ground under your feet. God is everywhere.



Thanks Rachael...I love you!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My!

Those of you that know me, know that normally I hate when stories are "retold" or "adapted" because inevitably they will screw something up. But so far this month I've been impressed not once but twice.

First time? See below post. Second time was Sci-fi's "Tin Man". I wasn't really holding my breath or having high hopes, because lets face it, it's sci-fi. More times than not it's going to be cheesy and jukey and make me curse the gods that let it make it to the air waves.

Boy was I wrong. Some may disagree and claim that it is all of the afore mentioned things, but not since the "Tenth Kingdom" have I loved a retelling so much. Not even a retelling really. Anyone who read any of the other Oz books after Dorothy knows that there was much more to Oz then the first book told.

This story is stand alone; If you never even saw or heard the first one. But don't think your old friends are gone. It's like meeting new friends that remind you of old friends. The Scarecrow, the Cowardly lion, the Tin Man and Toto are all there, just in a different way.

And for the die hard Wizard Fan, plenty of inside jokes, like how Glitch can never find the right direction.

The story itself is compelling and spell binding for the fantasy fan, and for those of us that started loving Fantasy as little girls on a black and white 13" Quesar TV in their living room, this mini-series is enough to make us fall in love with it all over again.

Does that mean I know longer love the original? Well, that's a horse of a different color.