How Nice To Meet Carlton!

Yes, I know I said the next time you hear from me would be to say the book is available at Amazon. Not yet, but here's a picture - Changes are necessary, but maybe within the next week, I'll be ready to make it available.

I really want to tell you about an experience I had over the weekend.  

I was visiting with my brother who lives on Smith Mountain Lake and we were sitting downstairs just catching up when there came a knock on the door.  My brother recognized his next door neighbor through the glass so he raised his hand to motion the visitor to enter and in comes this really nice looking young man. (I won't use his full name because I don't have his permission to do so).  His frame completely filled the door opening and as he stepped inside, it became obvious here was a lifter, a VA Tech football player and graduate, turned personal trainer. "I just stopped by to return the book I borrowed from you", he said to my brother. In his hand was a copy of my book, "Before The Lake." As we got properly introduced and he told me how much he enjoyed reading it, there was such a feeling that rose inside my chest that it's hard to find the word to describe it.  Not pride, not curiosity, not apprehension. Just the warmest feeling of pure unidentifiable emotion when I recognized my little book in the hands of a total stranger - and a young one at that - who read it and said he enjoyed it.  Since he grew up in Pittsylvania county, one of the three counties that borders Smith Mountain Lake, he's well aware of the area, but since he's only 29 years old he doesn't know much about the lake's history. 

If you need or want a personal trainer, inquire at the West Lake YMCA.

"Before The Lake" is still available at Amazon.com. Just google my name or the book title and you'll find it.  

Now - back to editing "This, Too, Shall Pass".  Later...

Waiting...

I ordered the proof for This, Too, Shall Pass last week.  According to Amazon, it has been shipped and should be received before the end of this week.  Certainly, there will be changes to be made, flaws to be fixed, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have no idea how to go about marketing this one, so...open to your suggestions, if you have them.  The target audience is those who are dealing with depression, drug/alcohol addition and its crippling results, PTSD. Not a happy place and not a happy book, but it's accurate and quite descriptive of the life I once lived.

And, already, bells and whistles for the next one.  Now all I have to do is wait for the story to completely unravel into words and "Ragtop" will be my third attempt to add another tale to the collection.  This will be my first attempt at fiction (based on some real life adventures - actually begun twenty years ago when I was living in Corpus Christi.)  This should be advance notice to you to begin writing down those words and phrases that come drifting unbidden into the recesses of your mind. You never know when the day will come that you have time to drag them out and step bravely (or trepidatiously) between the lines you created back when you didn't know you were creating.

You will hear from me next when I can say the book is available for purchase on Amazon.  If you (or someone you know) are living in darkness, you might consider purchasing a copy.  There has always been, and will always be, light at the end of the tunnel.

Always and Ever,
Barbara

It's been a while...

...and here we are at the end of October.  Summer fades as its foliage deepens into shades of gold and rust and red.  A chill permeates the autumn mornings and we begin to think of hearty soups, pinto beans & cornbread, pumpkin everything.

It's not my favorite time of year but I can still appreciate its beauty and hold my breath as I see the leaves fall from the trees, fully aware that the starkness of winter waits on the threshold.

"This, Too, Shall Pass" has been submitted to Amazon for final review and, hopefully, I'll be ordering a proof copy in the next few days. I had hoped to be at this final stage months ago, but life happened and I just didn't reach that goal.  I'm happy to have it done.  Completing this piece has been cathartic and painful at the same time. More later...

Glory be to God!

As always,
Barbara

Feeling the nostalgia of the ages? Click on the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP9KxqyIpAA

Barbara Basham Bostic: The Lush Green of Summer

Barbara Basham Bostic: The Lush Green of Summer: It's rained all day long here in Apex, NC.  From the looks of things when I awakened this morning, it rained all night.  Flood watch is ...

Barbara Basham Bostic: The Lush Green of Summer

Barbara Basham Bostic: The Lush Green of Summer: It's rained all day long here in Apex, NC.  From the looks of things when I awakened this morning, it rained all night.  Flood watch is ...

The Lush Green of Summer

It's rained all day long here in Apex, NC.  From the looks of things when I awakened this morning, it rained all night.  Flood watch is being posted on television.

As I look out the window, I can tell that the lush green of summer is fading.  Here and there, leaves of yellow and gold mingle with the lush green blanket of summer and, occasionally, one relaxes its watery grasp on the bending limb and drifts slowly to the ground.

The ceiling fan above my head circles slowly, encouraging a cool breeze to enter through the open door to the screened porch.  The only sound I hear other than the rain as it falls upon the trees, slips along the leaves and falls gently to the ground, is the comforting squeak from my rocking recliner. It's Monday.  And, finally, I'm nearing the completion of This, Too, Shall Pass.  By the end of this week, I plan to order my first proof.  Yes, nothing ever seems to happen on the timetable I suggest, but the summer has flown by so swiftly.

Now about that timetable and the best laid plans of mice and.........

I was really looking forward to the Mountain Spirits Festival in Rocky Mount on October 4th. My second book, This, Too, Shall Pass, will be available at Amazon by that time and I was excited to introduce it. But that same date marks my granddaughter's 21st birthday which is being celebrated at ECU's homecoming football game where Mitchell performs with the Dance Team.  It also serves as a WELCOME HOME for my grandson Zack who returns from the Middle East in late September.  So, as much as I would like to have been in attendance for the Mountain Spirits Festival, there's just no way I'm going to miss the grand festivities in Greenville, NC that same date.

So I'll leave you with a bit of poetry from the book.

          LAYER UPON LAYER

I am me, and you are you,

And nowhere on earth is there another like us; as individual as a fingerprint, no two are the same.

Yet we are each a rainbow’s blend of all the world’s people, a potpourri of everyone we know.

When two lives touch, no matter how slightly, they become a part of the other.  If thought is provoked, reaction occurs and,

Layer upon layer, a character grows.  

Touch gently, lest ye bruise.

So treat one another gently.  We are each bearing our own individual burdens.

Best regards,
Barbara

Memorial Day

What are you doing to honor this day?  Yes, it's a three-day weekend, warm weather has finally arrived.  The sunblock and flip flops are waiting by the door.  The pool's open and you're going to work on the tan.  Maybe later on you'll do some grilling and enjoy a beer or glass of wine.  After all, you've still got Sunday and Monday!

That's all true.  But while you're relaxing, can you take just a few minutes to remember those who can no longer enjoy those American liberties?  Can you salute them in your mind - the fallen heroes and those who still serve?

Say a prayer for my grandson, 1st Lt. Zack Chrismon, who's somewhere in the Middle East.  It's over 100 degrees and he's missing his loved ones while he risks his life for his family, for his country and his fellow countrymen.  Can you do that for me?  For all of us?

If you're sincere in your heart and mind and this link doesn't bring a tear to your eye, then I don't think anything will. Skip the ad in 3 seconds, watch and listen all the way to the end.  This is how it should be sung.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCavKL2zdjM

Happy Monday!

 Are you loving this spring weather?  Hot one day, cold the next?  Such a pleasant relief and not a bit boring, huh?

Without a 9 to 5 job to structure my life, sometimes I don't really know what day it is.  Friday is easy - it's the WEEKEND!  Saturday and Sunday are easier, everybody's out and about.  Monday, well, everybody's going back to work.  And then come Whatstoday, Whatstoday, and Whatstoday (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, in case you're wondering) and I don't have a clue!

But I do know today's Monday and I'm hoping you have a productive one.

Here's an excerpt from the final page of This, Too, Shall Pass (yes, I began with the end in mind), which is nearing completion.  Maybe another week or two.  Writing Before The Lake was fun.  This one is NOT fun, and I will be happy to be finished with it.  Sometimes the past is best left in the past but, again, sometimes it's important to shed the light of day on the darkness and that's what I've tried to do.  Hopefully, someone else will benefit.

With the stroke of a pen, a writer can tug a comforting smile from our lips, or trace a tear down our checks; he can make our hearts flutter with trembling fear or soar with joy.  Many a patriotic thunder found its voice flooding from the writer’s pen, as noted artists from the past have demonstrated.  A writer has the ability to spark imagination and to instill a curiosity that invites the reader to explore their own personal feelings, to evaluate the resulting emotions, perhaps to form an opinion as a result of the writer’s fearless exposure.   

Whatever it is that the writer would have us feel in his earnest endeavor to present to us the gift of his soul, it matters not whether we agree.  A writer’s only desire is that we listen – with open hearts and minds - and that we try to understand.

Now that I'm a Tar Heel again, I'm Feelin' It!  You? 

Click on this link for our native son who's definitely feelin' it!

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qidv_uK-5Ig

Wishing You Happy Mother's Day!

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day.

Mothers all over the country will be celebrated with cards and flowers, gifts and lunches.  

Why do I feel like this is somehow backwards?  I have three children; Steve, Mark and Beverly.  They are all upstanding citizens who love their children and honor me all year long.  Isn't that to be celebrated? 

My mother made her own Mother’s Day dinner every year.  We all went home.  I don’t remember there being any gifts.  The only physical concession to the day was wearing the rose to church; a red one if your mother was living, a white one if she had passed on.  While I can’t pretend to know what she was thinking, I don’t believe she felt the least bit uncelebrated when we devoured the meal she made and gathered around the piano to sing her favorite hymns before we left.  We devoured the meal because she was the best cook in the world; we sang the songs not because we wanted to (truth be told, we were all eager to be on our way) – but because we knew it was the moment she waited for and we wanted her to be happy.  I believe she was feeling fulfilled. 

That’s how I feel – fulfilled. 

I hope your Mother’s Day tomorrow is everything you want it to be.  If you’re wondering what Mom wants for Mother’s Day, just let her know you’re thinking about her – tell her in person, over the internet, or through a phone call.  Just let her know you’re thinking of her.  That’s all she wants.  I know.  Because I am a mother.  

Moving on . . .

Welcome, warm weather, spring flowers, bird songs.  We have left behind a long, cold winter; snow, sleet, freezing rain, hazardous travel conditions.  Time to pull out the summer wardrobe; shorts, bathing suits, flip flops, How grand it feels to step outside into warm temperatures, no jackets, no gloves, no scarves.  Instead, it's sunglasses and sunscreen.  There's a feeling of freedom, of being able to accomplish the impossible.

Happy times are here again.  Sharing the beginning of Section Three and moving on...

"There comes a day, and you really don’t know when it actually occurs, that you have to make a decision.  Stay in the hopelessness of yesterday where your misery is, if not comfortable, at least familiar?  Just like the squirrel that will turn back in the path of an oncoming car trying frantically to get back to where it started from in  familiar territory only to be run down by the car – when safety was just inches away?  Or will you refuse to look back, unwilling to continue inside the trap that has held a painful grip on your past, refusing to fall victim to the oncoming slaughter? 

For me, I decided to continue on the path into the unknown future, to embrace the painful changes that would come.  I had sought out every method of recovery I knew about; Al-Anon was so important in my recovery.  Yes, I use the word “recovery”:  Alcoholism and drug addiction are not just diseases of the obvious victim; families are equally at risk of becoming victims.  I wished no longer to exist in bondage.

Eventually, there came a time when I found myself feeling once again the sunshine on my face, hearing the song of the birds, drinking in the beauty of nature.  Laughing, feeling tenderness, reaching out to the new day without the feeling of impending doom – the feeling of doom that I had lived with for far too many years.  Life was returning.  Slowly, but it was returning."

 Check this one out...  Satchmo blows it and Ella blows it away!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIDOEsQL7lA

I want SPRINGTIME!

I know it's only the middle of March.  I know that here in North Carolina we could actually have another month of off-again on-again cold weather.  I know it could even snow.  But I am soooo ready for warmer weather.  I want to see green leaves sprout full out on the trees.  I want to see budding flowers push through the soil and wave in a gentle breeze. I want to feel the sun's warmth on my face, my arms, my back.

I want SPRINGTIME!  

In the meantime, the earth is warming and even though the temperatures are still dipping low there are signs of new life.  The grass around my apartment building is turning a patchy bright green and golden sunshine pours through the double windows that frame my view of this miraculous new birth.  Birds are calling to one another and flying in pairs, searching out a nesting site.  Jonquils are in full bloom, narcissus are pushing forth, and here and there tree limbs bulge with the tender greenery that promises spring.  

So don't despair - SPRINGTIME is on its way.  And, in the meantime, I continue constructing This, Too, Shall Pass.  The first of three sections is complete, so I'm on schedule to have this book available for Mountain Spirits Festival in October in Rocky Mount, Virginia. 

I want to share this excerpt with you from Section 1.  It was birthed in a park I found in Charlotte where I often took my little ones to play and later on sat through many Little League baseball games.   It was also a spot I sought out often when life grew too difficult.

"...As I sit upon a knotty root, how grateful I am for the comfort and tender quietness I find here.  Far of in the distance, I hear the faint hum of traffic and the laughing chatter of children, happily at play.  About me in the forest, I hear the rustling sounds of tiny creatures as they scamper from hiding place to yet another hiding place.  Somewhere, a pine cone slips from the evergreen’s grasp to find a final resting place upon the forest’s cluttered floor.  Sunlight flickers through the leaves and spreads in ever-changing patterns, moving lazily about, as a gentle breeze ripples through the trees.  Now, all the world seems far removed, and I am at peace with the child of God that I am.  Tension slips slowly away; mind and soul are lovingly caressed, held spellbound in this moment of surrender.

A stranger wanders past; we share a greeting smile, and the spell is broken.  Time has come to venture back into the mainstream, face to face with reality and the inescapable cares of the world around me.  With a silent prayer of gratitude, now I can return with a strengthened belief that I, too, as the Mighty Oak, can survive for yet a while."

And on a lighter note, here's a gift from me to you.  Springtime in 3 Minutes!  Enjoy!!!

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=springtime+music&qpvt=springtime+music&FORM=VDRE#view=detail&mid=7F614CA231C7FC20B8BA7F614CA231C7FC20B8BA 

Meet me again?  I'll be looking for you..................

Special Days - Special Times

Today is a special day - My daughter Beverly's birthday.  I am so, so blessed to be able to celebrate this grand occasion with her.  There will be a birthday dinner on Sunday with good food (I hope), birthday cake and loved ones.

As I continue to pull together this vast collection of writings from the darker days, it's important to stay focused on today; to concentrate on all that is good and all that is precious.  It's too easy to regress in life - to look at the past and allow it to define us.  It is my sincere wish that this next book to come - This, Too, Shall Pass - will nurture and encourage those who are still living in their darker days.

Here's an excerpt one of those writings in support:

 Because It's There

And if today is not what I would have it be,
If somehow all seems against me, as if all Pandora’s woes are set to undo me,
I will not run and hide; but I will don my armor and set my guard.
For I know that someday soon, mayhap as near as Tomorrow,
The sun will smile on me again,
And all the odds will be in my favor, where naught can slow my step,
And I shall reach the Mountain Top – subdue and conquer my world,
Because it’s there!

My birthday wish for you, baby girl, is that you are never far from your mountain top.  Happy birthday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcWXCaXQmKI

Hello, Sunshine! Goodbye, Snow.........

I never have liked snow - not even as a child when the neighborhood youths would gather at the top of our pastureland, build bonfires, and ride to the bottom of the hill on whatever they could use as a makeshift sled.  I'm content - even happy, maybe ecstatic - to gaze through my window at the beauty of nature's white landscape while I'm staying warm and dry.  My friends and family in Virginia are reporting 12 - 20 inches of snowfall and I might add I'm really, really happy not to be snowed in atop the Bedford mountains.

I'm making progress, albeit slow progress, putting together my next book - This, Too Shall Pass.  I'm finding it difficult to stay with converting the old typewritten pages into the document I will upload to Amazon.  Sometimes I can't remember what motivated some of the pieces, and sometimes I'm on the verge of depression, but I'm going to carry on with the process because I believe there's a purpose in this book.  People are suffering today - trying to cope with the problems I faced...that I was delivered from.  Hopefully, they'll be able to see their deliverance and just hang on by whatever means they can find until it comes.

Here's an excerpt from some of the material.

I walked the shadows of darkest night, looking neither left nor right; Seeing only straight ahead. Too soon to probe the past now dead.Crouched in the shadows, the formless shape of Failure looms with bitter taste.Helpless to cast a ray of light to bring the shadows into light.Only time can ease the pain and bring my soul to peace again.

To God be the Glory!  I am a survivor.

Everything Old Is New Again!

Hello from my world in my second floor apartment above the snow.  I'm looking out at a Carolina Blue Sky brilliant with warm sunshine and I hear the drip, drip, drip of melting snow. I see droplets of water escaping from the rooftops; green grasses are beginning to peek out from beneath their icy blanket.  Folks are out and about, removing snow from their vehicles, venturing from their snowbound existence for the first time in two days. I'm getting a good overview of my life as it exists today.

Interesting:  My first book, Before The Lake, was written in a cabin tucked away in the solitude of the Virginia mountains.  The seasons of nature surrounded me; only flora and fauna abounded.  Through visions of snow and ice, through summer's blanket of heat, and autumn's colorful paintbrush, I went easily and willingly into my past as I recorded my childhood, lived within the boundaries of my family and community in the '40s and '50s. How it was in Franklin County, Virginia before Smith Mountain Lake was created. 

Now I'm beginning my next book which brings about this new blog:  This, Too, Shall Pass.  Glad to be among the living, enjoying a life rich in family experiences, planted in the midst of energy and growth. Here I will create this next adventure; here I will revisit the years following my youth.  As I come face to face with the years of living with the effects of alcoholism and drug abuse, I have a feeling this will be an entirely different experience.  Its purpose is to bring hope from despair, comfort from unease, and faith where it is so difficult to believe.

Journey with me?