Here you will find passion for writing and self-publishing.
A writer’s journal; a place to meet the author; space to explore the next book or writings; a storyteller.
Author, Jane Marla VerDow
Theme Song, "Dear Daisy" composed by Hiroshi Takatani (video features final instrumental version) June 2010, the song, "Dear Daisy" was born.
Based on the book Dear Daisy by Jane Marla Ver Dow
Though the years they may change us Some things in life forever remain Like those years we spent together Living life its joys and pain
You taught me all 'bout honesty How the truth would set me free Like a teacher you inspired me Each day beneath that Cherry tree
(Chorus) Now "Dear Daisy" as I write this letter Though eyes can't see I know you're there I feel your presence surround me Your angel wings as they brush my hair
Your smile my summer mornin' Sun Your wisdom my guide no end Your actions more than words spoken Showed me I had a special friend
(Chorus) Now "Dear Daisy" as I write this letter Though eyes can't see I know you're there I feel your presence surround me Your angel wings as they brush my hair
(Bridge) Say everything now there's a reason Not in ours but in God's time A path our lasting friendship Enough love to last a lifetime
(Chorus) Now "Dear Daisy" as I write this letter Though eyes can't see I know you're there I feel your presence surround me Your angel wings as they brush my hair "Dear Daisy"
To all I met on my summer festival Dear Daisy book signing path...thank-you for your purchases, but mostly I thank you for the joy and support you brought to my life. Sharing stories, laughs, and connecting with you has made all the difference.
Every year, now 9, I have remembered the dates 911 and 1028 by doing something to send a message to the World.
Every year since I started blogging, there is always this post on 911:
"Today, this 911 we come together to remember our World's Family members...may we always reflect on our challenge as the survivors..."
Every year since I started blogging, this message is repeated on 911 and 1028:
"As individuals and as churches, we have need to determine if our mission is to light candles and to keep candles lit, or to blow candles out. I still believe that one candle and that candles united in purpose create the World’s path of creation and life, or can be used to ignite the fire of destruction. If we seek Peace, whether the War is between Nations or the War is between peoples, our own stone and our own flame is really all that any of us have control over."
~ Jane Marla VerDow, Author of Dear Daisy
Content Synopsis Dear Daisy, nonfiction, reads as life is presented day-to-day and by seasons. The author, a gifted storyteller invites the reader into the world and relationship between a Colored illiterate Migrant Woman sharing her wisdom with a boss man’s child under cherry and apple trees during the early 1960's. Daisy, an Angel on Earth years later mystically reappears an Angel from Heaven to guide the grown child on her pathway back Home.
Dear Daisy tells a story 2000 years old yet reminds us how challenges continue to play out and that we each contribute to writing the story.
As the story begins, the author caught in a personal struggle of survival under conditions felt oppressive, writes to Daisy. As the reflective search for self and path unfolds, the 9-11-01 story strikes as a Holy War between extremists of Nations. Before the dust settles, 10-28-01 brings world chaos personal. Living the aftermath, the author struggles to forgive and declares through writing an Epistle as part of her emancipation pathway that violence as a rightful expression and worship of God is not the God of her faith.
Dedication (Dear Daisy) This work is dedicated with all my love to Daisy. Her warmth taught me love, her gift of patience taught me to search my heart for patience with others, her Soul taught me strength equal to compassion, and through her love and guidance I learned to reach for my World.
Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over and whispers, "Grow, grow."
~ The Talmud
Martin Luther King Jr. (Jan) and Black History Month (February), an anniversary I also remember each year with some act of saying thank-you and honoring. A cause certainly, but mostly reflects my choice to honor, Daisy who from my eyes was the humble, unyielding heart and soul of Dr. King's message.
Daisy, my Spiritual Mentor
My faith was born under the cherry or apple tree. As a child, Daisy was my teacher. She could teach about God by a smile, the way she held out her hand, how she listened to my stories, by her patience, and by the strength of her character and Spirit.
As a child, I understood nature, sensed how life should be, accepted what it wasn't on most days, placed hope in tomorrow by living today, and trusted my instinct to know right from wrong and direction. She taught by her compassion and gentleness to judge fairly or not at all, by her tolerance I learned to look for the good in people, and that the best way to teach was by being or reaching for the best within myself. Daisy as my friend, I sensed early on that we are all God's children; that more makes us the same than different and the contents of a person's heart measures Soul and worth.
Author Jane Marla VerDow honors Candaisy "Daisy" Mitchell in the National Women's Hall of Fame, Book of Lives and Legacies.
On this day, January 21, 2008, the day we set aside to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. and to remember his "I Have A Dream" speech, the Civil Rights Acts, the marches and protests for civil liberties and freedoms, I would like to honor the woman who first taught me about "Dr King".
Our shared story is told in Dear Daisy, my first novel inspired by and dedicated to my "adopted Grandmother". The Lake Ontario Shoreline of Upstate New York is the place I call home and where my heart will always center to the farm, this place God gave me to connect each harvest season with Daisy. I will forever be grateful for this relationship and for the wisdom Daisy shared with a "boss man's" child under cherry and apple trees. It will always be etched upon my heart that Daisy, my Angel friend on Earth 1959 through the 60's, years later mystically reappeared my Angel from Heaven to guide this grown child on her pathway back Home.
A quote from Dear Daisy expresses best why Daisy is honored in the NWHF Book of Lives and Legacies... "I hoped the World would sense the role Black Grandmothers play today, and especially the role Colored Grandmothers played in the transition from "slave" or "free slave" to soil and fruits; each day establishing roots and opportunity branches children and children's children know today. This would be my dream. My heart pictured Daisy's rightful time to speak, an "illiterate" adopted Colored Grandmother, a poor migrant traveler rich in Soul and Spirit bridging generations and color divide, a leader in Dr. King's positive peace army."
She will forever be known to myself, friends and family by her less formal name, "Daisy". She didn't need a civil rights movement. Her presence, love and compassion told all there was to learn. Daisy used the canvas life gave her and planted seeds in fertile ground; hearts.
Daisy, my friend, Love Always,
"Miz Jane"
On September 8, 2010 hearing songs playing the airwaves for hatred and intolerance and voices of compassion, religious freedom, and tolerance competing...I wrote.
"I heard the songs, "Amazing Grace" and "We Shall Overcome" that year on that day, 9/12. The song waves hung with the dust for awhile...at least until other voices started to sing another song, the cry of war and retaliation.
I wrote then and now of the teachable moment and the healing potential then available in Dear Daisy, (written between 1999 and copyright release, 2004). I questioned there, too the wisdom or lack of, watching my country choose to follow false leadership and distortion of truths, and sit through the "shock and awe" of war, rather than listen to the song of the sparrow.
There is something powerful in education and learning called the Teachable Moment. In healing arts there is a Healing Moment where there is pure alignment of the physical-emotional-spiritual. On 9/12 we had both a Teachable Moment and a Healing Moment very visible and palpable centering and radiating from the heart and soul of NYC and the field of Pennsylvania...to the World. We lost that moment 2001. We've lived and continue to live and pay for those choices. What will we do on this the 9 year anniversary? Another moment of choosing..." (Rising Sparrow)
2010, the song, "Dear Daisy" was born.
Based on the book "Dear Daisy" by Jane Marla Ver Dow
Though the years they may change us Some things in life forever remain Like those years we spent together Living life its joys and pain
You taught me all 'bout honesty How the truth would set me free Like a teacher you inspired me Each day beneath that Cherry tree
Chorus) Now "Dear Daisy" as I write this letter Though eyes can't see I know you're there I feel your presence surround me Your angel wings as they brush my hair
Your smile my summer mornin' Sun Your wisdom my guide no end Your actions more than words spoken Showed me I had a special friend
(Chorus) Now "Dear Daisy" as I write this letter Though eyes can't see I know you're there I feel your presence surround me Your angel wings as they brush my hair
(Bridge) Say everything now there's a reason Not in ours but in God's time A path our lasting friendship Enough love to last a lifetime
(Chorus) Now "Dear Daisy" as I write this letter Though eyes can't see I know you're there I feel your presence surround me Your angel wings as they brush my hair
Music Composition and Final Music Mix : Hiroshi Takatani (Hyogo, Japan)
Vocalist: Barbara Hunn (Williamson, New York)
Vocal Recording : Andy Calabrese, Calabrese Recording Studio, (Pittsford, New York)
Photos and Video : Jane VerDow
The Full Orchestra Version (Demo-approaching final mix) was shared as August turned to September. Theme Song "Dear Daisy" by Hiroshi Takatani
"Theme from Dear Daisy" Video Dedicated to 911 survivors.
We create the world each day with our choices. One choice- one candle and candles united in purpose...ignite the fire of destruction.
My view this choice would follow "In protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil," a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida, plans to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks...The Dove World Outreach Center says it is hosting the event to remember 9/11 victims and take a stand against Islam...it invites Christians to burn the Muslim holy book at the church..." One candle, Pastor Terry Jones.
I see some caught between choices with the Islamic Center at Ground Zero debate. Pain is hard to tell another to let go of, the message has to come from within. Respect, tolerance, understanding on all sides, and with more time passing...maybe a solution of hearts and minds will know the path to choose.
One choice - one candle and candles united in purpose create the World's path of creation and life
One candle, NYC Singing Policeman, Daniel Rodriguez
"As individuals and as churches, we have need to determine if our mission is to light candles and to keep candles lit, or to blow candles out. I still believe that one candle and that candles united in purpose create the World’s path of creation and life, or can be used to ignite the fire of destruction. If we seek Peace, whether the War is between Nations or the War is between peoples, our own stone and our own flame is really all that any of us have control over."
~ Jane Marla VerDow, Author of Dear Daisy
And I leave you with my words, my personal story, a question and a statement from Dear Daisy
"Violence delivered by others of this World in the name of Allah, is a "sin", yet violence in the name of God is a "virtue" ? I ask, what is the value of one sparrow or one person to thousands in the eyes of Allah or God? He created each one on their day. God is God regardless of His Name."
~ Epistle written by Jane Marla VerDow, February 14th, 2002 (message addressed to Christian Faith and Church)
Autographed Copies of Book Dear Daisy available through Author : Rising Sparrow Press
September, two Festival Weekends with Rising Sparrow Press hosting an Author's Tent for local authors.
Books Etc of Macedon and Village Bookmarket of Palmyra will be sponsoring a second tent for local authors. (For Lumberjack Festival both "tents" will be vending space indoors).
Authors from Wayne, Monroe, and Ontario Counties will be there discussing and autographing their books, sharing writing and book promotion projects, and to answer any questions you may have about writing-creating books and publishing pathways.
A nonfiction, spiritual memoir, Dear Daisy is the storyteller’s journal recording footsteps on her life path from days long ago shared with her friend, Daisy (1960′s) to the 911 aftermath. Sharing humor, visions, dreams, heartbreaks and challenges, Jane Marla VerDow has written a compelling account that both entertains and challenges one’s soulful reflection. Written in a unique style the author refers to as “language layers”, Dear Daisy has been described by readers as “enchanting”, “ profoundly written”, and “courageous.”
"Childhood is nothing more than, absolutely nothing less than, the courage to discover for the first time with innocence and openness, the faith and passion to explore the next, and the inner wisdom to sense the value of each moment along the path."
~ Jane Marla VerDow, Dear Daisy
"A dream of a child from under a cherry tree... that came to be under an apple tree... For everything there is a season"
~ Jane Marla VerDow, Rising Sparrow
As the story begins, the author caught in a personal struggle of survival under conditions felt oppressive, writes to Daisy. As the reflective search for self and path unfolds, the 9-11-01 story strikes as a Holy War between extremists of Nations. Before the dust settles, 10-28-01 brings world chaos personal. Living the aftermath, the author struggles to forgive and declares through writing an Epistle as part of her emancipation pathway that violence as a rightful expression and worship of God is not the God of her faith.
Dear Daisy is dedicated by the author to her friend, Daisy whose warmth taught her love, whose gift of patience taught her to search for patience with others, and whose soul taught her strength equal to compassion.
In honor of Daisy, Author, Jane Marla VerDow will be donating 10% of all Dear Daisy book sales to Love Is The Answer to assist HIV/AIDS orphaned children of Uganda.
Author, Jane Marla VerDow will be available for Dear Daisy book signings, to answer self and independent publishing pathway questions, and to share print, photo, and video projects Rising Sparrow Press is currently working on these final months of 2010.
Interested in memoir writing or family and event scrapbooking? Jane shares your interest and hobby. Samples of what can be done to enhance with writing and storytelling will be available.
Featuring "Dear Daisy" song lyrics by Buddy Sutton
Additional song lyrics and video storyline by Author Jane Marla VerDow
The question most often posed by readers after reading "Dear Daisy":
"How did you find the patience with people, the arrogance from those claiming to be Christians?"
My answer: I held courage that moment...through the grace of God. I searched my heart for patience that moment and the minutes after...through the grace of God I found it on some level.
The overcoming minutes I mostly searched to find something else...first strength and courage to hold my ground...boundaries, so many levels violated then and after in that room...arrogant.
Next observing people, drifting in and out from wishing for or expecting an awakening from those there who shared the moment, watched, observed and did nothing. I expected people to wake up, to own truthfulness of what they had witnessed. Rather, moving on to the next scripture or next hymn or song, or to hear the sound of their own voices...as if nothing had happened,expecting more from me...some declaration of my faith that day...arrogant.
After, next days and weeks...the cover-up and justifications...some God package or God way (theirs) I was to accept and "grow to become a mature Christian". Hearing that, nothing could grow there except anger. That confirmed my feeling that in faith there was no room in my heart that I would allow for that level of arrogance from another.
I looked to the skies at night. I revisited next weeks my Lake and believed in what my Lakewaters had revealed to me that June day of 2001. I trusted my God and my Faith. To move beyond this 1028 day 2001 I trusted the words and guidance Jesus had given..."dust your feet" and move on...
I've spent the years following finding my way, trusting my faith, searching my mind for understanding. On a personal side, I search to understand why 1028, the reason. The day 911, too comes as an anniversary when righteousness of another faith declared same message. Still now, each day I search to comprehend how righteous actions of people of all faiths, of all politics, the seekers and takers of power, the extremists continue to play on and on...
Each day I search my heart each step I travel to forgive. That's my part to play. I owe that to me, not for them.
I've come to a place of hindsight, now knowing more than I did back then when Dear Daisy was being lived and written. I have come to accept "it" and the meaning of my life. That has nothing to do with others, never did, especially none of them.
A Fruit Grower by roots, raised on the Lake Ontario Shoreline. A storyteller by nature inspired by local stories, history, and nature's mysteries and gifts.Anyone knowing the author would tell you that she is most at home under a cherry or apple tree.
Farmer by roots,Teacher by degree,Physical Therapist by credentials,Author by passion.
For more information view Author websites: http://wwww.risingsparrowpress.com and http://www.risingsparrow.wordpress.com
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