9th Anniversary of 911 and 912 and 1028

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

"Dear Daisy"


© Buddy Sutton June 09 2010

Additional Lyrics Jane Marla Ver Dow


Vocal Version, "Dear Daisy" was recorded, August, 2010.



"Dear Daisy" song based on book, Dear Daisy by Jane Marla VerDow

"Dear Daisy" Lyrics: Buddy Sutton (Waterford, Ireland)

Additional Lyrics Jane Marla VerDow

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

Or maybe hearing the message from September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows


So I repeat here once again my message...

"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

or unsigned copies through PayPal on this blog.

"Dear Daisy" Theme Song

"Dear Daisy" by Jane Marla VerDow

Theme Song "Dear Daisy" by Hiroshi Takatani



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.

"Daisy, some day I'm gunna feed all them children in Africa."...big words spoken from heart when your mode of transport is a tricycle. How can a little one's dream...so off the wall...come true (in a small way, but HUGE way) against such obstacle as hunger and distance, then add the obstacle HIV/AIDS not even heard of ...when I was little? Makes one stop to think, and believe maybe anything really is possible...with belief it could be true or will be true...someday...as a child thinks.

I'll confess reading through this link, reading the kind words from Catherine...seeing Daisy there in the orchard...took a moment to head connect that my eyes were clouding over and full and my mouth was hangin' open. Then I saw me sitting on that tricycle smiling.

Love Is The Answer

Love Is The Answer New Page on FaceBook

Follow along with the Progress and Updates on HIV/AIDS Orphaned Uganda Children Projects and Support / Catherine Koch Love Is The Answer Facebook Page

Love Is The Answer New Facebook Page


Quote/Mission of Love Is The Answer Page:
"Building a bridge ... bringing Love and empowerment to orphaned children in Africa
and helping them share their Light with the world" ~

http://www.loveistheanswer.ca/

Rising Sparrow Press/Dear Daisy by Jane Marla VerDow is donating 10% of all 2010 Dear Daisy book sales to Love Is The Answer HIV/AIDS Orphaned Uganda Children.

Email Author for Autographed Copy: jverdow@rochester.rr.com

Ordering Direct thru Author saves you shipping costs.


Or Order Unsigned Dear Daisy NOW thru Pay Pal

Bullying; Powerful Video and Voices From Youth

This post is another keeping of the promise to the sparrow.

April is the Month for remembering the Value of Children and that high risk children and families need support...in all ways our hearts can find and every day. (April:National Child Abuse Prevention Month)


I was so impressed with this video and message from Youth wisdom, I wish to share.




An Excerpt from Rising Sparrow, Jane Marla VerDow

Content I had done all that could be done in these first hours, proud and at peace,I sat down to breathe, book in hand, and cracked the cover of Dear Daisy with the intent to read the story I had written.
An author, first book…heart open to explore what pages had transformed to become, now bound between hardcover. Discovery, exploration, touching land…all of this I felt…

Still…Life does not stop for this. Life has a way of not allowing itself to be edited out. I can’t tell you what page I was on when the phone rang. I can tell you not more than one-third way through I learned that where the author ends a book is often times not where the story chooses to end. A sparrow, one close to my heart, too overcome and challenged by this world, had fallen to the ground. Disbelief how life had written this epilogue chapter...days later I returned and continued to read the story I had written sensing this sparrow reading by my side. The author’s copy of Dear Daisy will forever hold my tears.

As for the fallen sparrow?
I had made a promise as we read Dear Daisy together, him There, me here…
I would not ignore nor turn my back on sparrows needing voice. Their song, his song would be heard.


Jane Marla Ver Dow
Author, Rising Sparrow Press


Books by Author:
Dear Daisy tells my story...Rising Sparrow is "my new shoes"

Autographed Books by the Author are Available

Content Synopsis/Dear Daisy

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 assault 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.



Previous writing on this blog, Click Labels for this post

(Sample)
http://storytellersandwriters.blogspot.com/2007/03/promise-kept.html

Nonviolent Liberty

As a writer I struggle with what to write at this point. I must write, it is written in the heart, and any writer will tell you that it is impossible to keep there long.

Does a writer risk to inflame an already tense society or let all settle down in hopes that emotions will ebb and flow allowing intelligence a better time to read? Or, is that never an issue for a writer?, more the responsibility of a reader to read what they will of your words or what they read into your words?

I have always taken this responsibility to heart when writing, searching to find the right words, better said the best sequence of words for my message delivery. Words I write or purposefully omit are to encourage discovery on the path we temporarily share. Perhaps I think about such things more than I should. At risk, creativity? or a fine tuning of intended message. All I do know for certain is I felt that responsibility writing, Dear Daisy and I still hold myself accountable to that value.

I've always encouraged the reader to turn the page, for no writer can write of their own heart, their own thoughts, open also to the heart-thoughts of their society on a single page. Not if we are to believe in next days, our own growth and discovery, and that the reader is on same path.

My heart-mind design,created by Someone Wiser than I and All-Knowing more my path than I could ever see day-to-day,is not the easiest to comprehend, still my job to figure out how to blend. An agitator just enough to spark awakening; a teacher just enough to find patience; a mediator for I have always been between two thoughts, both my own and those of others; a healer just enough to hold compassion; all a balancing of the same mind-heart. Of that, this day is not unlike most days I've lived and the writer within knows this truth.

Many times since days of high school, I've been told I write ahead of the times. Maybe true, or maybe why I feel the tension of a now or a then to a sometime coming. So here I'll share past writing and hope it is viewed by reader as I sense it to correlate to this today.

Many others have commented over the years that they can sense and read my child in my writings. I hope this true. Children I've ever known were awake, less inhibited to speak the truth they see and witness, yet more caring than we later learn to become. So room for my child to be present, to tag along, and to inform me when I sense grounded inner knowing wisdom required is more than alright with me.

History speaking, I've known a yesterday much like this today. Faced with an event I most wanted to move on from, then I had a conversation with an advocate friend and we spoke there of his work promoting nonviolence and my heart-mind, same. He asked what I needed to find my first steps towards resolution. I answered, "I've decided to write an Epistle." He echoed, "an Epistle, that's interesting." Then questioned, "why an Epistle?" I, certain he already knew, answered, "I figure, if Paul could, Jane can."

So with this Epistle, dated February 12, 2002, much of my faith statement is written, at least the foundation of what I believe. Following is a couple pages from that Epistle. I present it here because on this day these words represent how I feel about our current US conflict of heart, and I hope will better serve my expression than any statement I could offer or write specific to violence over a health care issue.


"The Jesus story to me is the foundation of positive peace and love, always bending toward Truth and most times Truth we care least to hear, or will cost us time and energy to do effort or to do nothing. His was the path and the footsteps retaken by St. Francis, Gandhi, Dr. King, suffragists for all causes; the path of patience, teaching, and healing. It is the story of boundaries and respect for it is grounded in the real, the here and now, and the physical body. It is the path of inner peace receiving the gifts of creation, the gift of life, the respect of all life and the sacredness of each. It is the walk with those less fortunate or those mobility restricted by society's biases, lack of empathy, or unwillingness to accept diversity in God's creation. It is the fight, always nonviolent and boundary honoring when passing Peace and Love, resisting temptation, overcoming evil, defending or marching for the "lesser" or "injured". It is "holding" and supporting with compassion without exception. It is the time of rescue or sacrifice (in word or deed) when another is in danger that will do harm to self or other; giving assistance running towards a collapsing building, life, or chaotic broken society; advocating dissent when destruction is done to God's Space and Earth.

His was the path that taught us that we each have our own, and it is our responsibility to keep loyal to the path and open to overcoming the challenges and temptations along our way. He is the One who taught us to have faith and hope in God as we face challenges and give thanks to God for our blessings. He spoke of love and mercy for our enemies as well as for our friends, and to treat others as we would wish to be treated. Jesus taught us to balance Spirit-Soul, to seek solitude, meditation, and contemplation to know God and to listen, and to walk back into the World to serve. He is the One who by example spoke to "us" so that we would know Truth when we hear it in words others speak along our paths, so that we'd sense those words as if He were speaking through them in this now or words that through the ages resonate and never die. Such words as "For every door that shuts, a window opens" or the song "We Shall Overcome", or the question, "Did your God teached you that?" (spoken by a slave)." (Dear Daisy)



Justice Learned Hand, "The Spirit of Liberty" excerpt from Speech, Central Park, New York City, May 21, 1944

"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and woman; when if dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their understanding alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit that taught mankind the lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest."

(Quote shared in Dear Daisy)


The last paragraph of the Epistle reads:

"Don't let the wilderness scare you and never fear the work of the Soul. Protect your Soul for it is the essence of who you are, how God sees you in His Greater Vision, the eyes we use to seek our true selves, the pathway back to God. Don't let the fears of self or fears of others hold you back from doing good works, from being true to your heart as God knows your heart, and from finding true happiness and being content. Listen to your inner wisdom and voice, keep an ear to the ground and the other towards Heaven for maybe God will answer a prayer or an Angel will sing. The Waters are deep and the Ground is fertile. God loves to listen to songs in the fields for they are the Prayers of Mobility sung in harmony with the wind and help to push the clouds aside to let His Sun shine down. I know this Truth; God makes a path for all His Children, keeps watch above, holds us in the palm of His Hands, and Jesus walked the footsteps.

God Bless our Path and Keep the Faith,

Jane"