Disney Animator, Herb Moore Elected To Board of Directors For International Children's Art Network

Love

Love and kindness is the key to a good life. Walk with your arms wide open and always make sure people leave your presence happier than when they arrived.

I love to love.

Green Zone Actor Said Faraj elected to Board of Directors for International Children's Art Network

Ryah

Ryah spending time outdoors with me today. :)

NYC

A photograph that I shot during a wonderful visit with Stefan to the city.

Facts About Weight Loss

You do not need to hire a nutritionist, simply learn to eat the right foods.

1. Try eating foods with only 1 ingredient. (Fish, chicken, bacon, sweet potatoes, eggs, veggies and fruit.) Spice them up and keep your blood sugar at a safe level. There are so many useless things added to our foods nowadays, why worry about what they are. Preparing and eating one ingredient foods will keep you out of the dark and your blood sugar where it should be. Your body will burn fat.

2. Eat the right fats! Cook with olive oil--use it loyally and toss out all veg oils and canola. Stay away from margarine (cook with REAL butter) and non dairy creamers.

3. Stray from sugar and most carbs. Carbs you do not need are wheat, most cereals, rices and pasta. Instead of rice, eat Quinoa, Millet and this creative cauliflower idea!

4. No diet foods, Splenda, boxed or frozen entrees, or anything else of the sort! (Again, know exactly what you are putting into your body.)

5. Fill up on fruits and veggies, exercise (even if 10 minutes a day), and drink plenty of water.

You will be sure to feel the belly fat slip away as you look and feel better as a whole. Trust me, it is all about WHAT you eat.

You eat foods that will raise your sugar levels you body will kick in insulin and begin to store fat. Stay in the safe zone. When your levels rise, your levels will drop to a low that will have you fatigued and craving. What happens? The cycle begins again. Bottom line, watch what you eat and stay at a sugar level that will help you lose fat. In fact, some fats will do just that!

I am no expert and these are only opinions, but what have you got to lose? Get in the kitchen and prepare something healthy tonight. A suggestion: Grilled chicken, grilled zucchini and mushroom with a fresh garden salad. :)

Find out what is best for you and start on that road to a healthier you.

Good luck!

Dear Cher

A Facebook message this morning:

"I am grateful for the positive posts that you always come up with. So much so that I am reposting some of your words on my wall... Simply cause you are really cool...

Thanks again. [:-)]"

It in these times that I feel utterly grateful to be alive. I feel good in knowing that I have the ability to begin someone's day with a smile. We all do. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the positive impact that you may have placed into another life. Change begins with just one person--someone to stand up, gather all around them, and turn it into something beautiful. Others will follow.

I love my life! And even if I did not, I would still love the people in it! I am grateful for all the positive influences (including you) that surround me, and that I surround myself with.

I love to love.

-Cher

Through the years

[Dawn - my best friend]

Just thinking about her today.

Dawn and I have been best friends for years, she is absolutely amazing. You know, the millions of little things that she does, warms every inch of my heart. I am grateful. xo

[Milkless]

Dearest,

it is 9 o'clock & it is warm
                       I put in writing
intimate thoughts & send them to you
nights when it was humid/
my dress
un buttoned to the thigh
when I assembled on the divan in anticipation/ in love/
            one ear
            wet against the wire

& in previous letters we spoke of wintered grasses
                                               &
                                               & relations that secreted into blossom
but that night as you translated tongue to
tongue a story
                       I closed my lids &
sunk into another autumn one where nights do not clam
                                                                                            or clutter
do not snowstorm
the palms like an elderly woman
opening the hand in division
cooling or heating the fissures through severity
& that is the way I will commence my next lines

my lips cool themselves
                                                          lonely/exhausted/ end/less

a movement along white
a claim
            for all that is [mine]

Dear l()ve,

break off a fragment of the crag
                                   lessen the stone
that keeps us in outlying cities the length of the east

                       arrive to me in flesh expected
                        unclothed as the sun
                       split the laws of agility
be delicate before my knee
the small of your back deep in commitment
steady as the air we breath

allow me to stitch stir language along
                                  your vertebrae
the more we kiss the more I moisten into these lines
the more we love O love/ the less we lack

                                             & so I leave you without construal
                       a trekker on the ascendant wall
                                    a Costa Rica leaflet
trailing in the draft of an opened entrance

                                  but before the lights fan away
           or syntax forms into latte for two
consider me & my mouth
subterranean in your throat
a murmur or a partition of field less flowers
inelegantly beside the well
                                                           where we drink &
                       & we drink
                       & we co             llapse
the fragrance of that night on the wire
the wet/ness
                                 of it all

♫ Clair de lune ♫

I miss my piano. Sadly, when I moved a few years ago I could not move it with me, because it was much too heavy. My Grandad gave it to me, so instead of just leaving it with someone I did not know, I gave it to a family friend. The last time we spoke, she told me how much her children loved it. I did not have the heart to mention how much I missed it. I just smiled and wished them the best.

Someday, I hope to have another.

A Dream is a dream

A likely subject in homes, coffee shops, classrooms, studios—anywhere actually. Where do they go? I say this and mean, our deepest dreams? That picture perfect photograph inside one's own mind...contemplating, but never really moving--that one moment of silence before it all rushes on. Perhaps, that inner voice that slowly begins to fade shortly after the photograph burns. What are we left with?

I truly do not have the answer. I do know that life takes over and becomes stronger as it pushes you through your routine, rarely leaving you time to follow anything, but the long track of receipts from bill payments. Life will surely subside now and again—just enough for you to regain your footing, recall what it was you had longed after, and give you some time to break a small piece of it onto your plate. From there, you feel a surge of hope as repetition kicks in.

Now that does not mean you cannot pursue your dream, if you are one of the lucky ones...the ones that can simply take as much time as they prefer to begin their dream, without worrying much about anything else.

Then we have the people that juggle it all at once; they have every reason in the world to feel nothing, but absolute, because even though it is a heavy load to bear, it is extremely worth it.

Not sure where I fit anymore. I think I have been all three at one point of my life or another. Now? Well, I just pursue happiness and inner peace. Oddly enough, I know they must come from within—not from the outside.

The fact is that anyone can dream, that is the simple part. It is actually being consistent and finishing what you have started that becomes the true quest. If you have found your dream, hold it dearly, follow it with all the passion within and never give up.

The Heart - My Heart

People have asked what it is that I like most about myself. They wonder if it is my hair, home and so on. What I like most about myself--the one thing that I would never change...

...my heart.

I love to love, to be kind and compassionate. It feels wonderful. And there is no better feeling in the world than bringing comfort and warmth to another heart.

Like an English Summer Rain

some women master mirrors
in gas stations and motel rooms,
learn to get by
when july deepens fastbreath 
or uncertain hands.

they count tips in denny's, 
lying themselves into poetry,
blending into the pavement
in pigeon shit gray— 
elegy clinging to pores
like perspiration.

the ashtray girls, their bodies 
tree stumps in mud, fashioned 
in the light of sour milk  
and insult.

they buy french sleepers to weep in, 
whisper abandonment, carry 
love light, like a wafer 
on the tongue.

they pick up pennies, study them
for signs of age, see months become 
smoke in still rooms along 
the back streets of eden. 
ladies, hardened to glass, 
they lose children in supermarkets,

—if sang to 
they would splinter.

they will sink into the cold,
minutes becoming urgent, where 
everything will be counted like 
meter money, like days that pass 
with rain and nothingness.

Wintered

       I never knew that I loved winter.

In fact,
I must have mislaid photographs of white places
during the storm, the black and white of a
gazebo, or the distance between everything. And there
is a vertigo of song here—it is clever,
       maddening,

                         increasingly       December.
I am here again in the season; I carry a talisman,
a rosary, and a string-of-letters written
in white.

In the evenings the cluster of city lights rein in
these eyes— they clarify the low clouds that hang
from the sky like summered mist, but summer is not home.
And I think
I can see spring—an opening scene,
where mountains grow and fingers spread cool,
begging for release.

(I can still feel the laughter each
time I turn the soil.)

At times I lie like a lily without stem, speak to it
in its own Italian,
mouthing the words I long

to hear. At times, I fly like a gull into interstices.
And with no one looking, I fall deeper into the lungs of
Neruda, taste the thread— open dividers that held
for so        long.

And with little breath, I dribble language, hope to rise
from the
hard of
      a season I dislike,
       but still,
                    but still,
                         but still, the pearl of my spine
                                      will not be strung!

So tomorrow, I sleep like
the past [lovers] that knelt before it.
In spring I will sow a blossom, a yellowed daffodil
from bulb. It too will brighten this city, where
in this very moment, seems sheltered in white.

*Draft II

Love VS Hate

Nobody is born hating another person because of the colour of their skin, their origin, or their religion. People need to learn to hate. And if they learn to hate, they can be taught to love; because love comes more naturally to humans than the opposite. -Nelson Mandela

[And In Dream He Finds Me]

2nd piece for this limited edition series of 3. All three will be available for purchase mid-March.

Emerging Magazine Founders Launch International Children's Art Network in Texas

The ICAN Campaign.

Become involved and help us help others! From design to dance, every underprivileged child and teen deserves a chance to shine. They deserve to pursue their given talents.

Through International Children's Art Network, they will be able to own their own musical instruments, take acting classes, learn dance, design, and so much more. Through the network, celebrities and teachers will donate time to pass on knowledge and hope.

For more information on how you can donate, become involved, or recommend, please email editor@emergingmagazine.com. Thank you!

International Children's Art Network will help children all over the world live hopeful and confident lives.

[Simplicity]

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. -Ansel Adams

*A photograph that I shot during a peaceful walk.

My Birthday

This wonderful drawing was done by my great friend, Herb Moore. Herb works for Walt Disney and is extremely talented. Thank you! :)

The rest on my birthday was absolutely fantastic! Thank you for all the messages, email and love!

Just a Thought

I relax on my patio and I see an empty hole--Stefan drained our pool to make a few adjustments. I wonder how many party guests will attempt to dive into the 12ft hole this New Year's Eve. I assume he plans on filling it before then! ;)

I am home today, so I placed all my houseplants outside on the back patio for a little morning fog misting. If anything, I am sure that the rubber tree loved it. I even placed the poinsettias out there. I hope to have a lot of tropical plants by Spring.



I have my new washer & dryer placed cozy in the laundry room. They really work quite well and I love the music they play when finished. We decided not to pay the extra $430.00 for the pedestals--we can surely lean down to get the laundry in and out. ;) Also, ignore the empty room; we still need all our things unpacked, and from storage.

I still have this cold and each night it gives me a terrible headache. Stefan said he was not feeling well last night, either. I hope he does not get sick, as well. Hopefully, it will go away soon!

We are planning a huge event in a few months,



Battle of the Bands, Horror Film Festival, Dance Competition, Fashion Show, Food, Zombie Tag and More while supporting Texas Schools and Universities! Come Join the party and break a world record! Feel free to check it out by clicking the image above!



(One of the fireplace mantels decorated in Christmas cheer. By the way, these are Blackberry images, so forgive the noise and whatnot.)

Our Christmas tree is almost finished--we are doing silver and blue this year. We hope to put a tree upstairs in the game room too, but not sure as of yet. Stefan hung a lighted wreath on the front upstairs balcony and ice lights all around the front of our home. Everything looks so beautiful, I love the holidays and all they have to offer!

I hope everyone is enjoying their week!

-Cher