Laura Novak
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It's Been So Nice...

5/21/2012

 
...to take a break from blogging, among other things.

I have so little to add to the national, local, or bloggish scene, so I'm thinking I'll just be quiet for a while.

It is time for me to get focused on my next Clari Drake mystery. In fact focus is the wrong word. Not liking what I've already written, I need to change course and find another way to say things.

So, if I have something of import to blog, I'll post. Otherwise, I see no point in boring the world (however small) with inane drivel. 

Be well my friends. Enjoy the summer. The sky is foggy right now, but I just know there is some "clarity" ahead.

Namaste. 
grannyj
5/21/2012 03:32:39 am

Namaste dear Laura. I have been in that same place for the last couple of months. Sometimes we just have to sit back and let the universe unfold as it will. I often forget that I really do not have all that much control- It has taken me a while- but I think I am heading in the right direction. Your Tao Te posts have helped me rethink where I am going- thank you and Charley for that. I am in PEI- I will send a little message out there across the great Atlantic for both of us to find the peace that we need. I will keep checking in- but I support your decision and wish you the best. Janet aka grannyj

diz
5/21/2012 07:20:46 am

Never noticed any drivel around this blog but do support you in your quest to recharge your batteries. Have a good rest and may your shingles go dormant or extinct forever!

daisydem
5/21/2012 08:26:43 am

Namaste Laura. I have enjoyed your blog and will look forward to new posts when the urge or the need strikes you. And I hope you are over the shingles, btw ... at my last routine doctor's visit a couple of weeks ago, he asked me if I would like a vaccine against shingles; having read that you had come down with it and I know one of my aunts did, I said yes, please. So, done.

V-A
5/21/2012 09:40:49 am

Wise woman, you. Choosing thoughtful silence in a world full of empty yakking. xoxoxo

Up
5/21/2012 11:24:52 am

glad you are feeling better. May you enjoy continued good health mentally and physically.

Ottoline
5/21/2012 07:49:33 pm

Thank you for bringing us all together for some really interesting conversations, Laura. I wish you well, and I sure admire a decision to focus -- v hard and v rewarding. I will aim to follow your example.

mistah charley, ph.d. link
5/21/2012 09:39:52 pm

May you, Laura, and all your readers, be well, happy, and at peace.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Laura Novak
5/22/2012 02:06:48 am

Oh, Mistah Charley, that is beautiful. And we can always count on you to provide us with prose and poetry to further our understanding of things.

Janet, you and I HAVE been on the same path for a while, I know. And with Ottoline and others we've contemplated how to downsize our lives and the clutter in our heads. I wish you all great good luck with that.

Someone turned me on to this site and I've begun to listen to some podcasts:

http://www.audiodharma.org/teacher/1/

What can we learn from a new approach? I sure want to find out.

As I said, if there is something of interest to write, I will. But I hate to leave folks hanging. Politics is poisoning our well, and others can talk about it much better than I. There was much to think and say about the Kennedys, but they too are a toxic bunch. So here I am: trying to get quiet and get some character development on the page.

You guys are the best!! I am so grateful to have known you all. Yes, V-A: I hope my silence will be thoughtful indeed.

M&C
5/22/2012 06:24:05 am

Laura,

I have truly enjoyed reading both your blog and Finding Clarity.
May you find clarity in all you do.

Jo
5/22/2012 06:46:32 am

Laura, I think that you are wise indeed. I am feeling a similar feeling of clutter in my life and mind. I think that I want and need to purge, simplify, and renew. It is also complicated by a change in medication which is giving me serious brain fog. Enjoy your time away. I am guessing that we will all still be around when you feel the urge to write on your blog again. In the meantime, peace to all.

Ottoline
5/23/2012 11:56:22 am

Dave Letterman and Renee Zellweger discuss his shingles at 4:10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yquUnl1bpAI&NR=1&feature=endscreen

and by the way Dave's advice on plantar fasciitis was exactly true for me, too.

Michele
5/25/2012 07:22:02 am

Laura,I have never commented before. I cannot fail to wish you peace and harmony. I have walked the shingles path,post chemo. Yes, it does fuel a wish for serenity and clarity. I know you will find same. Thank You for sharing with strangers who care. Michele

Balzafiar
5/26/2012 12:38:16 am

I need to ask a question and really don't know where to ask it, so I'll ask it here.

Does anyone know why Floyd Orr's blog has disappeared? I know he doesn't write that often, maybe once every two weeks, but suddenly it is gone. Did the lawyers get to him?

Now the blog doesn't exist, all content is gone and the name is "available" according to the message.

Jo
5/26/2012 12:51:02 am

He changed the name, said that he was consolidating his blogs. Here you go:
http://floydmorr.blogspot.com/

Balzafiar
5/26/2012 01:01:55 am

Thanks for that info. I saw that when I Googled it earlier but thought it was an old article.

Good to know he's still around. Everyone's opinion is important even if one doesn't always agree with them.

Ottoline
5/26/2012 05:59:35 am

I have been critical of Floyd in the past, but to give him his due:
-- he is the one who provided the critical push to get the Audrey and "Fred" indiscretions out, so we all know. I think knowing is a good thing.
-- I heard "Southern Strategy" from Floyd first, and I now see it is a huge factor in the Palin hoax and also in the fall election and in our future, unfortunately. It is the best explanation I've heard for the odd simpletons in the GOP primaries, which is to me otherwise incomprehensible.
-- he was also the one to note that the Mcginnis and Joy Behar interview was pulled moments after it aired. Only the transcript remained when I last looked. And that an anti-McGinnis short version was online instead. Supporting the MSM blackout idea. I had the same info at the time Floyd noted this, but I failed to connect the dots, so Floyd's comment was a true Aha! moment for me.


Laura Novak
5/26/2012 04:02:42 am

Thanks, all, again. Jo and Michele: peace to both of you on this journey. And that all medicines and treatments work toward great health and good purposes.

I am so tempted to write about the Kennedy death, but they are all so toxic, they rob me of my peaceful heart. So I am going to sit on it for now. Happy long weekend to all! Oh, and feel free to keep talking to each other here if you wish. Thanks, Jo, for providing that link and I'm glad that Balzafiar thought to ask here.

B
5/26/2012 11:18:57 am

Thanks, enjoy your break, and I hope you will be moved to write at least every few weeks. I really appreciate you and your insights.

Ottoline
5/27/2012 06:30:20 am

Hi B, I'd like to connect with you directly. If you are okay with that, pls email Laura and ask her to forward your email address to me.

B
5/29/2012 08:12:10 am

Done!

Ottoline
5/29/2012 11:12:14 am

I too am tempted to write about the Mary Kennedy death, so I will. Because I have this intuitive take on it that's completely different than what we are reading. Which is that he dumped her for whatever reason, appearing to be generous by leaving her the house (which I see is a big-deal effort in green building and is documented here

http://www.amazon.com/Kennedy-Green-House-Eco-Healthy-Foundation/dp/1608320308

and was Mary's passion). BUT RFK stiffed her on the money to be able to afford it, and she was about to go bankrupt starting with her overdue AmEx card. So she would lose the house and had already lost the children (and the worthless RFK). She had not pursued the money-making career route because she had stayed home with the children (the first of which seems to have been born 3 mo after the wedding, which took place two weeks after RFK's divorce from wife 1). So basically Mary had lost everything. I have no doubt she could have started over and done well, but it also seems (to me) she didn't want to, having been betrayed by RFK and his family and grieving over that. Money is such a powerful symbol (as well as reality): if RFK had offered her financial security upon his departure, I bet she could have weathered it. Yes, his funds were low due to the crash, but he sure has some uber-wealthy relatives who could have lent a hand. And they called Jackie a gold digger! She simply was mentally healthy enough to know that financial security was something she would have to wrest from fate -- it was not going to be handed to her by the folks she trusted. Okay, rant over. I feel better now.

Lisa
6/2/2012 12:55:29 pm

You are spot-on. A friend of my daughter’s sat next to him at a dinner when he spoke at her school and he put his hand on her leg during the meal. As to financial security, Jackie had dealt with the lack of predictable income most of her life and and she knew she had to go up against the Kennedy clan for her due. What is the matter with Kennedy men and their unbridled lust? From Joe Sr. to the grandkids ... what shallow behavior and seriously fatal flaw.

Ottoline
6/2/2012 11:55:24 pm

Hand on leg under the table: seems to be a Kennedy tradition. Old Joe is reported as doing that with -- yes, just like your example -- the friends of his daughters at dinner. And I wish I could excise from my brain the report of old Joe's hand under table, seated next to Gloria Swanson in the presence of Rose, and "pleasuring his mistress under the table."

The attempted stiffing of Jackie upon Onassis's death is another example of the non-valuing of women. Happens all the time. The $26M she eventually got (after negotiation with Christina; incl $6M for taxes) was a small percent of the Greek "widow's share," defined by Greek law, which law Onassis had changed specifically to stiff Jackie (it was changed to NOT apply if the wife is a non-Greek and the amount involved is over a certain sum -- and there was just the one woman in Greece that law would apply to).

Ottoline
6/10/2012 02:22:06 pm

Laura: at this moment, your book is at 12,890 -- the best rank I've seen so far. Bravo!

But in other news, I stand corrected re my thoughts about the Mary Richardson Kennedy death. It's much sadder:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/06/10/the-last-days-of-mary-richardson-kennedy.html

mistah charley, ph.d.
6/12/2012 02:05:08 am

What was surprising to me to read was that Mary had been "gaslighting" her stepdaughter - stealing and hiding her possessions. She was clearly very troubled even when she entered the marriage.

B
6/12/2012 02:50:27 am

Not sure we can believe what Bobby Jr. said in divorce papers. After all, wasn't he already lining up Mrs. #3? And if he did tell the truth, wasn't he worried about again bringing women who weren't their mother into the lives of his children? I

Lynnrockets link
6/12/2012 12:40:33 am

Here's hoping we get you back in the blogosphere in the Fall.

Ottoline
8/18/2012 12:36:52 am

Yes. Please.

btywrk.com link
8/20/2012 10:27:31 pm

There are may person searching about that now they will find enough resources by your post.I like this blog..

mistah charley, ph.d.
8/27/2012 07:52:23 am

People have been wondering which third party candidate to vote for. I now have a recommendation: Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party. Look him up - if you're like me, you'll be impressed.

mistah charley, ph.d.
8/28/2012 12:20:30 am

Who is Rocky Anderson's running mate on the Justice Party ticket?

Luis Rodriguez, a leading Chicano writer, speaker, gang expert and interventionist, and activist for justice in urban peace, the arts, labor, and human rights, has joined Rocky Anderson's 2012 presidential campaign as Anderson’s vice presidential running mate. "The search for a highly competent, dignified, principled running mate has been arduous," Rocky stated. "Luis exceeds any expectations I had. He will inform, uplift, and motivate in this campaign, just as he does every day in his inspirational work."

Where is Luis Rodriguez coming from?

He is a co-founder of the Network for Revolutionary Change, trying to fill the gap of strategic and unified leadership among the poor, the pushed-out, the dismissed, and forgotten. He's also co-founder of the nonprofit Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore and its publishing wing, Tia Chucha Press, in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles. He has fifteen published books in poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and children's literature, including the bestselling 1993 memoir Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. and its 2011 sequel, It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing. He has lived and worked in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Bernardino, and fifteen years in Chicago. He's now a resident of San Fernando, CA.

For over thirty years Luis conducted workshops, readings, and talks in prisons, juvenile facilities, homeless shelters, migrant camps, universities, public and private schools, conferences, churches, Native American reservations, and men's conferences.

What awards has Luis received?

Luis has received the Inner City Struggle of East L.A.’s “Spirit of Struggle”/Ruben Salazar Award; the “Local Hero of Community” Award from KCET-TV of L.A. and Union Bank of California; “Hero of Nonviolence” Award from Rev. Michael Beckwith and the Agape Christian Center in Culver City, CA; and an "Unsung Heroes of Compassion" Award, presented by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

How is this candidate for high public office different from most candidates for high public office?

Rocky Anderson says, "Luis brings with him a wealth of knowledge and real-life experience, inspirational personal growth, and proven commitment to social, economic, and environmental justice. Such justice is an essential element of a nation committed to equal opportunity, peace, and genuine freedom for all.”

What does Luis Rodriguez say about the Justice Party?

"It's important to find a politically independent means to voice the real issues of justice in this country. The Justice Party comes at a crucial time, when the truth about who holds power and wealth in this country is daily more evident and the failures of the two-party system become increasingly irreparable. This is a vision for a new America, new ideas, new forms of struggle--of true justice in our time and for generations to come. The Justice Party is part of a growing movement in the United States for true peace, justice, equity, and dignity. People are understanding more and more that to have a healthy and full development for each person we need to have the healthy and full development of all."

What is Luis Rodriguez' personal goal in running for Vice President as the Justice Party candidate?

"My aim in being part of this ticket with Rocky Anderson in the Justice Party is to help spread the conversation in this country about how we need to incorporate more voices, stories, ideas, and people into how we govern and take care of everyone. Two directions for true justice are to have meaningful, respectful and healthy relations with the environment, the earth, and its bountiful resources. And to have meaningful, respectful, and healthy relations with each other."

mistah charley, ph.d.
8/29/2012 02:14:47 am

There are a few "battleground" states where the outcome is in doubt. Residents of all the others have the luxury - should we choose to accept it - of voting for someone we actually agree with. Who is that? See a useful article at Wikipedia:

United States third party and independent presidential candidates, 2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_third_party_and_independent_presidential_candidates,_2012

Alexander link
12/26/2012 11:29:41 pm

Very useful post right here. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with me. I'll definitely be back.


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    Laura Novak

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