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The Queen of Heaven
Lourdes is a small market town in southwestern France, nestled at the foothills of the Pyrenees. It is one of the world’s major Catholic pilgrimage sites. In 1858 a local peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, reported a series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary in a grotto near the town. For some years recently I have…
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Poem for November
Even the one throwing the lifebelt Needs help at times, Stranded on the beach, Terrified of the waves. Brian Patten
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The Pilgrim
Rosary with shells. Protection of Saint Michael. Godspeed.
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Stage Fright
Just before you jump out of a plane there is a second when you are totally wrapped up in what is about to happen but you have the illusion of choice. The real moment of control where you could have said no and stayed in the plane was immediately before this moment. And the wind-screaming…
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If I Could Turn Back Time
If I could turn back time… … well, to be frank, I could have done without the clinical depression. That’s a bitch. … the times my immaturity and clumsiness have hurt people. … the times when people told me I had hurt them. But I hadn’t. They had hurt themselves. They just wanted me…
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Mirrors
Have you ever been to a Hall of Mirrors? Maybe they don’t exist anymore outside of my childhood memories. They were rooms with distorted mirrors where reality was bent and shaped to create amusing illusions. You were tall, short, fat and thin depending on each mirror’s deceit. It was fun. I used to work in…
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Divine Intervention
There was man lost and hungry in a wasteland. He saw an old dog limping along. The dog lay down exhausted and close to death. Suddenly, a lion came along with a gazelle in its jaws. The lion ate, left the remains and padded off for a snooze in a shade. The dog got up…
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Let’s see if it’s True
Summer holidays were the smell of freshly cut grass from the park opposite our house, the thrill of Lyons Maid iced-lollies and the adventure of going home to my immigrant parents’ country for August. It was magical and everything was different afterwards. I am always reminded of Summer Holiday – the innocent Cliff Richards film…
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Fair Weather Friends
We all have them. ‘Fair Weather friends’ who are friends in the good times but somehow disappear when the going gets tough. But blessed are they who have friends who don’t judge; who only want their friends to be happy and complete and fulfilled. And are patient when the world seems out of kilter; who…
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Woman, Stanley!
There was an actress on British TV called Jean Alexander. She worked for the world’s first and longest running drama “Coronation Street.” When she wrote her autobiography I was asked to be her bodyguard at the book signing. I didn’t expect to take a bullet for her but I did expect to calm down some…