How can we help our children? By shifting the brain. I know, because it worked for me and then it worked with a successful six week pilot program with five second grade classrooms. Almost 20 years ago I stood overlooking the dark green churning waters of the San Diego bay wondering how I survived my childhood. The avalanche of tears wouldn’t stop. I was having flashbacks, nightmares and day terrors. Then the answer came. A small internal voice answered me, “I had a Polka Dot Day!” That small...

Twenty years ago I had a major brain change. I didn’t know how to move forward. It was like I was stuck in a time warp. Then I started writing. First mind mapping and then stories and then book after book. Characters filled my mind with hope and delight as memories and scattered pieces of my life were woven into a pattern that led to understanding my true self. Although writing was therapeutic for me it wasn’t until I began editing my work and getting them ready for publication that true...

Opal Fleming wanted everyone to know how American Sign Language became a well-known language today. She told her heartfelt story to the author’s sign languages classes time and time again. I promised Opal before she died that one day I would publish Opal’s powerful, enlightening story. That promise began to be fulfilled when the story was run in Newspapers In Education nationwide and then publishing it on iBooks, Kindle and as a paperback edition on Amazon in the spring of 2022. Take a peek...

Helping kids to shift to right brain creativity

Monkey ������ I was intrigued by these three monkeys as a small child but it has not been till recently that I understood why. It was while I was talking to someone about childhood experiences that the answer came to me. He told me that at the age of seven he bought those three monkeys at a zoo. His family asked why he bought them when there were so many other cute things to buy. Of course, at the age of seven we don't know why we do things. We just do it. It was during his reflection on his...

I do not have the ability to visualize, never had. But I didn't know I was different until a few years ago. When I first learned about my aphantasia I was shocked, saddened and confused. How could this be and me not know it for most of my life. Then I wondered was this caused by my cumulative childhood traumas? Could I learn how to visualize in my minds eye? My answer was no. My husband once asked me how I could write the story of "Julie & The lost Fairy Tale and not see the attic stairs...

This story is based on my dear friend Opal Fleming born in 1931. I promised her before she died that I would get her story published. She wanted children to know about the schools for the deaf and how American Sign Language became a well-known language today by being passed on by other deaf people. Opal was taken to the Oklahoma School for the Deaf by her father after he had learned about the school from a young deaf man he had met on a train. The young man explained how he learned to read...

Book Synopsis/ Jasmine/The Wooden Girl by Janie Lancaster     The death of Jasmine’s mother forces her to leave her familiar hometown in Brewster, New York and travel by plane thousands of miles away to the city of San Diego, California to be reunited with a stranger–a man who calls himself her dad.  Jasmine’s father is expecting to meet the exuberant lively little girl with rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes he left behind six years ago. Instead he is...

These tiny, hungry birds remind me of our children. So open and anxious to be nourished and cared for. Cared about. Inspired by tiny birds and little children I have developed programs to feed these little minds and hearts.  Please let me help your kids too. In the picture your see four little birds but there are five. One is hidden inside an egg, soon to hatch. We must be careful not to miss even one of our little ones.

Connecting with ACEs Connection has helped me to see and meet so many caring, compassionate people. Every time I visit this site I find something enlightening and positive for me to think about. Thank you Jane and all of you who have shared your insights and your hearts and souls with me. I am bird with wings–with song

It was honor that brought me to my hometown Jr High School. And it was on the steps of my old high school that shame and honor crossed paths. To be continued...

  Dreams do come true even if you have to wait a very long time. Julie's grandmother came over on Ellis Island while her friend Cordelia Grimm (great, great granddaughter of one of the Brothers Grimm) was sent back home. Cordelia's dream would...

Last night I took your test and my ACEs score was 8 or 9. As a child no one was there for me. In the 1950's and 60's parents had all the power. So I thought about how I became resilient. It was Biblio therapy or Story-therapy.   I found... a...

In today’s world our minds are under constant assault by what we are forced to see, hear and experience. Many of us as children suffered unresolved traumas and need a time to heal. For me that “time to heal” came later in life as it...