For Those Who Are Hurting - What #Love Looks Like (#Kids #Divorce #Pain)

There's a young woman in my life who is going through a hell of a time with her parent's divorce. It's not the divorce itself that's giving her fits, she's moving through that. It's her mother's verbal abuse (driven, I think, by feelings of guilt over her affair and abandoning her kids) that is causing this young woman such pain.

She's dealing with her mother with grace and courage, and her attitude in the face of such negativity is inspirational. I have faith that this young woman will come through this time a stronger person, but at the moment, she's suffering.

I doubt she'll see this post, but there are others who need to be reminded of what love, any kind of love, really looks like. Parental love, spousal love, love for friends and co-workers, love for pets, even love for strangers.

I hope this will encourage someone in both the giving of love and understanding what pure love looks like, and perhaps more importantly, what it does not.

Love Is In The - Oh, Wait, It's Under The English Channel...

So, here we are in June on our 13th anniversary, sweltering under the Texas sun, and my husband Martyn and I have recently had the chance to reminisce about how we met. At the time, it all seemed perfectly normal, but looking back, I guess it was a little strange.

Me, a Texan, him, an Englishman. Both of us in France. Or, rather, under the English Channel.

Fourteen years after we met and I'm still so glad he offered to buy me that cup of coffee. A lot has changed since that fateful Sunday in March 1999 - I joined Martyn in England for seven years and then we decided to escape the corporate life and pursue our loves, writing for me and jazz for him. Somehow, we ended up on a ranch in East Texas, taking care of a herd of Black Angus cattle and a donkey, with two books published and a successful music career underway.

Many thanks to Gary Borders for taking the time to interview us and tell our story, and to Piney Woods Live Magazine for running the article back in February 2013 (click here or on the pages below to read the article). Stop by the Piney Woods Live website to catch up on all things art in East Texas. You'll meet up and coming musicians, painters, seamstresses, poets, sculptors, writers, etc.

Surprised at the thought of creative rednecks? Then visit the website to discover what you're missing!