Thought Wheel

Ann Chiappetta

The New Year, and Pandemic Stress

| Filed under nonfiction Relationships writing

Annie Shares News Issue 1 January 2022

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🍾 Happy New Year! 🎇

 

Well now, friends and followers, 2021 has been complicated, hasn’t it? I don’t know about you but I feel wrung-out and all kinds of weird – hm, could it be the wacky weather or maybe the long-term effects of a two-year long pandemic. One blogger I know stated the continual loss and grieving   may contribute to   feeling wrung-out and disheartened.  – whatever is contributing to   it, it’s sure been a rollercoaster ride of strained emotions. If you think you’ve been alone in feeling this way, rest assured you are one of many and you are not alone.

As written by Plato: “Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught falsehoods in school. And the person that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool”

He might have been talking about himself yet his words are prophetic and powerful. I never thought we would be living through a pandemic and yet here we are.

 

I will move onto less troubling topics,.  Most of the early part of 2021 was recording my two most recently published books as audio books. It’s a goal to strive for my material to be offered in alternative formats for the blind and people with print disabilities like dyslexia.   All my books are available from audible.com and as digital books from the National Library of Congress talking book catalog.  The specific links and everything Annie is on my website, www.annchiappetta.com .

I would not have been able to do it myself, and huge thanks goes out to voice actor and the best narrator, Lillian Yves for being there to help.

 

Taking part in interviews and podcasts is fun and exciting, especially when being an international guest. Check out this one with Princess Diva: https://anchor.fm/diva-williams/episodes/Inspirational-moments-with-Ann-Chiappetta–Author-e19j36i

and this one with Karina KKantas: https://www.artistfirst.com/kantas.htm

 

Here’s a haiku for you to ponder:

Hands cup grains of sand

Delicate and Rough to touch

Stars pulsing through time

Dreya the book dragon sends wing beats of creativity and kindness your way, 🐲

photo description of Ann's personal logo of green dragon floating amid books and musical notes.

A whimsical red and green dragon floats among flying musical notes and books. Text to the right reads Ann Chiappetta making meaningful connections with others through writing.Ann’s personal logo

 

We Remember Them

| Filed under Relationships

The past two weeks have been  difficult beyond the ongoing vicissitude’s of life for Jerry and me. He watched his sister pass from cancer. She was fifty. I got an email from my former director telling of a veteran’s passing. I counseled his wife for five years and  though our therapeutic relationship ended, I often thought of her and her family. We were able to attend the veteran’s services.

 

Today I received the sorrowful news  a friend and Westchester  Council of the Blind member succumbed and died of a heart-related illness.

 

This poem is for them.

We Remember Them…

In the rising of the sun and in its going down,
We remember them;

In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,
We remember them;

In the opening of buds and in the warmth of summer,
We remember them;


In the rustling of leaves and the beauty of autumn,
We remember them;

In the beginning of the year and when it ends,
We remember them;

When we are weary and in need of strength,
We remember them;

When we are lost and sick at heart,
We remember them;

When we have joys we yearn to share,
We remember them;

So long as we live, they too shall live
For they are now a part of us as
We remember them.

from Gates of Prayer,
Judaism Prayerbook

 

The numbers Are In

| Filed under blindness nonfiction Relationships

The numbers Are In

As it happened, this year my first article for Outlook Enrichment posted:

https://www.outlooken.org/news/article/the-way-i-see-it-ann-chiappetta

 

What does the article have to do with numbers? Mom was born on November 17. She’s been gone six years and I miss her even though the harsh pang of grief has softened. I am grateful for my sisters and our extended family, who help keep Mom’s spirit going.

The universe supports keeping Mom’s spirit upfront and in a cherished place for us.  Special things keep falling on the date of her birth and every time it happens, I get the feeling she’s    delighted. We love you and miss you, Mom; keep sending reminders that you’re out there and the universe is caring for you.

 

As for my new gig, I think it’s the best omen it was scheduled on this special date.

 

 

 

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

What’s Annie Been Up To?

| Filed under Relationships

From  the Annie Shares News Issue 11 November 2021 email newsletter

www.annchiappetta.com

Subscribe: anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io

 

🦃 🏔 ❄

 

Hello readers, welcome to the November newsletter. Here in New York the lower Hudson is cooling off and we will once again experience      winter’s cold breaths. I find winter to be a time of renewal and creatively rewarding.

🌴 🥥

Even though it’s getting colder, why not warm yourselves by listening to a guest podcast with host Princess Diva   from Trinidad and Tobago. I read two of my newest poems and one from my first collection, Upwelling.  Thanks goes out to author, Amy Bovaird for the connection. Inspirational moments with Ann Chiappetta author:

https://tinyurl.com/5ec8a5vc

👩‍💼  🙌

On behalf of disability awareness month, I also want to share two business and social related blog resources with articles posted by my talented colleagues:

Outlook Business Solutions and Outlook Enrichment

And to bring it home to how we celebrated White Cane Safety/Blind Americans Equality Day, recognized on October 15, check out this video:

https://westchester.news12.com/visually-impaired-people-celebrate-white-cane-day-in-white-plains-today

 

 

Until next month, Dreya the book dragon and I send you and your loved ones thoughts of kindness and creativity.

Annie and April standing in our lobby prior to mother daughter date night. We are both smiling into the camera.

Annie andApril standing for selfi before mother and daughter date night.

 

 

 

Book Corner Review

| Filed under nonfiction Relationships

Book Review

https://www.bookcorner.us/escaping-with-his-life/

Escaping with his life

From Dunkirk to D Day and Beyond © 2019

 

By Sir Nicholas Young

Biography Pen and Sword Military, Publisher; 256pp. ISBN-10: 1526746638 ISBN-13: 978-1526746634

 

Formats: hardcover, Kindle and audible.com

 

https://www.amazon.com › Escaping-His-Life-Dunkirk-…

An inspiring and thrilling account of Leslie Young, a British commando who was captured and escaped from a prison camp in Northern Italy.

From the book jacket:  Very few British soldiers could lay claim to such a full war as Leslie Young. Having survived the retreat to and evacuation from Dunkirk, he volunteered for the newly formed Commandos and took part in their first operation, the raid on the Lofoten Islands. He fought and was captured in Tunisia. He went on the run before his POW camp at Fontanellato was taken over by the Nazis after the September 1943 Italian armistice. He spent six months on the run in the Apennine mountains aided by brave and selfless Italians. Many of whom were actively fighting their occupiers. He eventually reached Allied lines but not before several of his companions were tragically killed by both German and American fire.

On return to England he immediately signed up for the invasion of Northwest Europe and despite being wounded eventually fought through to Germany.

 

 

This biography epitomizes service and dedication during the darkest moments of twentieth century history, World War II.   It also shows the reader the human side of war, the resiliency of the human spirit and the British stiff upper lip, the grit of a soldier.

 

The book takes the reader on a journey filled with   action and heartbreak as told in part by Young’s journal entries and his son’s descriptive and historically accurate narrative.

At times this reader felt as if the history lesson textbook was on the desk and the words blurred into a dry and drawn—out round of this-followed-that narrative. But this was the only drawback to this intriguing story.

 

The attempts of the author to enliven the story is sprinkled with pieces of   the ingenuity of the time, like the bicycle brigade, for example.   There is also depictions of the depredations of war upon humans, the land itself, and the civilians who struggle to survive the Nazi occupation.

 

The book opens with a touching and powerful poem written by an Italian poet, Pierre Luigi Felli. The poem is haunting and sets the book’s place historically as well as creatively. Felli’s last line, alludes to returning to the haunting places, “Years later, the return along those mountain pathways feeling the scent of memory.”

 

This reader was satisfied and pleased Sir Nicholas’s account is fascinating and honors his father’s journey and those  who fought for freedom from tyranny.

4 stars

Open Door

| Filed under paranormal Poem Relationships writing

Open door
By Ann Chiappetta

Horizontal Travel nestled in breaths
Deep and restorative. A place of relaxation, attracts
Energy, the curtain billows, the visitor
Inserts herself, uses the most familiar place, the bathroom – why
are most of these encounters located in the dream bathroom? By now I know there is a message born from the veil, the thinness beyond
Air, beyond anything we know here in our soft beds of reality.

She shows me a hand with a ring, conveys it is significant, her face seems to say, it will soon be yours. Then she is gone. I awaken.

Today, before the horizontal travel I write with the ring upon my hand. She spoiled the surprise.

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

May the Dog Update

| Filed under Relationships

This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.Hello all, this is an update about May the rescue dog. She’s matured into a beautiful brindle brown 55 lb. shepard mix, sleek, strong and smart; she knows all her commands, tries not to counter surf and loves to ride with April in her car. May and kitten Noodle are best friends. Jerry can walk the two dogs in tandem for the most part, though I can’t mostly because I can’t see trouble coming and it is safer for me to control only one dog at a time.

She does these adorable doggie things like placing a paw gently on your chest to ask you to play with her. How could a human resist? Anyway, I’ve been a double-dog advocate since picking out Rocki and Gunny with Jerry all those years ago and believe she helped Bailey (and us) stop moping around after Verona died. As long as you can afford the time and dollars, go tandem!

May blessings be upon you and your loved ones now and always. Happy HOwlidays!
Photo is May on a recliner, the sun lighting up her sweet face and those derpy ears are so cute.

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

A Book Review with Meaning

| Filed under Poem Relationships writing Writing Life

Earlier this year, prior to Covid 19, I asked Julia to review my book. I’d been disappointed by the lack of responses to review my third book, Words of Life: Poems and Essays. I needed an infusion as well as some insight as to why this book, in particular did not sell like I thought it should. I felt that Julia could deliver and she did, 😊

Julia came through for me. She provided honest and understandable statements. Below is a note I sent to her, sharing it symbolizes that not all an author’s work is dipped in gold. It takes years of practice, stacks of rejections in your inbox, and the strength to plow through the self-doubt and barriers to reach one’s creative goals. What I learned from Julia is to be open to the feedback of other writers, what may seem like criticism could be a diamond in the ruff.

Read on and after reading, take a look at Julia’s own publications. 😊

HI Julia,
I wanted to thank you again for reviewing my book. You gave me some important points to ponder and I appreciate them very much… Since publishing my books I felt the hardest part of it was organizing the content in a manner that made sense. I wanted to let you know that mentioning it in your review got to me, but then it made me more aware of what I can improve for my next book. Your review provided insight into what I can work on as a writer and this is much appreciated.
Julia’s review:
https://juliasbookreviewss.wordpress.com/2020/10/15/1110/

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