brendayoungerman.com Blog

Odd how it seems that people always turn to God when they have no answers. How is that ’someone’ they cannot see or cannot touch has the answers to everything? I read a blog from someone today about how their child still was bitter about a divorce that occured twenty years ago and they quote the scripture to their child. Again, they quoted “God’s word” Why can’t we use our own words to say that we married the wrong person, or that we simply fell out of love, or better yet, we made a mistake and followed a rainbow and instead of finding a pot of gold, it was a bucket of lead? How naive of us to blame everything or every mistake on God. When do ‘we’ take ownership of our mistakes?

Did God cause this recession? Did God create depression? Are we fighting in the name of God or for God? I guess that depends whose side you’re on, doesn’t it. But then again, there are plenty of people out there that are praying to a different God and whose God is right? I made a REALLY big mistake of voicing my opinion a year ago by telling someone I didn’t believe in God. I have a hard time believing in God, when I was told that my Grandfather, who was an ultra religious Jew was never going to get to heaven because he was a Jew. I thought back on all the histories of the American Indians, and their beliefs and the Jews and their beliefs and the other beliefs and I could not logically understand how all of them could be wrong and only ONE religion could be right. If there really was only one God, how did that work? And it was at that point in time that I stopped believing. No one God could possibly manifest himself (or herself) to make it such that all the previous religions were wrong and only the religion du jour was correct. Perhaps ‘religion’ itself is God and we are all put here to try and figure out the right way to treat each other, and it really it not so much about using ‘God’ as a crutch, but looking inward and doing the right thing.

Have you ever noticed how loud the silence is? Or how light the dark really is? Have you ever really sat back and taken notice of everything that is going on around you, sort of beccome a spectator to your life? An interesting comment, I admit, but think about it for just a mere moment and let it settle into your thought pattern. When was the last time you actually sat somewhere and really observed what was going on around you?

I remember when my kids were little we would go for walks and I would point out the ants that were walking on the ground and we would see if we could find any other living creatures around us. Sometimes it is very hard to stop and smell the roses as it were — just slow down and realize how precious the moments we actually have are — because in the blink of an eye, or a flick of a finger, everything could be gone.

So as you read this, stop, for just a moment, and listen to the silence around you — you might just be surprised at how loud it is.

I would assume that somewhere out there – where ever you are reading this from – you have the two words used together ‘June Gloom’. I have lived my entire life in Southern California and I have always heard those two words used to describe the weather here when it is gray in the morning and sunny around 3:00 – once the marine layer burns off – and the sun decides to show it’s color. Well, today is June 3rd and it has been raining all day. I don’t think that actually qualifies as June Gloom, I think that should just be called a summer storm – because we actually had lightning and thunder. Now, isn’t that odd, we normally thunder and lightning – in that order, but everyone knows the lightning comes first.
You’re probably reading this wondering what is she rambling on about? Well this is what — we keep hearing about global warming and the strange weather patterns and the hurricane season that is going to be harder this year. And how the flooding of the Mississippi was worse this year than in the past forty or fifty years.

I think someone needs to look up their Farmer’s Almanac and see that weather, like everything else, is cyclical, and it may or may not be global warming, but this too, shall pass. And you can call this June Gloom if you’d like. I’ll just call it a summer storm, and go play in the puddles!

I have always been told you get more flies with honey. Why did I want to get flies in the first place? I always wanted the flies to go away. And what about those old wives’ tales. I come to find out that there were really never any old wives. They’re just another bunch of sayings that people passed down over the years. You know like, “If you don’t wash behind your ears, a potato will grow.” Come on… how in the world would a potato grow behind your ear? Or “It’s seven years bad luck if you break a mirror.” Did someone actually do a study on that? Did they truly break the mirror and then have seven years of bad luck or were they unlucky and then attribute it to the broken mirror? Because if that’s the case, I have another 4 to go and I might as well go to bed and try to grow a potato from my ear.

It used to be that people talked on the phone and that was the best means of communication. Now everyone has a cell phone. Even kids younger than 10 have cell phones. Come on – who needs a phone when they aren’t even 10? Now there are so many different social networking sites, twitter and myspace and squidoo and gather and who knows what next weeks top 5 will be. I’m seriously dizzy trying to keep up with each one.
Did you know that Arianna Huffington was the wife of a politician and she only became famous after she divorced him and started bagging on people. Now she’s on the top of everyone’s invite list. How did she do it because I’ll follow her advice!
Back to my original rant, see now you know why my title is what I called it…….
Phones have caller id, so you don’t even have to answer it if you don’t want to talk to someone. How easy is that? But then of course you have the tricky people who block their number. Why would they do that unless they know YOU don’t want to talk to them — So don’t call me!
Now we’re actually going backwards – back to the old fashioned writing of letters – but on a much grander scale. Think about it – Pres. Obama wrote a letter to his girls and published it in a magazine.
I don’t know about you, but if I was his kid I don’t think I’d want my mail opened by a million people.

Yesterday -May 8, 2009 – I had the most amazing experience. I talked to someone over the phone and thousands (well maybe hundreds) ((okay tens) of people listened to us via the internet.
Isn’t technology amazing!
But, the coolest thing was this — I sent a message to my mom during the broadcast AND I had sent out an email to certain people letting them know that I was going to be on at the time and a friend of mine that I have known since Kindergarten (yep I was 5!) listened in as well.

But really the most important part of the whole experience was getting the message out to more people about what the whole fiction with a purpose – one person can make a difference idea is all about. I do truly believe that if one person can be helped by a book that is all that matters.

NOW I hope all you mothers out there had a REALLY GREAT MOTHER’S DAY!

BY

Do you really care if Angelina Jolie is pregnant again? Here’s a better question for you….do you think that because she has adopted three children from ravaged countries that entitles her to have four biological children here? Where does ‘responsible’ parenting come into play? When did it become an ‘okay’ addiction to add a child every year to your family just because you could?
I don’t know about my loyal readers, but I was raised with a sense of responsibility and sense of right and wrong. Somewhere in my learning and growing we were taught that no family should increase double fold or triple fold. The average home should have 2.3 children (still trying to figure out what to do with the other 2/3 of that kid I had!) But when it comes down to brass tacks, do the rich play by a different set of rules just because they can? YOU BET THEY DO!
I know…I know….They’re populating for George Clooney!
Has everyone forgetten that we are in the deepest hole since the 1930s…..that everywhere you look people are losing their homes (because the rich were greedy?), your friends and neighbors are out of work (because the rich were greedy?), that luxuries like ice cream cones are being cut out of Saturday afternoons, that belts are tightening everywhere? Yet you walk into the grocery store and the front page is plastered with Brad and Angelina, or Obama and a dog.
PULLEASSSSE….can someone come back down to reality and fix something…..just one thing????

Are pirates attacking ships another form of terrorism – I fear the answer is yes.

Is it appropriate for the President of the United States of America to get involved in resolving the issues of piracy. Hmmmmm, let’s see, is there a place in the constitution that specifies what to do with pirates? How would Abraham Lincoln have handled it? I’m sure that’s exactly the first thoughts that ran through Pres. Obama’s head prior to his escalating the situation to a full naval attack on Somalian pirates. So, where does it stop, because after all now they have declared ‘war’ against the ships. Do we go to war with Pirates? I guess that goes right back to the first question —Are pirates terrorists?

And then of course there is that grand issue of Portugese Water Dogs and the gift from the Senator. Was it or wasn’t it a pound puppy? Did he or didn’t he follow through on his promise to rescue an unwanted animal? SERIOUSLY PEOPLE — don’t we have better things to concentrate on than if the pooch was rescued? Like, who’s cleaning up from the dog? I haven’t seen that conversation in the headlines and they do like to discuss a lot of crap!

“Listen to your heart,” that is what I always told my children as they were growing up. It will never lie to you. When you don’t know what to do, listen to your heart. Now that they have grown and moved away I wonder if they remember their mother’s advice.

I find that as the road of life that we all are traveling on has many crossroads and diversions, we are constantly faced with decisions. I tend to decide with my heart and not my head. In retrospect that might not be the wisest of decisions, but it has gotten me to this place at this point in time. I have reconnected with many people from my past and that has been an absolutely amazing experience for me — one I would not trade for anything.

My ability to create life with a pen and paper allows me to live through my characters situations I have never actually had, feelings I have never felt and emotions I have never emoted. That all comes from my heart to yours.

Is this all there is? This is the fairy tale that we have all been hearing about since we were 4, or better yet since we were old enough to listen to stories. Come on, how many of you remember being tucked in at night and listening to a story being read to you? Or how many of you tucked your kids in at night and read them a story at night only be told today that they don’t remember that you did it? That’s the best part, trying to give your kids the childhood you never had, and they don’t even remember it! How’s that for the last laugh? When did this become the fairy tale land that we read about? Did Cinderella really live happily ever after? Or Snow White, come on….who’s she fooling – she lived with 7 dwarves — now here is the real question – and I know there are people out there reading this blog – so I want you to answer this one – Please??? Which dwarf has the best personality? and you have to say why you think so- you can’t just say “sleepy and it’s because he sleeps.” That’s not really a dialogue I can have with you.
Okay? so all of you that read this blog – it’s time to interact –
BY

Happy Holidays!
Whenever it is a bit nippy outside and my ears, nose and fingers are the coldest parts of my body, I am reminded of my younger days when I would go sailing. Now don’t think that is some magical experience on my part, I assure you it was not! I would be sitting in an 8 foot boat, and I am positive, to this very day, that my boat had a mind of it’s very own. Everyone around me would be sailing just fine, the wind would fill the sail and they would be floating (from my vantage point it was more like flying) across the top of the water. Meanwhile, my pig headed vessel would be pointed in the absolutely opposite direction and that darn sail would be flapping so loud I couldn’t even hear my own thoughts. There was nothing, and I do mean nothing, that I could do that would get that boat to turn around. The only way I could get out of the position I was in was to purposely (and I know, I said purposely, shhhhh, please don’t tell my big brothers, they will be so ashamed) capsize that boat so the rescue boat would come pick me up and take me to dry land. Don’t you think the adults would have figured out that this scrawny little girl wasn’t supposed to be sailing?

Sitting on a park bench, people watching; one of my favorite pastimes, it hit me that women walking through the park with children are reminiscent of ducks with ducklings. They walk and the ducklings follow behind in a formation. Now, have you ever eavesdropped on those conversations? Children yammering away and mothers giving the nod or the “uh-huh” at the appropriate time. I remember once as a child gathering for a family function, specifically responding to an aunts, “How are you?” with a “I just died.” Her answer, “Oh that’s nice.”
Who does that? What happened to listening? Are we really so busy in this life that we cannot even take time to listen to someone answer a question that we ask?

Have you ever watched a dog chasing it’s tail and wondered what they were thinking? Or better yet have you ever seen a dog catch it’s own tail and fall on the ground? It is sheer entertainment at it’s best. Sometimes I think that is what we are all doing. Working to make money so we can pay the bills. Buying things to survive which creates the bills, then we have to work to earn the money. When do we ever have time to enjoy ourselves? And what happens if the people we have surrounded ourselves with are the wrong person?

I read an article last week in the Los Angeles times that said they had set up a new phone number: 211. It had the latest information on shelters and services for families in need of food and shelter. —–Wait a minute! Is it 1938? Did we just do a time warp while we were all so busy chasing our tails?

Have you started a conversation you wish you hadn’t? Are said something you wish you could take back once it’s left you lips? That happened to me today, and I have to say that I should have know better. Those of you that don’t know me very well, and I would say most people reading this blog would fit into that category….I’ll be honest: I tend to stir up the pot – but never in a mean or offensive way, just enough to get a good conversation rolling. I find that if you can get people to start thinking great ideas are born, and normally that is where some of my best ideas come from (is that plagarism? I think not!)
Back on point…I guess the old rule: never discuss sex, religion or politics should be adhered to – especially if you really don’t know the people you’re stirring the pot with! They say that cream always rises, what sinks?

What started out to be research has now turned into my new passion. Anyone who has read my books knows that I tend to write about an issue, even though I weave a pretty good story while I do it. My next novel, Sorrowed Souls, was going to be about the injustice of Homelessness and how we, as a society, can pretend it doesn’t exist. The government pretends that they do something about it, when in reality they don’t. Now, more than ever, the situation needs to be resolved and more resources and facilities need to be added. Be that as it may, back on point, I started out by gathering research at the beginning of October and now have found that it is so personally fulfilling that I spend every Saturday morning participating with a wonderful organization. I have a very special person to thank for that – my dear friend Mary Castellanos.

Onto another subject, I will be visiting many social media sites and getting the word out about everything we are trying to accomplish, so keep your fingers crossed and let’s hope more and more people hear about the books!

TTFN.

This is new for me so we’ll see how it goes. I am a true believer that one person can actually make a difference in the lives of others just by being kind.