I’m reading this Tuesday, February 11 at Port Moody Library with six other authors. All contributed to the Port Moody Library’s White Pines Program which features local writers.
This free event is being held from 7pm – 8:30pm in the comfy Fireside room. Come and join us for a lovely, lively, literary evening.
WRITERS IN OUR MIDST#14 — Writer’s Biographies
Leesa Hanna is a writer and artist living in Port Moody, British Columbia. She has had poetry published by the online magazine, ‘the Story Quilt’. She has recently completed writing and illustrating her first children’s chapter book, The BIG Adventures of Little O – A Song for the Salmon. This book was longlisted for the CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers.) Writing for Children Competition 2019. It is also included in the White Pines Collection at the Port Moody Library. Visit her website at www.leesahanna.com
Writing from the burbs of Vancouver, Lesley Evans Ogden, specializes in stories about ecology, conservation, animal behaviour, and freelancing. She also explores the intersection of science, human rights, and policy. She crossed a bridge from scientist to writer after a PhD (SFU) and postdoctoral research (UBC) on shorebird and songbird ecology. Her work appears internationally at places like Natural History, National Geographic, BioScience, BBC Future, New Scientist, and on CBC’s The Nature of Things. Find her at lesleyevansogden.com and on Twitter @ljevanso.
Jim Peacock, author of Remember the Good Times, published in 2019, resided for more than 50 years in Port Moody. He had a 15-year journalism career and more years than that in the practice of public and media relations and communications consulting. An active volunteer, he is a past president of the Port Moody Foundation, The Glenayre Community Association and the Variety Club of British Columbia, He has been a long-time supporter of the Eagle Ridge Hospital Foundation. His book is a memoir.
Shannon Matter is a singer/songwriter, writer and aromatherapist. She lives in Coquitlam and performs her original music around the lower mainland often. She has four music compilations to her credit, a DVD, a documentary of her music, five books and more albums and books to come! Visit her website at www.shannonmatter.com
Gerry Bradley was born and raised on Prince Edward Island. He spent thirty-four years working in community mental health in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and is now recently retired. He lives in Port Moody with his wife, Sasha, and their dog, Roxy. When not cutting the grass or washing the car or trying to write, he plays the fiddle with an Irish band called Port na Gael–see @portnagael on Facebook.
In 1989, Gregory J. Robb began his odyssey to publish half a million words in online and traditional periodicals before fearlessly engaging the longer book form. His inaugural book, Transience: From Failure to Future in a Scarred Family, was published in 2015; his second book is currently in the final stages of production. Greg continues to pursue the greatest story of all from his beloved home of Vancouver, Canada.
W. L. Hawkin writes “edgy urban fantasy with a twist of murder.” Described as “intoxicating, lush, magically-edgy, page-turners,” her Hollystone Mysteries follow a coven of witches who solve murders. An Indie publisher with Blue Haven Press, Wendy is also a poet and reviewer with a background in literature and Indigenous Studies. She’s thrilled to have her books available locally in metaphysical stores and in the White Pines Collection at the Port Moody Library. Visit Wendy at http://bluehavenpress.com
Therapists often recommend journaling to people dealing with mental illness and trauma. I’ve never liked journaling. Maybe it’s because I get too self-conscious or because even my old wounds often feel too raw to record in some blunt, dry fashion. Instead, I write fiction. I’ve dealt with my trauma through fiction from a young age. […]
This is a wonderful article about J.R.R. Tolkien that reveals some things you might not know. For example, I didn’t know that the Shire was “more or less a Warwickshire village of about the period of [Queen Victoria’s] Diamond Jubilee” and later swallowed up by Birmingham.
I want to live in the shire. If such a place exists. It did, I think, in my childhood.
That longing to be locavores, put our hands in the earth, hear the birds, pick wild mushrooms, sit by the pond, and drink from the well of joy, is latent in many of us. The pastoral is peaceful and powerful.
Going through old papers and memorabilia, I ran across two pencil-scrawled smudged pieces of lined paper—my grade eight speech. I’ve typed it here as I wrote it.
It’s interesting for me to look back and hear my thoughts at thirteen. I was innocent then. Going to church with my father, obviously believed in God, was probably studying for my confirmation in the Lutheran Church.
That never happened.
A year later my world imploded and God did not survive the Father-Daughter War.
But, what I see here is my mini-INFP voice coming through and the genesis of the writer/poet. Decades later, I’m still looking for answers to these questions, though not in the bible. And I’m still asking “Who am I? Why am I here?”
I’m glad that I preserved something of who I once was. Although that little girl still exists, she has changed drastically. Experience does that.
Grade 8 Speech (12-13 years old)
Mr. Sellers and Class.
“Why are we here on this earth? What are we to do while we are here? What happens to us after we die? Is there something greater than us? What is re-incarnation? Does re-incarnation really happen?
Even the great professors and scientists of our era cannot answer these questions. The people of our so-called ingenious world, who have worked vigorously inventing A-bombs and hair bleach cannot answer these questions. Great doctors and philosophers cannot answer these questions. They have made up theories. The Earth people changed through the ages from amoeba to reptiles to apes and finally to human in the form of cavemen. All we can do is have faith.
Should the religious point-of-view be mixed with scientific theory? “Faith of our Fathers. Holy Faith.” All we can do is have faith and believe. The religious opinion cannot even fully explain why we are here and what will happen to us after we die. We cannot obtain straight-forward answers to these questions from the Bible. We do know however, that we are here and while we are here we are to do God’s will. But what is God’s will?
It states in Luther’s Catechism, we are to fear and love God, our highest superior, and love our neighbour, which is everyone in the world. These are also the two greatest commandments God gave through Moses.
What happens to us after life? A children’s verse tries to answer this question.
“I am but a stranger here. Heaven is my home. Earth is but a desert drear. Heaven is my home. Danger and sorrow stand round me on ev’ry hand. Heaven is my fatherland. Heaven is my home.”
What is this heaven? The dictionary says heaven is “the atmosphere; the dwelling place of God; the home of the blessed; God himself; supreme happiness.” Living on this earth now, we are either living in heaven or hell. Heaven is being with God and hell is without God. After we die, our soul or the spiritual and immortal part of us continues either being in heaven or hell. Heaven is a feeling towards God or to be with God—not a placid place in the atmosphere made of fleecy clouds, the entrance being gates of pearl, and strangely inhabited by angels dressed in white and playing sweet music from their harps.
I sometimes wish it was.
However, we must not let our dreams and wishes get too far-fetched. When we die we will be buried in the ground and the immortal part of our being, our soul, will go to God wherever he is.
As for the question, “is there something greater than us?” a children’s hymn tries to answer this. “God is great and we are small, but we on his name may call. When we fold our hands to pray, he hears every word we say.”
Yes, there is something greater than us. God, whom we worship in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. God our creator. God, the supreme being who created man and woman with his own breath of life. Who was lonely and wanted something and someone to reign over. Our great God of love and salvation. But God is not always pleased with us, although he always loves us. When we are disobedient as Adam and Eve were, and when we are tempted by evil and we do evil; that is when God is not pleased. But redemption is possible by admitting defeat and going humbly to God asking for forgiveness.
We are born. We live a normal lifespan of seventy-five years. We die. We go to heaven or hell. Will we have another opportunity to relive our life? Will we come back as another human, animal, or plant? To live life’s problems over again? If you can answer yes to both of these questions then you believe in re-incarnation—to be made over again. The Bible does not mention anything about re-incarnation. However, after the Day of Judgment, we may come back to Earth.
Can the Bible, which people have been studying and reading for millions of years be wrong? One big lie?
If so, there are going to be many disappointed people in the world. The statements I chose to present to you today come from the Bible.
Will we live from day to day or will we die and float away?
If we are good upon this earth, will afterlife be another birth?
Life on Earth is one big question—to die or live, God only knows.
We are curious human beings, but no one knows where we will go.
