Happy May Day,
I would write more often if I knew you were following me. Without comments, I assume you are not reading my posts.
It has been 46 days of "shelter in place" or "self-quarantine".... My husband and I have actually enjoyed the time together.
We pray, watch Christian television and our church on-line services. We also broke down and subscribed to Netflix.
We have watched every sports movie! We play cards and games, play golf, sit in our swing and enjoy the farmland behind our house, and cook alot!
We have resorted to putting together jig saw puzzles- mostly me but Dan joins in a few minutes each day. We absolutely love riding somewhere scenic in the golf cart to see a magnificent sunset.
And...
A message of inspiration: The protagonist in my novel, "The Christmas Slayings", writes to me from prison in Ohio. She has kept me posted during this pandemic. She usually sews flags but since this crisis occurred she said they sewed two million masks for healthcare providers. Now they are sewing disposable gowns, 250 a day. They work twelve hours a day during the week and eight hours on the week-end days. She is happy to be able to contribute. She was baptized a few months ago and feels that God has a purpose for her life.
During this time of being sequestered, I wrote a book based on my keynote presentation to NorthLake Presbyterian Church women's retreat. "Beome a Beacon of Light"- Reflect the love of Jesus by developing the characteristics of the Fruit of the Spirit. Watch for it on Amazon and Facebook.
I hope you are safe and well.
Yaya Phyllis aka Dr. Rosie Klein aka Phyllis Kuehnl-Walters aka Phyllis K. Walters
Friday, May 1, 2020
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
As anyone reading this post knows, we are on self-imposed exile-ha!- from our friends and family. Fortunately, we are blessed to live in a beautiful climate with flowers in bloom and many birds in our yard. My husband begins feeding them in November when they migrate South. They are faithful to those who feed them! They hover around until May. Right now, we have a bluebird nest in our birdhouse! Flowers are in bloom. Bottle brush tree is in full blossom. Lawns are green.
Today our polo facility began testing for the COV-19 virus. We are a community of 125 vulnerable Senior Citizens. Polo season cancelled as has everything else. Even the dog parks closed today. We pray the virus does not circulate here with Seniors being high risk.
So let's focus on gratitude. I have begun writing a new book entitled "Become a Beacon of Light".
This was the topic chosen by the North Lake Presbyterian Church ladies for their retreat theme. I was the keynote speaker and they were extremely gracious to me. I presented how to develop the 9 Fruit of The Spirit to reflect God's light and love.
I am grateful for the privilege of speaking to groups of men and women who are hungry for encouragement and direction. I am grateful to have published four books in the past three years. I am grateful I am a pen pal with my main character. My main character in "The Christmas Slayings"....
The book is a fictionalized version of true events occurring in Dayton Ohio 1992. I moved the setting, changed events, and used different names.
Let me know you have read my blog. I will read yours!
Blessings and prayers for your health.
Yaya Phyllis
Today our polo facility began testing for the COV-19 virus. We are a community of 125 vulnerable Senior Citizens. Polo season cancelled as has everything else. Even the dog parks closed today. We pray the virus does not circulate here with Seniors being high risk.
So let's focus on gratitude. I have begun writing a new book entitled "Become a Beacon of Light".
This was the topic chosen by the North Lake Presbyterian Church ladies for their retreat theme. I was the keynote speaker and they were extremely gracious to me. I presented how to develop the 9 Fruit of The Spirit to reflect God's light and love.
I am grateful for the privilege of speaking to groups of men and women who are hungry for encouragement and direction. I am grateful to have published four books in the past three years. I am grateful I am a pen pal with my main character. My main character in "The Christmas Slayings"....
The book is a fictionalized version of true events occurring in Dayton Ohio 1992. I moved the setting, changed events, and used different names.
Let me know you have read my blog. I will read yours!
Blessings and prayers for your health.
Yaya Phyllis
Saturday, February 29, 2020
2020 The Year of Clarity
Good morning!
I am looking out my windows. The bottle brush tree is in full bloom. In Florida, some trees bloom several times a year. My husband has a bird feeder hanging from a limb. There are two cardinals chowing down in a hurry. The squirrels will soon frighten them away. A red, plastic dish hanging on the wire above the feeder is meant to keep the critters from reaching the seed. Somehow, they manage to sway the feeder enough to scatter seed from the ledge to the ground.
The pasture below us extends several acres. The farmer sold land beyond to a dog park owner. It is quite a vista. Often, I sit in my swing and just think and pray and take in the natural beauty surrounding our modest ranch home. My recently purchased piano also faces the meadow. I am truly blessed.
The protagonist from my crime novel- "The Christmas Slayings"- turned 48 on the 27th of this month. We e-mail one another frequently. It works much quicker than the U.S. mail and costs less. She was very sad to report no one wished her a happy birthday but me. I sent her a health and beauty aides package but it has not arrived. She submitted a list to me and then wrote back saying she hoped she didn't scare me off. I am her only contact, as far as I know, to the outside world. She has been incarcerated for 21 years and will serve a life-time. If you are inclined, please pray for her. Her name is Heather.
Have a great week-end! We are off to the Greek festival.
Yaya Phyllis
I am looking out my windows. The bottle brush tree is in full bloom. In Florida, some trees bloom several times a year. My husband has a bird feeder hanging from a limb. There are two cardinals chowing down in a hurry. The squirrels will soon frighten them away. A red, plastic dish hanging on the wire above the feeder is meant to keep the critters from reaching the seed. Somehow, they manage to sway the feeder enough to scatter seed from the ledge to the ground.
The pasture below us extends several acres. The farmer sold land beyond to a dog park owner. It is quite a vista. Often, I sit in my swing and just think and pray and take in the natural beauty surrounding our modest ranch home. My recently purchased piano also faces the meadow. I am truly blessed.
The protagonist from my crime novel- "The Christmas Slayings"- turned 48 on the 27th of this month. We e-mail one another frequently. It works much quicker than the U.S. mail and costs less. She was very sad to report no one wished her a happy birthday but me. I sent her a health and beauty aides package but it has not arrived. She submitted a list to me and then wrote back saying she hoped she didn't scare me off. I am her only contact, as far as I know, to the outside world. She has been incarcerated for 21 years and will serve a life-time. If you are inclined, please pray for her. Her name is Heather.
Have a great week-end! We are off to the Greek festival.
Yaya Phyllis
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Leap Year
Dear Friends,
Every four years, we are blessed with an extra day! Happy early birthday to my friends with February 29th birthdays. I would love to hear how you celebrate the other three years! Please comment....
I will not forget this February 29th. Why? I will receive my first royalty check for "The Christmas Slayings" which launched in December. Thank you to all who have purchased it. I hope you like it and if you do, please publish a brief review on Amazon.
I am corresponding with the protagonist in this novel. She will be 48 years old soon and has been serving a life sentence since the age of 21. Although she didn't shoot anybody, she was with the gang and received as long a sentence as one of the two shooters. She believes God has a purpose for her life and is relatively content serving the Lord in prison. What purpose? For one thing, she facilitates Celebrate Recovery which is a Christian addiction recovery program. In addition, she scares young women straight. Those serving brief sentences see what poor choices can result in and want no part of becoming a "lifer". She says she works from 6:00 a.m. till 3:00 pm sewing flags. She likes the work. It puts her in contact with other women and makes the days go quickly.
If you have read this post, please comment to encourage me to write often. I have been on a sabbatical, so to speak, because I was not getting responses. As Heather ends each of her jail e-mails to me, be safe and thank you for your prayers.
Yaya Phyllis
Every four years, we are blessed with an extra day! Happy early birthday to my friends with February 29th birthdays. I would love to hear how you celebrate the other three years! Please comment....
I will not forget this February 29th. Why? I will receive my first royalty check for "The Christmas Slayings" which launched in December. Thank you to all who have purchased it. I hope you like it and if you do, please publish a brief review on Amazon.
I am corresponding with the protagonist in this novel. She will be 48 years old soon and has been serving a life sentence since the age of 21. Although she didn't shoot anybody, she was with the gang and received as long a sentence as one of the two shooters. She believes God has a purpose for her life and is relatively content serving the Lord in prison. What purpose? For one thing, she facilitates Celebrate Recovery which is a Christian addiction recovery program. In addition, she scares young women straight. Those serving brief sentences see what poor choices can result in and want no part of becoming a "lifer". She says she works from 6:00 a.m. till 3:00 pm sewing flags. She likes the work. It puts her in contact with other women and makes the days go quickly.
If you have read this post, please comment to encourage me to write often. I have been on a sabbatical, so to speak, because I was not getting responses. As Heather ends each of her jail e-mails to me, be safe and thank you for your prayers.
Yaya Phyllis
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Major MIlestones of the Season
This has been a week of milestones. As defined by Google, a milestone is"an action or event marking a significant change or stage in development." I can attest to at least five in the last seven days.
I had the privilege of flying to Michigan and staying at my son and daughter-in-law's home for the first time. The occasion that took me to the land of snarled traffic and snow was my sixteen year old granddaughter's lead in her high school musical production of Newsies. For those unfamiliar with that Disney film and Broadway show, it is about the boys who sold daily newspapers in New York City and the strike they launched in 1899.
My granddaughter had the female lead. To my amazement, she sang, she acted, she danced, and to my son's frantically beating heart, she was kissed four times! That is 4x6! Six performances which will find her daddy upfront and focused on his teen-age daughter.
Meanwhile, in the same household, my fifteen year old granddaughter spent the week-end bonding with the varsity competition cheerleading team. It was a retreat held in a huge home on a lake, two hours away. My husband, their Papou, and I, their Yaya, drove up early in the Fall to see her cheer at a varsity high school football game. Now it is competition season! Another Milestone for her is that she is driving a vehicle with her instructor beside her. She seems far more motivated to get that license than her older sister.
Lastly, in terms of that family unit, my first born son turned 47 years old while I was there!
In celebration, Granddaughter #2 and her parents and I had dinner on Sunday afternoon. It was a rustic restaurant with deer and moose antlers on the walls and a large, stone fireplace. I had just completed knitting my second red hat for the girls. Their high school colors include red. Suddenly a memory flashed of bringing my newborn son home from the hospital in a handmade red bunting with a white silk ribbon holding the bottom together. And now he is the father of five. And our cheerleader is his baby.
I Ubered to the airport from my son's office on Tuesday. The driver was a very humble, middle aged man who explained that he is a foreman for a landscaping company during the good weather and drives the rest of the year. He is from Gambia and values his citizenship, freedom, and opportunities here in the United States. When he arrived he was illiterate and people have embraced him from day one. He has educated three adult children and wants to give back to those less fortunate.
Upon arriving at the Orlando airport, my husband informed me that our first stop would be our primary care doctor's office. Every time I leave him behind, something physical happens to him. He has survived a stroke, two heart attacks, and concussions from softball mishaps. This time he had a splinter in his foot. He was fairly certain it was from a toothpick. No great answer as to why there was a toothpick on the floor? They worked forever to get that invader out but all was well eventually.
He has since played golf twice so I can assume he has very little, if any, discomfort from his wound.
Today is my baby's 46th birthday. The thing about having two sons is that one has the title and honor of being the oldest son and they other will always be Mama's baby boy. He still participates in the activities I watched him develop as a child. We forced two years of piano on both boys after which they both abandoned that instrument. Now, Son #2 is a tenured music professor at a college South of San Francisco. His sound mixing students are striving toward careers in the music/film industry.
I might add that this Son began his family later than his big brother and bigger half-brother. (We don't really use half or step in connection with family relationships. His biggest brother simply isn't my biological son. We are all one family!) Now, this son and his sons, ages nine and six, play soccer-on separate teams, of course. As far as milestones, I was told that my nine year old grandson scored his first goal on a week-end when my Son scored a goal as well.
Lastly, my first crime/romance novel has been submitted to Amazon. My editor and I will have copies to proof by the first of the week. It should be available for purchase, dear friends, by December 10th. "The Christmas Slayings" fictionalizes a story of six murders the week before Christmas in 1992. Now, I do write to the woman who is in prison for life and has been on my heart all these years. You won't want to miss the 25 year later Epilogue.
Let me hear about your milestones. God is so good. Keep the faith and run your race. I am bound and determined to complete mine- the destiny the Lord has in store for me.
I had the privilege of flying to Michigan and staying at my son and daughter-in-law's home for the first time. The occasion that took me to the land of snarled traffic and snow was my sixteen year old granddaughter's lead in her high school musical production of Newsies. For those unfamiliar with that Disney film and Broadway show, it is about the boys who sold daily newspapers in New York City and the strike they launched in 1899.
My granddaughter had the female lead. To my amazement, she sang, she acted, she danced, and to my son's frantically beating heart, she was kissed four times! That is 4x6! Six performances which will find her daddy upfront and focused on his teen-age daughter.
Meanwhile, in the same household, my fifteen year old granddaughter spent the week-end bonding with the varsity competition cheerleading team. It was a retreat held in a huge home on a lake, two hours away. My husband, their Papou, and I, their Yaya, drove up early in the Fall to see her cheer at a varsity high school football game. Now it is competition season! Another Milestone for her is that she is driving a vehicle with her instructor beside her. She seems far more motivated to get that license than her older sister.
Lastly, in terms of that family unit, my first born son turned 47 years old while I was there!
In celebration, Granddaughter #2 and her parents and I had dinner on Sunday afternoon. It was a rustic restaurant with deer and moose antlers on the walls and a large, stone fireplace. I had just completed knitting my second red hat for the girls. Their high school colors include red. Suddenly a memory flashed of bringing my newborn son home from the hospital in a handmade red bunting with a white silk ribbon holding the bottom together. And now he is the father of five. And our cheerleader is his baby.
I Ubered to the airport from my son's office on Tuesday. The driver was a very humble, middle aged man who explained that he is a foreman for a landscaping company during the good weather and drives the rest of the year. He is from Gambia and values his citizenship, freedom, and opportunities here in the United States. When he arrived he was illiterate and people have embraced him from day one. He has educated three adult children and wants to give back to those less fortunate.
Upon arriving at the Orlando airport, my husband informed me that our first stop would be our primary care doctor's office. Every time I leave him behind, something physical happens to him. He has survived a stroke, two heart attacks, and concussions from softball mishaps. This time he had a splinter in his foot. He was fairly certain it was from a toothpick. No great answer as to why there was a toothpick on the floor? They worked forever to get that invader out but all was well eventually.
He has since played golf twice so I can assume he has very little, if any, discomfort from his wound.
Today is my baby's 46th birthday. The thing about having two sons is that one has the title and honor of being the oldest son and they other will always be Mama's baby boy. He still participates in the activities I watched him develop as a child. We forced two years of piano on both boys after which they both abandoned that instrument. Now, Son #2 is a tenured music professor at a college South of San Francisco. His sound mixing students are striving toward careers in the music/film industry.
I might add that this Son began his family later than his big brother and bigger half-brother. (We don't really use half or step in connection with family relationships. His biggest brother simply isn't my biological son. We are all one family!) Now, this son and his sons, ages nine and six, play soccer-on separate teams, of course. As far as milestones, I was told that my nine year old grandson scored his first goal on a week-end when my Son scored a goal as well.
Lastly, my first crime/romance novel has been submitted to Amazon. My editor and I will have copies to proof by the first of the week. It should be available for purchase, dear friends, by December 10th. "The Christmas Slayings" fictionalizes a story of six murders the week before Christmas in 1992. Now, I do write to the woman who is in prison for life and has been on my heart all these years. You won't want to miss the 25 year later Epilogue.
Let me hear about your milestones. God is so good. Keep the faith and run your race. I am bound and determined to complete mine- the destiny the Lord has in store for me.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Another milestone has passed. Dan turned 78 years old on Saturday and we celebrated at Lake Griffin State park with about 35 friends and grandchildren. He has thrown his own birthday picnic for seven years! It has been traditionally held on the last week-end of October. Sunday, the shelter house protected us all from a brief, pop-up thunder storm. It could have been much worse.
Dan is a walking miracle. He endured esophageal cancer surgery almost 24 years ago after being informed that he had a slim chance of surviving five years. We met that year and married early the next Spring. We are blessed. We do not take a day for granted. We know God has a plan for our lives and we will run the race until He takes us home.
If you have read this post, I would appreciate a response. Tell me your survival story! I would love to hear it. And don't forget to add the path you have chosen to take and the outcome, to date.
Yaya
Dan is a walking miracle. He endured esophageal cancer surgery almost 24 years ago after being informed that he had a slim chance of surviving five years. We met that year and married early the next Spring. We are blessed. We do not take a day for granted. We know God has a plan for our lives and we will run the race until He takes us home.
If you have read this post, I would appreciate a response. Tell me your survival story! I would love to hear it. And don't forget to add the path you have chosen to take and the outcome, to date.
Yaya
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
The Final Quarter of Your Life
I am turning 75 today.
Instead of reflecting back on what I did or did not do- said or did not say; where I went or did not go; when I failed or when I succeeded. I look forward to the next 25% of my life on earth!
It is said in faith-based circles that we don't pray big enough or bold enough! God has more for us than we could ever dream but first we must request of Him. I, hereby, challenge my followers today to pray enormous prayers for yourself and others.
Ask and you will receive, according to God's plan for your life.
Knock and the door will be opened. This may mean another one is closed. You may not understand why your prayer is not answered...yet.
Seek direction and you will find insight and wisdom to guide your path toward your destiny.
My New Year has always begun on September 17th, not January 1st. This tradition coincided with the beginning of my children's school year, my own twenty years of schooling and my career as an educator and psychologist. And the journey has not ended.
Please let me know your thoughts. I hope you are creating balance and purpose for this season of your life. Leave your worries behind and find joy and meaning in your remaining years.
Instead of reflecting back on what I did or did not do- said or did not say; where I went or did not go; when I failed or when I succeeded. I look forward to the next 25% of my life on earth!
It is said in faith-based circles that we don't pray big enough or bold enough! God has more for us than we could ever dream but first we must request of Him. I, hereby, challenge my followers today to pray enormous prayers for yourself and others.
Ask and you will receive, according to God's plan for your life.
Knock and the door will be opened. This may mean another one is closed. You may not understand why your prayer is not answered...yet.
Seek direction and you will find insight and wisdom to guide your path toward your destiny.
My New Year has always begun on September 17th, not January 1st. This tradition coincided with the beginning of my children's school year, my own twenty years of schooling and my career as an educator and psychologist. And the journey has not ended.
Please let me know your thoughts. I hope you are creating balance and purpose for this season of your life. Leave your worries behind and find joy and meaning in your remaining years.
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