Friday the 13^th

© 2006 Mary Lynn Plaisance

The first Friday the 13th of the new year 2006 was here. I can’t tell you how many times that the number 13 has come up in my life, because it’s too many times to count.

This is what happened:

On this Friday morning when I woke up, I didn’t look at my clock in the bedroom. I just got up, walked to the kitchen, and put some coffee on. I’m usually up at about 7:30 am. with no alarm going off. Having no ridged time schedule, because I own my own doll business, I’m not a clock watcher. I open my doll house at 10:00 a.m.

The coffee was started, and I turned the TV on. I like to watch the morning news. I look at the hand clock in the kitchen and it was 9:32:47. I look at the TV, and I see that it’s the news that should be on at 7:30 in the morning.

Confused about what time it was, I go back to the bedroom and see that the time on that digital clock was 7:36:15 a.m. I tell myself, “Good, I don’t have to hurry. I really don’t like to hurry to get dressed in the morning. The battery in the kitchen clock must be dead. I’ll put another battery in the clock later.”

Peacefully, I drink my first cup of coffee watching the usual morning news. It’s never any good news, but I like to keep up with what’s happening as much as I can. Wanting a second cup, I walk to the coffee pot that is near the kitchen clock, and I see that the clock battery isn’t dead. The clock is still running. The second hand is stuck on the 47 seconds. It’s just going back and forth from 46 seconds to 47 seconds.

“So, the clock was stuck since last night,” I say to myself.

Now, since I was a young girl, I don’t like to see a clock that’s stuck! I think it comes from all of the old Twilight Zone shows that I watched. I like to see time moving forward. I give the clock a shake, and it’s still stuck at that time. I leave it alone and get my second cup of coffee.

After my second cup, I take my shower and get dressed to go open up my doll house. The kitchen clock that’s stuck is still bothering me, but I don’t want to try and fix it now.

I get my purse, my car keys, and leave the house. I go up the lane and enter La. 1, the main highway. I see red lights, wrecker trucks and cops all over the road. I stop, and I’m the only one on the main road. There is a bridge behind me and no traffic is piled up behind me coming from the bridge. I can see that the traffic is piled up ahead of me. The whole road is blocked, and I can’t see what’s going on because there is so much on the road.

I get out of my car and try to see what’s going on. I can’t make out anything, except that it was a bad accident! My husband was at the doll house already. One car comes behind me from my lane and tells me that there was an accident at the bridge behind us too. That’s why there was no piled up traffic behind us.

I’m on La. 1 alone, which in itself is odd to be able to walk on the road anywhere I want to. I get in the car to phone my husband and tell him that I’m stuck on La. 1 not far from the doll house, and that I can’t go around the bridge, forward or backwards, because there is a wreck in front of me, and one behind me.

When I get into my car, I see that my digital clock is at 9:32:46 a.m., and I saw it switch to 47 seconds.

?~~~~~~~? Twilight Zone ?~~~~~~~?

When I got home at 5:00 p.m., my kitchen clock was running. No one fixed it. I said thank you to the angel who watches over me! I do have one.

Yesterday was another Friday the 13th.
I stayed home all day.

My Peace at Last Moment

© 2009 Mary Lynn Plaisance

What sparked this round of emotions in my soul is a television movie called Prayers For Bobby. A religious fanatic mother was trying to understand how her son could commit suicide because he was gay. She was trying to “cure him” from his sin of being gay. She prayed and left notes for him to be healed from this abomination that she was taught in her Bible, but he was who he was. She told him that he wasn’t trying hard enough to win the battle over his evilness. She constantly kept drilling into his soul how he wasn’t living his life right until he made the decision to take his life. To her, a double whammy. He killed himself, and he was gay. Two mortal sins, which for sure sent him to hell forever to burn in that fiery inferno. Only after his death, did she try to understand what his life was all about, but then, it was too late. Her Bobby was dead!

I cried so much for the agony of this mother and her son, watching this most powerful television movie, that I still feel pain inside of me today. She loved him so much. She did! But, she wanted him to be “normal” because a book called the Bible told her that he wasn’t normal. She was programmed to live her life literally by the words in this book. Word for word! I related to her pain. Well, the pain of her needing to go by the dogma she was taught from childhood. I was taught the same thing from the same book. I read the Bible twice, and it almost drove me to the point of insanity, because I had so much fear inside of me. I was afraid to DO anything for fear that I would burn forever in hell! What’s not “normal” is for anyone to feel this much fear.

There is a God! I truly believe this with every fiber of my being. And, I still believe in the power of prayer. It makes no difference to me today what name you call your religion or your God, but there is a force in this Universe that overpowers man. This force to me is God.

But, because of the words that were written by man in this book called Bible, in our world today, I have seen more lives shattered than saved. Saved from what? I never did know that answer. Some people take these words and turn them around to fit their own dogmatic beliefs that were programmed inside of them since their childhood. This too, is not their fault, but what was learned can be unlearned.

The first lines at the funeral for Bobby in this church of God, spoken from a man who was taught the same dogma that the rest of most of today’s world learned, was that “this young man of twenty chose sin, but let’s not judge the sinner, but condemn the sin.” Well, did he personally know this young man of twenty? No. This young man loved God. He loved what he learned about God, but no one wanted to understand what his gay life was about. GOD made him that way. He tried to tell them that he just couldn’t change who he was.

I related to the struggles of the mother in this movie in yet another way, because I have a good friend of mine, way back when, who was very much the same way like the mother in the movie. Her religious beliefs were dug deep inside of her from the Bible. She lived in agony from the first moment that her daughter told her that she was lesbian. She too, was convinced that her daughter could change back to “normal” because of the teachings in the good book.

I heard her say “but, she can change” so many times, that one day I told her, “YOU change! Right now. I want you to change!”

She didn’t understand what I meant, so I repeated, “I want you to change your beautiful, heterosexual self into a beautiful homosexual lady. Right now! Not tomorrow, or in a month, or in a year. I want you to do this right now. Change!” She always told me that if her daughter prayed hard and was sincere about this change, that it would happen at that exact moment of prayer.

She was stunned. “I can’t do THAT! I would never pray for such a thing. And besides, I’m NOT gay!” she screamed at me.

“Then why do you expect her to change! She’s NOT heterosexual!” I screamed back at her.

“That’s just plain stupid”, was her answer to me. “I’m getting out of this unholy house.”

I had my mom’s Bible nearby. I picked it up and told her, “I know what’s in this book, and the words are not for me. These words hurt me, because there’s too much violence in here. This whole book is based on taking a beautiful soul and nailing him to a cross. Literally nailing him to a cross! Think about it. I don’t like to read about the suffering in this book, either. When I read about all of this suffering, it brings back suffering to me! Then, I get depressed.”

I began to cry, because openly screaming the words I wanted to say for so long, left me feeling that same old guilt. But this time, added to the guilt, there was a slight burden lifted from my shoulders. In a split second, my mind went from confusion to what I like to call “my peace at last moment”. It felt so good to say what I had screamed out loud!

My friend began to cry and was mad at me, because she still insisted that what I was saying wasn’t the same thing, but it was. Holding her hand, I told her calmly, “Are you sure in your heart that you can’t be gay? I don’t mean to hurt your feelings. I’m just trying to make a point here. If you can’t change, or even think that you could change, than doesn’t it make sense that she can’t change either?”

She looked at me with this astounded look on her face as though she had just seen a ghost ----- or maybe the face of reality. “My daughter can’t change. Can she?” In that split second when she realized what she had said, I think she felt her “peace at last moment”. When she finished her crying and apologizing for calling my house unholy, she left my home to go and try to make peace with her daughter. It was a long road, but today they are very close.

In the movie, the injustice that was splattered towards this young man’s life was unbelievable to me. I have to put this into words. And, I have to take it a step further. The injustice to this young, gay man and so many other gay people goes much further than being gay in my mind. It digs deep inside of other injustices, also. Racism, religious intolerance, bigotry, name your injustice here____. These are all abominations too! Read on.

Stop it people! Stop all of the hate because of one book that was written by man and tells you, even if you are pure of heart but you lead a life that is different than what is considered “normal”, you will be damned to hell for eternity. That dogma made no sense to me as a child, and it still makes no sense to me today.

Dogma leaves the mind demented! Why should spiritual words hurt the soul? Why should we live in fear of God. Why fear? Fear is the most debilitating emotion that there is. It shouldn’t be this way. Anyone or anyplace that rules by fear is not a place I want to be in. I don’t want to be with anyone I fear! That makes no sense.

I come from a religious upbringing in the 50’s, so don’t tell me I haven’t been there. I was baptized Catholic, and learned all of the dogma that is associated with being of that faith. As a young girl, our family wasn’t allowed to own a Bible. Only the church read the Bible. They didn’t want anyone interpreting any words but them. When I married I bought my own Bible, because at that time, they changed the rules. They change the rules when it suits them. I read different parts often and none of it made any sense to me, so I just followed the rules of the church. I did what they told me to do.

Much later on, I read the Bible twice and was still confused. I still remember the day I decided to not go to church anymore. It was on a Good Friday, and we all had to repeat the sermon for that day. When they reenacted the Crucifixion, and I had to shout, “Crucify Him”-- I cried and got out of church. I went back to church only a few times. When I got into my car and thought about everyone shouting crucify Him, I didn’t have that same feeling as a child. A child is taught to do what they are suppose to do by adults. Now that I was the adult, I would have helped Jesus, and I refused to crucify him anymore!

I know some of you will disagree with me, and it’s okay to disagree. I won’t try to change your mind, and you don’t tell me that I’m going to hell for speaking my own truth.

This movie made me decide to write my own book about the dogma that I had to follow in my life. To anyone who learned the strict rules of the church back in the ‘50’s from some 2,000 years ago, the wordings have changed. There was the Old Testament and then when Jesus came, there was the New Testament...and there will be another Testament in future times, again to be written by man or maybe woman. There will be. I used to wonder as a child what the cavemen did about religion and if they went to heaven. This book called the Bible was not there in the times of the caveman, and we know that there were cavemen. When will the New Book come along? I don’t know, but the times of serve and suffer are gone, and mankind doesn’t need a Book. We create our own reality. We have to take responsibility for the good of our own soul and DO what is right for ourselves before we look at and judge others. If everyone would do this, the world would be a much better place to live in.

________________________
In Leviticus -- Sexual sins of any kind are considered "abominations" to the Lord. The person who commits adultery is in the same boat as the gay people.

In Deuteronomy and Proverbs -- Dishonest business practices are named as an "abomination". And look at the practices of big business today!

In Proverbs -- Oppressive treatment of others, and a haughty attitude are considered as "abomination". There was slavery in the Bible!
In Proverbs, there are seven abominations.

1-A proud look
2-A lying tongue
3- Hands that shed innocent blood
4- A heart that conceives wicked imaginations
5. Feet that are swift in running to mischief
6- A false witness that speaks lies
7 Anyone who sows discord among his brethren.

Not too many can say they are innocent of all of these “abominations"? Hell will be FULL if the above is true ! Then, add prayer to that list of "abominations", if prayer comes from one who turns his ear from hearing the laws of the church--- in Proverbs 28:9. Do you pray? If so, are your prayers an abomination? Think about this. I followed my church rules when I was growing up, and then I began to think and open my mind. I found out that my mind had a lot of unanswered questions, but I wasn’t suppose to ask questions. I was only suppose to accept the rules as they were written. I’ve since, changed my mind!

The end of this movie was so awe inspiring that it leaves you with some feeling of hope. The mother learned about her wonderful son’s “sin”. But her lessons came after her son was dead. Only then, did she open her eyes and see that the Bible contradicts itself in so many places, that it leaves the door wide open to make any sentence to mean what a church, or a man, or a woman wants it to mean….which then leaves a lot of room for manipulation of the wording, which in turn manipulates the mind. This is not what God is about. The God I know, and you can name your God here __________, is not about manipulating the mind. God is all about love and inspiring the mind. There are two lines in that book they call the Bible that I live by:

The greatest gift of all is love.
The kingdom of God is within YOU.
Peace
© 2009 Mary Lynn Plaisance

I had to REDO this blog. :)

At the Tomb of Maurice

Betty Lou arrived at the swamp shack of Marie La Vie. The wharf that led to her front porch was still lit up, so she knew that she must be rocking on her front porch.

"Marie La Vie," yelled Betty Lou, still sitting in the pirogue shaking like a leaf. "Help ME!"

Marie walked to the end of the wharf. "What happen for you, child?"

Marie helped Betty Lou out of the pirogue and brought her into the swamp shack. When she had her settled down with some of her homemade tonic, she started to tell Marie what had happened to her at suppertime.

"Child, you talk is mo broken up dens mine is," was Marie's first observation of Betty Lou's condition. As Betty Lou told Marie everything that happened to her, she came to the conclusion that something awful was going to happen, causing her to lose her mind.

"Lose my mind?" Betty Lou managed to say the three words without skipping sounds. "What to do?" she asked, showing the most worried look on her face that she had ever worn.

"I got to gives you some of des salve. Show me you brow, child." Betty Lou raised up the brown curls that were hanging over her forehead. "I got to rub des on you brow, now. When you gets home, rub it on you brow all nights for nine times. Des will do you good."

Marie's native language was French. The English words that she spoke came out in broken sentences, because she still hadn't mastered the English sounds. She and Betty Lou talked for an hour. Marie had a positive affect on everyone.

When Betty Lou felt a little better, she thanked Marie for her help, gave her a hug and told her goodnight. She walked steadily back to the pirogue to go back home.

While she was paddling back to the bayou landing behind Plume's house, something beckoned Betty Lou to go to the tomb of Maurice on this night of the full moon. She wanted only to speak to Maurice before morning. Her trip to Marie La Vie was not the best of news, but things could be worse. Although, she didn't know how much worse it could get.

She could hear her mama's words echoing loudly in her mind for even thinking that things could be worse. "Betty, don't you ever ask how things could be worse, because sometimes the Cajun angels come along to show you how much worse things could be."

She quickly got that thought out of her mind. She had to go to Maurice's tomb to talk to him, because in her mind, this was the only place that would bring her comfort at this time.

In the magical doll land of Sha Bebe, even with all of its splendid enchantment in the sugarcane fields, there were some occasions when a doll was destroyed beyond repair and had to be buried or burned.

As she kept paddling the pirogue to come home, Betty Lou thought of when she was a human, and about that horrible stormy night in October when she lost her Maurice. The hurricane winds came in quickly as he was on his way to visit her in human land, from the sugarcane fields. Maurice's doll body was tossed around so much that he became disoriented. As the winds blew stronger he was blown into the land of humans. Landing against a vehicle that was parked along the street, the thump of his body against the vehicle knocked all of the stuffing out of him. His insides were scattered along the streets. This is what ended his stay on Earth.

At that moment, Betty Lou accepted the Queen's last wish to become a doll and teach in the magical land. The Cajun angels found all the pieces of Maurice, and brought him back to the Queen in the enchanted fields after the storm was over.

Betty Lou pleaded with Madame Plume to fix Maurice with her magic wand, and not even Plume could POP him back to life. Plume explained to Betty Lou that all things must come to an end, and all of the magic she possessed could not be used at this time. It wasn't allowed, even though she could fix him.

Marie La Vie couldn't fix him either. She explained that everything on Earth, even dolls and humans have an end of existence. Both she or Madame Plume couldn't cross that line of endings. It wasn't right. So, Betty Lou decided to make a tomb for him in the graveyard under the oak trees in the land. This way, she could go and talk to him when ever she needed comfort. She didn't want to burn him. She buried him.

When Betty Lou returned the pirogue behind Madame Plume's house, she pulled it on land. Walking quietly to her house, she picked a hand full of red roses along with a few gardenias and mixed them with some wild fern that was growing near her front steps. Placing the flower arrangement in a tall, white vase that was on her porch, she went to the tomb of Maurice in the graveyard.

"Oh, Maurice," she sighed at the tomb. "I miss you so much."

She talked to Maurice about what the healer Marie La Vie said about her state of mind. As the teacher in this enchanted land, she had to have a clear mind to teach the dolls what they needed to know about good manners, common sense, and the ways of the humans.

She continued her woes to Maurice on this night of the full moon, telling his spirit that she didn't know how she would cope with this ordeal coming her way. She placed the flower vase ever so gently on the step of his tomb.

"I still love you, Maurice. Stay with me in my time of need," she said to his spirit.

The few words she spoke at the tomb of Maurice came out of her mouth with no effort. She thought that she was getting better because she talked to Maurice, or maybe it was the salve that Marie La Vie put on her brow. Whatever it was, she was thankful, and thought this was a sign that her mind would be back to the way it was. She turned around to go back to the school house.

As she started her walk back home from the tomb, she felt a sprinkle of water, squirting on top of her head. She thought that she would be in for a brief drizzle of rain on this moonlit night, and she covered her head with the hood of her black cape and continued to walk home. The sprinkle of "water" continued to fall on here head in squirts. She turned around and saw no water. She placed her hands out, with her palms up, and she felt no rain.

"What is this water that squirts on me in the night?"

"It's not water that I squirt on top of your head. It's magic fairy powder that I squirt upon you," said the fairy in a squeaky voice that sounded like she had just swallowed some helium.

"Fairy powder indeed," grunted Betty Lou looking to see where the voice of the fairy was coming from. "I've heard of the Cajun Fairy creatures living in the oaks in the land of the Sha Bebe. We call them the Fee Folay, but in all of my time in this enchanted land, I have never seen one. I've seen angel's with wings of feathers. Are your wings the same as those of the angels?" Betty Lou continued to look, but she didn't see the Fee Folay that was speaking to her.

The fairy continued, "Our gossamer wings are what make the Fee Folay different from the Cajun angels. We have the reputation of being an evil spirit, who seeks out its victims and causes them to lose their way along the bayous and swamps, and the evil fairies do just that. They live to destroy anything or anyone who is good. This is all the evil ones understand in their realm." The Fee Folay was very soft spoken with her explanation.

"Then, other fairy creatures such as myself, a good Cajun fairy, help people who are lost. I am a creature of the night who roams the land to seek out souls who need to speak to me," she said as she flew down from the oak tree to be along side of Betty Lou.

Betty Lou was taken aback by the presence of the good Cajun fairy and her demeanor. She didn't have any fear, just a wonderful feeling of amazement passed through her veins.

"Can you see my wings better now?" asked the fairy.

"Yes, I can see your wings are much finer in structure than the wings of the Cajun angels, but why are you here in the night, and exactly where do you live?" asked Betty Lou, noticing how much better she was speaking and how good she felt. She didn't wobble when she walked along side of the good Cajun fairy.

"We live in the oak trees. We have always lived in these oaks since the beginning of time. We stay with the fire flies. They light our way in the dark, same as they light your way along the braided rug road when the dolls are going to their sugar shack for bedtime," answered the Fee Folay .

"How charming. Has anyone else ever seen you?" asked Betty Lou.

"Only the ones who we come to help see us. We see all of you here in your magical land of Sha Bebe. My name is Acadia, and I am ruler of the Good Cajun Fairy Realm. I live in the trees with ten other good Cajun fairies."

"My name is Betty Lou, but I guess you already know this."

"Yes, I do know your name," answered Acadia. "I was summoned to come to you by Maurice."

"You know of my Maurice?" Betty Lou asked with an excitement that swiftly jolted her head forward.

"Yes, I know the spirit of your Maurice. Good Cajun fairies can communicate with all spirits who have passed beyond the veil. He asked me to come and bring you healing, so I sprinkled silver fairy powder on you to make you feel better."

"Can you bring my Maurice back to me?"

"No," answered Acadia. "Once anyone goes into the spirit world, they can't come back as the person they were. They communicate with the good Cajun fairies, and we send out their message."

"Oh, I understand," said Betty Lou, lowering her head in disappointment. "Madame Plume and Marie La Vie couldn't bring him back either, but your presence makes me feel better. I'm not skipping words in my speech." She lifted her head up, "Thank you for coming to me. Now, I have to go back home. I need some sleep so that I can get the school room ready for tomorrow morning. I teach the dolls in this land, and I have to remember to place this salve on my forehead for nine days." She bid the good fairy goodnight and sweet dreams, and the fairy replied in like manner.

Betty Lou continued to walk along the braided rug road until she entered her school house. The full moon lit her way very well. She asked the fire flies to not give her a path of light again, because she didn't want to wake anyone up.

She didn't know that Plume and Poulette were gone from the land. The queen was still fast asleep as well as Dupre. He usually woke up for any little sound, but he didn't hear any rumblings from Betty Lou's night visit to Marie La Vie.

When she arrived home, she closed the door behind her and hung her cape on the coat rack behind the door. Turning around, there in the middle of the room on the top of one of the school desk, she saw a big box covered with Spanish moss. Not knowing what to do with this big box, she walked around it to get a closer look. Betty Lou was a smart lady and usually looked very carefully before she leaped. On top of the box there was a purple ribbon with a sign on the ribbon that said---Pull Me.

"Ah, now what?" she said as she walked around the box wondering what to do. "Maybe the Cajun fairy left me a present."

This time she leaped without hesitation, and decided to pull the ribbon.

The box lid exploded open. Purple ribbons popped out of the box, with each strand of purple flying into the air and taking aim at Betty Lou's head. Each strand began to wrap itself in a circle around her head. Long thin streams of ribbon kept spinning in a line from inside of the moss covered box going straight around her head like a weaver spinning yarn at a spinning wheel. The ribbons started to take on the appearance of a purple turban on the top of her head.

Betty Lou couldn't see the purple ribbon encircling the top of her head. She couldn't move! Everything happened so fast.

When the ribbons had ended their job of covering her head, Betty Lou was still in the middle of the room, but now she was frozen stiff with her two arms stuck to her side. She tried to walk over to the couch, but she couldn't. She was indeed frozen stiff with a two foot high purple turban covering her entire head. Not one strand of her beautiful dark brown curly hair was showing.

While she was in her frozen state, she was facing the front window, and she saw a dark shadow peeking inside. Not being able to see who it was at this time of the night, she yelled, "Help ME. I don't know what is happening to me!"

Her front door opened with a gust of wind, and in flew something that looked like a small buzzard. Just as quickly as it flew in, it flew back out the door, leaving it wide open. She didn't know what flew in her house, but it left with the salve that Marie La Vie gave her to put on her brow.

Still frozen with her two arms stuck to her side she yelled again for that thing to bring back her salve. "Bring salve. Need salve. Wait. Need help. La Vie, help me."

Her speech was back the way it was at supper time, and now her body was frozen stiff with a tall purple turban on top of her head.

I didn't expect the review to be perfect and it was not, but I like it.
I didn't think of the books in the form of a small children's book,
but they do make great readings for children.
Thank you Sabne Raznik ! 

______________

You can get all three books 
at a reduced price
on Etsy, ebay or from ME-- if you click on
my web page below
while the books last.

http://www.shabebe.com

_________________________

*** Professional Review of BOOK I ***

"Do You Believe?
Mary Lynn Plaisance, The Land of Sha Bebe, Book I: In the Land of Sha Bebe (BeBs Publishing, 2004), 80 pages, folklore, $19.95 U.S.

Plaisance created a kind of Cajun muslin doll she calls Sha Bebe and copyrighted them in the 1990s. This is the first book of a trilogy about the dolls- a world she made up just for them. Part folklore and part fiction, the idea of both the dolls and the books is a charming one that is full of distinctly Cajun flavors.

This first volume is written in simple, sometimes repetitive sentences and has the feel of a bedtime story meant for young audiences. It is clearly introductory to a much richer and fuller story as presented in the second and third books. It is almost entirely one conversation between Emily, who is enduring a particularly stinging grief, and the Sha Bebe dolls that come to comfort her, Beau and Jolie. In it they tell her all about the land of Sha Bebe and teach her The Sha Bebe Waltz.

The book is accompanied by many photos of the dolls participating in various activities within their world which help one to visualize the explanations offered in the conversation. The dolls themselves are absolutely adorable.

I look forward to discovering their world more fully as I read the other volumes."

Review by: Sabne Raznik
From Word Weavers
________________________________________________________________________

*** Professional Review of BOOK II ***
 

Mary Lynn Plaisance,
The Land of Sha Bebe, Book II: Cajun Fairies,

Plaisance originally meant for this book to be entitled Chaos, but when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and Mississippi in August 2005 that word became synonymous with the fabled City of Music, the Big Easy. The association was painful enough to Plaisance that she adjusted the title accordingly, so that we now have Cajun Fairies.

This second installment of the In the Land of Sha Bebe series allows us to actually enter the enchanted world of the dolls as if we were Sha Bebe dolls ourselves. Initially, we are given a first person view of that peaceful, happy world. Then things begin to go wrong as if a glitch in a TV screen. The land is threatened by the mean Cajun Fairy Robes Pierre who has a longstanding grudge against Queen Faustina. The trouble is that no one in the Land of Sha Bebe can remember Robes Pierre or the events that inspired his vendetta. We are then taken along for the ride as the resident dolls of Sha Bebe fight to save their land.

This book takes to extraordinary places, from the sugarcane fields that cradle the Land of Sha Bebe to the swamps beyond the bayou to the French Quarter of the city of New Orleans in all of its pre-Katrina glory. The writing is still obviously directed at children, but is more interesting over all. Some of the finer details are muddled and some things are overstated, perhaps even repetitive. However, the book moves quickly enough to keep you reading. One has the feeling that these books would make better animated movies than they do books. Who knows whether that just may come about?

The real charm of these books and their muslin doll characters is that rare and wonderful glimpse of the Louisiana Cajun culture. There should be more written and preserved about this colourful, unique little world.

Review by: Sabne Raznik
From Word Weavers

___________________________________________________________________________
Professional Review  of BOOK III

Salleau Prie!

Mary Lynn Plaisance, The Land of Sha Bebe,Book III: The Wizard of Swamp Alley, (Authorhouse, 2007), 200 pages, teen/adult fiction, $18.70 U.S.

In this third installment of the The Land of Sha Bebe series, Plaisance offers us a slightly more complicated plot.

This book also takes us inside the Land of Sha Bebe, and beyond it. We are introduced to the parallel dimension where everything is opposite of Sha Bebe Land and to a Cajun wizard with diamond-shaped eyes whose fiddle-playing keeps the balance between the two dimensions. The evil dolls in the Land of Lackluster, known as The Unruly, have kidnapped him, interfered with that balance, and are now terrorizing New Orleans by taking over human bodies. The good dolls of Sha Bebe must somehow rescue the wizard to set the balance right, save the good humans of New Orleans, and save the Land of Sha Bebe from being invaded and destroyed by The Unruly.

Though listed as teen/adult fiction, this is still clearly written for a somewhat younger mind. It still feels much like a drawn-out bedtime story. The details are more organized, except for the issue of time. I couldn't figure out how to place it in time at all, but perhaps Plaisance desired the timeline to be fudged since the dolls themselves seem not to care about accurate time keeping as long as the run-of-the-quilts is on schedule.

Plaisance's story-telling methods improve with each book as do her dolls.

Review by: Sabne Raznik
From Word Weavers
________________________________________________________________________

*** Professional Review of The Sha Bebe Trilogy ***
A combined review of the three books by
Sabne Raznik from Word Weavers.
----------------------------
Do You Believe in the Land of Sha Bebe?

**Mary Lynn Plaisance, The Land of Sha Bebe, Book I: In the Land of Sha Bebe(BeBs Publishing, 2004), 80 pages, folklore, $19.95 U.S.

**Mary Lynn Plaisance, The Land of Sha Bebe, Book II: Cajun Fairies,(Authorhouse, 2006), 213 pages, folklore, $13.40 U.S.

**Mary Lynn Plaisance, The Land of Sha Bebe, Book III: The Wizard of Swamp Alley, (Authorhouse, 2007), 200 pages, teen/adult fiction, $18.70 U.S.

Plaisance created a kind of Cajun muslin doll she calls Sha Bebe and copyrighted them in the 1990s. Then she wrote a series of books about the dolls- a world she made up just for them. Part folklore and part fiction, the idea of both the dolls and the books is a charming one that is full of distinctly Cajun flavors.

So far there are three books in the series. They read like darling bedtime stories and are clearly meant for younger audiences. Sometimes the details can be a bit off, especially with regard to time, but it could be Plaisance desires that affect since the dolls themselves care little about time in terms of years.

The first book reads as almost one long conversation where the Sha Bebe dolls tell a human about the ways of their land. The following two books actually take you into the Land of Sha Bebe as it is threatened by different evil forces. The second and third books are by far better written and more interesting. The plots are influenced by the events of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and move quickly enough to keep you reading. They make wonderful relaxation reading, if you don't mind some references to spiritism. Overall, one gets the feeling these would make entertaining animated movies. Who knows if maybe they will be one day?

The books also feature many photographs of the dolls participating in various activities within their world which help one to visualize the explanations offered in the conversation. The dolls themselves are absolutely adorable.

The real charm of these books is the muslin doll characters and this rare and engaging glimpse into Louisiana's Cajun culture. There is simply not enough in mainstream literature and culture about this unique and colorful little world in the south. May this be he trickle of water that will become a river of information about Cajun culture!
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Professional Review by: Sabne Raznik
From Word Weavers

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Louise Hay - Health & Wellbeing - Part 1 of 4 :)

Louise Hay - Health & Wellbeing - Part 2 of 4 :)

Louise Hay - Health & Wellbeing - Part 3 of 4 :)

Louise Hay - Health & Wellbeing - Part 4 of 4 :)

I believe this with all of my being. It is The Law of Attraction and also about US creating our own reality. NO one has a copyright on the Laws of the Universe. --------------------------------------------------------------

Remember this song.

LOVE Anna Nalick's "Just Breathe"

We live for NOW.
There is no "rewind button" in life, so "Just Breathe",
and live for your NOW moment!
MLP

 ___________________

 2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake,
"Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?,
I don't love him. Winter just wasn't my season"

Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize, Hypocrites.
You're all here for the very same reason

'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl.
So cradle your head in your hands

And breathe... just breathe, Oh breathe, just breathe

May he turned 21 on the base at Fort Bliss
"Just a day" he said down to the flask in his fist,
"Ain't been sober, since maybe October of last year."

Here in town you can tell he's been down for a while,
But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles,
Wanna hold him. Maybe I'll just sing about it.

Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table.
No one can find the rewind button, boys,
So cradle your head in your hands,

 And breathe... just breathe, Oh breathe, just breathe

There's a light at each end of this tunnel,
You shout 'cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out
And these mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again
If you only try turning around.

2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me,
Threatening the life it belongs to

And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to

But you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand. and breathe, just breathe
woah breathe, just breathe, Oh breathe, just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe.

The 2012 Enigma by David Wilcock

Part. 01

From this one video--watch the other 9 :)

Today, I read an article about 2012 being the end of the world. Today, I heard it on the car radio.

The Mayan calendar ends in 2012

I've been knowing about the Mayan calendar ending on December 21, 2012 for a long time now, (I like to read books), but I didn't realize that so many people today think that this day will be the end of the world. Like in dooms day..the end.

I'm using my spiritual sense to say that I believe that 2012 will be a change in the way we know the world today, but not the end of the world! I don't believe that it will be THE END!

The world as WE KNOW it-- will change.

I believe that there will be a huge change in the way the world will evolve, but the worlds been evolving since the beginning of time! My mom lived to be 81, and before she died, she told me that she witnessed many changes that she thought she would never see. What she saw were events evolving. Changes in human behavior, religion, politics, space travel, and so much more.Our children will say the same thing to their children when they grow old. They too will say:
In the good old days, I remember when......etc.

It's a fact that the world evolves.
PEACE and LOVE to ALL of you

Now, I'm going to ring in the NEW YEAR of 2009.

Stay safe and stay in your comfort zone.
This zone is the place of YOUR bliss.

Thank you

Mary Lynn Plaisance