Monday, April 30, 2018

BROKEN -- THEN HEALED

Recently published memoir by "Ladi Miz."


ORIGINAL FOREWORD

She no longer carries a knife for self-protection.

How did a young Black girl from Philadelphia overcome poverty and abuse to become a successful professional woman, wife, home-owner, landlord, musician, author, and counselor? This is Theresa D. Merriman’s story, dictated by her, from her heart.

What struck me was her determination to make a better life for herself and, eventually, for her children. Somehow she did this while doing some serious partying. She worked hard, saved money, completed high school and got a college degree, with little help…except her faith in God.  

“It is hard to soar like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys,” it’s said, and Theresa learned this the hard way, eventually escaping the psychological chains of “friendships” with people who did not have her well-being at heart. Sometimes that even meant family members, as well, but her most reliable allies were also from her family.

Readers will get a sometimes-brutal, always realistic look at the life of a girl from “the wrong side of the tracks” in Philadelphia, a Black girl from a broken family, a girl who liked to “party hardy,” to drink and to dance (but not take drugs), a very pretty girl with no shortage of men interested in her. She was looking for love…at first, in all the wrong places. People who gave “Tammy” trouble learned that if you messed with her, she might put a blade to your neck.

As her editor, I found myself eager to get to the next chapter to find out how she handled her challenges and how her story turned out. You’ll find this candid memoir occasionally shocking, often enlightening, and ultimately uplifting…you cannot keep a good woman down!



Douglas Winslow Cooper, Ph.D.

Walden, NY



Issues of obscenity and privacy kept this memoir from being published for over a year. Now available at:

https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Then-Healed-Ladi-Miz/dp/1524699896/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525101204&sr=1-1&keywords=broken+then+healed

Saturday, April 28, 2018

WHAT EVER HAPPENED...? Cliff, My First Student



          I began teaching special education students in 1982. One very special student was Cliff, who, as an adult, has written the following for me:

I started Seymour Smith [School] in Pine Plains, NY. My new teacher’s name was Janet Johnson. It was Room 210 and then 209. She liked Room 209 because it had more space. She had cereal for all the kids in the morning. She took the class for walks to the water tower. Then she got married to Mr. Schliff. Mrs. Schliff coached all the kids in her class for the Dutchess County Special Olympics. One year I went with Mr. and Mrs. Schliff to the NYS Special Olympics in Syracuse NY. Mrs. Schliff took the class camping three times at Wilcox Park. She also took us swimming at Lake Taghkanic and to the Trevor Zoo and Four Brothers for lunch. One day she drove the small school bus to FDR then to her new apt for lunch. We both liked the same music groups. Mrs. Schliff came to my graduation in 1990. I still see her and talk to her on the phone about the old days.

***
          When Cliff wrote what we’ve printed above and turned it in to me so I could share it with my editor, I asked Cliff if I could pry some more details from him, and he obliged. So – here are the notes I took while we visited each other in the winter of 2016:

·       He filled me in on the computer we had way back then. He said it was a TRS-80. I have no recollection of the computer, and when I said that, his response was, “Mrs. Schliff was good on the computer.” [Wow!]

·       We reminisced during this visit about when I chaperoned his prom, years after he had been my student. Rod Stewart’s “Forever Young” was the theme. Though now 45 years old, Cliff still seems refreshingly young to me.

·       He reminded me of his favorite bulletin board in our class. It was titled “Kid of the Week.” I think he was on the board at least once.

·       We spent hours learning how to tell time.

·       We prepared an actual Thanksgiving dinner and invited family and friends to our evening get-together. He stated that he loved being in our classroom after dark. We held this dinner a few days before the actual holiday. [And to my best recall – it was the ONLY time I’ve ever cooked a turkey!]

·       He had to go to detention once for breaking one of our classroom rules. He still remembers this!

·       He misses riding the bus and having me as his teacher.

·       He reminded me about how I invited him to speak to one of the classes that I taught at Ulster County BOCES after I resigned from Pine Plains CSD.


I have always referred to Cliff as “my first student” because right after I was hired by the Pine Plains CSD, I heard rumors that some parents were nervous about sending their special needs children to a teacher who was fresh out of college. So – I set up my very first classroom way earlier than our first day of school and invited the families that were on my class list to come in and meet me, see their new classroom, and get more comfortable before the actual school year began. Cliff was the first person who walked in that day, and to this day, he has always been “my first student.”

What a memory, Cliff! These stories are over 30 years old!

[I just learned that Cliff won a prestigious award (and $500) at his job for doing excellent work. I'm so proud of him!]



###



For the coming year, I [Douglas Winslow Cooper] will be 

excerpting, weekly, material from this fine book by Janet Johnson 

Schliff, M.S.Ed.. She wrote it over a three-year period, with some 

coaching and editing help from me, through my 

business, WriteYourBookWithMe.com. The excerpts are from the 

almost-final version. 




Her memoir is now available in paperback and ebook formats 

from amazon.com and from its publisher, outskirtspress.com: 


                                                ###

BOOK TALKS AND SIGNINGS

Janet Johnson Schliff was on WKNY  Radio 1490 at 9:10 a.m. on Thursday, March 1, Kingston, NY.

Janet Johnson Schliff spoke at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, at Barnes & Noble, 1177 Ulster Avenue, Kingston, NYI [DWC] attended, along with almost 40 other people. The talk was especially well received, with several questions at the end, as well.
Congratulations, Janet!

Janet Johnson Schliff spoke at the Starr Library in Rhinebeck, NY, at 7 p.m. on March 6. 

She spoke at the Golden Notebook Bookstore in Woodstock, NY, at 2 p.m. on March 17. 

She spoke at the Morton Library in Rhinecliff, NY, at 6:30 p.m. on March 28. 

She spoke at RCAL in Kingston, NY, at 4 p.m. on April 3. I was able to attend. They gave her an impromptu book-launch party.

On 4/4/18 Janet spoke at the Parkinson's Support Group at the Starr Library at Rhinebeck at 2:30 p.m.

On 4/27/18 Janet spoke at the Stone Ridge Library at 5:30 p.m.

On 5/4/18 Janet will be at the Hurley Library at 6 p.m.

On 5/9/18 Janet will be at the Kingston Library at 6 p.m.

On 5/14/18 Janet will be at the Staatsburg Library at 7 p.m.



On 5/31/18 Janet will be at the Clinton Community Library at 6:30 p.m.

On 6/9/18 Janet will be at the Tannersville Library at noon.

On 6/11/18 Janet will be at the Gardiner Library at 6 p.m.

On 6/20/18 Janet will be at the Marbletown Community Center at 6 p.m.

On 7/13/18 Janet will be at the Esopus Library at 7 p.m.



More signings will be coming up, and a fine feature about her by John DeSantos [845 LIFE] appeared in the Middletown Times Herald-Record on Monday, March 12, as part of Brain Injury Awareness Month. An article about her book was just published in the May 2018 Living Rhinebeck Magazine. She was recently interviewed by the Kingston Daily Freeman, and that interview should be published soon.




Friday, April 20, 2018

WHAT EVER HAPPENED...? What I Miss about Teaching


          Each and every single day, I miss going to my classroom to write the date on the board. At the early part of my career, that was on a chalkboard. By the end, it was either that way or on a whiteboard with the dry-erase markers. Either way, I wrote a note to my class that we read together each day. I labeled this our “A.M. Routine.” It usually gave them an idea about what we’d be doing that particular day. Then – we’d read the schedule chart for that day of the week.

I also miss D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) Time. I tried to instill a love of reading in all my students. My favorite book to do this with was Love You Forever, written by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Sheila McGraw.
        
  The first time I learned about this excellent book, I was attending a teachers’ conference in upstate New York. When the facilitator read it, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the auditorium of over 300 educators.

Ever since that day, I did read that wonderful story to my students on the first and last day of each school year. I gave them copies of it for their birthdays or graduations or even when they were in the hospital. It represents life as it comes and goes and trying to find the good as each day passes. I have hard and soft covers of Love You Forever at my home, and I read it to myself when I need to feel better about losing the profession I adored. I will love that book forever….

Another thing I sorely miss about being a teacher is all the field trips I planned and took with each class every year. Because of my memory problems, I can’t remember all of them, but I do recall a few.

My friend Maggie mentioned in her writing about me (later in this book) the camping trips I took my Pine Plains students on. What a blast! Once, when our camping trip was canceled due to rain, we got permission to sleep in our classroom overnight, so we moved the desks to the hallway, brought in mats from the gym and held our sleepover there. I’m quite sure nowadays that would probably not be allowed to happen, but I’m glad we had so much fun doing that way back in the early 1980s!

Another trip I tried to plan annually was a trip to a nursing home to sing songs to the elderly at the holidays. We were always well-received and my students loved our rehearsals. We even practiced on the bus as our driver got us safely to our destination.

Our field trips were planned to wonderful places like restaurants, malls, movie theaters, farms, pools, museums, horseback riding stables, and oh, so much more, to teach our special needs students life skills. To this day when I drive by a place I know I once took a class to on such a trip, I try to remember all the fun things we learned there. I have so many pictures of these adventures, and when I look at them, it reminds me of what memories I gave my students and they gave to me.

          Holiday parties were also tons of fun. We dressed in costumes for Halloween. I miss dancing with my students to the “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett & the Crypt-Kickers, when we were all dressed up for Halloween. Some of my students could not afford costumes, so I always had a pile of things they could pick from to wear for a party. One costume that the girls loved to wear was an old dress from the Radio City Rockettes.

You see, my grandparents were friends with a janitor from the famous Radio City Music Hall MANY years ago. When some of the costumes were thrown away, this friend grabbed some and gave them to Grandma and Grandpa McColl, who had three granddaughters (my sisters and me).

After we enjoyed them as children, I “inherited” them for my first teaching job. Those glittery, long dresses were worn many times by various female students of mine over the years for Halloween, and other times too. Oh, the fun times I had way back when!

We also dressed up as Pilgrims and Native Americans for Thanksgiving and as elves and reindeer for Christmastime, and so much more, to take a break from routines on these various special days. We prepared lots of snacks and meals and invited other school staff and students to join us in the celebrations.

          I also miss how we took care of needy children in other countries with Operation Christmas Child. Though this is led by a church organization, we were able to get approval to conduct it in our public schools (see letter in appendix).

I also miss the “little things” – like teaching a handicapped child how to tie his or her own shoelaces. From a craft fair, I would buy pretend wooden sneakers with colored laces, “sneakers” that they would keep in their desks. If someone had completed a task ahead of the others, he or she would take a sneaker out to practice. The look of excitement on their faces when they could finally tie it for themselves was priceless! Thank you, Karen O’Han, for making those adorable sneakers.

I also miss special things I did over the years. One unforgettable lesson was when we tapped a maple tree to make syrup. I inadvertently peeled paint off the wall of our classroom when we mistakenly boiled the sap down indoors. The pancakes we prepared with our own syrup were delicious though.

One field trip I remember like it was yesterday involved maple syrup. Since I never wanted to ruin the classroom's wall again, I took my students to the Bruderhof Woodcrest Community in Rifton, NY.

There, my students were taught how to correctly gather sap and make maple syrup. They were also treated to a delicious, free lunch when their tour was over.

For St. Patrick’s Day, I excused myself from eating lunch with my students and went back to our classroom to “trash” the place. I threw the garbage on the floor, overturned desks and chairs, scattered papers all around, and sprinkled green glitter by an opened classroom window. When the kids came back from lunch, they were excited to see what a little leprechaun had done to our nice, neat classroom. Years later, a former assistant of mine named Patty called to tell me she had copied my leprechaun idea with her classroom now that she was a teacher. That memory brought tears to my eyes when I played her message over and over again on my answering machine. I felt wonderful that some other classroom was having the fun I once had with mine.

I miss teaching Summer School, which I did for quite a few years. It was a six-week program for the life-skills students whom I had taught during the school year. We continued the work we were accomplishing during the previous year, so when school resumed in the fall, those skills would not be lost.

I assigned less classwork, and thus less homework, during the summer, but we still put in quite a few hours of repetition of lessons needing their attention. I tried to make the learning as fun as possible because some of their siblings were not having to attend school in the summer and our students had to come, probably wishing they were somewhere else.

We had special days planned just with the word “fun” in mind. My personal favorite was Waterplay Day.

I don’t really remember how I came up with this idea, but it sure was a good one! We played outside in our swimsuits for the entire day. The students had to earn their “invitation” to the wet festivities by completing their work for days and weeks before, as well as by being well-behaved. Some of my former students, whom I still keep in touch with, tell me how this extraordinary day is still remembered by them decades later.

We had squirt guns and sprinklers. We painted their feet, and they walked across rolls of mural paper before having their toesies sprayed down. We put beach balls and water balloons into a parachute and bounced them around. We got soaking wet for all of these games.

We also had kiddie pools and pool toys galore. We would take “breathers” by sitting them down on our beach blankets and/or their towels spread on grass instead of sand.

We had egg races with teams lined up with eggs and spoons. Then, we’d throw dozens of eggs at each other and need another “hose-down.” Picking up all the eggshells left over from this event was a race also.

We enjoyed buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch. Dessert would be a pie-eating contest. The first year we did this, I bought Freihofer’s individual apple pies, which, of course, tasted yummy, but the fillings were hard to see on their faces as they hurriedly downed them with their hands behind their backs. All the remaining Waterplay Days, I bought cherry and blueberry pies so their faces were covered in colorful fruit fillings after they scrambled to win first place. Some of my best pictures of these days were taken of various students laughing uncontrollably with pie all over their faces!

I also miss an idea I used for many years called our “Compliment Pizza Party.” Because many of my students had behavior issues, they didn’t always act appropriately when around others in our school. So, when they “got it right,” and someone complimented them for anything they were “caught” doing, we’d mark it up on a pizza slice made of paper. When all eight “slices” were filled with compliments, we ordered pizzas, and everyone enjoyed celebrating our accomplishments.

Sometimes our parties happened often and other times we had to wait for a long while. It all depended on their good behavior being observed and then mentioned by others. The kids were so excited when they saw the last slice fill up because pizza was coming soon! I’ve included in an appendix the invitation we sent out when our “pizza wheel” was full.

Another fun time including pizza was Pizza Hut’s Book It! program. We set up a goal for how much reading a child had to accomplish in a month. If the child reached the goal, he or she won a certificate and a free personal pan pizza from the local restaurant. Since most of my students weren’t taken to the restaurant, I collected their certificates and then picked up boxes and boxes of little pizzas. Then, we ate them all together. They loved this special activity, and I believed that helped them enjoy reading.

For Earth Day, we made “dirt”! We crushed Oreos, added chocolate pudding, peanuts, chocolate chips, coconut sprinkles colored with green food coloring and more to resemble dirt, rocks, and grass. It was all put in a clear cup and topped with a Gummi worm. This was after we learned about taking care of our planet. As on other special days, I wore my “teacher earrings” that were shaped like the globe and said, “Earth Day.” I have a huge collection of these fun earrings, most of which were made by Art in Heaven of Altamont, NY, and I still wear them out and about years later. For example – I wear my birthday cake earrings when I attend someone’s birthday celebration, my pizza earrings when I go out for pizza, and my groundhog earrings on Groundhog Day. I have over 60 pairs of these cute earrings, and I love looking at them to remind me of my school days gone by.

I used to make a big deal out of a student’s birthday. I grew up in a family that did just that, so I think that’s where I got that idea. My mother would make sure I got my favorite breakfast. During that mealtime, I got to open a gift before going to school. Then, when I came home, our family got to eat my favorite dinner either at home or at a restaurant of my choice. Then – there were more gifts with dessert. I still love sending cards (and receiving them) on special days. But – let’s get back to teaching. So – my staff and I would plan a party at the end of the school day for our “birthday student.” Their favorite goodie was served (or a cake we either purchased or prepared). There were cards and gifts. Not all, but many of my students throughout my career, didn’t have a lot of money, so we spoiled them on this day.

One year, I began a birthday tradition where we squirted whipped cream from a can into the mouth of the celebrator while their head was tilted back (as well as anyone else at the party who wanted to partake). When it was my birthday, I got to be the one who sat under the nozzle. One year a student really had fun squirting it all over the place, so from then on, we wore aprons when it was our birthday. What a lot of messy fun that was!

Another thing I miss about teaching was a day I dubbed “Reading Day.” We moved the desks out of the way and lay on our carpeted floor with beanbags, comfy chairs, and lots of pillows. I read to my students all day in my Mickey Mouse slippers. I wanted them to just have a day to enjoy books all day long. We ate our lunch like a picnic right there in the classroom. I miss them telling me which books they wanted to read.

Speaking of those special MM slippers, another great day we had was Mickey Mouse’s birthday (November 18). I did a math lesson to teach them subtraction with the year it was and the year he debuted (1928) so we could figure out how old he was. We also played math games with dice decorated with his picture.

We dressed up in the many T-shirts and sweatshirts I collected over the years. We prepared MM pancakes for breakfast. We read many Disney books and watched a Disney movie at the end of our day. I’m sure that there was much more to it than that, but my memory right now (spring, 2016) only has that left in it.

I miss dispersing all the Disney World souvenirs I used to buy for my students. They loved the Rice Krispies treats (in the shape of Mickey’s head) the most. Pencils and pens were my favorite (of course, “Teach”). I loved gathering fun things there to fly back to New York with. I’d jam my suitcases with these items, and my mother would get stuck with the job of boxing up and then mailing my clothes after I left, since there was no room for my stuff!

And back to Summer School, another special day we had was Moon Day. On July 20, we learned about the first men who walked on the moon in 1969. We read books about the moon, space, and astronauts. We also made a “clean” mess by making moon pictures. We used Ivory soap flakes mixed with water and then plopped some onto black paper. The students, using their hands, turned them into the shape of the moon and used their fingers to poke craters into the soap mixture. After the pictures dried, we wrote on the black paper with white chalk… “Moon Day, 1997” (for example).

As usual, we had a snack related to this theme – Moon Pies come to mind.

Because most of my career was spent teaching Life Skills special education classes, we prepared food a lot. Most of the time, this lesson was planned for Friday mornings.

Many of the food selections we prepared were consumed by our students and staff that same day. But, many times we had leftovers. Some of my favorite memories were bringing those leftovers to homeless people I knew of.

One man who hid in the woods near where I lived for a while got all excited when he saw my car pull up on Fridays. He’d run to grab the container out of my hand, and then run just as quickly back into the woods with it. To this day, I wonder what ever happened to him after I moved away. He always screamed, “Thanks,” as he scurried to eat our offerings. Did I ever tell my students about their leftovers going to the homeless???

I miss how I tried to make Mother’s Day a special day for my students’ mommies. I went to a flower shop and bought enough beautiful flowers so each student could go home with the one he or she picked out and had wrapped in wet paper towels with foil.

Even though I’ve never been a mother, and for many years lost touch with my foster son, Brian, I tried to do my best when I helped my students make cards to take home with those flowers. Nowadays, I just “hibernate” on that day, because it’s too much of a reminder for me of what I’ve lost and what I’ve never had.

I miss those Scholastic Book Sales. I bought lots of books for my classroom at those sales. And, if my students had no money for a book they wanted, I bought those also. I never wanted any of “my kids” to go home empty-handed.

One summer in the 1990s, when I worked for Ulster County BOCES, I got permission from my supervisors to take one-on-one, after-school field trips with the students in my class, who happened to be all boys.

After the school day was complete, the student and I would head to my car, drive to the local Hudson Valley Mall, eat in the food court, go shopping at a store of his choice, and then go to the movie theater.

I saw two movies repeatedly (Jurassic Park and Free Willy) because each boy got to select which of these two movies to see.

These few hours I still remember. I only had about six young boys in my class then. We had so much fun.

I know special requests like that would not be allowed nowadays. But, once, when I bumped into one of my students from that time who was now grown up, he told me his favorite time in school was when I took just him to the mall. That made my day, hearing that!

Another vague memory is that we used to finger-paint with chocolate pudding. I can’t remember how this idea got started, or for what theme it was linked to, but I sure do remember the fun of it all.

The kids would “paint” a picture with a blob of chocolate pudding. Then, of course, they would lick their hands. This project made quite a mess of the room as well as of their faces, but it was worth it!

I also miss when my own parents would send our classroom a box of Honeybell oranges from Florida each January. They are so juicy that special straws were needed to poke into them to sip them. The kids, staff, and I loved that slippery mess of orange juice running down our faces and necks as we “drank” from the oranges.

I still remember the happy faces I saw on the students who were in my class for a few years, when they walked in on some cold, January day and saw the box from Florida. They knew it was going to be a fun snack time that day!

Recently, I found the 1881 “Code of Conduct for Teachers” of the Bentley Memorial School, which put some of my experience into a new context. For example, one of the nine requirements stated, “After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.” Wow! Things sure have changed since the 1800s! [No chocolate pudding, then.]

These fond memories I think about now. I miss all the work that went into planning things like that. The activities made my job so enjoyable. Sometimes, I wish I could just go back in time and relive all of that, knowing that one day, it would be gone forever, so enjoy every second of it!

In many instances my effort received warm recognition. For example, the former head of Ulster County BOCES, Laura R. Fliegner, wrote me a commendation concerning my teaching:

…. Your job is not easy. The hours and the emotions which you invest in your teaching roles cannot be measured in the normal way we calculate such things. That “extra something special” which you bring to the job is immeasurable, and may make the difference between the total success or failure of your children to improve their lives.

Thank you, Janet, for all that you do for our (your) children.

I thank God every day for the opportunity I had to teach and that I can remember some of these happy times, gone, but not forgotten….




###


For the coming year, I will be excerpting, weekly, material from this fine book by Janet Johnson Schliff, M.S.Ed.. She wrote it over a three-year period, with some coaching and editing help from me, through my business, WriteYourBookWithMe.com. The excerpts are from the almost-final version. 

Her memoir is now available in paperback and ebook formats from amazon.com and from its publisher, outskirtspress.com: 


                                                ###

BOOK TALKS AND SIGNINGS

Janet Johnson Schliff was on WKNY  Radio 1490 at 9:10 a.m. on Thursday, March 1, Kingston, NY.

Janet Johnson Schliff spoke at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, at Barnes & Noble, 1177 Ulster Avenue, Kingston, NY.

I [DWC] attended, along with almost 40 other people. The talk was especially well received, with several questions at the end, as well.
Congratulations, Janet!

Janet Johnson Schliff spoke at the Starr Library in Rhinebeck, NY, at 7 p.m. on March 6. 

She spoke at the Golden Notebook Bookstore in Woodstock, NY, at 2 p.m. on March 17. 

She spoke at the Morton Library in Rhinecliff, NY, at 6:30 p.m. on March 28. 

She spoke at RCAL in Kingston, NY, at 4 p.m. on April 3. I was able to attend. They gave her an impromptu book-launch party.

On 4/4/18 Janet spoke at the Parkinson's Support Group at the Starr Library at Rhinebeck at 2:30 p.m.

On 4/27/18 Janet spoke at the Stone Ridge Library at 5:30 p.m.

On 5/4/18 Janet will be at the Hurley Library at 6 p.m.

On 5/9/18 Janet will be at the Kingston Library at 6 p.m.

On 5/14/18 Janet will be at the Staatsburg Library at 7 p.m.


On 5/31/18 Janet will be at the Clinton Community Library at 6:30 p.m.

On 6/9/18 Janet will be at the Tannersville Library at noon.

On 6/20/18 Janet will be at the Marbletown Community Center at 6 p.m.

On 7/13/18 Janet will be at the Esopus Library at 7 p.m.



More signings will be coming up, and a fine feature about her by John DeSantos [845 LIFE] appeared in the Middletown Times Herald-Record on Monday, March 12, as part of Brain Injury Awareness Month. An article about her book was just published in the May 2018 Living Rhinebeck Magazine. She was recently interviewed by the Kingston Daily Freeman, and that interview should be published soon.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

WHAT EVER HAPPENED...? Power of Prayer




          The last year I was a teacher, 2006-2007, I was very sick with mysophobia – the fear of germs. Though it would be two years before I learned in 2009 that this OCD fear was caused by the undiagnosed brain tumor, when I was teaching, all I knew was that I was scared to touch anything!
          
A teacher in the same building with me at Rondout Valley Middle School was Mike Irwin. Though we were not friends really, just colleagues, he took me into his classroom on many different lunch periods, and prayed with me to help me feel better. Though this was a public school, we did that without anyone else being involved. He told me over and over again that someday I would feel better, thanks to God. He was right, and I will be forever grateful that he took the time to make me feel better, even if it was for only a few minutes at lunchtime.
          
Nowadays, I see Mike annually at the Rhinebeck, NY, Memorial Day parade. He marches every year with others who have been in the armed forces. I look to find him to give him a hug each time. I thank him in my mind whenever I remember those very difficult days.
          
Praying helps me calm down and focus on what is truly important. I have many signs about prayer around my condo, but my favorite says it best:
         
Pray more. Worry less.

          
I pray often throughout each day: I pray for my dog, Happy, for safe travels to all of my appointments, for people on my church’s prayer chain, and for so much more! In fact, I have written much about prayer in other parts of this book.
          
Since my brain surgery, I have had a hard time closing my eyes to pray, because my head feels like it is swishing back and forth. I bow my head, but I keep my eyes open to help alleviate the swishing sensation.
          
Prayer makes me feel close to God. I remember that I prayed out loud as I was being wheeled into brain surgery. I told God that if I survived this, I would do what He wanted me to do with my life. So far – I'm not sure how well I'm doing with that, because I'm quite sure God wants me to behave better all the time. But for now – I'm writing this book hopefully to help others understand there are many facets of brain injury.
          
As a society, we often see brain injury of the type caused by car accidents or other traumatic events, but brain injury is alarmingly more widespread. It's the “invisible disability” among us, due to concussions, sports injuries, aneurysms, strokes, tumors, and so much more.
          
ALL brain injuries need to be taken seriously because, otherwise, behaviors are not noticed until it's too late. I've witnessed firsthand the violence that can erupt due to a trigger for what some would just see as back-and-forth conversation about something fairly routine, like politics. But, a brain-injured person can react to even one sentence impulsively, swiftly, and dangerously. As a society, we need to understand each other's vulnerabilities so we don't trigger someone unexpectedly.
          
Another sign in my condo reads:
         
Take time to pray.


I KNOW there are many people who have prayed for me through the many challenges I have faced.

Thank you, “Team Janet.” I could not have done it without you!



###

For the coming year, I will be excerpting, weekly, material from this fine book by Janet Johnson Schliff, M.S.Ed.. She wrote it over a three-year period, with some coaching and editing help from me, through my business, WriteYourBookWithMe.com. The excerpts are from the almost-final version. 

Her memoir is now available in paperback and ebook formats from amazon.com and from its publisher, outskirtspress.com: 


                                                ###

BOOK TALKS AND SIGNINGS

Janet Johnson Schliff was on WKNY  Radio 1490 at 9:10 a.m. on Thursday, March 1, Kingston, NY.

Janet Johnson Schliff spoke at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, at Barnes & Noble, 1177 Ulster Avenue, Kingston, NY.

I [DWC] attended, along with almost 40 other people. The talk was especially well received, with several questions at the end, as well.
Congratulations, Janet!

Janet Johnson Schliff spoke at the Starr Library in Rhinebeck, NY, at 7 p.m. on March 6. 

She spoke at the Golden Notebook Bookstore in Woodstock, NY, at 2 p.m. on March 17. 

She spoke at the Morton Library in Rhinecliff, NY, at 6:30 p.m. on March 28. 

She spoke at RCAL in Kingston, NY, at 4 p.m. on April 3. I was able to attend. They gave her an impromptu book-launch party.


On 4/4/18 Janet spoke at the Parkinson's Support Group at the Starr Library at Rhinebeck at 2:30 p.m.

On 4/27/18 Janet will be at the Stone Ridge Library at 5:30 p.m.

On 5/4/18 Janet will be at the Hurley Library at 6 p.m.

On 5/9/18 Janet will be at the Kingston Library at 6 p.m.

On 5/14/18 Janet will be at the Staatsburg Library at 7 p.m.


On 6/9/18 Janet will be at the Tannersville Library at noon.

On 7/13/18 Janet will be at the Esopus Library at 7 p.m.


More signings will be coming up, and a fine feature about her by John DeSantos [845 LIFE] appeared in the Middletown Times Herald-Record on Monday, March 12, as part of Brain Injury Awareness Month. She was recently interviewed by the Kingston Daily Freeman, and that interview should be published soon.

Saturday, April 7, 2018

WHAT EVER HAPPENED...? Churches


I was baptized as a baby in a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, NY, Presbyterian Church.

After moving upstate, I grew up attending and being confirmed at Third Lutheran Church in Rhinebeck, NY. I sang in the choir, went to youth group, was an acolyte, worked at our food booth at the Dutchess County Fair, and so much more. I was a Sunday school teacher, then the Superintendent, as well as the Christian Education Chairperson. I loved Pastor Torcello.

I left the church for a few years, but then got back on track in the late 1990s when I lived near a church in Fishkill, NY. I have always enjoyed reading the signs that are posted in front of many churches to help one take in life’s lessons. I actually nicknamed a church that I was once a member at (Fishkill Baptist Church) the “sign church,” because of how the words on their sign encouraged me to come back to church after years of falling away…. I used to deliberately drive by it over and over to read the words posted there. One Sunday, I parked and went in. I hadn’t been in a church in years due to a very unpleasant experience elsewhere years before. (Unfortunately, I recently heard from friends that still attend that church that they no longer use their sign for encouraging words. That’s too bad.)

This church’s carefully selected sign words are what got me back to God. I was baptized as an adult at Fishkill Baptist, helped in the Sunday school, and sang in the choir there too. I learned a lot from Pastor Eckler.

When I moved to Ulster County, in New York, I began attending church where I am a member now, Grace Community Evangelical Free Church, in Lake Katrine, NY. Pastor Wes Smith has helped me through some pretty dark episodes, and I'm a better Christian because of him.

The time spent with children at my church is the highlight of my week. I truly wish that all adults could be as sweet to one another as children can be. I love helping in classrooms there and teaching the kids songs to sing in front of our whole congregation. Watching their enthusiasm (and nervousness, too) when they perform really helped me come to terms with what I used to do decades ago as a teacher when my students would perform at school concerts and productions.

Another person whom I actually listen to and learn from at Grace Church is Craig Paquette. When he opens our service with a Bible reflection, he explains stories in real-life terms that I actually can make sense of.

          Besides that, his cheery disposition is comforting to be around. He's told many stories in our church, but here's my favorite, and I'll explain why after you read it:


The metaphor of the “downward escalator” is one of our spiritual life. Just about every child has tried to walk up a down escalator. So envision yourself going up a downward escalator…. If you stop in the middle, what happens? You start going down. The point of the analogy is that there is no middle ground. If you're not going up, you're going down. The same applies to our relationship with God. If we're not constantly exercising spiritual life (by being in steady obedience with God, going to church, being engaged in the Bible, and being in fellowship with “like”-minded people), it will be hard to overcome the downward pull of the world, the flesh and the devil always trying to tether us to this Earth. By doing this, it enables us to move toward a trajectory (God) instead of just randomly going about.



This story helped me because, when I first heard the word “escalator,” that reminded me of my unbelievable fear of touching them back when I had mysophobia. But then, I really “got” what Craig was saying and why.

          (And, once when he addressed our whole congregation, he talked about bacon. Anybody that discusses bacon, I listen to!)

So, if you've never been to a house of worship, why don't you try it? If you are not comfortable, try another one. Just go to learn more about God, and how He can help you take on life's challenges.

And, churches can also be a fun place. A boy named Jacob in my church made me laugh when he saw a cancer surgery scar on my face and said, “You look like you have a giant exclamation point on your face.” Boy, was he correct!

I will be eternally grateful to Pastor Torcello (R. I. P.), Pastor Eckler, and Pastor Smith for how they've taught me. I know God placed all of them in my life at certain times so I could get through it all. Thank you, God, for Pastor Torcello's trying to teach me how boys should treat girls, Pastor Eckler for “saving me” on that beach we met on at Camp-of-the-Woods after that second marriage’s horrific, violent honeymoon, and Pastor Smith for teaching me ways to handle life with a brain injury.

I affectionately called Pastor Wes Smith “Pastor Smarty-pants” for a while because it takes a special person to be able to understand and therefore provide help to someone with “abnormal” personality quirks such as mine. He is smart because he helped me maneuver life’s challenges in a real and humorous way. (One example: he compared choosing foods at a buffet to choosing to sin. I “got” his funny message.)

Because I’ve lived in many places, I’ve had the opportunity to worship in many different churches. No matter where I was, I feel that God has blessed me.



Here are some church signs that have really helped me:

·       Forbidden fruit creates many jams [Pornography ruins many relationships.]

·       Jesus knows me, this I love [A sign I got at the Town of Esopus United Methodist Church’s Apple Festival, a deliberate reversal of the wording from the song, “Jesus Loves Me.”]

·       I got this – God

·       Come in

Sit

Breathe

Pray





Thank you, churches, for all your help!


###

For the coming year, I will be excerpting, weekly, material from this fine book by Janet Johnson Schliff, M.S.Ed.. She wrote it over a three-year period, with some coaching and editing help from me, through my business, WriteYourBookWithMe.com. The excerpts are from the almost-final version. The memoir is now available in paperback and ebook formats from amazon.com and from its publisher, outskirtspress.com: 


                                                ###

BOOK TALKS AND SIGNINGS

Janet Johnson Schliff was on WKNY  Radio 1490 at 9:10 a.m. on Thursday, March 1, Kingston, NY.

Janet Johnson Schliff spoke at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, at Barnes & Noble, 1177 Ulster Avenue, Kingston, NY.

I [DWC] attended, along with almost 40 other people. The talk was especially well received, with several questions at the end, as well.
Congratulations, Janet!

Janet Johnson Schliff spoke at the Starr Library in Rhinebeck, NY, at 7 p.m. on March 6. 

She spoke at the Golden Notebook Bookstore in Woodstock, NY, at 2 p.m. on March 17. 

She spoke at the Morton Library in Rhinecliff, NY, at 6:30 p.m. on March 28. 

She spoke at RCAL in Kingston, NY, at 4 p.m. on April 3. I was able to attend. They gave her an impromptu book-launch party.

On 4/4/18 Janet spoke at the Parkinson's Support Group at the Starr Library at Rhinebeck at 2:30 p.m.

On 4/27/18 Janet will be at the Stone Ridge Library at 5:30 p.m.

On 5/4/18 Janet will be at the Hurley Library at 6 p.m.

On 5/9/18 Janet will be at the Kingston Library at 6 p.m.

On 5/14/18 Janet will be at the Staatsburg Library at 7 p.m.


On 6/9/18 Janet will be at the Tannersville Library at noon.

On 7/13/18 Janet will be at the Esopus Library at 7 p.m.


More signings will be coming up, and a fine feature about her by John DeSantos [845 LIFE] appeared in the Middletown Times Herald-Record on Monday, March 12, as part of Brain Injury Awareness Month. She was recently interviewed by the Kingston Daily Freeman, and that interview should be published soon.