Where is the Inspiration?

Mark your calendars

Saturday, April 25, 2015

10:00 to 12.00

at

Ovitt Community Library

215  E. C St.

Ontario, Ca.

Ovitt Library

 

 

Take a Step for a Vet - It's time to Pay It Forward

JUST A REMINDER

 Sunday, March 1st

 

I will be attending the Good Sam/Camping World RV Rally  in Phoenix, Arizona and participating in  a 5K at the Phoenix Raceway to raise money for the Fisher House.org, an organization who builds homes for veterans. 

PLEASE  join my team, Judy Howard Publishing, in our participation of  

 

STEPS FOR VETS

 

 

AND

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE AND CLOSER TO HOME .....

 

 

 

A BOOK PARTY!! JOIN THE FUN!

MASADA'S MARINE ON AMAZON

 

Attention

Veteran Centers, Correctional Institutions, Schools, and Clubs.

Judy Howard offers inspirational  seminars about writing and publishing. It is a well-known fact that WRITING IS HEALING.

Check out these website.

 

 

American Psychological Assoc.

 

 The Healing Powers Of Keeping a Journal

 

Writing to Heal - university of Texas, Austin

 

 

 

 

 

Judy's Seminars and workshops are known for getting the reluctant, unsure writer on the Road To Writing.

THE ROAD TO WRITING PART ONE - GETTINNG STARTED

THE ROAD TO WRITING  PART TWO - WHAT MAKES A GOOD STORY?

 and her newest  seminar

THE ROAD TO WRITING PART THREE - INSPIRATION

Top ranking Amazon Author Judy Howard  has presented her seminars across the country.

 

Contact her for more information about her up coming writing seminars.

CONTACT  JUDY HOWARD

Email: jhoward1935@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

The 21 Day Myth and STOP 22

How long does it take to make a habit? Twenty-four days ago on January first, I read an article that claimed  it takes twenty-one days to form a habit. It was on the internet, so it must be true.

 

I made the decision right then. If I could consistently rise every morning and exercise twenty-one minutes for twenty-one days, I will have made a habit. No, not a hobbit. I have neither shrunk in size nor have hairy feet, although at my post-menopausal age the hair has sprouted in other undesirable places. I am talking about a habit, an exercise habit.

So, is it true? I tested the theory. By the fourth day of my research an entirely amazing pattern  began to emerge.  The final disclosure of my analysis? In twenty-four days the twenty one minutes of exercise decreased proportionately to the increasing number of days that passed. By the twenty-first day the minutes of exercise registered zero. I also discovered that the passion for creating the habit of exercise decreased as well.

But I have learned one thing.. Don’t give up. No matter what.

Throughout life there have been times when I became passionate about an idea, a product, and even a person. Like on a honeymoon, I did everything to nurture that idea into a reality, I worked long hours to acquire that new product, and I sacrificed and compromised to love that person with all my heart. In the beginning the idea, the product and the person promised great things, feeding my passion. Like anything that is new, I was on board, gung-ho, ready to go all out.  

But as we all know the honeymoon fades, the passion dims during the struggles of long hours, compromises and sacrifices. 

The path grows long, the sand deep.








But no matter how dark and treacherous the way, just around the bend is an unexpected surprise,  waiting to happen.

 Don't give up. Just do the work. What ever your goal, just start over again. Press on. Successful athletes did not quit after they lost the game. And every author doubts his work. But if you are doing what you love, you are already a far ahead of the game. 



And don't forget.....


always look up.




Habit Formation - The 21 Day Myth

 

 

 

 

 

Every day 22 veterans commit suicide because of PTSD.

Please carry the message.

MASADA'S MARINE, The Story of a Service Dog And Her Wounded Marine Warrior.

Join the movement : STOP 22

Join  Shari Duval and the   K9s For Warriors in their movement, STOP 22.

 

More images of EASTJESUS at Slab City, near Niland, California

More photos of   EAST JESUS located at Slab City near Niland, California.

Catch this wall of unrecyclable bottles at sundown. It is beautiful.

The trunk of this elephant is  an RV  sewer hose.

This princess is created from plastic duck decoys.

a commentary on television

EAST JESUS- SLAB CITY- MUD POTS-SALVATION MOUNTAIN

 

Welcome to the Slabs, one  the strangest  areas I have ever visited. I don't know what to compare it. I am camped four miles east of the  small dying town of Niland, California, which  has a post office, a struggling Laundromat with one working washer, a restaurant the locals claim serves so-so food the locals at too high prices, and one gas station that operates as a market too.  

 

The rumors and myths of The Slabs are abound.

Slab City is 600 acres originally used as a training facility, Camp Dunlap, by the Marine Corp during WWI. Today the area is home to the homeless, the snow birds, and about a thousand locals. There is no electricity, no water, no trash, and NO RULES. There is   lots of sunshine, too much in the summer and stars that light up  the sky like a rhinestone blanket.  People come here to escape civilization and it confining restrictions.

The hot springs are clothing optional. The local entertainment at the Range is anything but smoke free, allowing second hand smoke from more than just cigarettes.

 

The homeless that live here walk to town. If they want a ride, they walk  with the flow of traffic, if not, they walk against the traffic. Dogs run free. I can't imagine life for those that life year around. It can be 120 degrees in the summer, and in the 30s on a winter night.

Below are some of the images of Slab City and the surrounding area of  Salton Sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Above are concrete ducks and geese. This area of East Jesus flood during the heavy rains in the desert.

This was the swimming pool at the Marine Base. It is now a skate park for a group of youth who live here at the slabs and bathe (but not often) in the hot springs less than a quarter of a  mile from here.

This piece of art on the left, created by discarded computer  circuit boards, and the four following are examples of "Found Art"  here in East Jesus.  I could have spent  hours  absorbing the nuances each artist had implied.  East Jesus is a testament to the creation process, knowing that all of this was created by trash and discarded items found here in the desert.

When you visit the mud pots  around the Salton Sea, you feel as if you are taken back to a time that doesn't exist anymore, or perhaps to the future when mankind has depleted the earth.  The hot mud pots remind me of Yellowstone except there are no ropes to keep you away and  safe and  no crowds.

The following mud pots can't be found in Yellowstone. They are  cold mud pots. The water is only warm, not scalding  like the hot ones, although they still bubble and burp, forming cones that rise up from the desert floor.

And if the above depictions of Slab City and the surrounding area of Salton Sea is not strange enough, below are images from Salvation Mountain.  This began as one man's creation.  Leonard, the artist, created his tribute to Jesus  through countless hours of labor and many, many gallons of donated paint, over the last thirty years. Leonard died last year, but the tribute remains. I was amazed by the countless visitors who come from miles away and are in constant attendance. 
Salvation Mountain

 

Located just east of State Route 111, the entrance to Slab City is easily recognized by the colorful Salvation Mountain, a small hill approximately three stories high which is entirely covered in acrylic paint, concrete and adobe and festooned with Bible verses. It is a project of over two decades by Leonard Knight.

Salvation Mountain

Stay tuned for more pictures from this area.
Happy New Year!

2015: The Year of the Veterans

Today is the day. I Create tomorrow’s memories   and live yesterday’s lessons.

 

The end of a year means a blank calendar ahead.  Today I consider new beginnings. I’ll welcome my new year with excitement and adventure. Although the IEDs of fear and worry line the roadside of my journey, I am not one to let them stop me. I will trust this year’s journey will be an honorable one, as was last year’s. I trust  the memories I bring with me into the new year, as well as  the lessons learned from yesterday,  will be of benefit to those  I meet along the way,  who are alone with theirs.

The most valuable gift I have to give is my experience, wrapped in strength, and hope. Even in the depths of despair, when there is nothing else, we all have our experiences. Through my writing I hope to pay forward, the compassion, empathy and love I’ve received during my journey through life.

 Because of my charmed life of freedom, made possible by the efforts of those who have fought to defend it,  I want 2015 to be The Year of the Veterans. We are needlessly losing 22 our men and women per day to suicide.

 

 

 

No man is an island, entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;

If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if the promontory were,

As well as if the manor of thy friends, or of thine own were;

Any man’s death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind;

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee.           

 John Donne

When I wrote MASADA’S MARINE last year, I spent hours of research, and now, I can no longer feign ignorance to this country’s embarrassing issue of ignoring  this invisible disease. I would like you, too, to join me in my crusade. In order to introduce  you and your friends to my cause, I am recommending a reading list.

Of course, my book, MASADA'S MARINE is top of my list because it illustrates the dynamics of PTSD and how service dogs are combating this invisible disease.

Masada and her Marine were born two decades and two thousand miles apart, and both aspired to do be the best that they could be. But first, they had to meet.
Masada began her journey in Illinois as a bumbling golden retriever puppy and emerged twenty months later as a proud, confident American Service Dog, ready and able to protect and preserve the life of Iraq veteran, Alex March, USMC.
Alex’s journey began in California as an ambitious boy who only dreamed of protecting and preserving life for the Corps, his country and his family. Twenty years later, he emerged as one of “a few good men,” and served with honor, courage and commitment …until he came home….
“An unseen attacker, camouflaged in the crowd, cooled its heels like a terrorist. It waited to follow Alex and his family home. How could he have known what lurked on the sidelines? Another war, an invisible war, he knew nothing about and had not been trained to fight.”
Follow Iraq veteran, Alex March, USMC and his American Service Dog, Masada, who rescues the wounded warrior, as they become the best they can be.

 

The two books below are only two of many included in my research of Masada’s Marine. I guarantee you will join my campaign after reading these books.

 THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE by David Finkel

The wars of the past decade have been covered by brave and talented reporters, but none has reckoned with the psychology of these wars as intimately as the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Finkel. For The Good Soldiers, his bestselling account from the front lines of Baghdad, Finkel embedded with the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion during the infamous “surge,” a grueling fifteen-month tour that changed them all forever. In Finkel’s hands, readers can feel what these young men were experiencing, and his harrowing story instantly became a classic in the literature of modern war.
     In Thank You for Your Service, Finkel has done something even more extraordinary. Once again, he has embedded with some of the men of the 2-16—but this time he has done it at home, here in the States, after their deployments have ended. He is with them in their most intimate, painful, and hopeful moments as they try to recover, and in doing so, he creates an indelible, essential portrait of what life after war is like—not just for these soldiers, but for their wives, widows, children, and friends, and for the professionals who are truly trying, and to a great degree failing, to undo the damage that has been done.
     The story Finkel tells is mesmerizing, impossible to put down. With his unparalleled ability to report a story, he climbs into the hearts and minds of those he writes about. Thank You for Your Service is an act of understanding, and it offers a more complete picture than we have ever had of these two essential questions: When we ask young men and women to go to war, what are we asking of them? And when they return, what are we thanking them for?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TAMING THE FIRE WITHIN, by Anne Freund

Anne Freund, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist who has been practicing since 1989. She graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor's in Psychology and from the University of Florida with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Freund completed her internship at the VA in Bay Pines, FL. She has been with the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2005. Prior to that she worked with law enforcement and first responders as part of a Critical Incidence Stress Debriefing Team. Dr. Freund began conducting PTSD support groups in 2005, shortly after arriving at the VA. She has had specialized training in PTSD at the National Center for PTSD in Menlo Park, CA and at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. Dr Freund is a member of the American Psychological Association, American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, International Society for Traumatic Stress, the European Society for Stress Studies, and the Association of V.A. Psychologist Leaders. Dr. Freund was the keynote speaker at the annual POW/MIA Heroes Dinner sponsored by Rolling Thunder in 2011.

 

 

I am sure after reading these books you will join in the effort to pass this bill: S. 2182 VETERANS SUICIDE BILL

HAPPY NEW YEAR.