Laura Brown (thatgrrl) on about.me

I started online in 1996. In college I had taken Corporate Communications which had a focus on news writing and public relations.

I have worked for networks like HerPlanet, Suite101, WZ.com, LockerGnome, and BackWash. I’m an ASCII artist and was an Editall with the Open Directory Project.

Currently, I produce my own sites and contribute to a few others. I have years of experience, insight and a lot of opinions about writing and publishing on the Internet.

In my own time I like to photograph abandoned places, mainly farm houses, around Ontario.

via Laura Brown (thatgrrl) on about.me .

To Write Love on Her Arms

Something I found while wandering around online today. It’s probably for younger people by the look of the site. The link is worth passing along.

To Write Love on Her Arms

The Mission Statement:

To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

VISION:

The vision is that we actually believe these things…

You were created to love and be loved. You were meant to live life in relationship with other people, to know and be known. You need to know that your story is important and that you’re part of a bigger story. You need to know that your life matters.

We live in a difficult world, a broken world. My friend Byron is very smart – he says that life is hard for most people most of the time. We believe that everyone can relate to pain, that all of us live with questions, and all of us get stuck in moments. You need to know that you’re not alone in the places you feel stuck.

We all wake to the human condition. We wake to mystery and beauty but also to tragedy and loss. Millions of people live with problems of pain. Millions of homes are filled with questions – moments and seasons and cycles that come as thieves and aim to stay. We know that pain is very real. It is our privilege to suggest that hope is real, and that help is real.

You need to know that rescue is possible, that freedom is possible, that God is still in the business of redemption. We’re seeing it happen. We’re seeing lives change as people get the help they need. People sitting across from a counselor for the first time. People stepping into treatment. In desperate moments, people calling a suicide hotline. We know that the first step to recovery is the hardest to take. We want to say here that it’s worth it, that your life is worth fighting for, that it’s possible to change.

Beyond treatment, we believe that community is essential, that people need other people, that we were never meant to do life alone.

The vision is that community and hope and help would replace secrets and silence.

The vision is people putting down guns and blades and bottles.

The vision is that we can reduce the suicide rate in America and around the world.

The vision is that we would learn what it means to love our friends, and that we would love ourselves enough to get the help we need.

The vision is better endings. The vision is the restoration of broken families and broken relationships. The vision is people finding life, finding freedom, finding love. The vision is graduation, a Super Bowl, a wedding, a child, a sunrise. The vision is people becoming incredible parents, people breaking cycles, making change.

The vision is the possibility that your best days are ahead.

The vision is the possibility that we’re more loved than we’ll ever know.

The vision is hope, and hope is real.

You are not alone, and this is not the end of your story.

Hope in Unlikely Places

Butterfly Kiss of Hope

Never give up on hope, for hope waits to be born in unlikely places.
Hope is everywhere, you’ll find it in the flowers, in the air,
It’s delivered to you by butterflies wearing different faces,
When one softly brushes your cheek with a kiss, you’ll know it’s there.

J. Hinkle, Thoughtful Angels… and Friends .

I also posted this to WordGrrls.com

It's all Slinky and Slippery

This meme comes from Where the Green Grass Grows .

1. If you could build a house anywhere, where would it be?
Still in Ontario (maybe BC if not Ontario) but on a high point of land overlooking the sea, or a really big body of water. Surrounded by fields of wildflowers and forests beyond that. Not too far from a city for book shopping, lattes and Internet connections.

2.What is your favorite article of clothing?

Nightgowns. Sometimes soft and warm and sometimes slinky and slippery.

3. Last C.D. you bought?
Jann Arden.

4. Where is your favorite place to be?
Exploring a really interesting old house with my camera and a coffee waiting out in the car.

5. Least favorite place to be?
Out in the cold, waiting for a bus. Though I’m sure there are worse places that is the first that came to my mind today.

6. Are you strongest in mind or body?
Probably not either one. Mind, maybe, only because it can outthink my body.

7. What time do you wake up?
Different every day.

8. Favorite kitchen appliance?
Refridgerator. What would we do without it? I never had to deal with an ice box or rely on a root cellar and hope for the best. I’m quite happy to leave those experiences to the older generations.

9. What instrument would you like to play?
Piano maybe.

10. Favorite color?
Deep, dark red.

11. Sports car of SUV?
Neither one. I’ve seen both with very poor and thoughtless drivers. I’d rather have a sedan type of car or a smart car – they’re so small they are kind of cute. Or a VW Bug, a combination of the sedan and smart car look.

12. Favorite children’s book?
The Raggedy Ann series. I remember them from when I was a kid.

13. Favorite season?
Spring. I would have said Winter, but that was before we moved to Barrie.

14. Least favorite chore?
Looking after other people. I need a break!

15. Favorite day?
Everyday that I’m feeling ok and still on the planet.

16. Favorite food?
That’s a long list. Lattes, cheesecake, ice cream, Chinese, Mexican, the salad bar…

17. Favorite drink?
Various coffees, right now it’s the Dolce latte.

18. Favorite word?
Free.
19. Favorite inspirational book?
Don’t have one.

20. Who would you like to play you in the movie of you life?
Winoa Ryder. She could do it mentally, but it would be hilarious to see her dressed up in a big enough fat suit to look like me.

To All the Smokers I Have Known and Lost

I wrote this as letter to the editor for our local newspaper. It was a reply/ rebuttal to another letter which talked on and on about the freedom and rights smokers should have. I know it is a long and tired argument but it isn’t often that smokers talk about anyone but themselves when they argue for smoking. I thought it was time someone pointed that out. Maybe it will make a difference, likely not. But it was said. Time will tell, time is a blabberwort that way.

Regarding Steve West’s defense of smokers and their rights… Why is the smoker’s lament always “my rights”, “my choice”, me me me.

Let’s think about other people first for a moment. The downside of smoking related health problems are pretty well documented. Health and health care for smoking related illnesses and those caused by second hand smoke. Also, smoking puts people at risk for other health problems, other kinds of cancers for one. It even affects those not born yet. If we could eliminate smoking as a health problem our economy would benefit too. There could be more money available for research or cures for other illnesses which are not self-inflicted. Governments and other organizations could put their resources into more essential things like daycare, eldercare, etc. There could even be more resources to really help people stop smoking rather than trying to convince them it would be a good idea to try.

Then there is the environment. Smoking causes a visible pollution in the air, it deposits a film of grime on surfaces like car windows and walls inside homes. Smokers choose to flick their cigarette butts on our sidewalks, in public parks, at bus stops, outside of shopping malls and restaurants. That’s called littering yet it is overlooked. If each cigarette butt were a pop can, coffee cup, plastic bag, water bottle or pet poop would it be overlooked then? Do smokers even notice butts piled up in places where children tend to pick things up?

Now lets talk about you. Have you looked at your teeth lately? Have you smelt your breath? Unless you use a pretty strong whitening toothpaste (which isn’t helping the durability of your tooth enamel) your teeth are grungy looking. Kissing you is like kissing an ashtray. Sitting next to you in public place is stinky business. I can smell it on your clothes, in your hair. When you sit next to me I come away smelling like smoke too and it bothers me all day, until I get home and shower. It’s not doing your clothes any favours either is it? Do you have that hacking cough in the morning? My smoking relatives do. Sounds awful, like they are struggling to cough their lungs out so they can breathe again. How much fun is that?

Now lets get to me. I am a non-smoker. I have asthma. I have a physical reaction to your smoking. It makes it hard for me to breathe. I’m not just asking for you to put out your cancer stick because I don’t like it. I don’t like not being able to breathe the air. It’s a habit I’ve grown into. Much like your own habit except I started a lot younger and really do think I should have the right, the freedom and the choice to continue doing so.

I forgot to add about the extra cleansers needed to clean up smoking grime, how those are all extra detergents and chemicals being added to our water, our ecosystem.

Living in a Wooden Globe Up a Tree


I sometimes wish for a place of my own. Nothing fancy or expensive or particularly flashy. I like seeing unusual small places, like this globe home in the woods. I found this on Something Just to Start . The company that makes it is Free Spirit Spheres .