The following link will take you to the American Association of School Librarians where they have several resources on why this day is so important, how to send the government your FOIA requests, and other historical background and helpful information.
Freedom of Information Day Information
To request information, go to the government’s website and it will tell you how to make your request.
On this National Write Down Your Story Day, I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce my Substack friends. I began using Substack in order to follow a few outstanding journalists and activists: Jim Acosta, Michael Fanone, Terry Moran, Katie Phang, and others.
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write and publish there even though I made a couple of posts exploring and thinking out loud, and I still don’t really know. I already have this website; I don’t think of it as a blog since I do a whole host of topics as you know.
Last week, I used World Book Day to write about my journey in the writing of my own book, and I think my plan is to keep the Substack related to writing. Most of the content will be crossposted here as well.
Crossposts will be noted in the tags.
Nothing ever goes as planned.
Life happens.
I feel today that I am more me than I’ve ever been.
My Substack will eventually get a name, a theme, perhaps even a logo that makes me happy. There will be a FAQ, but the big points can be found here on my FAQ page (link in the menu).
With today’s post on Substack, I mentioned that I have three major works that I am focusing on:
Now, go ——- write your own story down!
Within the last fifty days, I shared with you my intention to begin and complete a one hundred day project following Suleika Jaouad’s The Book of Alchemy. I’ve read her chapter introductions, and then each of the ten essays by various authors, absorbed their stories, dove into the prompts, and for the most part wrote for as long or as short a time that my essay needed.
Before I get into the weeds of this project and process, I would like to readily admit that I think I’ve succeeded in my non-stated goals. I am writing every day; not just these prompts, but working on my book, writing posts to publish on my website, taking notes for future writing projects.
Because the authors are so varied in their backgrounds, their writing styles, and the stories they choose to share, one thing that I’ve been doing is thinking and contemplating what I want to write about, how much of my personal experiences I want to share, and really concentrating on continuing to grow as a writer. I’m seeing that many of the prompts can be blended together, I can create multi-part essays and longer pieces, and there is a lot of inward looking. I can see going back again to some of the prompts and expanding what I’ve already written, starting the prompt anew, continuing or creating a chapter/monthly series on one or more of the prompts.
I do intend to share some of what I’ve written with the world.
Word counts are not the end all be all of writing. I could easily write over 1000 words a day, but is it worth reading? Not if it’s crap. Having said that, it’s still important to have touchstones to know where I am in the writing process. While the essays I’ve written with these prompts can be left as standalone pieces, some may be refashioned, edited, and of course, everything can be made better.
For the fifty days so far, I have written approximately 25,133 words, which amounts to 503 words per day. Some days there were a hundred words written, some seven hundred, and there were one or two days when over a thousand words were completed.
While the book gives you no special rules, and you decide what you want to get out of the project, I started with six simple suggestions that I fashioned for myself. They were to keep me on task, accountable, and focused.
Continue reading
As International Women’s Day comes to a close tonight, I wanted to do something different besides railing against the patriarchy or calling out the magnificent women who are and should be our role models. Here are some of my favorite women authors. Hit them up on Google and at your favorite bookstore or library!
Read a Book!
We’re a couple of days late, but I feel like World Book Day is on my calendar twice, so maybe talking about books throughout the year without an “official holiday” is a good thing, yeah? Can’t have too many books to read, write, or recommend, right?
For this year’s World Book Day, I thought I would talk about the journey of my own book in progress. I am no where near the stage of publication, but I am trying to work diligently to get on track for a more consistent timeline with tangible goals on the calendar and in order to do that, I should reflect back to see where I started and where I’ve come.
I began this venture without having a book goal in mind. I was moving towards a devotion to St. Kateri, and having visited her two shrines in the immediate area, I wanted to visit the shrine in Canada where she died* and is entombed. That exploration led to discovering her actual original burial place which was a few miles away from her tomb, and then with covid interference delaying our visit led to other factors, meetings, and research that eventually led to writing this book.
The main change that influenced the book was deciding on more of a pilgrimage to her final resting place rather than a stop on our vacation. The second was wanting to visit the places/shrines where she actually lived, where her footsteps roamed. I wanted to follow her to these places and envision her there.
Once that began, I thought I’d write about the shrines themselves – something of a travel guide to St. Kateri’s shrines, and that simply ballooned into something much more than that.
I have been privileged to have met with people who know Kateri, who were instrumental in leading to her sainthood, to her people, the Kanien’kéha who still live on the land that her village moved to after her death.
In a few short weeks (Easter Sunday), will be the 350th anniversary of St.Kateri’s baptism right here in New York. To the day! I am so excited to be a part of the shrine community and am looking forward to the Easter Mass to be celebrated there.
That is the gift of this journey for me – visiting Kateri’s homes and getting to know others who feel the way I feel about her and the excitement of continuing forward in this adventure.
When we visit Canada we always return with food, snacks, and sauces that we don’t often see at home in New York. One of the sauces that my kids brought back last August was korma sauce. We had it once at a restaurant, and I thought it was something we might use. We always make those chicken dishes (like butter chicken or teriyaki chicken) with rice, usually white, but occasionally fried.
I wanted a change for this week’s meal, and asked for my son to pick up small golden potatoes and naan to create an excellent dinner.
Skillet Potatoes - once the potatoes are set up, I cut up the chicken and cook that in the oven. I don't use a lot of seasoning on the chicken since they're going to be simmered in the sauce.
For the potatoes: In a large skillet, put in 3/4 of a stick of butter. Cut the potatoes into smaller pieces, halves, thirds, whatever works for your family. I cover the potatoes and butter with the following seasonings/spices: fresh ground four pepper peppercorns, garlic powder, dill weed, orange peel. Cover and let cook on medium for about 30 minutes.
At the same time, cook the chicken at 350° for those 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, stir the potatoes gently with a spatula.
Put the chicken in a wok with the korma sauce, stir, and simmer. Add in 1/2 bag of frozen corn or can of corn, stir, and simmer until the sauce and vegetables are hot.
Raise the oven temperature to 400° and warm the naan for about 5 minutes.
Serve together.
It is delicious!
Last Thursday I attended mass. After some questions and wanderings, I found the side chapel which I hadn’t known existed at this church. I wasn’t late, but I was barely on time. The way the room was set up I didn’t know how the communion would go, but I put that aside.
This was my first visit since I made the commitment to attend Thursday mass throughout Lent. You can see the photos above that show you the spareness of the Lenten decor, and it was lovely to be in the simplicity with no distractions from the Word.
When mass was over, something unexpected happened. The monstrance was set up for adoration. I hadn’t known that there was an adoration period, and since I had no other plans, I thought I would stay, and what I found was peace. Contentment. In this moment, this unexpected comfort and full of comfortable sitting.
Some who stayed were sitting, some were reading, all praying.
I was sitting with prayer and some were also; some of us were just sitting with Jesus.
This was the second time in a year that I found myself accidentally at adoration, and it seems to me that in these two times, this is where I was meant to be. I could feel the presence of the holy spirit. It didn’t occur to me to leave, and so I stayed, and when I felt the call end, I went about my day.
I also wondered: could I read my current book? Reading a book, sitting side by side with Him.
In quiet.
In peace.
In contentment.
Today is the third day of Women’s History Month. Typically, there’d be a proclamation from Washington, Congress and/or the White House, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for that. It was clear last week when the Olympics closed for this year that the White House would only be acknowledging the white men on the men’s hockey team. Yes, they did win the gold medal, and should be congratulated, but (or is it and) the women’s hockey team also won the gold as did ten other US athletes or teams. I will say that the last time that the men’s hockey team won the gold was right here in New York forty-six years ago. They were truly a ragtag team of true amateurs. I wasn’t even in high school. The women’s team, on the other hand competed in their first Olympics in 1998, and have won a medal in every Olympics they participated in.
You may think from that introduction that this is going to be a diatribe against misogyny, for Title IX, against discrimination, for DEI (which benefits everyone), but it’s not. It is, however, the world we live in currently with Congress and the White House attempting to take women back to their dark ages. We will not let them. We are not going back.
I begin this Women’s History month with that declaration: we are not going back. We are 50% of the world. We are equal. Even though we’ve earned it, we do not need your respect, but we will not be mocked.
One way to commemorate and celebrate women is to support their spaces and we can do that by using our time and our dollars and visiting some of those spaces.
We have traveled to Canada yearly for the past several years, and each time we’ve driven west towards Niagara Falls and the Rainbow Bridge, we pass a sign on the New York State Thruway that declares the Women’s Rights Historical National Park, and every time I see that sign, I say (out loud), I want to go there one day. And maybe one day, I will.
Links
Begin at the Visitors’ Center and visit the historic houses there that include:
There is also a trail through the area that includes the following sites:
Griffins and Ginger Snaps 