2016 "The Year of Celebrating Our Differences"

The highlight of my week is attending the writers group at Middle Church.
To my delight, one of our brilliant writers is Timothy Bellaria. His books and workshops are helping children to understand we may look different on the outside, "We are all the same inside." For twenty years, I taught special education in the New York City public schools. I highly recommend teachers and parents to order his books. Let us all help "2016" be the year of Celebrating our Differences.

timothybellavia@yahoo.com 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD_iAANLVYo      http://www.amazon.com/Timothy%20D.%20Bellavia/e/B001KDVQ8Q/ref=la_B001KDVQ8Q_pg_2?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_82%3AB001KDVQ8Q&page=2&ie=UTF8&qid=1451353419
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_D._Bellavia

The best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.

            http://joan-reese.artistwebsites.com/featured/garden-smile-joan-reese.html

Be not beguiled by world's insidious wiles;

O foolish ones, ye know her tricks and guiles;

Your precious life-time cast not to the winds;

Haste to seek wine, and court a sweetheart'ssmile.

Written by: Omar Khayyam

Santa Loves Brooklyn

             http://fineartamerica.com/featured/santa-loves-brooklyn-joan-reese.html

The Russian Futurist Vladimir Mayakovsky was moved when he first saw the Brooklyn Bridge in 1925, as he described in his poem:

 Brooklyn Bridge

...it stretches on cables of string

to the feet of the stars.

I stare

as an eskimo gapes at a train,

I seize on it

as a tick fastens to an ear.

Brooklyn Bridge--

yes....

That's quite a thing!