Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Editor's Corner

 


By Mary E. Adair

November 2022

“Thanksgiving day is a jewel,
to set in the hearts of honest men;
but be careful that you do not take the day,
and leave out the gratitude.”
__E.P. Powell


The present calendar has your editor's favorite Holiday which always falls on the fourth Thursday--Thanksgiving! Somehow, it seems more a family shared holiday than even Christmas which can be fraught with purchasing just the 'right' gift, meeting deadlines for school and/or work parties, and the usually cooling weather that seems to slow down everything at the very time one needs to hurry, hurry, hurry! So enjoy November's sports in present or with the magic of television coverage, and settle yourself to enjoy heartier meal menus. 'Tis the season!


It is also the season when leaves fall from the trees. shrubs, and flowers, reminding us that we, too, can someday meet our own falling away time. Faced with the untimely passing of our beloved columnist and poet, Dayvid Bruce Clarkson, we are showing his final column as a tribute for him -- "Reflections of the Day."


"A Mother's Lessons" by Danielle Cote Serar, recounts her feelings on watching her children as they respond sometimes to others rather than herself. "On Trek" by Judith Kroll, addresses thoughts, ideas, and hopes concerning one's "Higher Self."


"Introspective" by Thomas O'Neill, shares his thoughts and memories of Thanksgiving, and his attempt to convey the meaning of that holiday to his students in China. "Irish Eyes" by our Dublin based Mattie Lennon, brings us into the picture, well, the books, he discusses for November, with disclosures from the authors and those familiar with the historic scope of the tales included.


"Sifoddling Along," by Marilyn Carnell, lets fond memories weave her column as she focuses on the little home where she lived as a youngster, and later. "Woo Woo," by Pauline Evanosky, delves into the actual mechanics of learning to channel.


"Cooking with Rod” by Roderich Cohenour, is an encore of one of his post-Thanksgiving meal plans since he is hospitalized for tests and surgical evaluation at this time. Prayers are welcome for the ideal outcome, says his wife Melinda Cohenour. Since she is primarily concerned with his well-being currently, she offers a brief explanation in lieu of her usual information in her column the "Armchair Genealogy."


This issue boasts two articles, one from the hand of LC Van Savage, former columnist who focuses primarily on crafts and authoring more books now. As always. she tells it like it seems to her as she proclaims "Here’s To the Guys Who Brought it Over." The other article, "My Experiences with the Spirit World," is by long-time friend Julie Anne Carey, who was born in Australia, and stil resides there. Do click her byline and read her biography.


This poem by Dan Kangas was brought to mind by her article, so here is an encore of "My Awakening." Bud Lemire's poems are "Cousins, Connect By Heart & Soul," "Halloween At Harbor Tower," "Reflections in My Glasses," and "Feeling The Silence." Bruce Clifford, submitted "On The Outside," "A Boy in the Park," and "Do You Still Dream?"


Walt Perryman's life takes many twists and turns but the Cowboy Poet that he is can always find the words to clue us into his musings and reactions, no matter what. His poems this month are "My High School Reunion," "Hometown Memories," "More Good News," and "My Hospital Stay."


Perryman is also the author of the continuing presentation that reveals the compositions titled "Honey Dog Tales." Chapter Three is in this issue for our readers to enjoy!


We continue to thank our co-founder and webmaster, Mike Craner, whose knowlege and expertise keeps Pencil Stubs Online actually online. He does it well as we are now in our 25th year. Happy Thanksgiving, Mike!


Look for us in December.


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Armchair Genealogy

 


By Melinda Cohenour

Dear readers,
this month your author has been unable to focus on Research. My precious husband has been hospitalized with a life-threatening infection and although he will be discharged from the hospital, he must immediately schedule surgery.
Hopefully all that will result in complete healing and restoration of his typically active lifestyle. So this month I ask for your patience and for your prayers.

In the meantime, please pursue your own Armchair Genealogy research.
Yours truly,
Melinda Cohenour

Editor's Note: All of the columns may be accessed
HERE.


Click on author's byline for bio and list of other works published by Pencil Stubs Online.


Cooking with Rod

 


By Rod Cohenour

Our favorite cook, Rod, has just been released from the hospital, and is in the process of scheduling surgery. But he has a trove of Thanksgiving recipes to pull from. This month, we feature one of his former solutions to the bountiful leftovers of a fabulous Turkey Dinner.


Let’s do Leftovers!


      Thanksgiving was really wonderful this year. Daughter Melissa prepared not one, but two turkeys for our dining pleasure along with her fabulous Corn and Cheddar Dressing. My dear wife contributed three classic family favorites – her own Fruit Salad, a classic Pea ‘n Cheddar Salad, and a Waldorf Salad with a twist. Along with hot breads, plenty of pies, and a few other traditional side dishes we enjoyed a feast fit for kings and queens!


      Now, we have leftovers. Enough for a few really tasty sandwiches of course, but what – Oh, What? will we do with all that leftover turkey? Well, my better half has a plan and it’s one I can really support in a big way because my mouth begins watering just thinking about the dish I know she will set before me – her famous Golden Turkey-Rice Soup!


      Gather round, chilluns – ‘cause here is the recipe.


      Bon appetit`!

Melinda’s Golden Turkey Rice Soup
(Melinda Cohenour – Thanksgiving 1998)

INGREDIENTS:

  • 4 cans fat-free chicken broth (in the event you do not have clarified turkey broth, a combination works)
  • 6 cups cooked, deboned, turkey (preferably majority white meat)
  • 1 bunch celery, finely diced, including leaves
  • 1 lb carrots, peeled and dimed
  • 2 bell peppers, diced
  • 2 cans cheddar cheese soup
  • 1 can cream of celery soup
  • Water
  • Milk
  • Italian seasoning, about 1 teaspoon or so
  • Poultry seasoning, about 1 tablespoon
  • Ground sage, about ½ to 1 teaspoon

INSTRUCTIONS:


   You will need a Large 8-quart stainless steel stewpot with lid.


   Dice cooked turkey in cubes of about 1 to 1 ½ “ square. Heat turkey broth (if you do not have reserved, clarified turkey broth, use canned chicken broth).


   Add vegetables to hot broth and cook until carrots appear to be tender, but not overcooked.


   When vegetables are cooked, add 3 cups rice (we prefer Mahatma long-grain, white rice) to hot broth, stir and permit to cook for about 10 minutes.


   Add turkey to vegetable-rice mixture, add water to almost the top of large pan. Permit to cook until turkey is heated through again and broth is reduced slightly. Add soups and stir thoroughly, permit to cook for about 10 minutes more. Add 1 quart of milk, turn off the heat, stir thoroughly. Permit to stand about 5 minutes before serving to permit flavors to blend.


      Serve with hot bread and salad of your choice. (Fruit salad is an excellent accompaniment.)


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Woo Woo


By Pauline Evanosky

Methods of Channeling

When I was learning how to channel, I found that I could make up rules. There was the expectation that my guide would talk to me in a language I could understand. That was a given. Why? I don’t know. They could just as easily have spoken to me in Persian or French. But it was English which is my native tongue and that is how we began.


In the beginning, when I first started channeling, I used a Ouija board. The Parker Brothers Company makes them. There are a lot of strong opinions about using Ouija boards. I didn’t care what anybody said about it and throwing caution to the wind was able to make my first legitimate connection to Spirit. At least it was a connection I could understand.


The board is arranged with two rows of letters of the alphabet curving across the board. There are some numbers below them and a Goodbye for good measure on the bottom. Also, very handy is a Yes in the upper left corner of the board with a corresponding No in the opposite upper right-hand corner.


What happened to me in that 2-week window between making contact with Spirit on the Ouija Board and beginning to hear Spirit telephonically was that the planchette moved faster and faster to each letter spelling out the next word. My guide Seth used the blank place on the board under the arching letters to move the planchette and dance for a couple of seconds between words. That was really helpful for me. It was especially funny when he would dance with a smile there. At least, I thought it was cool.


As the days wore on and the planchette began to move faster it began to zip right off the edge of the board. It was irritating because I’d have to pick it back up again, put it back on the board, and try to settle again into the groove of channeling. It wasn’t that long before I had the idea to use something else instead of the planchette which got misplaced one day. I chose a pretty stone to move around on the board. That wasn’t perfect because it didn’t have a pointed corner on it. But I made do.


It was then that it occurred to me that I could just use my finger. I figured Spirit was not moving the planchette at all because when I took my hand off of it, it stopped moving. Spirit was moving my arm, my hand, and my finger. Why then didn’t I just use my finger? If I kept it pointed, then I could tell which letter my guide was pointing at.


However, it occurred to me, and this is where the whole thing gets a little spooky, what if I had a knife in my hand? What if Spirit decided to murder somebody? Holy cow! This was upsetting. I took a deep breath and settled down.


I realized nothing of the sort was going to happen. It just would not happen. That was Hollywood. That was where scary movies came from. That was imagination running amok.


So, here’s where I started making “rules”. I thought about where the Yes and the No were on the board. I thought: What if my index finger was always YES and my pinkie finger was always NO? What if it didn’t matter which hand I was using? I asked Seth to make my finger bounce. He did. Woah Nellie! I asked him to make my pinkie bounce up and down. It worked.


Holy Moly. I was on to something.


I remember the moment I thought I was going nuts. It was when I could no longer follow the individual letters being pointed out on the board. Even before Seth was done spelling a word out, I knew what it was going to be. Even before he’d gotten to the end of the sentence, I knew what he was going to say. I panicked. I knew in my heart I’d gone certifiably nuts. I remember thinking, “This is what it feels like to be crazy.” And that was the first time I ever heard him with my ears.


He said, “Go outside. I have something important to say to you.” I heard those words. I still remember what he said. Exactly as he said it.


I went outside. Dennis was right next to me in the kitchen. I was sitting in the dining room where we had set up our computer. The television was on. There was just a lot of activity and noise where I was in the house.


The front door was right there. I stepped out onto the patio. That was when Seth said to me, “You can hear me now.”


I began channeling on 2/12/1993 with the Ouija Board. It was about a week and a half later, about 10 days when I made that transition from letters being spelled out and being able to actually hear the voice of Spirit. It wasn’t for another 5 years or so that I finally realized it must have been on 2/22/1993 that I began channeling telepathically. That was the 222 I’d been seeing so often for years. Finally, it meant something. And, that something would change the trajectory of my life.


It took me a few weeks before I became comfortable with hearing the voice of Spirit. In fact, the first couple of days it was an audible voice where I could have sworn somebody was standing behind me or to my side talking. Seth’s voice also would come to me in a stutter. It was almost like I would be sticking my fingers in and out of my ears so that I’d only catch part of what was being said. And it was in that period of transition that I still relied on the Ouija Board. However, that was awkward as anything. That board is big and doesn’t fold up. Also, it looks crazy to haul something like that out in the middle of the grocery store to continue talking to your guide. If you want to look crazy that would do the trick. I did try lettering out a board on a piece of paper that I could roll up and put in my purse, but, still, it was awkward and just didn’t look right.


The next rule became something I call “Talking Fingers”. Using my index finger as the yes and my pinkie finger as no I was able to make sense of what Seth was saying. Here’s me saying silently: “Did you say preside?” No. “Was it decide?” Yes.


But, in the time between me being able to hear my guide’s voice audibly and what eventually moved to telepathy, there was this oddball stage where the voice of Spirit had an echo. There were also times when it seemed like many voices overlapping. I-I-I-I sai-sai-said that-that-that it-it-it-it is-is-is-is-is all-all-all-all ri-right-right. It also felt like I kept putting my fingers in my ears over and over again and I would only get the words spoken when my fingers were out of my ears. A totally useless way to communicate. Nobody told me it was going to get better and would last no longer than two weeks. In the meantime, I needed a better system.


I was flabbergasted. I was shocked. My word!


I call it talking fingers.


I still use it 30 years later. And I can use both hands! The index finger of either hand is always yes and the pinkie finger is always no. I suppose if your feet are supple enough you could use your toes, but mine don’t work very well. Also, I suppose you’d have to be barefoot most of the time.


So, when I got a garbled message from Spirit I would ask for clarification. Easier if the answer could be yes or no and I engineered those queries as much as possible to be answerable with yes or no. Like AAAAcatcatcacacacatcancancannotcannothavehahahavedinnerdinndinndinnernownownow. Me: “Did you say “A cat can have dinner now?” NO. What other answer is it? Me: “Did you say A cat cannot have dinner now?” YES. This did not actually happen, but you get my drift.


The rationale I used for talking with my fingers was that my hand moved across the Ouija Board. Who was it controlling my hand? Must have been my guide. Thus, right pointing finger bobs up and down for yes and right pinkie finger bobs up and down for no.


That was the rule.


It was what was to be a short-term solution because after about 2 weeks of that my focus and understanding got better. The thoughts I got from Spirit got faster so that sometimes there was no speaking involved it was just a knowingness.



In the years since I have found uses for talking in fingers, especially in crowded situations. I have never quite gotten to the point where I can walk and chew gum as a medium. It’s sort of like I’m either all the way in or all the way out. So, I use a combination of techniques to channel. It is a hoot to talk to your guide while you are shopping. For practice, in the beginning, and even now when it is just fun I ask my guide to pick out the best fruit or vegetable. As I stick my arm out over the potatoes it starts bouncing around gently. Sort of spooky. My hand hovers over the spuds and with a flourish, it descends upon the one we want. Hey, it’s fun. Also, I’m not very good at picking out potatoes that don’t have black spots from digging them out of the ground. Having Spirit help is convenient.


The other place where talking with fingers is good is where I can’t really quiet down and zip in to talk to Spirit. Imagine this, a lady in Sears in the clothing department who suddenly seems to go to sleep next to the dresses. Wouldn’t you give her a wide berth? I put my hand up near my throat and as I’m looking through the clothes and wait for my fingers to dance.


My favorite of all methods is to channel at the computer. Spirit will either slow down or speed up to suit the recording method. The fastest of all would be audio but I’ve never really gotten the hang of doing that well. But, to get to the computer method of channeling I began with a pen and paper. Which has its upsides and downsides. The upside is to see how your handwriting changes. It is really wonky at times. Big handwriting. Aimless shapes. Big circles. Prepare to go through quite a bit of paper. But, once you get the shapes and wonky letters out of the way and you just clip right along it’s nice. However, my hand would get tired which is why I eventually switched to the computer. Which is a sort of funny story in itself.


My hand was tired and I was taking more and more breaks with the handwritten channeling. It occurred to me that it would be faster if we were to sit at the computer. I asked Seth, “What do you think?” He indicated yes. I said, “Do you know how to type?” So, there I go like a dummy giving Seth typing lessons. In retrospect he sure had me going, but I taught my guide how to type. I think it was the first time I saw the humorous side of my guide. You do not need to teach your guide to type. They already know how.



Editing written channeling is interesting too. I can remember as I edit, looking for misspellings and such, that the guides would jump in and start channeling again. I asked what was going on and it was like I only had so much channeling energy in me and they would say one sentence in the first draft which in the edit would expand. Which is okay with me, as I write that way too. But I remember thinking I hadn’t done something right the first time around. They assured me I was okay.


They will adjust how they channel with each individual. And where there is one way to say it there are three others that would work just as well.


Everybody channels, in my opinion. All the time. All our lives. It’s just that so many of us don’t realize what is going on. What else can we compare our own experiences to? I realized this when I first began to channel. I realized then that I’d been doing it to a lesser degree for a very long time without realizing that I was channeling.


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Introspective

 

By Thomas F. O'Neill

I love to teach my students about the thanksgiving season in America. The world can learn a great deal about the value of being thankful for what we have in life and the special people in our lives.


I conduct a lesson every school year about the history of thanksgiving and its meaning and importance for us Americans. I like to explain to my students that being thankful is a powerful affirmation; it brings more of what we want into our life. When we are grateful for the things we have, we will attract more goodness into our lives and those around us.


I have plenty to be thankful for because, throughout my life, people have gone out of their way to be kind to me, and the Chinese here are no exception. In class, I once told my students that when you care for others, you are cared for, and when you love others, you are loved. This special season should reveal our love for one another through kindness because loving kindness gives this special season its true meaning.


The yuletide season also brings out the spiritual warrior within us; it can act like a mirror, reflecting the truth that the real battle invariably lies with ourselves. But it’s also a time to remain mindful and concentrate on the right actions and correct conduct.


This time of year can stream forth a period of transition toward personal growth, heralding new beginnings and new chapters in our lives. Take the time to look at how your entire life has brought you to where you are now. It is no accident that everything you need to move forward and grow is at your disposal – regardless of your current situation – all you have to do is look deep inside yourself. Find your inner light and reveal it to those around you; in doing so, the world around you will reveal its goodness and become much brighter because we all have the capacity to make the world a little more joyful.

    Always with love from Suzhou, China
    Thomas F O’Neill
    Email: introspective7@hotmail.com
    WeChat: Thomas_F_ONeill
    U.S. Voice mail: (800) 272-6464
    China Mobile 011 (86) 13405757231
    Skype: thomas_f_oneill
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