Things that make me smile.......

A blank journal page, soon filled with thoughts, worries, wishes and dreams.

Photographs of my Grandmother around the same age I am now.  She is beautiful and I see so much of myself in her, in her style,in her persona, and in her lips.  We have the same exact mouth, its so funny, it makes me smile wide.

 This is the manuscript to a book called "Write to Live", an anthology of Poems and Essays written by Students at Leadership Preparatory High School in Oakland California.  A poverty, crime stricken, gang populated city.  Thanks to my Aunt Barbara, and Barnes & Nobles, who is publishing this book, I have the honor of editing this awe-inspiring collection of young talent and raw experiences.  I can't even begin to tell you what this journey has done for me in the mere time that I have been editing. What they have been through, and the artistic way of how they express it is more then motivating. Students that I have never met, their work, their strength has sparked something inside of myself. I guess it's a fire of motivation.  I am so grateful that this opportunity has been brought to me, and so proud to be apart of something so moving and liberating. Everything happens for a reason, and this was brought to me for a reason, and a damn good one.  I owe each of these students a thank you.