To my readers some childhood memories

Favorite books my whole life:
  Peter Pan by James M. Barrie
  The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen
  Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  Nancy Drew Series by Carolyn Keene
  Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
  Father Thrift and His Amimal Friends by Joseph C. Sindelar
  The Bible, New American Standard

As an adult I added:
  Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  Christy by Catherine Marshall


As a kid I lived in an home built in the 1800's that had been used by the Wells Fargo Company.  We lived on 33 acres of land that had two ponds, some woods and old farm land.  I would go down to the area where my father had pushed the top soil into piles to sell to builders of new houses.  There was dried dirt, mud, and patterns.  In my head, I made this my Neverland.  Every time I visited this place, I would image Neverland stories with the Lost Boys and Captain Hook and the Mermaids that lived in the lagoon. This was one of my most memorable times.

In the summer, my father and I traveled throughout New York State in an old Jeep Scout that he called "Jenny".  He would take off both doors and the hood.  He would then secure the windshield down on the hood. We  traveled where ever my father thought he would find a deal.  It was so much fun! When we got home he fixed the purchase, painted it, and sold it for twice the price he bought it for.
We explored every tractor or farm equipment sale, garage sales, rummage sales - what ever we could find.

First day at school for many that live in my area of the country.  It was fun to watch the faces of all the kids as they walked to the bus stop.  Some where exited and wearing new clothes or shoes.  Some looked sad that their summer freedom has come to an end.  I pray for all those students and for their teachers.  I pray that their teachers learn how to inspire, to interest, to motivate, and to teach each individual they find in their class room this school year.

I am going over the "author's bio" for the book series.  It is very strange to write about oneself and I find I am writing just as much about my parents.

FYI: This is one of the sources of information that I used on Kermode bears.

The Kermode bear, also known as a "spirit bear", is a subspecies of the American Black Bear living in the central and north coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is noted for about 1/10 of their population having white or cream-colored coats. This color morph is due to recessive alleles common in the population. They are not albinos and not any more related to polar bears or the "blonde" brown bears of Alaska's "ABC Islands" than other members of their species.
The National Geographic estimates the spirit bear population at 400–1,000 individuals, saying that "the spirit bear may owe its survival to the protective traditions of the First Nations, who never hunted the animals or spoke of them to fur trappers".

 

• Wikipedia

Never let your imagination rule your life, yet never let your imagination leave your life.

Never let hope obscure reality, yet always let hope guide your heart and soul.

Never let fear keep you from doing what you were meant to do for God, no matter how hard, yet never let fear keep you from doing stupid, foolish, dangerous things.

Water is our friend, we cannot survive without it and it is fun, yet water can destroy us by drowning, freezing in ice, or washed violently by a wild wave.

Don't forget to have fun in life and bring joy to others.  This does not mean to be reckless or break a law, but to laugh, to cry, to believe in the God who is bigger than ourselves, to live for something larger than ourselves.

And never give up an opportunity to play, as long as your work is done.

Play, keeps us healthy, alive, vibrate, and interesting to be with. The joy of playing with your kids, no matter what their age, is stimulating, relaxing, informative, and necessary to a good relationship.

We think we are wise and can solve our problems, but we forget our problems maybe learning experiences; we forget out life is not finished when breath leaves our body.  That is when life begins.
 

To my readers:

Once Upon a Time you had an idea!

Just think of what to day dream about.  You could be the obvious, a pirate, a fireman, an actress, or a politician.  What else could you be?  I use to think that I was a cowboy rounding up the cattle and sitting by the fire.  Or I could be a detective who found hidden staircases in old houses, Or I could be a treasure hunter of the old days, dropping a treasure in an abandoned well for safe keeping.  My spot would not be marked with an "X" but maybe a "B".  What do you think the "B" would mean?  If you walk in a forest all by yourself, the trees can whisper secrets to you of those that had walked this path before.  The trees are very old, so they must know so many stories that happened under their branches as the years went by.  But, you could travel to the open seas.  There you could find sea monsters, sailors, and sand dooms that come up right where there should be no land to touch. Yet, just yonder in the horizon there is a crevice in the ocean floor that no man has ever been able to go into. Could missing ships of the past that can't be found, be lodged in the ledges of this deep abyss?  Or maybe and an underground city that was covered with the water as the layers of earth shifted and the water went wild across the expanse of the ocean.  Don't forget the mountains, and rain forests, and deserts, and wild rivers with rapids and falls, and Arctic lands.  All have their stories to be told. What a great dream to fall asleep to, thinking of all the possibilities of the past and future.  What part are you going to play in these adventures?