SEPTEMBER 8, 2026: “The Legacy Tour!” …
Tag: legacy
JULY 6, 2026: “In The Eye Of A LEGACY!”
I must admit, it took me some time to find the right words to honor this post by the man today. After quite a bit of processing, however, here’s what I’ve come up with …
Of all the words he’s ever said, sung, or written, for me these may be the most powerful yet. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: he’s a tuning fork of cosmic alchemy, being used by The Powers That Be to crack open the hearts of anyone in his atmosphere—whether we’re watching him rip his soul open onstage and spill it onto the floor, or simply listening to the songs that have helped so many of us find the broken pieces of ourselves scattered across our own floors. He’s not just leaving a legacy … he’s helping so many of us find the words, energy, and courage to write our own.
Yah. It’s like THAT! There are no words big enough to describe how deeply I love this man for who he is. Ivan, I’ll be eternally grateful for everything you’ve done for not just me, but for the entirety of your faithful and beloved Death Punch family.
Oh, and one last thing …
To my kids, their kids, and hopefully even their kids one day: PLEASE listen to everything he’s saying here. Then turn those sentiments back toward your own hearts and hear them as my words to all of you. I love you! ~ Momma
NOVEMBER 24, 2025: “The sPEACH Heard ‘Round The Hill!” …
My beloved Grandpa Ernie, who shared this birthday with Judge Caprio, grew up on “The Hill” as well. My father and his three brothers were students at the high school where Judge Caprio taught during the day before driving to Boston for law school at night. Since my father was Class of ’65, they’d likely have walked those same corridors together. For all I know, Judge Caprio may even have taught my father.
For the record, I’ll never see a can of peaches the same way again. In fact, I’ll be buying a can at the market this week and putting it in my kitchen to honor Judge Caprio and this epic, if not saintlike, sPEACH! “Frankly”? The man should be canonized. Meanwhile, I once saw a powerful tribute to another of humanity’s treasures, Keanu Reeves. You’ll find those words in the slideshow below.
Few are the people whose character is worthy of such impeccable words. Judge Caprio, however, was one of them (as was my Grandpa). If you don’t already know who this enigmatic bastion of kindness and treasure to humanity was, it’s not too late to get to know him now. His life-changing nuggets of wisdom will honor not just his forefathers but mine and so many others’ as well throughout the ages! I’d also like to think that I’m honoring MY forefathers and following in their footsteps by showing kindness and compassion to as many people as I can, up to and including strangers, and that I’ve raised two kids who do the same. Happy Heavenly Birthday, Judge Caprio and Grampy!
SEPTEMBER 10, 2025: “The Legacy Of The Lion” …
“NO man is hated more than he who speaks the truth.”
~ Attributed to Plato ~
“The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins.”
~ Søren Kierkegaard ~
“Give me liberty, or give me death!”
~ Patrick Henry ~
My heart is literally shattered today, not just for Charlie Kirk’s family, but for our country. This is NOT “what America means to me”! Even so, I find no irony in the fact that his assassination will most assuredly be another call to arms and “Turning Point” for our very sick and broken country, not unlike the FIRST shot heard ’round the world on April 19, 1775.
On the other hand, I’m gleefully aware of the hardcore FACT that although they tried to silence him, what happened today will, indeed, carry his voice and wisdom through the ages. My grandkids and their grandkids and maybe even their grandkids will know who he was, what he said, and what he stood for. Lol. Imagine being so abysmally uneducated, illiterate, and completely void of any ability to “speak your truth” intelligently, face to face, mouth to mouth, and without the use of violence, gunfire, or your own personal guerrilla warfare tactics? So, good job to the actual idiot savant who assassinated him today. Guess what, moron? In your attempt to silence a movement of truth, Light, and factual objectivity as regards the whole of humanity, you ended up lighting the fuse of a never-ending, ever-burning cord!
Rest in peace, Mr. Kirk. You lived your life as a true Lion and fierce leader of your pride of patriots and Christians alike with courage, compassion, honesty, loyalty, and conviction for this land you loved so very much. Your legacy will live on throughout our American history as one of the brightest, most faithful, and heroic beacons on our often dark and sordid pages. Well done, my friend. Well done.
AUGUST 5, 2024: “Dead Flowers” …
“Dead flowers for the torn apart, laid at the grave to heal a broken heart. Let it rain until it floods … let The Sun breathe life once more reborn. Wish you the same … to walk beside and carry on this flame. To see you again with a radiance of pure and holy name. When the sorrow, it breaks them … I will replace them for you.”
(Demon Hunter)
… and when you walk out your door today, remember to make sure you spend everything in your soul with the utmost of care and leave all the people, places, animals, and things in your path better than you found them. Leave a legacy of SPARKLE AND SHINE wherever you may roam and don’t be the reason people end up in therapy after you kick it! Oh, and ALSO? Have a REALLY good day!
Love, Love, LOVE!
Sparkle, Sparkle, SHINE!
#MementoMori
APRIL 30, 2024: “Virtual Love Letters” …
Nine years ago today, the Dallas County Bureau of Vital Records finally issued my husband’s court-ordered delayed certificate of birth because his “parents” couldn’t be bothered to memorialize his birthday legally:
In case you didn’t know by now, my husband’s childhood was less than optimal. His mother all but threw him away beginning the day he was born, then left him for good 18 months later, because, I suppose, he wasn’t as “stellar” as his older three siblings who were good enough for her to stick around for. It was only ever him she didn’t want, and trust me when I tell you, it’s been a sobering reality for him to wake up to every day. Keep in mind also that almost from the onset of meeting him, and especially once we got married, I’d been asking (if not begging) for the “family” he was left with after “the thing that gave birth to him” kicked him to the curb to please find some pictures of him as a child. Even one. JUST ONE? Does anyone have even ONE picture of this man from his childhood? But I’ve digressed.
{“10-5-82“}
With that in mind, here are a few things for all you parents out there to think about, and even all you hands-on aunts, uncles, and primary caregivers. Remember, it’s not just those of us who have procreated who can have seriously positive and life-changing impacts on the little people standing in our halo (or toxic and malignant ones).
Are you painting your self-portrait small with just a tiny “here and now” brush, or are you creating an EPIC masterpiece with MUCH broader strokes that even your grandkids’ grandkids will treasure? Are you living out loud with power, grace, passion, and purpose? Your children and THEIR children will reap EXACTLY what you sow, so, SHOW THEM everything you TELL THEM! And (ps), don’t forget to keep a journal or keepsake memorializing all the memories and highlights so you don’t leave your “here and now” as a mystery or a subject for debate. Leave your fingerprints on everything (but hopefully not bloody ones like the ones my husband’s “parents” left all over him and my “father” is leaving all over us.
But more so than anything …
Be honest with your kids. Talk to them. Spend time with them. Share what’s in your heart, what you stand for, and what you believe in (but don’t shove it down their throats). Let them know it’s okay, if not encouraged, to take a different path than you. Let them know that you DON’T want them to be your “mini-me”, but rather, “the first of THEM“.
In the meantime …
To My Kids:
Please know how hard I’m really trying to change the crooked trajectory of this family tree. Yes, I very much do want you to find new and different paths of your own and not be “mini-mes”. I want you to be the first and the last of both of you and brave enough to CHOOSE happiness. More so than anything, I hope someday when the time has come, you’ll listen to this song and think of me, but know also that when I hear it now, I think of both of you. You’re not just my legacy … you’re the LIVING love letters I never want to stop reading while I’m still here with you. Remember that …
LEGACY
Won’t you walk with me ’til both of our feet bleed? Won’t you walk with me through the blindness we can see? If I set you free, will you promise me I will see you again? I will walk with you ’til both of our feet bleed. ‘Cause we are one … we run free … I am you and you are me. You sacrificed everything. I am and will always be your legacy. I will dance with you ’til the shadows slip away. I will lay my hands on you to ease your pain. I will sing to you, I will guide you for everything. Won’t you dance with me till the shadows slip away? We are one … we run free … I am you and you are me. You sacrificed everything. I am and will always be your legacy. I promise I will see you again. I will find you on the other side. {In This Moment}
SEPTEMBER 27, 2023: “Remember.” …
Let every man remind their descendants that they also are soldiers who must not desert the ranks of their ancestors, or from cowardice fall behind.
~ Plato
SOLITARY.
It can be a confinement …
… or it can be AN ENLIGHTENMENT!
Today is a very special day:
“Ancestor Appreciation Day“
Did you know that a family tree starts with two parental branches, then doubles the number of ancestral positions with each generation? Five generations back, that gives you 32 places for great-great-great-grandparents. Some ancestors may appear in more than one branch, so those places don’t always represent 32 different people. Those are your “people”! The strangers in very strange and likely hostile and lonely lands who started the story of YOU! Every single one of them is watching over, praying for, and propelling you forward through the often hostile and lonely lands you travel and catching you when you fall.
Call them your angels. Call them your ghosts. Call them whatever in or OUT of this world you want, but never forget that they were – NO – they ARE a very real part of your heart, soul, psyche, DNA, and exactly who, why, and where you were meant to be: “HERE”! You’re here for a reason, and no, you are never alone no matter how alone you are. You have a tribe. You have some people. Just because you can’t see them, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Look into the mirror, my friend. You are them. They are you. REPRESENT and REIGN PROUDLY in their honor! After everything they went through to make YOU happen, don’t they deserve the very best version of you?
Long live the ancient kings, queens, survivors, and conquerors of your past, and long live YOU. Don’t you DARE forget who you are, the ashes you’ve risen from, and that someday YOU’LL be an ancestor, too. Live with intention … speak impeccably … and “REMEMBER” to make every footstep count. YOUR people’s survival is depending on you!
SEPTEMBER 2, 2023: “Dear John” …
Try as I may to express my affection for Keanu Reeves, I’ve yet to find the perfect words. So, in celebration of his birthday today, I honor, celebrate, and finally give proper credence to the “Wicken” of it all in my life with these excerpts from a brilliant fellow Quoran. His words say everything I’ve been trying to say:
“I know that the ones who love us will miss us.”
This is what Keanu said when Stephen Colbert asked him what happens to us when we die.
He understands misery unlike anybody else in Hollywood. His dad left when he was 3. He struggled with dyslexia, attending 4 different high schools before dropping out. His best friend died of a drug overdose at 23. His girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, had a stillbirth 8 months into pregnancy. She later died in a car accident not too long after. Even with his hardships, he hasn’t let his success get to his head.
[…] When his flight had an emergency landing en route to Los Angeles in Bakersfield, he not only opted to rent a large vehicle and drive the rest of the way, but he took a good number of people on the flight with him.
He’s known for paying attention to detail: There is a story about him on Twitter where he bought an ice cream just to get the receipt paper so he could autograph it for a fan. He later tossed that ice cream away.
He is one of the few actors who gets to know everybody working on the set of his projects. Several accounts of him genuinely asking people about their day and well-being.
He treats everybody with the same amount of kindness. Someone on Reddit recalled a friend who was stranded on the highway outside of Los Angeles. Keanu Reeves pulled up, tried to jump the car to no success, and then drove her 50 miles out of the way to get her home. Not only that, he gave her his number to call in case she needed help with anything.
[…] There is another story of him giving every member of his stunt team for The Matrix a Harley Davidson.
Keanu just loves.
HE IS LOVE INCARNATE.
There is no additional component to his character. He’s stayed the same human throughout the worst and the best in his life. He’s pure … and people see that.
(Anthony Andranik Moumjian on Quora — excerpted; omissions marked. Punctuation and spacing lightly edited.)
“I know that the ones who love us will miss us.”
This is what Keanu said when Stephen Colbert asked him what happens to us when we die.
He understands misery unlike anybody else in Hollywood. His dad left when he was 3. He struggled with dyslexia, attending 4 different high schools before dropping out. His best friend died of a drug overdose at 23. His girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, had a stillbirth 8 months into pregnancy. She later died in a car accident not too long after. Even with his hardships, he hasn’t let his success get to his head.
[…] When his flight had an emergency landing en route to Los Angeles in Bakersfield, he not only opted to rent a large vehicle and drive the rest of the way, but he took a good number of people on the flight with him.
He’s known for paying attention to detail: There is a story about him on Twitter where he bought an ice cream just to get the receipt paper so he could autograph it for a fan. He later tossed that ice cream away.
He is one of the few actors who gets to know everybody working on the set of his projects. Several accounts of him genuinely asking people about their day and well-being.
He treats everybody with the same amount of kindness. Someone on Reddit recalled a friend who was stranded on the highway outside of Los Angeles. Keanu Reeves pulled up, tried to jump the car to no success, and then drove her 50 miles out of the way to get her home. Not only that, he gave her his number to call in case she needed help with anything.
[…] There is another story of him giving every member of his stunt team for The Matrix a Harley Davidson.
Keanu just loves.
HE IS LOVE INCARNATE.
There is no additional component to his character. He’s stayed the same human throughout the worst and the best in his life. He’s pure … and people see that.
(Anthony Andranik Moumjian on Quora — excerpted; omissions marked. Punctuation and spacing lightly edited.)
Quite frankly, I can think of no finer words to describe the “love incarnate” this living angel on Earth embodies. And if I could choose just four simple words for the legacy I’m working tirelessly to leave behind—for “mine” and for anyone whose path I cross, if only for a minute—they would echo the words just used to describe Keanu:
She was love incarnate.
Happy Birthday, Dear John! I SEE YOU! May your masterpiece of love continue growing forward, outward, and upward for as long as humanity is blessed by your epic life of use to others on this Earth. You are loved, and I’m so proud to be a practicing “Wicken.”
FEBRUARY 23, 2023: “Look For The Helpers!” …
Twenty years ago this month, humanity lost a treasure the likes of which it has rarely known: Mister Rogers. Much like Keanu Reeves—one of his modern-day brethren whose halo still graces our atmosphere—Fred Rogers was “love incarnate,” and there truly was no additional component to his character. To borrow and adapt the words of Anthony Andranik Moumjian’s tribute to Keanu:
“He stayed the same human throughout the worst and the best in his life. He was pure … and people saw that.”
Perhaps my favorite part of watching Mister Rogers was the way he’d meet me at my level, remind me that I mattered, and offer words like these …
“I like you just the way you are.”
“It’s you I like.”
“You’ve made this day a special day, by just your being YOU!”
“Look for the helpers!”
Indeed, an entire generation of us was fortunate enough to grow up with impeccable words like these planted deep within our psyches—the tentpoles of our understanding of kindness, caring, empathy, patience, and compassion. He was so much more than the PBS TV host in his mother’s beloved hand-knit sweaters, the man so many of us watched while our mothers were in the kitchen keeping the home fires burning. He was a living transmission of love, showing us what humanity at its utmost and highest could look like. That imprint remains across our hearts—a reminder many of us still call upon and at least try to carry forward as adults.
NOVEMBER 24, 2022: “With Love, From The Cave!” …
When I saw this Heraclitus quote recently, one of my all-time favorite songs by one of my all-time favorite bands immediately came to mind, so I thought I’d pair them together in honor of the 36th anniversary of its release this week:
“Stranger in a Strange Land“
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the course of my bittersweet and beautiful lifetime, it’s that the only thing that never changes is the fact that everything changes. Yet, the mere contradiction in the constant “inconsistency” of our existence is something we can all be thankful for. Do me a favor and close your eyes for three seconds, then open them:
ONE one hundred …
… TWO one hundred …
… THREE one hundred!
Well? Did you do it? GOOD! Do you realize that literally everything about not just your life, but the world as we know it kept changing. While you were busy counting, and even if nothing about you or your surroundings seems different, CHANGE HAPPENED! Meanwhile, the wisest amongst us know that the ability to adapt to constant change is the one true key to survival. Just think about your ancestors, God rest their souls:
One hundred years have gone and men again they came that way to find the answer to the mystery. They found his body lying where it fell on that day, preserved in time for all to see. What became of the man that started? All are gone and their souls departed. Left me here in this place so all alone.
{“Stranger in a Strange Land“}
As overwhelming as this whole “living” gig can seem, and especially given that sometimes it really can feel as though you’re walking solo through a frozen tundra – NO! You are never all alone! JUST LOOK INSIDE A MIRROR! You are them! They are you! You’re the living embodiment of the quarters they kept and all of the changes they had to weather so that you could be standing upright in this brave new world. They’re beside you and behind you every step of the way, whispering:
Hey, you got this! You’re one of ours and we’ve already carved your path.
Likewise, never forget that you, too, will be the zephyr in someone’s sky. So, be mindful of those footsteps you’ll be leaving behind and whether you’re succumbing to or overcoming the ever-present changes in humanity.
Look, I’m no scientist and certainly no expert on the power of our DNA, but I do know that somewhere in the history of mankind was the very first of “me and mine” and “you and yours”. I’m a woman who stands firmly and proudly upon the mountain of untold trials, errors, lessons, and survival of the countless people who came before me. I’m the living, breathing warrior QUEEN they produced. Is there really “true royalty” in my bloodline? Who knows? WHO CARES? As far as I’m concerned, it’s not a piece of paper or public opinion that made me who I am today … it’s all those beloved “cave-people” of mine who set me up for success, NOT FAILURE, so imma make sure that I represent them well and make sure that none of their sacrifices, or the wisdom that’s hard-wired in me, has been in vain.
For the record, although on the surface, the song seems dark and sad, for me, it became the road map to the flip side of its lyrics:
But now it seems to me that NOTHING’S lost and ALL is gained. Sometimes things ARE what they seem. They heard me calling, rescued me, and set me free in this place, but NEVER lost and alone.
I’ll wrap this up now with one of my favorite quotes by Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, the beloved Aboriginal activist, faithful Christian, and artist:
When we heal ourselves, we heal our ancestors from wounds that run deep in our family. When we heal our ancestors, we heal the world from wounds that run deep in humanity.
Carry on, now, all you cavepeople, and have a HAPPY and THANKFUL Thanksgiving!
NOVEMBER 26, 2021: “The Zephyr In Their Sky!” …
Although I’ve had the awful displeasure of watching a handful of the human souls I’ve been the most connected to dying right before my eyes, not the least of which was my daughter, perhaps the saddest and most painful moment of my life was the day my two surviving children had to watch their own mother having an actual nervous breakdown and being hauled off to a psych ward over a thousand miles from home:
They literally had to peel my son from my body so that I could get into the car. He, too, was sobbing, and I’d never seen him cry so much or so hard. And Gia? She looked so lost, like a little puppy that just wanted someone to pick her up and hold her.
Even now, as resilient as I’ve truly become, when I flash back to “the day on the driveway” and remember everything they had to see, it breaks my heart all over again knowing how their hearts got broken going through that kind of trauma. No child should ever have to witness such a thing!
Regardless of how dismal so many moments in our lives have been, I wouldn’t change a single step of this dance we’ve been sashaying through. Through it all, I can only hope that they’ll have learned that the pain has been a gift, death is nothing at all, and that win, lose, or draw, they’re gonna be okay because they had ME for a mother! I’m an epic masterpiece of magnanimous proportion, and after I’ve made it to The Brighter Side Of Grey, both they and their kids are gonna look back at this painting I’ve been faithfully working on and say:
DAMN! She was OUR mom! She was nothing short of magic, because despite her many circumstances, she rose up like a phoenix to spread her light, love, truths, and the warmth from the fire in her soul.
Then, I’ll be that soft breeze that brushes their cheeks and whispers hope into their ears, and every ray of light that sparkles in their eyes as they bask in the legacy I’m working on. I’ll be their Crazy Grandma Cat whose higher purpose was to change everything for our tree. Oh, don’t you worry, folks. Despite the seemingly macabre tone of this entry, I’m not planning to go anywhere soon. Although it is true that I’m fully prepared for what I know is coming next, I’m in love with my existence in this space and still have much to do. I’m just thinking out loud right now, because this song I’ve loved since I was not quite 30 years old found its way into the queue on my stereo this morning. Back then, it was just a song to me with a vibrant mood, and never in a million years would I have thought that I’d be the ray of light in those words. Well, here I am lighting it all up from my very own little piece of Heaven from here until eternity. I am SUCH a lucky woman, and I cannot say it enough. I am power, grace, and a divinely appointed apostrophe punctuating people’s lives with my glow. I will never be ashamed of all the pain that I have carried — it’s what forged me into the steel fortress that I am.
RAY OF LIGHT
Zephyr in the sky at night – I wonder – do my tears of mourning sink beneath the Sun? She’s got herself a universe gone quickly. For the call of thunder threatens everyone. And I feel like I just got home. And I feel. And I feel like I just got home. And I feel. Faster than the speed of light – she’s flying – trying to remember where it all began. She’s got herself a little piece of Heaven, waiting for the time when Earth shall be as one. And I feel like I just got home. And I feel. And I feel like I just got home. And I feel. Quicker than a ray of light. Quicker than a ray of light. Quicker than a ray of light – then gone – for Someone else will be there. {Madonna}
