10 July 2007

If my Mosaic Peoples of the World network, born in October 2003, sounds like something that might interest you, I hope you'll join us. We'd love to have you there!

I confess. Talking about me is not a favorite way to while away the minutes and hours. I'm a writer. I like to write about others--what inspires them, what excites them, what makes them successful or inspirational. I believe every person has a story.

A little explanation about the center shot of the three photos you see of me: On 14 November 1989, when I was pregnant with my youngest son, I was suddenly struck with a very rare form of Bell's Palsy. It was rare because my oldest brother had had it some years before, and the neurologist told me this affliction doesn't usually strike two siblings of opposite genders. Because I was pregnant, the doctors couldn't treat the paralysis that struck.

For three weeks, the right side of my face had lost all muscle tone, and I was unable to drink without spilling. And when I allowed emotion to overcome me--tears, anger, any form of excess emotion--my tongue swelled, and I was unable to speak as coherently as I had before.

At the end of the three-week period, the doctor told me I had recovered 85% of the muscle tone, but that I shouldn't expect better than that. For all purposes, the paralysis had run its course, and I could be pleased that "only" 15% had remained.

Fourteen years passed. On 21 December 2003, I looked in the mirror and began to wonder whether I had finally become so used to the paralysis, that having a photo taken at someone's request no longer seemed as daunting. Maybe I had gotten used to the deformity after all these years, I'd thought.

But when my daughter-in-law stopped by the next evening and exclaimed, "It's gone!" and the following day, another person told me I looked fantastic, I knew the face staring back at me in the mirror hadn't lied.

To me, having the paralysis gone after 14 years was nothing short of a miracle. I think you'll agree.

And now you know why it took me so long to have an updated picture on this page. For those of you who are wondering, Buddy is that white ball of fur overpowering me. He shared our living quarters with his sister, Holly, a white Manx, and Bullet, our Australian blue heeler/Shar Pei/Llasa Apso who looks like Tramp; my two youngest sons, and me. Buddy died on 29 March 2005, while I was hospitalized for major surgery. Holly is much smaller than Buddy was, and she was born without a tail. She looks like a fluffy white rabbit with cat's ears.

Do you have a story? I'd love to hear it.

I'm also an astrologer, and even there, I'd rather talk about you and perhaps your chart, as I do with many of my clients. I like to get involved in a variety of projects, and I'm often doing just that. As for me, I also have Michelle's Multicultural World, where you can find excerpts from my book and where I plan to share more of my private side.

A brief synopsis of things I've done--or events in my life that have made a critical difference in who I am today:

I was born and raised in a theatrical and multicultural family. Multiculturalism is a major focus in my life, although the seeds of recognizing that were planted when I, at 16, lived with the Oglala Sioux Indians in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. My first book, co-authored, and probably the most easily accessible now through my publisher, Caddo Gap Press--Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow: Meeting the Challenge of Our Multicultural America & Beyond--won two state awards and one national award as well as a nomination for the National Association for Multicultural Education Book of the Year award. (I've recently learned Amazon.com also has the book available as well.) My work with multicultural education has earned me the honors of being the only commercial, non-PhD writer on the editorial board of an educational journal. In addition, I've worked online in a seminar called a Zemi, as a kind of co-teacher with Iwao Shinjo of Japan and his university students, teaching the students English and multicultural education.

My work has been eclectic. Published in Time, Seventeen, Phoenix, Hispanic, Police, Tennis and over 125 others, I was also a cover features writer and monthly columnist with Dell Horoscope for nearly nine years. My subjects have been equally broad--from tennis to football (I covered the Fiesta Bowl one year from the sidelines); from 'dentiphobia,' a fear of dentists, to juvenile firesetting in America; travel, business, news, and interviews to, of course, multiculturalism and astrology. My article, "Multiculturalism and Me," appeared in Multicultural Education magazine in June 2003 and, more recently, I worked with Dr. Phil's newsletter, The Next Level.

A taste of what else I'm doing now:

The books on which I'm working are also eclectic.

• I'm releasing my new astrology book, Italian Butterfly's Snail's Pace Astrology with a bit of a twist--as an e-book with globally-sensitive pre-release and release pricing. The first third will be released at the end of July, and the entire book will be released in October. For more information, click here.
• I'm working on another, Banana French Toast: A Book of Gourmet Goodbyes, about creative healing as it relates to death and hard-hitting goodbyes.
• My third book in progress is another multicultural one.
• The fourth is a novel that I hope will become a series.
• I have a fifth book in the works, but I'm not ready to release details about it just yet.

As an astrologer, I take most of my clients online or by phone (if they're in North America or if they have a US-based number). My clients hail from the USA, Canada, the UK, Portugal, India, Brazil, Pakistan, Australia, and the Netherlands. For those who are wondering, yes, I am taking clients. Feel free to contact me by private message, or check out my page at MyAstrology, and contact me there. It's a fun place to be, and I'd love to hear from you.

My pet peeves include bigotry (not just racial); people who are insincere, mean-spirited, or insensitive; people who lack compassion and empathy; people who are dishonest by word or deed--and my brother's spelling. People who make an appointment with you and don't bother to cancel before not showing also irk me. If it's for business, I have reached the point where I will charge them for the failure to cancel. If it's a personal appointment, it's going to put a chink in my level of trust.

On challenges, I believe in a quote I once saw on a poster, adapted from Goethe: "If you dream and believe, you can achieve." Hand in hand with that, I don't believe in 'no.' There is always a creative solution even if it takes years to find the way. Thanks to my friend Chandresh, I've learned how to do some of the collages you see on my Ryze page. (Thanks so much, Chandresh!)

The late Indira Gandhi spoke to my heart when she said, "You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist."

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