Archive for the ‘holidays’ Category
end of october, but still think pink!
Just as you surely remember that September was Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, I’m positive you also know that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
But just because Halloween is here, which means October is coming to a close (how did that happen?!), it doesn’t mean that we have to stop thinking PINK*:
1. Someone asked for Pink…lol, 2. Pink hibiscus…, 3. Gradually Pink, 4. Smile!, 5. :: the pink daisy ::, 6. pink peep bunnies, 7. Pink!, 8. Petal Princess, 9. Pretty Pink Gingham Girls, 10. Pink Rose, 11. Pink Ribbon (close-up), 12. Cherish the pink sky, 13. Hazel Atlas Ripple C/S, 14. sweet melody, 15. Pink Tutus, 16. Pink Delights, 17. Berries Smoothie, 18. Tiny drops on pink flowers, 19. red & pink, 20. PinK, wHy So pINk??
*Special thanks to my dear friend Collette at All Over the Map for the inspiration to create this pink mosaic!
For more information on breast cancer awareness:
Breast Cancer Awareness Tool Kit
National Cancer Institute Breast Cancer Home Page
Susan G. Komen for the Cure
Don’t forget to check out Judith’s Peach Crisp, this week’s La Buona Cucina Americana at Think on it! and hey, what great Halloween costumes do you and your children have planned?
Buon weekend and Happy Halloween!
On Getting Another Year Older
Tomorrow will mark my 32nd birthday.
If you would’ve told me at, say, age 24, that I’d still be excited for birthdays at number 32, I’d probably have thought you were crazy.
But here we are, and I am!
As a very wise man (who is celebrating birthday number 80-something on Sunday) told me:
Never count your years;
count your blessings.
Indeed. And it’s hard not to be excited when you have so many blessings.
Thank you all for being a part of my life, tanti auguri to Frank,
and buon weekend a tutti!
Sprezzatura: 50 Ways Italian Genius Changed the World by Peter D’Epiro and Mary Desmond Pinkowish
There’s a little bit of something for all interests within these 50 essays, and it’s especially convenient because you can read one at a time and let the information resonate or skip around to where your interests lead you.
Read on...happy fourth of july!
The Fourth of July isn’t a holiday in Italy, but that doesn’t stop this American from celebrating with hamburgers, hot dogs and mmm, maybe even some apple pie (Mom’s here, remember?!).
To my fellow Americans, I wish you a happy, safe and fun holiday
and buon weekend a tutti!
May, Poppies, and Remembering Veterans
Even though I’m not in America any more, the end of May still means bright red poppies to me.
Yes, these in the fields around here, but I’m talking about the ones that remind me of the sacrifices veterans have made for you and me and how many of them still suffer today even while in the “care” of our veterans’ hospitals.
Every year around Memorial Day, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)’s Buddy Poppy Program and the American Legion Auxiliary Poppy Program distribute millions of crepe paper poppies in exchange for contributions that benefit disabled and hospitalized veterans and their families.
Where do the poppies come from?
Why, the hospitalized veterans make these nine-piece wonders in “Poppy Shops,” gaining a small wage and also some physical and mental therapy.
What is history of the paper poppy?
During World War I, ever-resilient poppies grew and thrived in the war-torn battlefields of Belgium, inspiring this poem by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae:
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
The symbol was picked up by Allied countries immediately after the war ended and paper poppies began being sold. In 1921, the Franco-American Children’s League sold French-produced poppies to benefit the children in areas of France and Belgium hit heaviest by the war.
When the Children’s League dissolved in 1922, the VFW took over the cause and two years later began the Buddy Poppy Program with veterans producing the poppies for the benefit of veterans and their families.
As much as I love the gorgeous wild, natural poppies that surround me, I’m still nostalgic for those paper beauties and all they represent.
So if you’re in America, can you do me a favor? Please make a contribution to the VFW or American Legion Auxiliary and get yourself a poppy.
That way you can remember too.
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
Calabria Guidebook
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