Our Mothers Who Art In Heaventag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1268322007-07-26T03:25:00-04:00Our Mothers Who Art In HeavenTypePadSubmit Your Storiestag:typepad.com,2003:post-368796882007-07-26T03:25:00-04:002007-07-26T03:25:00-04:00With the success of Our Fathers Who Art In Heaven, we are looking for other stories to complete new books in the series. Did somebody you love teach you an important lesson about leadership or life that you still use...Gerry Murak
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> With the success of <em>Our Fathers Who Art In Heaven</em>, we are looking for other stories to complete new books in the series.</p>
<p> Did somebody you love teach you an important lesson about leadership or life that you still use today? What advice did your loved one give you that you still treasure?</p>
<p> Submit your stories today for the <em>Who Art In Heaven </em><span style="font-size: 0.6em;"><em>TM </em></span>series. Our target date for <em>Our Mothers Who Art In Heaven </em>is May 2008.<em> Please submit stories to:</em></p>
<p><em> </em><strong>WAIH Publishing, PO Box 132, Getzville, NY 14068 or email</strong></p>
<p><strong> <a href="mailto:Jill@WAIHPublishing.">Jill@WAIHPublishing.</a> </strong></p>
<p><strong> For futher information: <a href="http://www.WAIHpublishing.com">www.WAIHpublishing.com</a>, 1-866-639-2443</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong>We look forward to hearing from you. </p>
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HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR STORIES OR POEMS FOR "OUR MOTHERS WHO ART IN HEAVEN"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-367244822007-07-20T14:20:00-04:002007-07-20T14:20:00-04:00We are still accepting essays and poems to complete the Our Mothers Who Art In Heaven book. Please submit your stories and poems today. Our target date is May of 2008. Guidelines: Did your Mother teach you an important lesson...Gerry Murak
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> We are still accepting essays and poems to complete the <em><u>Our Mothers Who Art In Heaven </u></em>book. Please submit your stories and poems today. Our target date is May of 2008. </p>
<p> <strong>Guidelines: </strong>Did your Mother teach you an important lesson about leadership or life that you still use today? What advice did your Mother give you that you still treasure. If your Mother's values have strengthened your life, then now is your chance to have your story or poem of the most important lesson she taught you and allowing her love and wisdom to teach others. <strong><em><u>Our Mothers Who Art In Heaven </u></em></strong>needs well-written, motivational essays and poems that describe leadership and life lessons learned from Mothers who are now deceased, but whose messages are still very much needed in today's world. </p>
<p> Submissions can be emailed to <a href="mailto:Jill@WAIHPublishing.com">Jill@WAIHPublishing.com</a> or mailed to WAIH Publishing, P.O. Box 132, Getzville, NY 14068. </p>
<p> Looking forward to hearing from you!</p></div>
How to Submit Your Stories or Poems for Our Mothers Who Art In Heaventag:typepad.com,2003:post-46060332007-04-30T06:08:00-04:002007-04-30T06:08:00-04:00Essays and poems needed to complete the Our Mothers Who Art in Heaven book. Submit your stories and poems today for Our Mothers Who Art In Heaven! Guidelines: Did your Mother teach you an important lesson about leadership or life...Gerry Murak
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><span face="Arial"><strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">Essays and poems needed to complete the <em><span style="color: #000000;">Our</span><span style="color: #ff00ff;"> Mothers </span><span style="color: #000000;">Who Art in Heaven </span></em>book.</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial">Submit your stories and poems today for </span><span face="Arial"><strong><em>Our <span style="color: #ff00ff;">Mothers</span> Who Art In Heaven</em></strong>! </span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">Guidelines: </span></strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">Did your Mother teach you an important lesson about leadership or life that you still use today? What advice did your Mother give you that you still treasure? If your Mother’s values have strengthened your life, then now is your chance to have your story or poem of the most important lesson she taught you and allowing her love and wisdom to teach others. <strong><em>Our <span style="color: #ff00ff;">Mothers</span> Who Art in Heaven</em></strong> needs well-written motivational essays and poems that describe leadership and life lessons learned from Mothers who are now deceased, but whose messages are still very much needed in today’s world. </span></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">Payment: </span></strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">All authors whose essays are chosen for inclusion in the <strong><em>Our <span style="color: #ff00ff;">Mothers</span> Who Art in Heaven</em></strong> book will receive $100 upon initial publication. Contributing author’s copies of the finished book will be available at a fifty percent discount, which the contributor is free to resell at the cover price through her or his own efforts.</span></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">Decision Process: </span></strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">Decisions will be based on strength of the leadership or life lesson message, quality of writing, and uniqueness of the story. The purpose of the book is to help readers discover the wisdom they encountered through their relationship with their mother. Each essay chosen for inclusion will identify a different value or principle of leadership essential for surviving today’s challenges. Response will be made by the end of September 2007. </span></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn""><strong><em>Our <span style="color: #ff00ff;">Mothers</span> Who Art in Heaven</em></strong> is the second of over forty books (see the partial listing of titles on this weblog) in the "Who Art In Heaven" series. The first book in the series, <span face="Arial"><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn""><strong><em><a href="http://www.murak.blogs.com/ourfatherswhoartinheaven">Our Fathers Who Art in Heaven</a>,</em></strong> ISBN 0-9759057-1-6 is available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Chapters.ca, <a href="http://waihpublishing.cartobjects.com/cart/purchase1.asp?pid=4&XPR=0281097E09037E098109890C">WAIHpublishing.com</a> or from this weblog, <a href="http://www.murak.blogs.com/ourfatherswhoartinheaven">http://www.murak.blogs.com/ourfatherswhoartinheaven</a> </span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">How to Submit your essay: </span></strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">Send your best original work (please limit your word count to 2000 words or less) about your deceased Mother to:<strong> </strong></span></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn""><strong>Email an attached Word file to - </strong><a href="mailto:submissions@WAIHpublishing.com">submissions@WAIHpublishing.com</a></span></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn""><strong>Or mail your typed submission to: </strong></span></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">WAIH - </span></strong></span><span face="Arial"><strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">Submissions <br />PO Box 132<br />Getzville, NY 14068</span></strong></span><span face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tms Rmn'"><strong> </strong></span></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn""><strong>Deadline for all submissions is September 29, 2007. </strong></span></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">Previously published essays and multiple submissions are acceptable when noted.</span></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">Questions: </span></strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">If you have any questions, please email <a href="mailto:Jill@WAIHpublishing.com">Jill@WAIHpublishing.com</a></span></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial"><strong><span xstyle="font-family:"Tms Rmn"">Thank you!</span></strong></span></p></div>
Our Mothers Who Art In Heaven - "A Mighty Mouse" tag:typepad.com,2003:post-46059232005-05-07T11:15:00-04:002005-05-07T11:15:00-04:00She was small in stature but mighty. My mom, a petite blonde was born in Mamaroneck, New York. Wanting to study art in college, she came to Buffalo, New York, and met my dad in her painting class at Albright...Gerry Murak
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<p><span face="Times New Roman"> She was small in stature but mighty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My mom, a petite blonde was born in Mamaroneck, New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Wanting to study art in college, she came to Buffalo, New York, and met my dad in her painting class at Albright Hall in the early 1940’s. Mom tells the story that while at their easels in class one day, both trying to get the angles and perspective correct on the still life set up before them, my dad dropped his paintbrush on the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Bending over to retrieve it, mom impulsively swiped his backside with her paint-laden brush, hoping to get his attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Such a daring, flirtatious gesture back in those days!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have the feeling my dad didn’t need that splat of color to notice her – she was a beauty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But that bold moment paved the way for dates, correspondence while dad was serving in the Navy in WWII, and later a marriage proposal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>While waiting for dad to finish his tour of duty, mom worked several jobs back in her New York City area, including a stint as an artist for Terrytoons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Among the many cartoon characters she helped animate were Tom and Jerry and our favorite as kids, Mighty Mouse.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> Fast forward to the mid-</span>1950’s, with my siblings and me sitting around our small black and white television screen on a Saturday morning and watch cartoons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Mom would point out to us which adventure scenes she illustrated whenever The Mighty Mouse Playhouse was on the television screen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This was long before computer-generated images. Every character’s movement was hand drawn and painted on acetate.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>I was one of five children born to Evelyn and Robert – or “Blondie and Chick”, their pet names for each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Mom’s artistic abilities were evident in our home, not only in the bright orange painted walls of the living room, but in the iris paintings in their bedroom (a favorite flower in her garden).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But with five kids to raise, there wasn’t much studio time for mom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She did give me an occasional drawing and painting lesson with paints and clay being the usual holiday gifts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Mom’s mother, who we called “Nanny” taught me to sew, embroider and knit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I grew up making doll clothes from her fabric scraps and developed an appreciation for the arts.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>So when dad took early retirement and they moved into a small, one floor home to make it easier to care for mom – who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis – he made sure one bedroom was set up as an art studio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Most days if the sun was pouring through the little windows of that room, you could find them painting together – mom with her flowers or seascapes, and dad with his boats and landscapes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I remember one visit to the little back bedroom and trying to devise a strip of fabric to wrap around mom’s badly crippled hand to help support the paintbrush so she could continue to paint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The arthritis was progressively getting worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Her favorite palette knife was now too difficult to manage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I think of that day whenever I use her brushes and tools in my own artwork.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am now in my mid-fifties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Slowly over the years, I have been fortunate to find my work in private and corporate collections around the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I know I'm blessed to come from good genes!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Early in my art career I had many questions for mom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When I began to exhibit professionally, I pleaded with her to have a “mother-daughter” show, but she always declined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Finally, we did manage one exhibit together at a small, outdoor art show in our community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That was more her speed, being somewhat modest and shy about her work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> As kids, w</span>e were always crazy about her art, and were thrilled one year when each of the sisters received a small watercolor of our birth month’s flower.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’m not sure if our only brother got one too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She taught us all about the fragility of nature in her delicate floral depictions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Mom’s health was increasingly becoming a serious issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For more than 30 years she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis which began in her early 40s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Over the years, we helplessly watched mom go from using a cane, to a walker, to a wheelchair, to being bedridden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But one thing remained constant – she never complained. At all. Not ever.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>My siblings and I would talk about that many times over the years…how could someone be in that much pain for so many years and not lose her cheerfulness or gentleness?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That’s the lesson I learned from my mom – her quiet acceptance of what she had been given.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Make the best of each day down the path of your life’s journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My dad was there every step of the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their love and affection for each other was evident each day of their 47 years together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was especially touching to witness the tenderness in my father’s eyes as he would kneel beside her bed to hold her hand and whisper, “Hey gorgeous” or “love you Blondie”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Mom also gave her gentle wisdom whenever I had something on my mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Often times I’d visit and sit on the edge of her bed and chat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Sometimes I’d show up to wash and set her hair while climbing around all the soft pillows that cradled her fragile body in her bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Gradually, she had become too weak to do personal grooming herself, and these moments gave us another chance to talk about things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She would know if something was bothering me, and would gently help find an answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even her young granddaughter felt the same soft guidance that came from a visit at her bedside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She expressed it beautifully at mom’s wake when she asked in her innocent child’s voice, “Who’s gonna be the glue in our family now that grandma’s not here?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When her mom, my sister, answered her with, “What’s wrong with me?” she immediately responded, “No, mom! Grandma was glue, you’re only Scotch tape!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>She may have been a tiny wisp of a woman, but she sure was mighty to us who loved her.</span></p></div>
Mother's Day Quotetag:typepad.com,2003:post-42313272005-04-08T01:58:36-04:002005-04-08T01:58:36-04:00“Put your worries to the bottom of the river” -What Evelyn Hens would say before her son-in-law, Gerry Murak, would go fishing.Gerry Murak
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>“Put your worries to the bottom of the river” -What Evelyn Hens would say before her son-in-law, <a href="http://www.murak.blogs.com/ourfatherswhoartinheaven">Gerry Murak</a>, would go fishing.</p></div>