Hello WordPress friends,
I need to create an Amazon Author page. I’m hoping a few of you can help guide me.
All tips and thoughts are welcome! (I do realize I go to amazon and click create your account. It’s once inside that I’m hoping I can put best practices to use by learning from all of you.)
-Matt
Thank you!
A great childhood friend wants me to write for him.
We lost another.
He said he wants to remember the memories
that made him a better person while being with him
We knew Sean since early childhood. Sean didn’t have it easy.
Now, he’s gone.
So I’ll write
The best that I can. And he’ll give that to Sean’s mother.
Life’s a funny thing until it’s not.
If I close my eyes, I see Sean, with his wide grin
laughing and going on with a story.
I tried telling myself it was no big deal.
I don’t know about how to fix any of this.
-M. Taggart
When help feels like manipulation it’s time to reassess your surroundings.
-M. Taggart
I sit my two year old son, Gavin, on my lap just after he bumps his head on the coffee table in the living room. I tell him, ‘Gavin, you need to be careful of your head. You need what’s inside your skull. You don’t yet understand just how important it is to protect what you have. Love you buddy.’
Gavin then jumps from my lap, grabs a Dino, and makes a loud roaring sound. And off he goes. I know that Gavin doesn’t fully understand what I’m telling him. But what I believe he feels is a caring tone. We’ve (Megan and I) repeated this hundreds of times. If not thousands. We’re teaching him to care for himself. We’re teaching him to love himself. Something I didn’t learn to do until my mid thirties.
I made a decision before Gavin was born to forgo the growth of my career to be the care giver to my son during the week. A decision I know to be the correct one for myself and my family. The best parenting advice in the world comes down to two words. Be there. My career, which I built, can be built again. The one chance I have to be the best father possible, is now.
As I continue to observe Gavin’s growth and development I often think of children who do not have a guardian that’s acting in their best interest. I think of guardians who hit. Who scream. Who sexual and mentally abuse children. I hope you bump into these words if you are among that ilk. It’s you. It’s not the child. It’s you and you need help. Stop hitting. Stop screaming. Stop abusing and turn yourself in. You won’t. You’re too weak. It’s your weakness that owns you and you aren’t intelligent enough to know what to do with it.
If you are a child that somehow reads these words. It’s not your fault. It never was. It never will be. This isn’t a promise for you to keep- to protect them any longer. Turn them in. They are killing you.
If you are a parent or guardian that suspects something has affected your child, ask them. Right now. Do not wait. If you don’t ask, no one will. NO ONE.
Abuse of a child runs rampant in all countries. All societies. If you are an adult that witnesses abuse, step in. That very moment. That child may never have another chance.
It’s 4:30 AM and I’m shivering while writing this. My son just woke up, upset, and needing attention. Megan or myself is always there for him. With endless, us. I wish every child had this. Unfortunately I know this to not be the case.
Enjoy your coffee.
Matt
We walk into the shadow of death to pull one wounded child from its depths, to find another daft man standing in the corner. Leaves are shuffling outside my window. A man with a golden heart is gone. Another stands in a room looking. Don’t block me. I am here and at least I have my fingers. The man in the room standing, looking daft, asks for silence because silences never questions. Never says a damn word. The girl with the golden brow would have cared for a word. And the boy with the covers pulled tight would have cared for the same.
**
copyright 2017
-M. Taggart
lying face down-
with vomit spilling from his mouth
we let him be
We tried to tell him with words-
Hard top roads
are all the same-
only this one-
is yours
Tomorrow-
after the stench has cleared,
He’ll speak with a clean tongue-
And tell you everything you want to hear
**
copyright 2017
The smallest kindness applied can help heal the deepest scar.
We forget to feed one another because while we grew they taught us to not. WE wanted to. Our brother cried and we fed him and our sister didn’t’ cry, but wanted to be fed, so we fed her too. Now we can’t because they told us to be strong. We’re strong now and we no longer care when our brother or sister cries.
Give us words which make us think. Tell us bacon is frying in the iron skillet. Tell us we feel vibrant and that our stomach’s groan. Tell us the bacon has been eaten and we are ready for this day. It is sunny. Clouds have yet to form. We walk into the field.
