The holiday seasons can often seem full of stress and angst, of crass commercialism and outright greed. But if you take the time to slow down, breathe in deeply, and listen, you can often hear the underlying messages of love, support, and peace. We are all on this blue ball of a planet together. We are all drifting in a vast blackness of space. We should treasure each other and the brief blink of time we have available to us.

Mark Berkery astounds us, as always, with his glimpses into a tiny, often forgotten world of fragile, beautiful creatures. Christine Catalano expands our view to the delicate plants which keep us breathing.

Poetry twines us in its rich language. Martha Landman sucks us into a world of pomegranates and goat’s milk, where herdsmen interlace with IEDs and hand grenades. John Grey reminds us to release worry about broken windows and mangled gardens – it’s the childen’s laughter that matters.

Fiction creates fantasy worlds which call to our hearts. Lucy Gregg Muir takes us back to World War II where sick women huddled together on frigid porches, worried about their troops. Isobel Blackthorn brings us into a battered women’s shelter where “inmates” are petrified of each creak of the floor.

The Non-Fiction gives us powerful glimpses into the burdens those around us shoulder. Lucy Gregg Muir again touches us – this time with her real-life admission of how she broke her thirteen-year-old daughter’s heart by revealing there is no Santa.

Through it all we are reminded of how close we are to each other, how much we are all going through, and why love can be the most powerful force on Earth.

Be at peace.

Lisa Shea, owner
BellaOnline.com