December 15, 2021 By Joy Lynn Clark Years ago back in the late 80s early 90s I attended operation snowflake and then snowball. Snowflake was a one-day retreat hosted by my junior high school. We spent the day doing teambuilding exercises all focused on preventing the types of behaviors that lead to drug abuse among other things. I was a pretty hip urban kid lol that did grow up in the burbs, But I visited the city a lot. Which is why I am so much cooler. I just moved to my dads house and I was struggling to fit in with my new neighborhood’s, “ Valley” sort of kids.…

By Joy Lynn Clark December 10, 2021 Since I was a child I followed the soap operas. Grandma always had them on in the afternoons. Grandma’s TV would be on anytime we were inside. In the mornings grandma would work in the garden and I would swear they were too many worms. By noon we are back inside, soaps are on, and we and by we, I mean grandma, are doing laundry. Up and down the basement steps. Sometimes I would look at the, cheap, old, Bach Bust by the piano that needed a tune. Grandma’s not really into cheap things but, we ain’t rich folks. On the TV, soaps.…

By Joy Lynn Clark December 7, 2021 As a child, some of the kids from my block in U.P. And I played, “whoopin Mama”. We would select a player as the whoopin mama and they would grab their belt. We then would chide them – hard. We would make faces, turn around and shake our butts, and if we were in the garage we would even make a mess – just to unleash the whoopin mama. “You bad kids!”, hollers the whoopin mama. “Clean up this mess,” yells the whoopin mama. “OK mama” answers the good kids. But one kid always has to be a smarty pants. Whichever kid was…

By Joy Lynn Clark 11/9/2021 Patience is probably a virtue: but I love when duty is swift. Grandma and grandpa on the other side were Catholics. I like to rap fast, I like Dance music and I even was a sprinter in track. So swiftness is also a virtue in my book. We go through the same thing with the Catholics as the protestants but, the Catholics are timely and on schedule. The protestants will go on and on. If it’s good we will sing on – forever. Grandma would press my hair straight and help me dress – but more quickly. There is no Sunday school for me to…

By Joy Lynn Clark October 22, 2021 When I was young, and when my mom was still finding herself – we became Buddhists. I found it super boring but as usual I went along for the ride. It started with some chanting sessions in my living room. I didn’t have to come but I was extremely curious. My first encounter was a group of chanters sitting Indian style on the floor in my living room. I crept through the group on all fours since our furniture had been moved aside. I called myself sneaking in and eventually one of the chanters spots me and shows me his little book. “What…