Victim Blaming

Photograph by Hayley Rose, Copyright 2005

As I am writing, I can hear a story blaring from the TV about an 11-year-old girl who has been raped by 19 young men. The story gets worse as this little girl, who has just been gang-raped becomes the target of victim blaming. The TV anchor quotes one of the rapists, who defends himself by saying, “She looked older than 11.”

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Healing, Sexual Assault

Fiction Friday: Rory’s Story Cubes, an Open Call

A few days ago, I bought a game called “Rory’s Story Cubes” at Borders. The game is made up of nine dice. Each die has a variety of pictures on it. You roll the dice and then you make up a story based on the order (and pictures) of how the dice fall. It’s kind of like a writing prompt, but I didn’t have much fun playing this game alone…. I’ve posted a cube arrangement below and invite anyone to make a funny or even serious short out of this. I hope this will be fun, I can’t wait to read what transpires.

This is the order in which they fell, beginning with a fish, an alien, a word bubble, an apple, a credit card, a magic wand, a question mark, a turtle, and a fire. Please feel free to post any responses in the comment area 🙂

Comments Off on Fiction Friday: Rory’s Story Cubes, an Open Call

Filed under Fun

Random Acts of Kindness

What would you do if you were walking down the street minding your own business when a little old man started to chase you down the sidewalk with a tomato in one hand and a wedge of cheese in the other shouting, “Tomat and chez! Tomat and chez!”

Okay…How about if you were walking back to your car after exiting the grocery store and a woman driving a mini-van full of stuffed animals began chasing you in an attempt to wave you over to her?

Continue reading

Comments Off on Random Acts of Kindness

Filed under Friendship, Inspirational, Life Lessons, Random Acts of Kindness

I Am a Rape Survivor

Tree in Saguaro, Hayley Rose, Copyright 2005

You too may be like me, a rape survivor, essentially a member of a club that no one ever really plans on joining. As you probably know, this club is not all that elite, as one in every six women has been sexually assaulted. If you’ve successfully survived this ordeal, perhaps you identify with the dictionary’s definition of survivor, one who continues “to function or prosper in spite of opposition, hardship, or setbacks.” For me, this wasn’t always the case.

Continue reading

5 Comments

Filed under Healing, Inspirational, Sexual Assault

My Fascination with Frida

The dreariness of my high school’s art studio was enhanced by the pea green walls and matching green and white checkered floor tiles, clearly décor left over from the sixties or seventies. Whenever my art teacher was particular back logged, she would torture us with some droning educational video on the life of an artist. Most of the time if she wasn’t looking, we’d sleep through them, taking little interest in art’s making. Most of the artists on these tapes were white men, European or American. Then one day she put in a video about a Mexican woman I’d never heard of: Frida Kalho.

frida-kahlo1

Continue reading

Comments Off on My Fascination with Frida

Filed under Art, Inspirational

Get Busy Living

Years ago when I was waffling through my own misspent youth, my father quoted me a line from his favorite move, “The Shawshank Redemption.”  The film itself is about a wrongly imprisoned man who spends two decades chiseling a hole in his cell wall that eventually leads him to his freedom. This movie is very insightful; the plot alone metaphorically serves as an example for the persistence and human spirit it takes to reach a goal without breaking, no matter how impossible. The movie quote really did change my life, and I’ve thought of it through the years whenever I became hopeless.

Continue reading

Comments Off on Get Busy Living

Filed under Inspirational, Life Lessons

Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month

It seems to me that not being cruel to animals should be a no-brainer , but given the fact that April is officially titled “Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month” I am obviously wrong. Animal abuse is a common practice that comes in many forms, from animal testing, to “fake fur” production. Each year between 25 to 100 million animals including chimpanzees, monkeys, beagles, dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, birds, farm animals, are used for experimentation in the U.S. alone.  Every year roughly 2 million dogs and cats are killed to produce “fake” fur coats.   While many other “fur producing” animals are skinned alive.

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Animal Rights, Vegetarianism

How to Find Your Passion

 

Image Via Detritus

I have found the “secret” to identifying your passion. It’s not like all those other “how to find your passion,” articles you may have read. The method I discovered is obvious- and if you hadn’t already figured it out, you’re about to have one of those- But Dorothy, you’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas– moments.

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Inspirational, Life Lessons, Passion, Sea Glass, Writing

Evaluated

Painting by Hayley Rose, Copyright 2008

 

Throughout my lifetime, I can recall the instances in which I got the look. It was typically given to me by what I can most tersely describe as “left-brained people.”  They’ve squinted their eyes, raised their eyebrows, and scrunched-up their noses at me without even attempting to hide that they were questioning my sanity. However, in my youth I’d existed in a blissful ignorance, never suspecting anyone of doing this to me until one day….

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Healing, Inspirational, Life Lessons

Sea Glass: My Newest Obsession

Photograph by Hayley Rose, Copyright 2011

 

For years I’ve picked up pieces of sea glass as I walked along the Connecticut shore. Not all beaches have it. Though the beach I go to in Rhode Island is full of gorgeous smooth beach stones, I have yet to find a single spec of sea glass there. Of the Florida beaches I’ve visited, shells were the only impressive beach treasures I found.

Continue reading

Comments Off on Sea Glass: My Newest Obsession

Filed under Art, By the Sea, Sea Glass