Letters to the Moon....

Hello there, I have big news to share. I have finally reached a new milestone in my life: I am fully vaccinated. I had my Covid-19 vaccination on Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. I timed it perfectly. I had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off of work, which I thought would serve me well if I had any adverse reactions. Friday night I drove home from work and noticed that my arm hurt. I also noticed that I was experiencing chills; it felt like I needed to put on a sweater, which I ended up doing when I arrived home. I had goose bumps all night. Saturday morning I woke up with a headache, and took a pain reliever. I had some chills, though I no longer had goose bumps. I felt stiff throughout the day. Not exactly achy, but not my normal self either. I felt fatigued as well, and ended up sleeping through most of the day. Sunday morning I woke up and discovered I had a fever that had broken overnight. I felt fatigued, and again slept through the majority of the day. Monday morning I was back...

Hi there friend. How are you? I hope you are well. Forgive me for not writing sooner.  Things have been fine here of late; I recently enjoyed two weeks’ vacation from work.  I was able to run errands, do some shopping, get some delicious food from some local restaurants, and more. One of the things I accomplished on my vacation was receiving my first Covid vaccination.  I am thankful that I was finally eligible to receive a vaccine. As of now, anyone sixteen years of age and older in the U.S. is eligible to receive one!  I went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to get my first Covid vaccination. This is where the Indy 500 race takes place every year. At the end of the month of May, the area around the Speedway is crowded with people going to the festivities at the track. Memorial Day weekend, the entire West side of Indianapolis resembles a parking lot.  I have never been to the Indy 500;  I don't like sports, and I am not big on crowds of thousands of peo...

  A decade has gone by. When I look back on that time in my life, I hardly recognize it. Ten years ago, I began my writing career. It doesn't seem possible. "How did your writing career begin?" you might ask.  It all began with a friend in a faraway land. He and I met online and wrote each other daily, often writing several times a day.  As I came to know my friend, I learned that he was a writer. He wrote poems and shared them with me. Reading his writing encouraged me to begin writing myself. I shared my writing with him, and my confidence grew. I then shared my writing with a few select friends. I wasn't ready for the world to read my writing just yet.  As my friend continued to write, he created a blog online. Reading his blog made me think about starting my own. With his encouragement, and that of my friends, I created a pen name for myself, Esperanza Habla, which translates into "Hope Speaks" in Spanish.  I began my first blog, "Words of Hope...

 Hello everyone, I hope you are well. I wanted to let you know that I have changed my blog template; as such, it looks a bit different.  I thought I would write a post to help everyone navigate the new layout. Here is a photo of the new look: Blog posts will be presented in order, the most recent being on the top of the page. Click “Read More” to read the entire blog entry. Older posts can be found by scrolling down the page.  The one major change to the blog: there is no more sidebar on the right. The old sidebar would expand to display more information when hovering a mouse on that part of the page. There is a new sidebar that appears on the left side of the screen, when viewing the page on a computer monitor 19 inches and larger. However, on a smaller screen, such as a phone or tablet, the sidebar information can be found under the hamburger menu. There you can read my bio, translate the blog into more than sixty languages, and see the number of visits to the page. T...

The times they are a changing. I'm sure you've noticed it too. News of a racial reckoning has come from the most innocuous of places of late-streaming media. The Disney company made headlines when it launched episodes of “The Muppet Show” on its Disney Plus service. The controversy: eighteen episodes now have a disclaimer about racially offensive content. The disclaimer reads, in part: "This program includes negative depictions of/and or mistreatment of people and cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then, and they are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together." https://www.vulture.com/2021/02/18-muppet-show-episodes-have-a-content-warning-on-disney-plus.html When I first heard this story, I was shocked. I could not imagine anything offensive about the show. “The Muppet Show” was a staple of my childhood, as it was for millions of children who...