“They told me I wouldn’t live to be 2 yrs. old because they found me starving on someone’s porch…. I’m 55 now…. They told me I wasn’t smart enough and that I didn’t need a higher education…… I have an AA, BS and MS. They told me I would never be part of anything worthwhile. I’m a member of MD-Military-Holding-Lodge No. 122 - MWPHGL of Maryland, The Monday Cub (Oldest Social Club for African-American Men in Delaware and maybe the Nation—1876) recently resigned, The Drill Sergeant Association, and Bethel AME Church to name a few. They told me the Army wasn’t the way to go and I was wasting my time and the organization wouldn’t teach me anything. I was Squad Leader, Platoon Sergeant, Detachment NCOIC, CID Investigator, Drill Sergeant and an EO Advisor for 5,000 Soldiers and Civilians just to name a few. It has taught me a lot. They told me I couldn’t run a full marathon. I finished in the top half. They told me I was too small for martial arts—I received a 2nd degree black belt in Hapkido and a Red Sash (Chamber 5) in Kung-Fu. They told me that I will fail in life. The Lord has blessed me with a lovely wife, four grown men (sons), a lovely stepdaughter, and six grandchildren. It was rough getting there, but I’m here.” (Started from the bottom) They told me I would never, never find my bloodline. Well, I found my birth mother, father, sisters and brothers and a host of cousins and combined my bloodline to my family that raised me and taught me everything I needed to know about life altogether into one big happy family. I now have two mothers and fathers. THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME THOSE THINGS.… KEEP YOUR HEAD UP, AND LIVE YOUR DREAMS. MAKE NO EXCUSES….

The question follows Lorna Luft to this day: "What's it like to be Dorothy's daughter?" Although by appearances glamorous and truly thrilling, growing up as the daughter of Judy Garland was anything but a journey over the rainbow. With unsparing candor, Lorna Luft offers the first-ever insider portrait of one of Hollywood's most celebrated families: a rare story of a little girl, her half-sister Liza, and her baby brother trying desperately to hang on to the mother whose life seemed destined to burn brightly but briefly. Lorna makes an extraordinary journey back into the spiral of love, addiction, pain, and loss that lurked behind a charmed facade. Filled with behind-the-scenes dramas, hilarious untold stories, and little-known details of Garland family life, Me and My Shadows is a tribute to Lorna's victory over her own past, a story of hope, of love and its limitations, and a deeply moving testament to the healing powers of embracing one's past and charting a course of self-love and discovery.

Table of contents: A culture in crisis The rise of the living will Empirical and ethical problems with living wills Living wills don't make decisions : human beings do The barbaric life of the ICU Life after the ICU Reform : the current state of the art Healing the intensive care unit.

When a little boy goes outside to play, he discovers something mysterious, which he can't seem to get away from, no matter how hard he tries.

A moving exploration of how gay men construct their identities, fight to be themselves, and live authentically It goes without saying that even today, it’s not easy to be gay in America. While young gay men often come out more readily, even those from the most progressive of backgrounds still struggle with the legacy of early-life stigma and a deficit of self-acceptance, which can fuel doubt, regret, and, at worst, self-loathing. And this is to say nothing of the ongoing trauma wrought by AIDS, which is all too often relegated to history. Drawing on his work as a clinical psychologist during and in the aftermath of the epidemic, Walt Odets reflects on what it means to survive and figure out a way to live in a new, uncompromising future, both for the men who endured the upheaval of those years and for the younger men who have come of age since then, at a time when an HIV epidemic is still ravaging the gay community, especially among the most marginalized. Through moving stories—of friends and patients, and his own—Odets considers how experiences early in life launch men on trajectories aimed at futures that are not authentically theirs. He writes to help reconstruct how we think about gay life by considering everything from the misleading idea of “the homosexual,” to the diversity and richness of gay relationships, to the historical role of stigma and shame and the significance of youth and of aging. Crawling out from under the trauma of destructive early-life experience and the two epidemics, and into a century of shifting social values, provides an opportunity to explore possibilities rather than live with limitations imposed by others. Though it is drawn from decades of private practice, activism, and life in the gay community, Odets’s work achieves remarkable universality. At its core, Out of the Shadows is driven by his belief that it is time that we act based on who we are and not who others are or who they would want us to be. We—particularly the young—must construct our own paths through life. Out of the Shadows is a necessary, impassioned argument for how and why we must all take hold of our futures.

"Light in the Shadows" is for people struggling with a life-threatening illness. These meditations cover some of the most important emotional and spiritual lessons for people in this difficult situation. This book is about finding hope in hopeless situations and living a meaningful life while considering the possibility of death.

Dr. O'Connell's collection of stories and essays, written during thirty years of caring for homeless persons in Boston, gently illuminates the humanity and raw courage of those who struggle to survive and find meaning and hope while living on the streets.