We Desperately Need George Baily...

Our country, alas most of the world, is in desperate times. While the people in Washington try to decide if we are in a recession, you have only to look at main street in any town to see that it is much worse than that. Stores that you once shopped in are disappearing everyday because they cannot 'afford' to keep the doors open. If you drive down any residential street, you will see many homes for sale with signs like reduced, foreclosure sale, banked owned...because they cannot 'afford' to make the payments...because they have lost their jobs because the companies cannot 'afford' to pay the workers...and so it goes on and on...it is trickle down economics at its worst...it has more than trickled down...it has crashed down..hard......

We Desperately Need George Baily (It's a Wonderful Life)...and the Bailey Building & Loan Association. The Building & Loan Association was essential to many of the people in Bedford Falls. And we need fewer Mr. Potter's (Wall Street, big business, etc.) who will seize the opportunity to gain more control and end the "sentimental hogwash" of home loans for the working poor. 

The real American dream is a home of ones own...and a job which allows you to pay for it. I daresay most Americans want to work and are tired of hearing all the stories of the poor Wall Street stockholders who have lost everything....especially when you are too poor to own any stock...you are lucky to stock your refrigerator...

I encourage our politicians who are trying to decide if there is a recession, to walk down main street in their hometown...talk to the shop owners, talk to the people who live in the homes with for sale signs...ask the priests and ministers what they are seeing in their own churches...ask us what we need...Then go back to Washington and make a real bailout plan for the Americans who have no way to bail themselves out this time....

This is the letter I am sending to all my state representatives in Congress...I invite you to join me...

Boutique Cre8Tiva...

Open For Business

Wedding Extraordinaire...

come in...we're ready for a wedding...

I promised...here are shots of the wedding...

Casey and me with our veil around us






our whole family



callanwolde




the grits bar - grits served in martini glasses with toppings like turnip greens
no southern wedding should be without one

my sisters and me

mama sings janis joplin

my three sons singing "A Family Tradition"
Michael, Chip, Matthew

casey joins her brothers

casey sings "Hey Jude" and wows the crowd

all the parsons' women led by 85 year-old Nannie
sing "Love and Marriage"



It was a magical time...congratulations to the happy couple...

All photos were shot by Seitz Photography in Atlanta...click here to see all the wedding photos...click on enter site...then client gallery...then weddings and engagements on the left...then scroll to casey and chris...

The Best Things in Life are Free...

I promise wedding photos soon...

My little prayer for the tough times...

"foggy morn"
It is so easy to get caught up
with the trappings of wealth in this life.
Grant, O Lord, that I may be free
from greed and selfishness.
Remind me that the best things in life are free.
Love, laughter, caring and sharing.And...my beautiful, calming sea.
Today's Bible reading is:  Luke 12:1-7

Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered by the thousands, so that they trampled on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops. I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God's sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows."

"morning flight" 
Thought on the financial crisis from Sacred Space

Lord, all this financial turmoil seems to touch my prayer in two ways.

Sometimes I feel moral indignation at the greed of the fat cats whose desire for ever-greater profits has exploited the weak. I hope that they may move from blindness to a sense of the real world of people, and realise the futility of their greed that wants more and more money. "What does it profit to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of your soul?" (Mark 8:36) But I know that such indignation is not always from the good spirit; it may be mixed with Schadenfreude in which there is little charity. I need to watch it.

At other times I feel fear and insecurity for myself and my loved ones. This pushes me to look at myself. Does insecurity make me more self-seeking and less caring about the needs of others, lessening my humanity, clouding my sense that people matter more than money? Or does this worldwide turmoil strengthen my compassion? Poverty is not good in itself, but where it leads to a deeper dependence on God and coexists with generosity it can be a rare grace - remember Jesus marvelling at the widow's mite (Mark 12:41-43).

‘Trop est avare à qui Dieu ne suffit.'
You're too greedy if God is not enough for you.

I wear a widow's mite around my neck at all times. It is over 2,000 years old and was found near the Dead Sea Scrolls.

A column of the Copper Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Cave 3.
from Columbia University Libraries


This little coin contained in a silver cross reminds me to be grateful and peaceful in the very stormy uncertain and unpleasant times. When so many are loosing everything materially, we must look inward to what we are spiritually. The banks and our creditors may take our worldly goods from us...but they cannot remove or deplete who we truly are...deep within. Our souls remain, egos dented, but soul intact.

"stormy morn" as a tropical storm passes

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs and images are the copyrighted property of Rebecca E. Parsons and cannot be reproduced in any way without written permission.

Wedding Weekend

the wedding logo...
Casey at her shower

Some of the shower loot
Casey and MIL to be
Casey and me
I am off to Atlanta for my daughter Casey's wedding on Sunday...it is an exciting time...all of my children will be in...all of the people i love will be close...the time will fly away so quickly...i want to remember to slow down and enjoy ever minute...

all my chores are completed...I hope...

I have made the toss bouquet...

the ring bearers pillow...

the programs...

and the bridesmaid's luncheon invites...

a shy soon to be son in law......

a peek at the dress and veil...
as i have a moment to write i think about the day she was born...finally a beautiful girl after all those boys...she was gorgeous and still is...although she has grown into a confident and spirited woman...i am proud of who she is and how she lives her life...and i am thankful that she has found a life partner and a best friend in her husband to be...

I am Still Here...

i am sure that those of you who regularly stop by have just about given up on me this time..i am sure that i would have...i do have a good excuse for being awol...i have been really ill...

butterfly outside studio the day i got sick

when i was teaching a weekend class and a week-long class in north carolina the first of august, i developed bacterial pneumonia that turned into toxic shock syndrome (the one that killed jim henson of muppet fame)...

students from my weekend class

according to emedicine.com mortality is high with toxic shock syndrome or septicemia - "a toxin-mediated multisystem disease precipitated by infection with either Staphylococcus or Streptococcus. The clinical syndrome is characterized by a rapid onset of high fever, hypotension, diffuse rash, severe myalgia, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, and nonfocal neurologic abnormalities."

according to my doctors, if i had waited another hour to go to the emergency room, there would have been nothing they could have done to save me...it was very scary because i was fine at dinner (6:30 PM)...during dinner i started to feel chilled...and for me that is very unusual because i am hot flash hot most of the time!!!

by 8:30 PM i was too sick to call for help or get an aspirin...i had body-wracking, teeth- chattering chills...severe pain throughout my entire body...i was confused and dazed...thank heaven someone returned to my lodging and helped me get to the hospital...and thank heaven the doctors and hospital were quick to act...

an angel watched over me

earlier in the day i thought i was getting a kidney infection...i was going to the bathroom a lot...and it was hurting worse than ever before with an UTI...i was teaching, so at noon i went and got some cranberry juice and some AZO tablets...they helped me make it through the rest of the class day...i was so very tired that i almost fell asleep at the teacher's meeting after class...i left early and went back to my room to rest...

i tell you about the UT symptoms because sometimes you can get referred pain from the lungs in the urinary tract...who would ever know that???

the first round of antibiotics and fever reducers did not work...i got much worse with a temperature over 104 degrees...that is when the ER doctor decided to get a chest x-ray...and the rest is history...i had to be in the hospital three days on two intravenous antibiotics... oxygen...fluids...and rest...

rest is the cure for pneumonia...and rest i am getting because i can't seem to do much else...

JCCFS musical saw students in concert

needless to say, i could not finish my week-long class...my students were wonderfully gracious and the staff at John C Campbell Folk School caring and kind...

i am back home in florida...recovery is slow...i am very weak and dizzy if i overdo...i am coughing a lot still and have chest pain...and lots of body pains due to the toxic shock...

a study for a portrait

however, i have been getting lots of work done for my future classes and workshops...writing a new book and starting a new magazine...and readying for a move sometime this fall...est of all, i have been doing lots of artwork and journaling...very therapeutic and meditative for me...

a self-portrait of me with my beloved sir chancelot

i am blessed to be alive and on the mend...and i have missed each of you...i will be around to see you soon...