Lessons From The Front Porch Swing

Selma, Alabama, native Lula "Mama" Sharpe possessed all the characteristics of a forceful Southern grandmother: undeniable charm, strong personality, ability to dish out unsolicited advice, unreserved love, remedies for ailments from broken arms to broken hearts, and a frank way of delivering the lessons she valued. Each day, weather permitting, Mama sat on her front porch swing while teaching, advising, and encouraging her two granddaughters and anyone else in the community she deemed in need of guidance. You too can learn life sustaining lessons from Mama as you read short vignettes about her life in this book aptly entitled, Lessons from the Front Porch Swing. The stories will delight you and the lessons can help you in all walks of life; at home, school, work, or play. Some of the lessons instruct you to: - Listen to Wise Counsel - Appreciate Bosom Buddies - Acknowledge Tough Stands Require Courage - Practice Self-Control - Make Life Special for Others - Never Tolerate Abuse of Any Kind - Avoid Dwelling in the Past Mama is not the only one to teach these lessons; her lessons are supported by quotes from the Bible and from famous historical figures. These lessons can benefit high school students, college students, and adults who want to improve the way they interact with their peers, parents, spouses, bosses, coworkers, and strangers.

Becoming the parent of a ‘’special child” can be a devastating event. It can also open doors you had never wished to enter, bring deeper friendships than you ever imagined, and give you love and joy you did not know exists. While encountering many challenges, the journey with Jeff has been one of unexpected environments, people and blessings. “Every mother faces unexpected obstacles on her parenting journey. But what seems like an obstacle at first glance can actually be an unforeseen blessing. Such is the case for Linda Farris when her son, Jeff, was born. Linda shares her experience raising a child with disabilities and offers an honest and hopeful perspective that can benefit every family.” —Karyn Tunks, Ph.D. is an author and professor emeritus at University of South Alabama “Jeff’s words are his own but he speaks a language all can understand. He speaks of joy and passion before our Lord. None can understand better than his mother.” —Bryant Evans, Minister, —Eastern Shore Church of Christ, Daphne, Alabama “Linda Farris addresses her greatest life challenges and how she turns difficulty into positive life lessons. Fortunately for us, she possesses a charming writing style for which to share he life’s challenges in a way we can enjoy.” —Bob Zeanah, author of the Sugar Bear series. “Jeffrey’s enthusiasm and heart is a gift to us all. It is a joy to know him and his family. I am honored to be his physician. —Dr. Andrew Dukes

Jon is a southern woman who lived a simple life until her husband found greener pastures after their only child went away to college. No female in her family had ever worked outside of their own home. No one in her family had ever been divorced. Forced now to rely on early childhood experiences and lessons learned from her father and grandmother, Jon is thrown into one disaster and rescue after another as she tries to get her life back together. Jon becomes a detective when her friend Jimmie, enlists her aid in finding an employee's family. Their adventures lead them into some unusual situations. She meets her true love, who is killed in a plane crash, then becomes very rich when she is left big bucks in a will she knew nothing about. Jon decides to take a long trip. She convinces Jimmie to go with her to Mexico where she and Jimmie get to see another side of life when they are forced to spend time with a group of missionaries. Destiny awaited her in a small Mexican village. Jon, like cream, always rises to the top.

A collection of short stories of a country boy growing up on a rural farm in Louisiana with a few personal thoughts along the way.

Join Elizabeth Walden as she ventures through a new life in a new country. On her journey, she learns of hardships, joy, and endurance, all the while relying on her Heavenly Father, the continuity of family, and giving her heart completely.

With lessons from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and examples from the acclaimed education network Remake Learning, this book brings Mister Rogers into the digital age, helping parents and teachers raise creative, curious, caring kids. Authors Gregg Behr and Ryan Rydzewski know there’s more to Mister Rogers than his trademark cardigan sweaters. To them, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood isn’t just a children’s program — it’s a proven blueprint for raising happier, healthier kids. As young people grapple with constant reminders that the world isn’t always kind, parents and teachers can look to Fred Rogers: an ingenious scientist and legendary caregiver who was decades ahead of his time. When You Wonder, You’re Learning reveals this never-before-seen side of America’s favorite neighbor, exploring how Rogers nurtured the “tools for learning” now deemed essential for school, work, and life. These tools can boost academic performance, social-emotional well-being, and even physical health. They cost almost nothing to develop, and they’re up to ten times more predictive of children’s success than test scores. No wonder it’s been called “a must-read for anyone who cares about children.” With insights from thinkers, scientists, and teachers — many of whom worked with Rogers himself — When You Wonder, You’re Learning helps kids and the people who care for them do what Rogers taught best: become the best of whoever they are.

" 'As Birmingham goes, so goes the nation,' Fred Shuttlesworth observed when he invited Martin Luther King Jr. to the city for the transformative protests of 1963. From the height of the civil rights movement through its long aftermath, the images of police dogs and fire hoses turned against protestors, and the four girls murdered when Ku Klux Klan members bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, made the city an uncomfortable racial mirror for the nation. But like many white people who came of age in the civil rights movement's wake, Julie Buckner Armstrong knew little about her hometown's history growing up with her single, working class mother in 1960s and 70s. It was only after moving away and discovering writers like Toni Morrison and Alice Walker that she began to realize that her hometown and her family were part of a larger story of racial injustice and struggle. In recent years, however, Birmingham has rebranded itself as a vibrant, diverse destination for civil rights heritage tourism. Former sites of violence have been transformed into a large moving National Park Service memorial complex that includes a museum, public art, churches, and multiple walking tours. But beyond the tourist map, one can see in Birmingham--just like Anytown, USA--a new Jim Crow reemerging in the place where the old one supposedly died. Returning home decades later to care for her aging mother, Shuttlesworth's admonition rang in her mind. By then an accomplished scholar and civil rights educator, Armstrong found herself pondering the lessons Birmingham has for America in the twenty-first century, where a 2014 Teaching Tolerance report characterized a common understanding of the civil rights movement in "two names and four words: Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and 'I have a dream.'" Seeking to better understand her hometown's complicated history, its connection to other stories of oppression and resistance, and her own place in relation to it, Armstrong embarked on a journey to unravel the standard Birmingham narrative to see what she would find instead. Beginning at the center, with her family's arrival in 1947 in a neighborhood near the color line, within earshot of what would become known as Dynamite Hill, Armstrong works her way out in time and across the map. Pulling at strings and weaving in the personal stories of her white working-class family, classmates, and other local characters not traditionally associated with Birmingham's civil rights history, she expands the cast and forges connections between the stories that have been told about Birmingham as well as those that haven't. From a "funny" cousin whose closeted community was also targeted by Bull Conner's police force to an aunt who served on the jury that finally convicted Robert Chambliss of murdering Denise McNair, Armstrong combines intimate personal stories, archival research, and cultural geography to reframe the lessons of Birmingham through the intersections of race, class, gender, faith, education, culture, place, and mobility. The result is more than a pageant of Birmingham and its people; it's also a portrait of Birmingham rendered on the ground over time--as seen in old plantations, in segregated neighborhoods, across contested boundary lines, over mountains, along increasingly polluted waterways, under the gaze of Vulcan, beneath airport runways, on the highways cutting through and running out of town. In her search for truth and beauty in the veins of Birmingham, Armstrong draws on the powers of place and storytelling to dig into the cracks, complicating the easy narrative of Black triumph and overcoming. Among other discoveries found in the mirror, Armstrong finds a white America that, for too long, has failed to recognize itself in the horrific stories and symbols from Birmingham's past or accept the continuing inequalities from which it unfairly benefits. A literary scholar, Armstrong observes that "many of the best writings on civil rights and race relations describe racism as a wound, a poison, or a sickness--without offering easy prescriptions." Citing James Baldwin, Armstrong knows stories have the power to touch the human heart but warns that resistance to injustice only begins there. Once engaged, it is up to each of us to look again and consider what our stories really reveal about the world and ourselves. In "Learning From Birmingham," Armstrong reminds us that the stories of civil rights, structural oppression, privilege (whether intentional or unconscious), abuse, and inequity are difficult and complicated, but that their telling, especially from multiple stakeholder perspectives, is absolutely necessary"--