FaceBook Live Chat — “Politics: Surviving A House Divided”

“Vessels Time Live” Weekly Facebook chat with author, Anna M. Elias In light of the election, I use examples from my own life to talk about how to stay whole in a family that does NOT vote alike. I also spotlight The Vessels’ rift between Governor Ron Galt and his estranged father, Sam Fullerton. It’s a political battle that, if … Read More

The Eyes Have It…

This one came to me in a writing practice yesterday. The prompt was “Write about a reflection.” As with all writing practices, I put pen to paper with no idea what would follow. Here it is: The mirror comes to mind most readily. A reflection of our faces, our hair and clothes – at the worst of times and the … Read More

It’s Just Cleaning Day. Right?

It has been a year since Mom died. Her beautiful soul passed peacefully and pain free in our home, under Hospice care, after losing her battle to brain cancer. The memories are happy, and we have no regrets, but the scar is still fresh. Every holiday and birthday without her has held its own form of mourning, but the one-year … Read More

Love – Heaven’s Bitcoin

Mom is heavy on my mind today. Not only is March 20th her birthday, our first without her on this plane, but she died four months ago today at age 91. She passed peacefully in her bed on that beautiful clear Sunday, with my family by her side. Even our dog, Karma, would not leave until she crossed the veil. … Read More

Let it be Soul

I’ve always found it interesting that siblings – children from the same parents, kids born from the same gene pool and cut from the same DNA – can be so vastly different from one another and their families. It’s true for my brother and me, and it’s true for the generations of siblings I’ve known throughout my life, including most … Read More

Finding Peace in the Pieces

The word “peace” comes up a lot this time of year: we share peace at the holidays; we offer peace to our friends and neighbors; we sing songs of peace for the world, and we send cards and gifts adorned with doves and good wishes and blessings of all kinds. But do we live it? Looking at the daily chaos, … Read More

What Price Peace

One of my favorite songs during the holidays is “Let There Be Peace On Earth” written in 1955 by Jill Jackson Miller and Sy Miller. From the time I was young, the combination of music and lyrics in this song stopped me in my tracks and, most times, reduced me to a blubbering  mess until the last note faded away.  … Read More

I Observe, I Imagine – A Cool Tool for Hot Times

It is so easy to judge other people – friends, family, enemies – based on something they said or did, or on something we observe and don’t like about them. In fact, judging seems to be THE default setting for most of us humans around the world. Especially now with 24-hour news that feeds on sensationalism as much as story, … Read More

Writing – the call of the Empath

My rich, full life as wife, mother, business partner in two companies, social justice warrior and free-lance writer was recently, and quite unexpectedly, expanded into the realm of also being a full-time daughter to an 88 year-old mother who suffered a stroke. Mom lost the feeling on her right side, and she suffered some hiccups to her memory, but thankfully … Read More