Concrete Flower

This memoir recounts a childhood marked by maternal abandonment, a mentally ill father’s emotional torment, and an alcoholic stepfather’s physical abuse. Left to raise younger siblings with scarce resources or adult guidance, the author navigated profound neglect. Despite these circumstances, relentless determination led to financial independence and homeownership by her early twenties, establishing a foundation built against difficult odds.

Yet, hardships persisted through challenging romantic and family relationships, resulting in several crises throughout her life. Faith and self-belief provided the strength to endure, even when faced with losing her home to her mother and an attempted physical attack by her father.

This account details a journey toward forgiveness, breaking cycles of abuse, and finding positivity, resilience, and love, embodying the author’s description of herself as a ‘concrete flower,’ finding light amidst difficult ground.

Duty Before Love

Fred Carspecken (1914–2003) lived most of his life in a time when society constrained individuals like him. Though he was a closeted gay man until the age of 62, Fred remained true to the responsibilities and expectations placed upon him, often putting duty before his personal desires and needs. This biography explores Fred’s struggle between fulfilling societal duties and pursuing personal happiness. His story is a testament to the many men and women of his era who sacrificed love to meet societal expectations.

Duty Before Love highlights the generational challenges of being a gay man during a time when societal acceptance was not an option. Fred’s life story reveals the emotional and psychological impact of remaining closeted for decades, only to finally embrace his true self in later years. This biography offers an intimate look at a man who quietly lived a life filled with integrity, compassion, and deep relationships, despite having to conceal an essential part of himself for so long.

Incredibly Blessed

An 89-year-old Roman Catholic priest from Minnesota fell in church and required surgery to repair a neck injury. During his recovery in a rehabilitation facility, he did not dwell on bad luck or misfortune but instead reflected on how blessed his life had been.

Born in Indiana, he arrived in Minnesota in a shoebox at just three weeks old and grew up on a farm during the Great Depression. The smallest boy in his class and extremely shy, he first felt the call to the priesthood in sixth grade at his Catholic school. He attended high school and two years of college at a minor seminary in St. Paul, where he gradually overcame much of his shyness. He then continued his studies in philosophy and theology at a major seminary in St. Paul before being ordained as a priest.

His ministry took him to parishes in western Minnesota and to chaplaincy roles in Catholic nursing homes. Over the years, he traveled extensively, visiting Rome, the Holy Land, and a mission parish in Guatemala. His journeys also took him to 22 countries, including the Galápagos, the Amazon, the Antarctic Peninsula, and Easter Island.

This is the story of a life filled with challenges, adventures, and countless blessings.

Gift of Failure

So, what do you do when everything in life falls apart? What about those still, small moments when you helplessly watch your dreams shattered by an unexpected calamity? You work hard to make a living for yourself and for your loved ones and then boom! It’s shattered like a bad dream. When you finally come to, you find yourself in brokenness and despair.

I once read that economic hardship happens to most successful people at least once in their lives; those who dedicate their lives to a worthy pursuit can, instantly, find their hearts ripped out by adversity. Suddenly, they find themselves in an abyss of darkness and nakedness, stripped down to nothing!

Perhaps, then, we realise we are not merely what we accumulate or achieve. In such moments, stripped bare, what we are is our essential consciousness, like a disembodied spirit, painfully wondering what to do to alleviate the pain.

“In Him who is the source of my strength, I have strength for everything.”

– Philippians 4:13

Doketo: The 1960s Story of a Thoroughbred Racehorse

This story is about a thoroughbred racehorse named Doketo, who was owned and trained by the person telling the story. Doketo was a good racehorse, though not exceptional as he might have you believe. However, as the racetrack saying goes, he was better than an empty stall.

Life is like that. Friends and associates may not be exactly what you want, but in a very real sense, they can still be better than an empty stall. Doketo’s eventual owner learned this lesson as a 20-year-old boxer competing in the fiercely contested featherweight division of the 1954 Golden Gloves, where winners qualified for the Pan American Games.

The late veteran boxing judge Billy Oaths believed the young fighter had a strong chance of winning his division. His confidence came from the boxer’s previous bout, a stunning televised victory over a top-ranked U.S. featherweight in the opponent’s hometown just three months earlier. As the young boxer climbed the steps to the ring for his first Golden Gloves match before a large crowd, Billy called out, ‘C’mon, let’s get the ball rolling!’ The boxer, full of confidence, shouted back, ‘Don’t worry, Billy. This won’t last long.’

And it didn’t.

The referee stopped the fight in the first round, awarding a TKO win to the boxer’s opponent. While disappointed, Billy would likely have summed it up with the same racetrack wisdom: his boxer and Doketo were both better than an empty stall.

Phoenix Rising: My Journey with Bipolar Disorder

Sometimes, in the midst or in the immediate aftermath of the symptoms of bipolar disorder, it can feel as if one’s life is on fire. From the raging highs of mania to the desperate lows of deep depression, and every single difficult-to-discuss characteristic in between, this illness can be extremely destructive. The imagery of a phoenix is the perfect metaphor for someone touched by these unquenchable flames.

This publication is a contribution to the conversation about mental health. It’s another story. It’s another voice. It’s an attempt to get these issues out of the shadows. It’s an effort to make it okay to talk about symptoms like dark intrusive thoughts, hyper-sexuality, and the anguish of suicidal ideation, along with countless other manifestations. It strives to chip away at secrecy and shame, which can surround these topics.

This book is meant to serve as a tool for openness and hope. Remember, the phoenix always rises from the ashes. Keep rising!

The Reason I Breathe

The Reason I Breathe: My Journey with Autism Against All Odds is about my life raising twins, one of whom is on the Autism Spectrum and the navigating, fumbling, fighting and all the lessons learned that came along with it.

In this book, you will discover how I had to put my ego and fears aside and trust my gut instincts that something alarming was going on with my son Dwight’s development. Taylor, his twin sister, was the sounding alarm for me that my son was not progressing with his language and social skills as she had been. It felt as though Dwight was going silent overnight right before my eyes and distancing himself from the family.

Defying the words of my then husband and his family, I set out on a journey to seek answers and to secure resources and support that my son desperately needed. I was mocked and severely criticized from their father for wanting to find out what was happening to our son, despite that I kept going, and it forever changed the dynamic of our family.

This led me to building my own community of support, this led me to thinking outside the box by writing to politicians in order to secure the proper school placement and resources he needed, this led me to advocating to help other families in need of the same support but above all this led me to a strength and courage that I never knew I had when I left the twins’ father after many years of abuse, humiliation and the destruction of my self-esteem.

After taking a leap of faith and enduring some lean years, I was able to create an environment of love, peace and security for my family and I sat back and watched the twins thrive in our new life.

Impact

This easy-to-read book offers solace for navigating life’s tender and heart-wrenching moments, while reminding us that others share similar experiences. We are not alone; we are connected. We learn how to overcome challenges through creativity and, more importantly, by seeing others through compassionate eyes. Knowing that we live with hope and purpose, the Spirit guides us on our journey, which at times may seem mundane. Yet, when we are open to receiving, our creative spirit emerges from the depths of our soul, heightening our awareness and healing our innermost being. Ultimately, we find peace in serving and encouraging others through their trials and losses. Self-reconciliation is essential for reaching out and reconciling with those around us. The examples of historical figures, saints, and anyone we admire and respect provide courage and strength to endure and move forward.

It's a Sign

WHAT IF?

What if every coincidence in your life wasn’t random? What if it was the universe whispering in your ear? What if the signs you’ve been ignoring were actually guiding you toward your ultimate purpose?

We’ve all had those moments – events so random they feel almost deliberate. Most of the time, we dismiss them, caught in the noise of our everyday lives. But what if, instead of brushing them off, you stopped? What if you listened – and followed that nudge, the one that felt like the universe was pointing you toward something greater? What if you trusted it, just once?

The author did exactly that. He took a leap of faith, followed the signs, and embarked on a journey that transformed his life. That profound transformation is captured, step by step, in the pages of this book. It’s raw, unflinching, and deeply human.

If you’ve ever felt lost, if you’ve ever questioned your path: this is the sign you’ve been waiting for.

Your life purpose is calling. Will you answer?

Around the World Not Counting Days

Having graduated without distinction in 1958 from Fresno State College, 22-year-old John Kessell had no job interviews lined up, no letters of acceptance from grad schools, so the natural course seemed what’s called these days a “gap year.” Why shouldn’t he travel to Australia, his father’s native land, and get to know his Aussie kin?

When these generous Australians refused to let the young American spend any money, he still had so many unspent travelers’ checks that he was able to trade his round-trip Sydney-San Francisco for a one-way Sydney-Gibraltar. Why not go on around the world, not his original plan?

John Kessell had no idea in 1958 what sailing on an ocean liner from San Francisco to Sydney might be like. Those were still the days when people took a boat to get somewhere, not just an over-hyped “cruise” on a floating amusement park. So let’s step back sixty-five years, retrofit our passports, and join John on a boat to somewhere!

Challenge Alzheimer

Therese Truninger (1948) worked as an Activating Therapist in an old people’s home when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in December 2004, at the age of 56. Her husband Kaspar (1945) worked as a sales director for an international company. They got married in 1970 and have two adult daughters and six grandchildren.

In August 2005 Kaspar had to quit his job and started to take care of his love as a caring-husband at their long-time home apartment in Augst, Switzerland. He became a house man and took this new challenge as his own responsibility. In December 2010, the Memory Clinic in Basel, Switzerland concluded that home care for Mrs. Truninger was ‘just about tolerable/possible’.

In view of possible alternatives, the couple had already travelled several times to Thailand for longer periods of time and they had consistently had good experiences with the friendly people (the Land of Smiles) and the moderate cost of living. In January 2011, they emigrated from their home country Switzerland to Thailand.

With the help of a competent housekeeper and a most caring caregiver for Therese, they can still live on their own in their private environment.

Long Ago Last Summer

Long Ago Last Summer is a Southern Gothic gumbo part Flannery O’Connor, part Tennessee Williams with a dash of Delta blues. An array of unforgettable characters come alive on the page: village idiots, eccentric aunts, beloved dogs, and at least one serial killer, Donald ‘Pee Wee’ Gaskins. Moore’s memoir embodies the profound paradoxes of Southern culture against a landscape dotted with antebellum plantations, shotgun shacks, suburban subdivisions, Pentecostal churches, and juke joints.

Praise for Wesley Moore’s writing:

“Long Ago, Last Summer is, like life, sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic, full of unforgettable characters whose power to hurt rivals their power to love. Wesley Moore is a child of the complicated South, and it’s a joy to ‘grow up and grow old’ with this terrific writer. This collection is a ‘guided tour of the haunted houses and cobwebbed attics’ of his youth, but it’s also the story of a man who discovers, through tragedy, that ‘the world is a marvelous place, full of good, compassionate people.”

– Lee Robinson, author of Lawyer for the Dog and Lawyer for the Cat.

“I found in these pages something of what Faulkner meant when he wrote, ‘The past is never dead. It is not even the past.’ Reading this book was like walking in the wind or swimming. I was touched at all points and conscious everywhere. I was also reminded of Huck Finn’s raw wisdom when he said about his adventures, ‘All of this is true and most of it happened.’”

– Chuck Sullivan, author of Zen Matchbox and The Juggler on the Radio.