Hey Everybody,

Welcome to my site.

This started several years ago as an experiment. MiniMe offered me free space on her host and she set me up on WordPress so what the heck. That flew for about a year and then I moved over to my own host and started a few more websites. I’ve had a blog site for a few years. I learn as I go. It’s an outlet for my writing, and when I want to get geeky and impress myself with my lack of skill at HTML, I mess around with my sites until I give up and go back to writing. We have now come full circle. This site is now hosted again on Minime’s host.  She’s awesome at tech support, it’s about time someone actually hired her for it. I’ll be branching this new site out in a couple of different directions. It could get interesting around here :)

For those of you curious about my domain name, Black Oak O’Malley was Granuaile’s father. She was a strong woman, in a time when that was unheard of. She was a tomboy who learned how to handle a boat from her father, she was a wife who learned her lesson from her first husband and didn’t give another man a chance to do that to her again. She was a mother who fiercely loved her children. She was a female *gasp* Irish Chieftan who defended what was hers, and in the end came face to face with the Queen of England because of what she believed in. It’s a remarkable story. I identify with her on many levels. Read more here.

As for the cast of characters here, I’ll take the lead. Call me Grania. No that’s not my real name. I’m 45, somewhat near Chicago, single parent, work for a living, and never get tired of learning. My heritage is Irish, German, and Native American. That mostly means I can’t tan to save my life, I’m stubborn as a goat, and I have a deep, spiritual connection to nature. My personality is INFJ or INFP depending on what mood I’m in when I take the test. My degree is in Counseling. I prefer the Huministic and Existential schools of thought, they work for me. My dream job is to be a counselor, but for now I’ll keep my office job. It pays the bills. I don’t belong to any organized religion. I’ve had enough of that for two lifetimes. I do however believe that God exists, loves me and all living things, and guides me constantly to a life of goodness, beauty, abundance, and love. I am very blessed, and I do what I can to spread that around.

Supporting Characters:
MiniMe is my daughter. She’s a masters student, dog mommy, runner, and geek trying to figure her way through the grown up world. Roomie is a friend that lives with me. We are both working on rebuilding our lives after some devastating losses and living together is a good thing for both of us. He’s a very positive influence in my life. I, however, am probably the most frustrating woman he’s ever lived with. Then there are The Beasts. I have 3 very large cats. One is the offspring of a cat that I rescued 15 years ago, two are purebread Maine Coons. I love them all. I will never be without pets. Someone once tried to force that issue, he’s gone now. The cat’s don’t mind that at all. Other assorted people will pop in occasionally. I have 2 brothers (OldBro and BigBro) and a host of friends that aren’t immune from being written about. Obviously I respect privacy, including mine. I won’t talk about my day job either, other than in general terms. I’d rather not be Dooced.

As long as we’re talking about respect. This is my website. I run it like my house. It’s not a democracy. I will leave comments on, and I welcome them. Speak freely under one condition. I’m always up for a good healthy debate about something, but as soon as anyone disrespects me or people I love, they will be removed from my site. There’s no need for that kind of behavior and it won’t be tolerated. I don’t allow disrespect in my house either. Nuff said about that.

I hope you enjoy what you find here. I hope it touches you at some level, or inspires you to think, or at the very least makes you smile.

I wish you peace

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