I’ve neglected the week wrap-ups these past couple of weeks so welcome back! Where I live spring has come with full force and the colors are extraordinary. New life is everywhere – in flowering trees, Lilac bushes, Azaleas, and eight baby goslings following a mama down by the river. Amazing Grace.

Communicating Across Boundaries had a lot of activity this week – particularly around the post on Grief. If you haven’t seen it take a look and be sure to read the extraordinary comments. People were deeply honest about grief and all its power and unpredictability. To those of you who are new here because of the post – thank you for reading and coming by.

On to the wrap-up.

On Abortion: Despite the world surrounding me being pro-choice (including most of my friends and all of my colleagues) I am unapologetically pro-life. At every level. From homeless to unborn to drone strikes. I like to think I keep my friends who disagree honest about the issues in a pro-choice world – they certainly keep me honest. This week The Daily Beast published what I felt was an extraordinary article by Kirsten Powers. Powers is a lifelong Democrat, served in the Clinton-Gore administration and by her own admission has never voted non-democrat. She wrote an article that I feel is a ‘must read’ on abortion calling the abortion rights community the “NRA of the Left” – for those of you who don’t live in the United States – this means they are militant without reason, militant even when all the evidence is pointing to them being in the wrong. Take a look at this article called: Abortion Rights Community Has Become the NRA on the Left published in The Daily Beast. My favorite quote is this:

I cannot legitimately say I am a person who cherishes human rights and remain silent about our country legally endorsing infanticide.

On Moms: I did a full post on the State of the World’s Mothers Report published by Save the Children. In case you missed that post, here is an article on the report from Huffington Post. Moms and babies are important and continue to be an important public health priority world-wide that we dare not ignore.

On Hope: Remember the horrific garment building collapse in Bangladesh? A woman trapped under that rubble for 17 days has survived and is now rescued. This is a miracle – that survival could come this late after the collapse, that the dead have grown in number day after day, this is Hope – this is life in the midst of a horrible tragedy.  The article will bring tears to your eyes today and hope to your world. This is a must read this weekend – 17 Days of Darkness, A Cry of ‘Save Me’ and Joy. Hope in the midst of Darkness, Joy at the end of the road. Unbelievable.

On American Mother’s Day: You’ll love this article posted in Babble Voices – Honoring Mothers, Djibouti Style by Rachel Pieh Jones. A great article giving you some cultural insight as well as a reason to thank your mom.

On My Bedside Stand: In true admission a stack of books that remain unread  – my hope is that will change as my work load decreases this week.

Have a great weekend where ever you live and thank you as always for reading!