LOST TO HISTORY by SARA HARRIS

Bitty the Historian (and me) making silly faces

As some of you may know, my sweet husband and I have six children. This past weekend, our eight-year-old, Bitty, informed us that he spent all morning researching "history" on his phone. Then, proceeded to teach us all he learned . . . that Hitler's first name was Adolph (which was obviously short for Dolphin). Then, he moved on to the Civil War. The places the soldiers fought in this war were battlegrounds!

As Bitty was giving us a very inspired history lesson, his ten-year-old brother Dawson chimed in. "History is boring," he said. "Why does it matter what happened in the past? We are never going backwards, we are going forwards. We need a class that looks into the future."

This same sentiment was echoed in several of my classes when I taught history to middle schoolers. Why bother looking backwards?

Dawson, the Future-torian

I sat my boys down and shared a piece of my heart with them. "Looking to the past is the best way to look to the future. It's especially fun (yes, I actually said fun) to look to the past and look at other people's mistakes and what happened because of them. That way, us in the future, don't make those same mistakes. We can do better than they did."

Maybe something hit home. I know it did with Bitty and most all of my middle schoolers through the years. However it got me to thinking about people lost to history. The ones who did not make the headlines, but who lived remarkable lives and had heroic tales nonetheless.

A Heart on Hold, my debut novel and book one of four, is one such tale. It follows the life of Confederate Captain E.A. Adams from Arkansas. As I was researching him, I couldn't find anything about him after his wartime days cameA Heart on Hold, book one of my Everlasting Heart Series!
to an end, even in his hometown newspapers, or any mention of family that lived after him. However, his story lives on in

THOUGHTS, QUOTES and SONGS

2017 was a year of challenges, successes and so much more. Taking a look back is part of what I do as I prepare for the next phase or year. Many of you know, I love quotes. I find them a concise way of seeing things in few words. Many times the quotes are more applicable than others, but are always a way to focus on the present as it moves from the past to the future. As the year is coming to an end, some thoughts, written and sung, I find useful.

Little Wonders

The gift of books and reading:

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. 
Joseph Addison

Reading is a means of thinking with another person's mind; it forces you to stretch your own. 
Charles Scribner, Jr.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. 
Saint Augustine

You cannot open a book without learning something.
Confucius

Hallelujah

The joys of research and learning:

Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought. 
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.
Zora Neale Hurston

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do. 
Pele

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. 
Mahatma Gandhi

Try Everything

The Past and the Future:

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Steve Jobs

The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities. 
Stephen Hawking

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. 
Eleanor Roosevelt

Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow's reality. 
Malala Yousafzai

We'll Sing in the Sunshine

I will leave you with two quotes from a writer from my neck of the woods:

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. 
Mark Twain

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. 
Mark Twain

Time in a Bottle

Wishing everyone a beautiful, fruitful and peaceful December.

Children Go Where I Send Thee

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 

Photo and Poem: Click Here 

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

Every step you take should be a prayer.
And if every step you take is a prayer then you will always be walking in a sacred manner. 
Oglala Lakota Holyman.