Showing results by author "Vinny Green" in All Categories

The Christmas season was well in gear. Grandma M was smiling from ear to ear. To Grandma, the Christmas season is a very special time of year. With Christmas just three days away, Grandma was in her usual place, in the kitchen, baking pies with her grandchildren, Matthew, and Michaelle. This band of bakers had been singing Christmas songs all day long. Songs about Jesus, his birth, and this special day coming their way.

Nikki was a few days away from graduating from the police academy. Through arduous work, her naval training, perseverance, and the skills poured into her by Papa and Mama Armstrong, Nikki was number two in her class academically.

Mark Twain once wrote: “Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like its heaven on Earth.” This is what each of us should strive for in this God-ordained life. It does not require anything extra or cost all that you have. It does not bring about the daily emergence of new levels of pain or the forming of lies just to get by.

Upon graduation from high school, Nikki was awarded a full four-year scholarship to a prestigious university in New England. Her initial response was to decline the offer. She wasn’t crazy about the idea of being so far away from family and friends.

In this sharing from the heart, I attempt to explore love and, in some instances, hate in their many forms and sources. I have loved and been in love for more than half a century. I have endured broken hearts and might have even broken one or two, although as I look in the mirror, I seriously doubt it. I have foolishly thought I had it all figured out, only to come to the realization that when it comes to love and being in love, I have but scratched the surface, and my vision remains severely trammelled.

Summers in Bayview was an awesome time for myself and my good friend Stan. He and I had an unshakable habit of taking the short walk down to the Canarsie Pier every Tuesday and spending the day fishing and talking about anything that came to mind.