Dan Manning

Here is all the nonsense, collected for you, my dearest and most cherished Reader.

Life is about learning to adapt and grow within a variety of seasons. Resistance to change robs us of pathways of improvement for ourselves and our planet. The struggle to keep things as they are is humanity's attempt to control what is usually not ours to master. "Seasons" is a collection of essays and poems that challenge us to learn, grow and find meaning from every season life brings.

The death of a family member is always a difficult experience. But if we are open to our past, even grief can lead us to a place of clarity and gratitude. Family memories are a kaleidoscope of feelings from our mental snapshots of a particular place in time. We can find meaning, joy and hope in the good things we lived and learned from our ancestors while carrying that legacy with us to pass down to future generations. Dan Manning's "Mothers and Fathers Live Forever" reminds us that if we keep the stories of our family alive, mothers and fathers can indeed live forever in the hearts and minds of those still living who carry the torch forward.

While the whole world was plunged into a pandemic shut down, a retired educator from Texas used this historic period as an opportunity to capture his thoughts, connect some dots, and try to make some sense of it all. "Eat the Pie" is a collection of poems, essays and reflective thoughts capturing some humor and humanity amidst the dystopian backdrop of COVID-19.

Poetry awakens the mind It says volumes about us, our culture and our world. In relatively few words, a poet can take you on a world tour, explore the cosmos, and open your mind to a cornucopia of knowledge that you can utilize to help make our world a happier, more productive, and exciting place to thrive IF KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, THEN THIS IS INDEED A POWERFUL BOOK It is also, deliberately at times, a funny read. Still, do not laugh so hard that you miss the magic. There are some buried gems in this volume that you definitely do not want to miss.