Transforming Relationships with host, Julieanne O’Connor, Airs September 20th – 26th on
Tune-in for a discussion about connection and humanity. A candid look at what’s happening with connection in today’s world and how to become a bit more conscious of the people around you.
Grant Pollard was 4 years older than me and my first love.
Today would have been his 66th Birthday (September 19th 1950)
I was 16 y.old when I met him through his brother, and we fell for each other. His father and step mother did not like the relationship, my mother was a widow we were new immigrants to South Africa and not rich, so we hide our relationship from them, dogging them in public and seeking out places for us just to be.
I was smitten, he had a love for old cars and it was fun taking them for a drive. One time I was driving his Chevy 1937 car and I nearly ran over a cop, the auto drive was on and does not go off when you break, so I am breaking and nothing happening, this cop is standing there with his hand out in the middle of the road , and he had to jump out in to the ditch to avoid me. I sat there crying thinking there goes my licence (which I had just got) Grant understood Africans (the language in South Africa) but pretended he did not, they were so blown away by this young woman nearly bowling him over in an old car, it was hard to stop laughing. Well, they gave us a stern talking too in broken English and sent us on our way, Grant told me afterwards that they could not wait to tell the tale of how a young woman in an old car nearly killed him, whew, a close one. That same car we did Bonnie and Clyde weddings in, so much fun.
Sam by brother cooking breakfast on one of the road trips, they were very good friends for a long while.
Grant and I ran a Mobile Discotheque for over 2 years, playing at some of the best parties in Cape Town. Weddings, events, birthdays, and fundraisers, we were there. We had to haul speakers that were 4ft tall and heavy, a double turntable, and boxes of records, after a long night of playing and dancing as I was also the GO GO dancer, it was a tiring job, but I loved it.
We met so many wonderful people through our discotheque and played at some awesome and strange places. Many halls, homes, and hotels, and even a Zoo. As it was hot there, we played many a party around the pools in the air and people would dance all night, good times.
We had many adventures together, and some wild times, some calm ones, but in the end jealousy and control took over. Grant had a temper and could be very cruel too, I moved away to only find him there, he did not want me, but still wanted to control me. Our relationship had fallen apart and had for some time a bitter taste in the mouth.
With his son Michael.
But, I will remember our good times, my many firsts with him, the adventures we went on, the opening up to new things. I was a very shy British girl and he opened me up to wonders, the cars, the motorbikes, the parties, the road trips, the love of animals. He took some beautiful pictures of me and caught my inner self, for a while, until it all changed.
Sadly Grant had a flaw, he loved woman younger than him by many years, and the need for his woman to be skinny and young took over. Grant ran into some financial trouble that he could not see his way out of and sadly took his own life.
His real love was the Karroo in South Africa, he loved the farm life and saved many an animal from sure death, just look how easily they all live together.
You just have to see the number of animals he rescued and how they trusted him to know that his caring soul was deep, but his insecurity was bigger and in the end, took him over.
I know you’re up there Grant, find that inner peace and bring that soul back to earth and give it another try. We miss you.
Their Story Matters with Sara Troy and her guest Angela Peabody. Airs from September 27th on.
What is Female Genital Mutilation?
Female Genital Mutilation, more commonly known as Female Circumcision is the intentional removal of the external parts of the female genitalia for non-medical reasons. There are 4 different related types of procedures.
Angela Peabody is the Executive Director and Founder of Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation, a 501c3 organisation founded on the principles of eliminating violence and injustices against women and girls. The mission of the organisation is to empower women and girls through education to eradicate gender based violence with emphasis on female genital cutting (FGC). She is a graduate of the School of Journalism at Columbia University. After a celebrated career as a Television Broadcast Journalist in Liberia, and Special Press Secretary to the country’s first woman Minister of Agriculture, Angela immigrated to the United States, following the bloody and brutal coup d’etat in her native Liberia.
It is Angela’s wish that her latest book, When the Games Froze (Buy Here) will garner interest and support from the American public in the campaign to end female genital cutting. She developed the passion as an advocate for women and girls against injustices and violence after her sister was killed by her husband and a friend of hers died in childbirth as a result of female genital cutting.
The first Liberian woman to ever pen and publish a full-length novel, Angela is now an accomplished and award-winning author. Her literary work includes the novels, Exiled – within the Bowels of American Society (published 2001) and When the Games Froze (published 2014). She is the former Chair of the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the National Writers Union and served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Women Business Owners and on the Advisory Board of Tigerlily Foundation. Angela continues to spread her message about injustices against women, women’s empowerment and human rights violation through Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation.
History & Mission Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation was founded on the principles of ending violence and injustices against women and girls. The mission of the organization is to empower women and girls through education to eradicate gender based violence. Founded in 2012, the organization, Global Woman merged with another organization called P.E.A.C.E. (People Everywhere All Created Equal); the name was officially changed to Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation. In the same year, the organization received its 501c3 tax exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service under the new name. Unique Strengths & Assets There are several organizations in the United States that advocate against various individual types of gender based violence. However Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation is unique in its advocacy against female genital mutilation. The organization raises awareness through events and the distribution of literature about the violent acts against women and girls. The Executive Director, Angela Peabody authored a novel about female genital mutilation, from which all proceeds and royalties are donated to the organization as support against the practice of female genital mutilation. Programs Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation engages in four categories of programs:
1. Rehabilitation: A Group and Individual Counseling program in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area for survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM). This program provides an environment where women and girls can receive counselling and empowerment for a future free of FGM.
2. Prevention: A program for at-risk girls and children that are not at risk of experiencing FGM but might be the friend of an at-risk girl. This program entails working with parents, teachers, school nurses and school counselors as well as the children. To date, a training manual and a reading story book have been completed and ready to be shared with the public by Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation. In addition, a cultural history book is currently being written with child-friendly language.
3. A post FGM vagina does not look as it did prior to undergoing FGM. Its appearance is unfamiliar to American healthcare workers, and they are not accustomed to identifying and working with it. Restorative surgery is the answer to maNy post-FGM OB/GYN problems. The surgery will restore the vagina to normal appearance and functions. The surgery will help the young women have normal OB/GYN check-ups without embarrassment and fear. It enables them to have normal childbirth without the risk of infant and maternal mortalities, and to live without the physical genital pain they encounter with every monthly cycle and with each urination and sexual encounter. The centre is raising funds to support the surgeries of the young women.
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Choose Positive Living with Sara Troy and her guest Peter Cutler airs from September 27th on.
My approach to life is nothing really new. It’s been part of Zen and Advaita (non duality) for thousands of years. Yet in this present moment it is all entirely new. Mostly it’s simply allowing life to be life exactly as it is and the exquisite beauty, gratitude and love that come from doing this simple and rather obvious thing. The problem is our heavily conditioned thoughts have become so removed from reality that we no longer perceive it as it is. Most of us live in a “thought-world” not the world as it is, which is far more wonderful than any thought could ever imagine.
Simply living in the world as it is moment to moment changes a life of suffering, incompleteness, and striving for something else to a world of peace, unconditional love and bliss. That’s probably it in a nutshell. 🙂
Peter Cutler fully awakened when he was only twenty-two years old. After ten days living in this awakened consciousness, he promptly fell back into the dream of separation. This began a forty-year spiritual search that finally flowered as the lasting state of awakened consciousness it is today.
Much more than a book, “it is a true living miracle.” It is a direct route to your spiritual heart. Perhaps you have never before experienced true unconditional love.
Peter is a vehicle that allows others to experience their True Awakened Nature. This happens through the Enlightenment Experience Groups, individual mentoring and coaching, workshops, retreats, writing, videos, The Zen of Love, and the energetic transmission that come through his Zen paintings. Access to most of this is available on this website.
All of our shows/interviews are done by donation, if you enjoyed this show please support us here with either a one-time donation or subscribe and support onPatreon.
Choose Positive Living with Sara Troy and her guest Kim Karrington Cartwright, aired from October 4th on.
Kim is a Published Poet, a BMI songwriter, spent years in the Music Industry as a singer, doing session work and commercials, and performing at well known Nightclubs in L.A. and other venues. She also performed as a dancer and did Television and stage work. Kim is a long-time member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) and has had longstanding membership in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS).
Kim has been an avid photographer, writing, and painting, and having won awards in English, Composition, and Language all since she was 7 years old. She trained in Los Angeles with the premier vocal, dance, and acting coaches in the country since the age of 12.
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Kim writes both the words and music to her songs; meaningful lyrics with memorable, expansive melody lines. Her catalog ranges from pop and rock; to blues, jazz and R&B; to country, gospel, and rock opera. Kim is a mezzo-soprano with a four-octave vocal range. She sings and speaks French and Spanish – she is well acquainted with Italian and German. Kim worked as a Publicity Coordinator & Celebrity Interviewer for a top Photoplay celebrity columnist while in her twenties.
She traveled extensively across the United States (including Hawaii), Bahamas, and Europe; was exposed to most every major philosophy and religion; and grew up immersed in socio-political and philosophical/metaphysical discussions as well as meditation. She has met, experienced, conversed or studied with many of the leading master, teachers, and philosophers of the 20th and 21st Centuries. She has had a strong connection to animals, spirit, and nature and had many mystical experiences since she was a child. Kim was raised holistically and has been an organic vegan/vegetarian since she was very young.
Kim paints artwork that has been described as the “Womb of Creation”. Kim has a deep passion for photography. At times Kim uses colour and texture to create photos that transcend their original image or transform them into something amazing, wondrous or mysterious. Sometimes, however, the play of light that she captures is the magic that brings forth the most incredible and multidimensional images. Kim’s intent is to always be faithful to the integrity of the image and stay as close as possible to the natural essence of it. Her photographs often look like etheric paintings. Kim also uses a technique where she paints images on top of her photos.
Kim’s bliss is to bring forth images that move someone on the deepest level, as much as a poem can. One of her greatest joys has been hearing from those who have had a visceral, uplifting or cathartic experience just by gazing at one of her photographs. She marries her photographs to her poetry and sometimes one of her photographs will inspire one of her poems.
Having been raised in a dramatic and lengthy divorce Kim’s passion for writing was the perfect escape from the weight of the world. Writing has always been a vehicle for catharsis, awareness, and realizations for Kim. It has been her solace and the greatest expression of her depth of feeling and sensitivity.
Performance Highlights
Kim’s first creative job was as a dancer in a film doing a rock/rock routine known as S.W.A.T. created by well-known dancers Papo & Jr. out of Brooklyn. Kim sang her original songs in front of over 5000 Vietnam Veterans in a show along with major members of the Doobie Brothers, including Keith Knudsen and John McFee, plus Jack Mack and the Heart Attack and Tommy Tutone. When she was 17, Kim performed the female lead in a Jay Livingston Broadway Backers Show in front of Gene Kelly and Marge Champion opposite Jesse White, William Schallert, and Teddy Wilson. Kim performed as a session singer for commercials and recording projects. She also did Television and stage work. She had sold out performances at well-known Los Angeles clubs.
Extensive Training
Kim’s vocal training has been substantive with Seth Riggs (Michael Jackson, Natalie Cole, Bette Midler, Stevie Wonder), Poul Thomsen (Caruso’s Technique), and Jeanette Goldenberg of Tin Pan Alley (Frank Sinatra’s coach). Her dance training was with Joe Tremaine and at such well-known schools as Roland Dupree Dance Academy and Academy West. Her acting training included studies with Peggy Feury at the Loft, Lieux Dressler’s Patio Playhouse, The Film Industry Workshop (at CBS Studio Center – Radford Studios), Sandra Knight, and USC Drama School. She attended and completed David Craig’s Musical Theatre Workshop, Robert McKee’s Story Structure Workshop and a Voice-over Workshop with Don Pitts. Kim completed an extensive Film Workshop with Eric Sherman regarding every aspect of Film Production – Producing, Directing, Screenwriting, Cinematography, Editing, & Business Concerns.
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