Simone Butler's Blog, page 2

Mrs. T, the Welsh wonder tortoise!

A 90-year-old tortoise named Mrs. T made world headlines in 2015 after her front legs were gnawed off by rats while she was hibernating in a garden shed.…

Things can go awry, often when you least expect it. You lose your job through no fault of your own. Someone you love gets deported and ends up in a foreign detention center.…

Not long ago, singer Julia Price was getting some exercise, running along her usual path down a Chicago street, when she heard an older man yelling – loudly enough for her to hear through her headphones – “Sexy lady, hey hey hey sexy lady!”…

In his seminal book Grist for the Mill, Ram Dass shared his experience of teaching meditation to prison inmates, including those on death row. He observed that the inmates condemned to die welcomed the teachings.…

During a particularly harsh Arctic winter in December 1984, native folks near the Bering Sea spotted over 2,000 beluga whales trapped by thick ice. Masses of frozen water were rapidly closing in on the mammals, squeezing them tightly together.…

Some years ago, writer Elizabeth Gilbert was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. As she recalled, “The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated – with one another, with the rainy, sleety weather, with the world itself.…

When Luna first held a snake as a young child, she fell in love with it. Over the years she’s admired and handled a wide variety of (even venomous!) snakes, with the expert guidance of folks at the San Diego Herpetological Society.…

Most people associate Whitney Houston with the iconic song “I Will Always Love You” (from her sexy 1992 movie The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner) which became a massive international hit. But Dolly Parton actually wrote the song in 1973 when, as a 22-year-old up-and-coming country singer, she was struggling with a professional breakup – not a romantic one.…

Susan Chernak McElroy was desperately seeking a miracle in her struggle against advanced cancer. In her deeply moving book, Animals as Teachers and Healers, the author recounts her experience being part of a support group in which 24 cancer patients danced, meditated, painted and chanted for a healing vision.…

As the holiday season of 1938 approached, Chicago-based Bob May wasn’t feeling very joyful. The 34-year-old ad writer for Montgomery Ward was exhausted and almost broke. His wife was bedridden, at the bitter end of a two-year battle with cancer, leaving Bob to look after their four-year-old, Barbara.…