Letter from the publisher, Karen Cotton, praying for peace in the world and personally, too

This is a link to a family, in particular, a father and his toddler daughter, doing playtime.

In this video they’re pretending to be in a fast food drive through. He’s the lady cashier with fake plastic fingernails on his fingers that often fall off in his other videos … here have a laugh and click on it.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1EDZPZFB5w/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I think with the way the world is right now we all just need to laugh, smile and be kind to one another.

I was friends with Robin Williams when I was a teenager, around my daughter’s age, she’s 14 and I was 13 when I wrote my first letter to Robin.

He was incredibly funny, and even helped “Superman” actor, Christopher Reeves, laugh and smile after Reeves became paralyzed after falling off of a horse.

I wrote Robin shortly after I was diagnosed in December of 1989 with bipolar disorder at Primary Children’s Hospital after my parents’ divorce. I was devastated to learn that I had a “mental illness.”

Robin was very open about his mental health struggles in the press at the time of my diagnosis.

I found his fan mailing address in an address book for the stars at my local Sweetwater County Library in Green River, Wyoming, my hometown. So, I wrote him. We were penpals for a few years. In all I had four autographed photos from him.

To this day I still kick myself for not saving our letters back and forth to each other. The photos are in a collection in a museum. But, he was such an amazing comedian and actor. He was brilliant.

Robin improvised often, especially when he was doing the voice of the Genie in Disney’s “Alladin.”

Robin helped me through an incredibly hard time when we wrote those letters back and forth to each other.

When you are a teenager you’re already dealing with way too much.

For me it was periods (if you’re a girl), having a crush on a guy, thinking about what you want to do as a career when you grow up and are an adult, learning how to drive, dealing with peers, your weight, wearing the right brand of clothing, the right hair style, keeping up with trends etc. it’s so exhausting and then add on being diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Not fun at all.

Now at almost 50 years old, which I’m turning on April 5, which also happens to be on Easter this year, I personally have been through Hell on earth, especially lately, but I keep on swimming just like Dory from “Finding Nemo.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of chaos. Aren’t you all?

Just like John Lennon’s brilliant song, “Imagine.”

Here is “Imagine” you can listen to on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/rAn-AWXtHv0?si=W8NQ7bADhNb3Idlh

I pray for peace.

I pray that the wildfires cease, that wars end, that people who have enemies can be friends with them again, that countries who dislike each other can like each other and help each other, that diseases like cancer and every other disease is cured, and most importantly I pray for a better world for our children because this planet Earth that we all call home is ALL THAT WE HAVE!

We need to take very good care of it and each other. If not for ourselves do it for your children, and their children, or your nieces, nephews or a child maybe you’re sponsoring in another country.

So again, I pray for peace in everyone’s life, including my own.

First thing:

Delete your social media and get off your phone like the book I’ve been reading today which is, “How to Break Up with Your Phone: The Thirty Day Plan to Take Back Your Life,” by Catherine Anne Price.

https://catherineprice.com/screenlifebalance

Just do it!

Just like when Anne Hathaway’s character, Andrea, “Andy,” Sachs in the “Devil Wears Prada,” chucks her phone in the water fountain in Paris, Italy when it rang over and over again. Right after she got out of the car after her boss, Miranda Priestly, compared herself to Andy.

(Yes I cannot wait for the sequel! On May first! It’s coming out sooner than we know it. I really want that red popcorn bucket purse that’s trending on social media).

https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/the-devil-wears-prada-2

So, I would like to start by asking everyone when you wake up and read this article I’m writing, in honor of my beautiful friend, the late Robin Williams, do one kind act for someone:

Whether it’s holding the door open for a stranger, or buying groceries for the person in front of you,

or thanking a member of the military for serving our country,

or signing up to volunteer at a nursing home or a homeless shelter,

or buying a bouquet of a dozen roses and handing each rose out to complete strangers who may be frowning, or seem sad, just to be kind to them,

or giving a McDonald’s Happy Meal to the homeless person on the corner next to the restaraunt,

or going through your own closet and donate clothes today that you don’t wear anymore to someone who may not have any clothes,

or buying a Starbucks order for the car behind you that may have been sitting in line for a while, even if they’re angrily honking at you when you’re just trying to buy a bunch of coffee for your coworkers to give them to brighten their day, and you have a big order,

Or today just give a gift card to a friend or a random stranger,

Or help someone in need, or call your mom even though you rarely talk to her or maybe you had a bad fight a month ago, because you don’t know when you won’t be able to ever again ….

So please join me everyone in the world who reads the online portion of my magazine, because I do have worldwide readers according to the stats on here let’s start a kindness movement… keep kindness going for the rest of our lives.

This minute, this moment, and the next moment and then the next, forgive anyone who has tress passed against you, or hurt you, like “The Lord’s Prayer” says, many Christians recite it on Sunday, but how many actually live it?

So, live it, from this next breath you breathe, from this very moment forgive whoever has hurt you even forgive yourself, be kind, and let this song sink in that I listen to daily on my YouTube Playlist and I can one hundred percent relate to because I have so many regrets, but you have to keep on moving forward…

“What If” is by Matthew West, who truly is a gifted songwriter, a much, much better and gifted songwriter than I am.

I’m going to leave this here with his lyrics … let them sink in… and just be kind to one another.

Here are verbatim Matthew West’s lyrics to his song “What If”

“I’ve heard ’em say before to live just like you’re dying, yeah
Wish I could say that’s how I am, but I’d be lying, yeah
Lying in my bed at night one too many times, I’m thinking
What if, what if
My biggest fear is waking up to find what matters
Is miles away from what I spent my life chasing after
Is my story gonna have the same two words in every chapter
What if, what if
But last I checked this heart inside my chest
Is still beating
Well, I guess it’s not too late
What if today’s the only day I got
I don’t wanna waste it if it’s my last shot
Oh, no regrets, in the end
I wanna know I got no what ifs
I’m running ’til the road runs out
I’m lighting it up right here, right now
Oh, no regrets, in the end
I wanna know I got no what ifs, yeah
See, I refuse to be a should’a woulda coulda been
I can’t go back in time, I don’t have a DeLorean

What I’m trying to say is I don’t wanna say these words again

What if, what if

But last I checked this heart inside my chest

Is still beating

Well, I guess it’s not too late, no, no

What if today’s the only day I got

I don’t wanna waste it if it’s my last shot

Oh, no regrets, in the end

I wanna know I got no what ifs

I’m running ’til the road runs out

I’m lighting it up right here, right now

Oh, no regrets, in the end (yeah)

I wanna know I got no what ifs

I can see the clock is tickin’, and I’m tired of wasting my time

I’ma do it for today, so if tomorrow comes than I’m fine

Yeah, I’m far from perfect, I’ll be asking God to keep me in mind

And this life is shorter than we think, it’s really passin’ us by

I can’t be takin’ what’s going on for granted

And when it get hard you won’t see me panic

Went through the storm and came out with scars

But you don’t see me with no permanent damage

Yeah, this life is like a vapor, so go ahead and take advantage

Of what’s goin’ on now while you still got time to manage

What if today’s the only day I got? (I got it, got it)

I don’t wanna waste it if it’s my last shot

Oh, (let’s go) no regrets (no), in the end (in the end)

I wanna know I got no what ifs

I’m running ’til the road runs out (whoa)

I’m lighting it up right, here right now

Oh, no regrets (no regrets), in the end (in the end)

I wanna know I got no what ifs, yeah (let’s go)

….”

Here’s the official YouTube link:

https://youtu.be/Tt7dpZU6rUY?si=1ExPewiR2hCXJlQr