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Vivian Greene

Author, Artist, Speaker, Entrepreneur | All that is real is seen with the heart ®

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Tag: Mourning Glory

Love is The Greatest Healer. This video is such a beautiful example. No wonder it was the winner at the Cannes Film Festival in France.Without a word, it is my favorite film of my entire collection. It is such a moving example of the theme of all my work, “All that is real is seen with the heart.® And what is more moving… than children, and love.

I wrote about Pink, playfully teasing General Mills, bless their hearts, to give even more money than the generous $2 million dollars they just donated for breast cancer research.

I hope to help with my Kisses™ characters, which not only adorn anything you might see with a comic friend like Mickey Mouse or Snoopy on it, but Kisses™ angels are what we call “endearing advocates,” designed to make a difference in the world. I have a rich background in design, marketing, character merchandising and fundraising.

Here is the reason this is so important to me:

I have friends who did not survive cancer. I know women who are warriors and have certainly beat the odds — yet going through “the war” was so challenging, for them and for me and all who care for them.

Here is a saying I’ve shared in my book GOOD MOURNING and audio tape, RELAX:

We can love without suffering for those we love.

and another…

Your own happiness is the greatest gift you can give to another.

However, like overcoming illness or pain, it is easier said than done.

Love is The Greatest Healer.

This was a poem I wrote, initially as a gift for my friend, therapy for myself. Little did I know it would spawn my first book of poetry, GOOD MOURNING, What Death Teaches Us About Life, and then MOURNING GLORY, Love Lives Forever.

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I called my friend, Mildred
and she told me her husband,
her partner for forty-two years,
the man she loves
has cancer
and it is terminal.

I know what it feels like
although it took me many years
to feel it
after my best friend
was told he had six months to live
and left, I thought, until I realized
how much he taught me, before, and now,
and that our relationship never left
love cannot die
and only the cancer was terminal.

~ Vivian Greene

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…with gratitude to SU2C (Stand Up to Cancer) and their supporters including Amgen, AARP, Bloomberg Philanthropies, GlaxoSmithKline, Revlon, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Wallis Annenberg & The Annenberg Foundation, Alliance for Global Good, New York Giants, Milken Family Foundation, Philips Electronics, Steve Tisch, The Island Def Jam Music Group and many others.

In addition to ABC, CBS and NBC, SU2C major media partners include AOL, Condé Nast Media Group, eBay Inc., Facebook, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Hearst Corporation, Los Angeles Times, Meredith Corporation, The New York Times Company, Time Inc and WebMD.

…and heartfelt appreciation to St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a non-profit organization that raises funds for childhood cancer research. In 2009 research grants and other awards totaled $11.5 million.

Fellowship winners include:

Scholar Awards went to:

Research grants went to:

Another $5 million in cooperative research funding was given to the Children’s Oncology Group and labs used by that group’s 200 member institutions, the foundation said.

Email Chris Rauber at crauber@bizjournals.com
(415) 288-4946

And above all, you who care. May there be more films of the this caliber, poetry, art, and
little sisters who share their hair.

 

Love is The Greatest Healer.

Vivian Greene
Invest In Love inc
“All that is real is seen with the heart.”


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© 2009 – 2011, Vivian Greene. All rights reserved.

Literary FeastI’ve had the pleasure to help a lot of literary campaigns. I’ve been writing since I could hold a pencil, and how I loved to read the moment I discovered books.

I also love to eat. Doesn’t everyone? So when I was asked to help benefit a vital lifelong literacy campaign in the Pacific Northwest, with a very novel (pun intended) program called Literary Feast, I immediately agreed.

Yes, there are thousands of children, and families, who lack the educational resources to read, succeed in school, operate a computer, or find a better job.

Well, we all need to eat and read. Elliot Wolf from Classic Day Publishing came up with a very unique and fun way for the King County Library System Foundation to support its innovative literacy and learning progams — Literary Feast: The Famous Authors Cookbook.

It’s a fascinating book of favorite recipes by your favorite authors ranging from Christmas Cream Puffs to Chicken Amondrata to Dan Greenberg’s canned ravioli. It is available through The King County Library System Foundation web site at www.KCLS.org/foundation or order directly at www.thriftbooks.com.

Since my comic strip features Rotunda, the President of Weight Wishers, we put together a little something different. Here is an excerpt from Literary Feast: The Famous Author’s Cookbook.

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Copyright © 2009 by Classic Day Publishing

When Vivian Greene asserts everything in life is a gift, it’s not out of naiveté. The creator of Kisses™, a popular syndicated comic strip and books, has maintained an appreciative spirit while moving through a great deal of loss in her life. She lost long-time love Toby Stone to cancer. She lost 18 years’ worth of work when Hurricane Andrew hit her Florida headquarters. And, she lost virtually all of her remaining possessions in shipping them to Hawaii. Her response? “I’m infinitely resilient. I have so much love in my life. Unconditional love is all that really matters.”

Not that it has been easy. She has a blessing to show for each loss. Greene, who launched her cartoon character Kisses™ in 1971, used what she learned from Stone’s life and death to write Good Mourning, a book on grieving, followed recently with Mourning Glory.

When Hurricane Andrew wiped out the business that had put her into the millionaire ranks at age 26, she saw it as an opportunity to head in another direction. “I said, ‘I’m just going to go to Hawaii to do this.’ “ And the personal property loss has given her new insight into the generosity of others around her.

“The kindness I receive is absolutely priceless,” acknowledges Greene. “What I’ve really learned is nobody can take away what’s really mine. My favorite recipe, like Rotunda’s, is sharing the laughter and love and the theme of Kisses™, who’s eyes are covered because ‘All that is real is seen with the heart.’ “

ABOUT THE RECIPE:

“My favorite recipe is a recipe for success. It all began with cookies. Rotunda, the main character in my Kisses™ cards and comic strip loves cookies. She is the President of Weight Wishers, and has a secret to dieting worthy of Oprah’s highest award. Even if all Rotunda’s diets don’t work, she looks the same after 30 years.” ~Vivian Greene

Rotunda’s Philosophy is if you eat something you really, really love, you get so excited you burn up all the calories.

Literary Feast

Rotunda put her photo on the refrigerator door as a Diet Reminder. And every time she opened the refrigerator she smiled, even if she didn’t diet – because she looked so happy in the picture.

“You are what you eat, ” her brother warned her.

“Oh,” blushed Rotunda, “You mean I’m your little cookie?”


Literary Feast: The Famous Author’s Cookbook
Copyright © 2009 by Classic Day Publishing, Compiled by Terry J. LaBrue, APR
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Vivian Greene

Invest In Love inc
“All that is real is seen with the heart.”

© 2009 – 2011, Vivian Greene. All rights reserved.