Story is a powerful way to build compassion and bridge understanding between cultures. Story has the power to heal as well as teach.

Beyond Boundaries · Essays and Tidbits from Nancy Bo Flood

Walking for Water

April 30, 2019

In March, I received a note from UNICEF USA, with my favorite video about access to clean water. I thought immediately of my poem in Water Runs Through This Book (page 40). Every time I read it, I feel a sense of how real it is for this child, these women, that water is life. For so many children walking for water means no education, no chance to learn, to rest, to play.

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Laughter and Word Play

April 23, 2019

Try a limerick. Write one with a friend, laugh a little, giggle, piggle. Choose two words: for starters, try moon and spoon. Make a list of real and nonsense words that rhyme:  doom, gloom, room, boom, ploon, groom, stoom, ploom. The only rule is—have fun!  Poetry often makes us laugh!

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Earth

April 16, 2019

Ages ago, I began as a tiny grain of sand at the bottom of the sea. Millions of other sand crystals surrounded me. The ocean’s water pressed and pressed until we cemented into stone…sandstone! You began as one tiny cell, as small as a grain of sand.

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When Water Weeps

April 9, 2019

Crying and Healing.  Water lets us weep. Crying helps our bodies clean away stress.  Our tears contain the chemicals produced by sadness or stress. Or if you are a flamingo, a whale or an Indian elephant, your tears will excrete excess salt, minerals, or oils to keep your eyes clear and your body healthy.

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Water

April 2, 2019

What if you had to walk a mile for that glass of cold wonderful water…and when you finally got it, the water was warm, muddy, and with weird things floating in it? Yuck! Over a billion people on our earth spend most of their day walking for water. Some, especially girls, may spend their entire life walking for water.

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