Mused - the BellaOnline Literary Review - Winter Solstice 2014

The holiday seasons can often seem full of stress and angst, of crass commercialism and outright greed. But if you take the time to slow down, breathe in deeply, and listen, you can often hear the underlying messages of love, support, and peace. Mark Berkery astounds us, as always, with his glimpses into a tiny, often forgotten world of fragile, beautiful creatures. Christine Catalano expands our view to the delicate plants which keep us breathing. Poetry twines us in its rich language. Martha Landman sucks us into a world of pomegranates and goat’s milk, where herdsmen interlace with IEDs and hand grenades. Fiction creates fantasy worlds which call to our hearts. Lucy Gregg Muir takes us back to World War II where sick women huddled together on frigid porches, worried about their troops. The Non-Fiction gives us powerful glimpses into the burdens those around us shoulder. Lucy Gregg Muir touches us with her real-life admission of how she broke her thirteen-year-old daughter’s heart.