Pat Hanson
Parental Controls are Important for Grandparents
Parental Controls are Important for Grandparents Too! They can block series or movies like White Lotus or Voyeurs that are way too explicit about sex, gender, sexual identity and death and give misinformation that could give kids from toddlers to teenagers material that could encourage behaviors innappropriate and not in alignment with your family’s values.
...read moreBecoming Dr. Hanson & Mother Jones on the Same Day 40 years ago
It wasn’t until weeks after the baby was born and we’d settled into the reality of a live baby, of having a child, a future teenager, a de-pendent for the rest of our lives that we noticed the grimace on my husband’s face in the pictures he’d taken afteer he arrived at the hospital 25 […]
...read moreI like Funerals Better than Weddings … But there’s been far too many Recently
I first blogged this in 2018 after then Senator John McCain died. “I like funerals better than weddings because the odds of success (i.e. being in a better place permanently) are greater, and participants generally speak only well of the deceased. Today’s ceremony in Washington D.C.’s National Cathedral was spectacular! They say perfection is an […]
...read moreLet’s rethink the Pope’s stance on LGBT
At first he seemed accepting but recently he confirmed he would not officiate at gay marriages as those folks were “living in sin.” If sin means missing the mark he sure missed it and left many deserving people of all races and genders no way to be validated publicly and legally.
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Hacked on My Birthday … Beware
Hacked on my BIRTHDAY … I’ll Cry If I want To 1945 was a good year and the first of March my ‘mother Mary’ gave birth to me. I wanted to sing a different song today, maybe that song in the movie Alice in Wonderland ‘A Happy UN birthday to you, to you’ because it’s […]
...read moreWhat Oprah & I Know For Sure
• Aging Happens • Hair Today Gone Tomorrow for women as well as men • Take care of Yourself first; then help or serve others including children and grandchildren • The closest I get to being ‘out of space and time’ is not with mediations but with sex • Health matters …without it nothing matters […]
...read moreTalking with Kids of Any Age about Sex and Death
See the Current issue of Grand Magazine for my latest column on talking with Kids about Sex, it’s featured on the cover which holds the Table of Contents … but more important currently with all the mortality from Covid read my earlier article I wrote which focuses on death. TIPS FOR TALKING ABOUT GRIEF & […]
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We Will Get Through This
Less than 20 days more till ofthe travesty our “acting president” is out of office hopefully impeached and/or prevented from ever running for office again. I am not sorry to ‘get political’ because I believe in democracy and a two party system; but we need more people regardless of party persuasion up until now to […]
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Feminism Defined Over the Ages
Recently as I watched end of the year recommendations for me from social media, likely before nominations come out for The Golden Globes or the Oscars, I realized there have been a number of excellent TV series or films that define feminism and its her/story. The advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the […]
...read moreA New Interpretation of Genius.
Could my father’s calling himself ‘Daddy the genius’ have spiritual significance? I hardly remember even one instance of his going to church. It was my mother Mary who took us to Catholic mass and prepared us for Sunday school where we didn’t read the bible but had to memorize answers to Catechism questions about father, […]
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Pope’s Call on Everything is Now Very Complicated
Pope Francis has it right on some issues but will be besieged by more questions now that there is a very Catholic Supreme Court Justice who by the way has seven children. Yes, he said when first appointed seven years ago in 2013 “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has […]
...read moreNightmare: Stuck in the Ghetto
Last night I woke dreaming I had was in a never-ending ghetto. I had ridden a bicycle there and gone inside a bakery for a pastry and left the bike outside but it was gone when I returned. My sister Joan had parked her car in a lot and got it out to help me […]
...read moreResources on Estrangement & Alienation 9_30_2020
RESOURCES FOR ALIENATED / ESTRANGED / PARENTS & GRANDPARENTSPat Hanson, Ph.D. pat@invisiblegrandparent.com 831-601-9195 Alienated Grandparents Anonymous, Inc. (AGA) www.aga-fl.org Find or start your own support group in your area. Tons of resources! Book: I Thought I Was the Only One: Grandparent Alienation: A Global Epidemic. © 2019 The Intermundia Press. Available at amazon.com. Dr. Joshua […]
...read moreMasks … Very Important Now & Long Ago
I wrote an article in 1994 when I was a Health and Human Sexuality professor at a CA state college. It is still relevant today 26 years later. We have all learned to use a variety of disguises to keep who we are from being discovered by our friends, our lovers, and even ourselves. One […]
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Becoming Mother Jones & Doctor Hanson on the Same Day
First written for a novel with names changed by Jackie Wilkinson, Ph.D. (pseudonym for Pat Hanson)© 1994 From: Hopelessly Heterosexual? … Memoir of An Aging But Not Fading Sex Educator It wasn’t until weeks after the baby was born and we’d settled into the reality of a live baby, of having a child, a future […]
...read moreGlad I Didn’t Pay Megabucks to See Hamilton
I found that musical difficult to watch. The costumes and dancing and singing in this 2 1/2 hour spectacle were wonderful; but my husband and I had to keep looking up the real history of that period to ‘get’ it all. Jefferson was played as a fool, and Hamilton’s affairs while married fascinating, but I […]
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Fireworks Aficionado, but not Today
I wrote this poem first in 2004and posted it again in 2019. It is more relevant than ever today in 2020. Pray for PEACE!! Fireworks Aficionado by Pat Hanson We’re fireworks aficionadosMy significant equal and I‘saw the millennium spectacle in 1999 with half a million on Washington, DC’s mall Marked the 4th of 2000 ‘cross […]
...read moreSafe Sex During a Pandemic
Reach Out and Touch Yourself This was first published in 1988 during the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and edited slightly has great implications for those sequestering today due to the co-vid pandemic. Back then I wanted to capture the essence of telephone sex orgasms. Orgasms by air. Visions of clitoral plums dancing in one’s […]
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We are Grapefruit Aficionados in our Daily Breakfast in Bed
I am so great-full to be sequestering with my significant equal of 26+ years. And to live near Capitola Village Produce Market that my husband can shop safely at. He know how to pick the most savory and juicy by picking them up and noticing the skins. I don’t care if they are 99cents or […]
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Another Great Tribute to DADS
Get this great documentary “Dads. ” A celebration of fatherhood and the changing role of men, it’s directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, and costars her father, actor-director Ron Howard, plus at least a dozen other famous showbiz dads, including Will Smith, Hasan Minhaj, Patton Oswalt, and seemingly every major American late night TV host. The […]
...read moreFathers are Sacred Let’s Honor All Men who’ve Parented
Father’s Day is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year on June 19, and it all began when a young woman wanted to honor her dad. In May of 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Wash., sat in church listening to a Mother’s Day sermon and decided she wanted to designate a day for her dad, […]
...read more50 countries perform Amazing Grace
In a time of global pandemic the harmony from this worldwide combination of voices is heart-warming!
...read moreSupreme Court got it Right during LGBTQ Pride Week
Monday the U.S. Supreme Court issued an unexpectedly broad ruling that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — specifically, Title VII of the act, which prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of sex — bars employment discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. The court said Title VII also covers sexual orientation and […]
...read moreWhat the World Needs Now & All-ways: PeaceTrain
In these troubled times of sequestering from a worldwide virus my talented and motivated Santa Cruz county neighbors created this video … take a deep breath and enjoy it without multi-tasking.
...read moreA Memorial Day Bouquet
Today we honor veterans who have served our country living or dead. Our community usually has a garden tour and gives away new seedlings and cuttings to remind us that growth still happens even after great loss. These flowers are but one of many on a virtual garden tour in the community of Aromas, California. […]
...read moreMake a DONE List
Those of you who may be experiencing Zoom fatigue from wanting to sort all your back photos or cleaning closets while sequestering and you have all day long with nothing to do. You might like to try this version of what is to be done. MAKE A DONE LIST of things that you might’ve like […]
...read moreLet’s Make Kindness and Hope Contagious
I want to say thank you to all the people who walked into my life and made it outstanding, and all the people who walked out of my life and made it fantastic. Anonymous Today it is difficult to do anything anonymously when humanity all over the world, the entire planet, is reeling in […]
...read moreONE PLANET We know that now for Sure!
Yesterday I watched six hours of live performances from rock stars at the top of their A-game, many of them the age of my grandchildren (I’m 75). They sang their hearts out honoring the health care workers, package handlers and postal workers in ONE WORLD: TOGETHER AT HOME (globalcitizen.org). Today I want to fund a […]
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Easter & Passover Holy Week a New Thought Perspective
On this day Palm Sunday as a good Catholic little girl I learned this was holy week. Elders gave us little hand-made crosses from Palm fronds and reminded us of how Jesus walked through this week knowing in some way it would be his demise. Wednesday he’d be betrayed by Judas one of his disciples, […]
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It’s Holy Week Here is A New Thought Perspecticvec
On this day Palm Sunday as a good Catholic little girl I learned this was holy week. Elders gave us little hand-made crosses from Palm fronds and reminded us of how Jesus walked through this week knowing in some way it would be his demise. Wednesday he’d be betrayed by Judas one of his disciples, […]
...read moreThe Golden Globes 2020 – Best movies of 2019 or best and worst evening gowns?
The NEWS burst I get every morning led with a headline about Gwynth Paltrow’s see through dress, that frankly I hadn’t noticed. Upon finding it, it looked more like a dark brown peasant dress not the sultry zophtic dress that Selma Hayek wore that accentuated a new boob job that beauty certainly hadn’t needed. Kerry […]
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Forget Marriage Story it’s a How-to Divorce Epic
We’ve been watching movies up for The Golden Globes. Somehow Marriage Story got on my list, likely for the acting, hopefully not the screenplay, because this was a ‘how to’ split up angrily for the very privileged and also their way too rich attorneys. I want to promote intimacy and love and learning from your […]
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Happy Gratitude Month
May each of you with family near and far have a blessed gratitude month, not just one day with a feast. Here is a quote that is funny but true, Gratitude for Humor (Science of Mind Magazine Nov 2019 page 45) I want to say thank you to all the people who walked into my […]
...read moreGratitude is Happiness Doubled by Wonder
Tis the season to be thankful. In America we celebrate with a feast of harvest bounty with our families’ favorite fall foods: roasted turkey, bread stuffing, gravy, rutabagas or turnips, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and desserts like pumpkin or pecan pie. And no matter the hard or empty times we may have experienced: loss, death […]
...read moreGetting Through the Dark
When those of us who relish the warmth and light of summer days, and even the more oblique waning light days of autumn, feel the sunset after daylight savings time disappears and we move our clocks back one hour, some of us can get depressed. It is hard to look ahead almost three months to […]
...read morePlay House with Children, It’ll Help Later in Life!
Did you have a doll house as a child with a view inside to its rooms that you could fill with miniature everything from teacups in saucers, to pots and pans, furniture for bedrooms, living rooms and even bathrooms? Did you play set-up with boys as well as girls? I hope so, because sharing that […]
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A Series I Still Hate to Love: THE RANCH
Last night I watched what was supposed to be the finale final episode of Ashton Kutcher’s adult redneck soap opera, but in spite of father Beau’s and son Colt saying I love you to each other directly, it turned quite dark. It had such cliff-hanger questions unanswered that I wonder if it’s really over. I […]
...read moreNominate yourself or someone for Happy Grandma Week
Ladies and Gentle-men, we had a really good 2nd Monday Invisible Grandparent meeting and I hope to see you again on August 12th. Our mother organization that has 135 support groups in 50 states and 22 countries and in the 7 years it has been in operation 219 reconciliation stories, www.AGA-FL.org Here’s a message […]
...read moreA Message for PEACE on Independence Day
Fireworks Aficionado by Pat Hanson (July 4, 2004 & July 3, 2019) We’re fireworks aficionados My significant equal and I ‘saw the millennium spectacle in 1999 with half a million on Washington, DC’s mall Marked the 4th of 2000 ‘cross the river from Manhattan Island We revel in pop, crack, pound-your-heart outbursts scintillating luminosity Spiraling, […]
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Diversity in Custom Car Colors … All Shades Matter
I used to have a thing about red cars, because they are cop attractors. My travel agent has a memo when he books a rental for me ‘no red cars.’ I think it goes back to the short six months that as a 23-year old bleach blonde I owned a red Alfa Romea convertible sportscar […]
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EXHIBIT ON ISOLATION IN SENIORS
I just spent an hour very moved by a multi-media exhibit on Seniors and Isolation at the Santa Cruz County Museum of Art and History (MAH santacruzmah.org We’re Still Here. Experience what social isolation feels like in this powerful exhibition created by 186 seniors and advocates in our community). I will say it was depressing, […]
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A Post Mother’s Day Door Opening … 2019
After all these years I just got to view pictures of my granddaughter who is now 17 that I haven’t seen since she was four. Monthly I run an Invisible Alienated Estranged Grandparents Support Group for others who don’t get to see their grandkids for a myriad of reasons … but today I need it […]
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A Series I Hate to Love: THE RANCH
… is the musical refrain of opening credits that follow an introduction to seven seasons of half hour episodes of Ashton Kutcher’s adult redneck soap opera. I didn’t binge watch more than two or three at a time but was addicted to this show for the many weeks it took me to get them all. […]
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Let’s Honor All Parents on Mother’s Day
“Oh the places your kids will take you …” It takes courage, patience an determination to welcome a child, a potential adult to this world. Yes those sweet early moments nurturing and nourishing that new human to life are precious, whether they are part of your gene pool, adopted or gifted to you for complicated […]
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Blessed Earth Day
Now that the Easter bunny, especially The Country Bunny with the Little Gold shoes is resting after bringing delights to us all; it is time to remember to count all of our blessings especially for the great planet Earth we live on and to do things that will keep her healthy and thriving. Start with […]
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Grace & Frankie … Older, Closer but not Admitting It
All too real Look at Aging & Friendship I’ve loved this Amazon series since its beginning season in 2015. Silly yet serious stereotypical same sex stuff between men, and relationships that deepen as two newly ‘single’ women are thrown to live together in a beach house in LaJolla CA. We finished binging season and I […]
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My favorite octogenarian RBG!
May my favorite octogenarian and American icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg live long and prosper! If you haven’t seen the Oscar nominated Amazon Prime and I-tunes documentary ‘RBG” get it immediately. I haven’t seen “On the Basis of Sex” still in theatres, but heard it was equally great. Her ferocious campaign for equal rights for women […]
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Feminists Marching Again, Here’s the History
Watch the Netflix documentary Feminists: What Were They Thinking? for the five decade her/story of why women marched in the first place, and how very important it is now. It’s time to march again. On January 19, 2019, we’re going to flood the streets of Washington, D.C., and cities across the globe. The #WomensWave is […]
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DISIDERATA … a historic poem for starting a New Yeafr
“Desiderata” (Latin: “desired things”) is a 1927 prose poem by American writer Max Ehrmann. Largely unknown in the author’s lifetime, its use in devotional and spoken-word recordings in 1971 and 1972 called it to the attention of the world. Desiderata Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in […]
...read moreMake this season ‘virtual,’ & it can still be ‘Merry’!
Here’s a true story I write two decades ago … Happy Holidays from Pat … VIRTUAL CHRISTMAS In A Miracle Under the Tree: Real Stories of Hope, Faith and the True Meaning of Christmas © Harlequin 2012 By Pat Hanson www.invisiblegrandparent.com Facebook.com/Stillness My […]
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BETTER THAN ON BROADWAY: Watch Bruce Springsteen free on Netflix!
Bruce, the “man,” just finished a sold out six-week solo performance in New York city’s Springsteen on Broadway. Those who were able to get tickets for hundreds of dollars had to squint from their seats to see that jaw, that face, and hear that voice melodically put his powerful message before them. But thanks to […]
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A SAD MANIFESTATION OF IMPERMANENCE -November 9, 2018
I am playing the Phil Collins song “Another Day in Paradise” … as I write this. There is no way to know how many of 30,000 heeded the evacuation calls only to discover that there is no town they lived in to return to. My prayers go out to all affected. All we have is […]
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HOUSE OF CARDS BACK FOR IT’S FINAL SEASON … could any of it ever be true?
Yes, and my husband and I needing our sleep at our age, have binge watched on Netflix all but three of its nightmare producing final eight episodes. No coincidence this award winning series was released during election week. Robin White as executive producer works with a stellar writing team that differs for each dark episode […]
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Jane Fonda Still Pushing Forward
September 25, 2018 One of my s/heroes has just released her history (her/story) as an HBO film: JANE FONDA IN FIVE ACTS. No accident this coincides with my continued writing of my own memoir In Search of a Significant Equal. There are so many similarities to my own life that parallel Jane’s 1985 autobiography My […]
...read moreIt’s Grandparents Day …
Here is how Hillside Church in Atlanta celebrated it in a daily meditation. Whether you can be with your descendants or not, send them vibrations of love and empowerment. Friday, September 7, 2018 I AM GRATEFUL FOR GRANDPARENTS Grandparents shower love that is almost beyond words. Simply put, they reveal the face of God in […]
...read moreShameless Self-Promotion
Header: New Book & Free Gifts Dear Reader : My latest book is now available! I am sharing a limited offer with you for doing me the favor of writing a registered review. My memoir, In Search of Stillness: My Final Frontier published by Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, Inc., details with candor […]
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May John McCain’s Funeral Unite US All
I like funerals better than weddings because the odds of success (i.e. being in a better place permanently) are greater, and participants generally speak only well of the deceased. Today’s ceremony in Washington D.C.’s National Cathedral was spectacular! They say perfection is an illusion, but this meticulously planned event was the best one I’ve attended […]
...read moreW IS FOR WELCOME: A Celebration of America’s Diversity
This an important book from a friend and prolific local author … support it and him, we need this message now. Thank you again for your support for our “Dump Trump” book on Kickstarter during the 2016 election. It’s been a LONG two years, but I wanted you know that I continue to try to […]
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Poetry for Estranged Parents & Grandparents
A MISSING CHILD – JESSICA VALDEZ A missing child I never knew a broken heart could keep on breaking. You keep on sending your love, but no one’s there to take it. Rivers of tears keep a steady flow… But no one’s there to know. You who I want to see… All of what […]
...read moreGlorious Women Never Age (???)
We all age … what we need is a way to get used to it.
...read moreA Good Way to Celebrate Mother’s Day even for the Estranged
Just letting you know about “My Mother’s Keeper”—play at the Cherry now thru May 27. It deals directly with the topic of grandparenting—great humor and many heartfelt moments! Sun. 2pm matinee plus Fri & Sat. 7:30. I’m going to the 2pm Sunday the 13th Mother’s Day, get your tickets and I’ll see you there: My […]
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TALKING WITH KIDS ABOUT GENDER
I am proud to direct you to my newest article in GRANDmagazine.com http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20180506/index.php#/3 – be sure to look to the top of THE TABLE OF CONTENTS for a great image of talking with kids about gender and click the read more for some suggestions on the next page. Electronic reading takes some nimble skills but […]
...read moreWhat Would Martin Luther King Say?
It was PEACE that MLK is heralded for. Yes MLK would honor all non-violent paths to it.
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A Blue Moon Burning Bowl Ceremony for 2017
A blue moon burning bowl ceremony for exiting 2017 and welcoming 2018. There have been two full moons in the month of December and in March of 2018 two more. A … See More Blue Moon Wallpapers WallpaperCave is an online community of desktop wallpapers enthusiasts. Join now to share and explore tons of collections […]
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Another Invisible Birthday
… your biological dad cries remembering your birthday every year.
...read moreOur Souls at Night … Go!
I highly recommend a just out Netfllx movie starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda acting but not looking their age, 81 and 79 respectively. They exquisitely depict neighbors who make a quite radical agreement to transcend loneliness in a geographically gorgeous Colorado town. Robert Ebert gave it thumbs up applauding the humor which ‘avoids the […]
...read moreA Fond Farewell to an Ageless Mentor: Louise Hay
Louise Hay was an amazing woman whose message of self-love and acceptance empowered millions.
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Send a Mother’s Day Card to YourSelf
Send a Mother’s Day card to yourSelf … the one you’d love to see from any child, adult or institution that is keeping you from being close to those important young people you’d love to nourish more. Here are some from my Invisible/Alienated Grandparent Support Group I run for www.aga-fl.org.
...read moreEaster Week Wisdom
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE All I need to know I learned from the Easter Bunny! Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Everyone needs a friend who is all ears. There’s no such thing as too much candy. All work and no play can make you a basket case. A cute tail attracts a lot […]
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It’s Not About Profits … It’s connections.
“We’re exhausted, just come back from a weekend of babysitting our two and four-year-old grandkids and we’re so tired we can’t believe we ever did this 24/7. It rubs the fact in that we’re old! We can’t do this very often. Right now we’re resting in invisibility.”
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Grace & Frankie a Hilarious yet Solemn Look at Aging
I’ve loved this Amazon series since its beginning season in 2015. Silly yet serious stereotypical same sex stuff between men, and relationships that deepen as two newly ‘single’ women are thrown to live together in Malibu California. Beautiful Jane Fonda at 79 is playing straight business like Grace at 73, and hippie dippy Lily Tomlin […]
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Write Yourself a Valentine
Write yourself a Valentine! Yesterday in my Alienated Grandparents Anonymous (aga-fl.org) support group after updating each other on our “stories” we imagined and wrote a love letter to ourselves from the persons (adult children, grandkids) we felt the most estranged from, as if in the best of all possible worlds good had happened. It was […]
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When is Enough, Enough? Rain & Snow I Mean
Is this wondrous rain the trees and plants need here in CA, enough? Roads are blocked here with mudslides and uprooted trees, and at China Peak/Shaver Lake where my son and wife and live and work managing 120 condos this is what it looks like. I’m blessed to live on the Central Coast where it […]
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FROM INVISIBLE TO VISIBLE .. DELICOUS & EXHAUSTING
This in-person grandparenting is exhausting and delight-full.
This in-person grandparenting is exhausting and delight-full.
This in-person grandparenting is exhausting and delight-full.
This in-person grandparenting is exhausting and delight-full.
In-person grandparenting is exhausting AND delight-full.
Barbara Boxer in Person! The Art of Tough
I saw Barbara Boxer Tuesday at a benefit for Planned Parenthood and 44th anniversary Roe/Wade … did you know that only 4% of what that org founded by Margaret Sanger a century ago does is abortions? Mainly is preventive health care for low income women. She urged all of us on different issues work together […]
...read moreLA LA LAND … A Valentine to Los Angeles and Love
I know why LA LA LAND walked away, no, ran away with so many of The Golden Globes Awards. It was a musical with all of the elements of classic Ginger Rogers/Bing Crosby dancing, set in current time Los Angel-ese, with fantastic acting, costumes, cinematography and story line. It was a love story in which […]
...read moreWhat Got to Me Most at the Golden Globes?
I watch the Globes for a preview of films I must get to before the Oscars … yet this year I was distracted.
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A Baby Blessing for the New Year
Now as we face the unknown, witness the ‘welcome to the world’ we all should repeat for all we are passing the baton to.
...read moreMore Important than ever: Wear Purple Today
After a shocking election in which the electoral system placed not the first woman in the White House, but a dangerously unstable man with a history of degrading not only women but races, religions and the environment; I am reminded of the blog I wrote as a letter to my grandchildren in Nov 2012. In […]
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“I love you, man.” Bromance in my face is O.K.
Note: I performed this at an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute class to many laughs & nods. Comments appreciated. “David may call, all right if we talk tonight? He needs to talk,” my husband asked. “Sure,” I said, “go ahead, and call your boyfriend. I’ll play with food. Dinner’ll take 45 minutes at least. Oh, and […]
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Grandmother YourSelf today!
Comma’s save lives, chuckle chuckle. Today is the day for fond remembrances of all the good meals you may have had or heard about from your own ancestors … and to “Grandmother Yourself.” Take each day like it is a special birthday and give yourself special treats only an understanding grandmother could provide. Honor your […]
...read moreSEPT 11th IS NATIONAL GRANDPARENTS DAY BUT SOME WILL MISS OUT
Each September some 70 million American grandparents celebrate National Grandparents’ Day, but countless numbers will not because they are alienated or estranged from their adult children and thus their grandkids.
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First Woman President: About Time!
July 28, 2016 First Woman President: About TIME! Dear Annie: It’s sad that at 14 I have no idea how political your family is, or how your teachers are addressing this important election year, if at all. Did you watch any of the Democrat National Convention (DNC) on TV? I couldn’t bear to watch the […]
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Make Birthday’s Special No Matter What the Age
May all of you approach your birth-days with love for your selves first, then those close and far.
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‘GRANDMOTHER YOURSELF’ WITH PEACE THIS MOTHER’S DAY
This is Maxine, my 89-year-old mother-in-law, at her second-born son’s fourth wedding this week. Probably three-fourths of those pictured on the rock are descendant from her gene pool. You can tell from all the faces how much love she’s passed on. I once asked her if she’d help me draw a family tree. She replied […]
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Boycott Beyonce!
April 26, 2016 Dear Annie: As I was surfing the TV dials the other night I came across a new video-concert special by Beyonce called “Lemonade.” Now I’ve heard her music and liked some of it, but don’t watch music videos much and hadn’t seen more than fleeting images of her body. Well the first […]
...read moreWomen on Dollar Bills … Finally
April 21, 2016 Dear Annie, You’ve probably handled many dollar bills with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and other “founding fathers” of the great country we live on them. Well, finally women are going to be featured on the money we and everyone else who lives in or visits the U.S. handles. […]
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Pat's Blog, Perspectives and Values
Dear Fourteen Year Old Annie!
I have been remiss in writing and posting letters to you. Ten years have gone by since I last saw you and first started writing and saving letters. I just came across my favorite picture of you from when you were just one in my jewelry box. How sad that time and distance and the […]
...read moreBook Review Erica Jong’s: Fear of Dying
How did I not hear that Erica Jong’s 10th novel Fear of Dying has been out since September? In 1973 when I was 28 and single in New York City, her Fear of Flying was pivotal to my professional development as a sex educator, writer and more importantly my search for intimacy for four decades. […]
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It’s Time for Virtual Christmas Giving
Happy Holidays … VIRTUAL CHRISTMAS by Pat Hanson, Ph.D. © A Miracle Under the Tree: Real Stories of Hope, Faith and the True Meaning of Christmas – Harlequin 2012 I prefer Halloween to Christmas. You have an excuse for putting on a mask, can dress up any way you’d like, and pretend. Soon after, […]
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A Baby Blessing the World’s Children Need Now
VERY VISIBLE GRANDPARENTING – A Live Streamed Baby Blessing Sunday I stood on the stage of our church facing 100 + people, their palms outstretched toward my son, his wife, 14 month Sierra and my husband and I holding a laminated picture of five month old Ivan who lives on the East coast. His parents […]
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Happy Birthday Annie!
October 24th and you are 14 years old. I have no idea what you look like as a young woman or how comfortable or happy you are with school, your friends, your sisters and family. Since all I can do right now is just imagine what kind of celebration you had, today in honor of […]
...read moreGRAND Magazine features we IGs – Submit Your Stories
I have been asked to be a regular columnist for GRAND Magazine that is celebrating its 11th birthday today. Please check out this lively informative magazine and log-in for your free subscription to this first issue; and by all means subscribe. I’m honored to be on their team. We are looking for Invisible Grandparents of […]
...read moreBook Promotion: It May not be about Profits; It’s all About Connections
JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT MEETING-http://www.trivalleywriters.org/ Sept. 19, 2015: Promotion, Let’s Count the Ways. WARNING! It May Not Equal Profit: It’s All About Connection Dr. Pat Hanson – www.invisiblegradparent.com is a seasoned health and human sexuality educator, public speaker, workshop facilitator and writer residing on the Monterey Peninsula. Former co-chair of the Monterey/Santa Cruz chapter […]
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A Fireworks Aficionado Prays for Peace on 4th of July
Fireworks by Pat Hanson (July 4, 2004) We’re fireworks aficionados My significant equal and I ‘saw the millennium spectacle in 1999 with half a million on Washington, DC’s mall Marked the 4th of 2000 ‘cross the river from Manhattan Island We revel in pop, crack, pound-your-heart outbursts […]
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LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE “GOOD-DADS”
Every year in June we commemorate and honor the role those men seeded (literally) in our lives. All too often the other 364 days of the year, media harps on the minority of absentee, unavailable, deadbeat or even abusive fathers. But on this one day, and all days, we should remember to thank the ‘good […]
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June 14th, 2015 is the first Grandparent Alienation Awareness Day
Hear from experts on invisible, estranged and alienated grandparenting and learn how we are not alone, can heal and work together to advocate for grandparents rights.
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