Sharing Hope With the World

Hello, my name is Peggy McAloon. I’m an author, watercolor artist, retired Commercial Credit trainer, speaker, and conservationist. However, my greatest joy in life is my role as wife, mother, grandmother, and caregiver to a rescue dog and a new puppy. Today, my life is filled with hope. Join me, as I share that with you.

Welcome to my blog!

Sitting at my desk, looking out at the pines, I’m writing. I’m working on the third book in the “Lessons from Fiori” series and a mystery about a young reporter living in a lake cottage in Minnesota. The concept for the new book came to me in the 1980’s. I wanted to talk to Patty Wetterling to ask her if I could highlight Jacob’s disappearance. She is so gracious and gave me permission to mention him in my novel. I shed tears we all heard Jacob finally came home. Unfortunately, it’s not the outcome we had prayed for.  But, a mother was able to bury her son and bring him back to a place where she can visit and talk to him.

Elle Burton and the Reflective Portals and Missing are both available in Ebook, paperback, and Audible.

The Lessons from Fiori Series

Like most authors, I had one simple goal in mind when I wrote the “Lessons from Fiori” series. My goal is always to inspire kids to be kind, a lesson taught by my grandfather.

You have to agree on how important it is to empower children to stand up to bullying and abuse. I suffered both as a child and remember what it’s like to feel hopeless in a world you can’t control.

A Disability Changed Everything

A traumatic brain injury in the 1970’s taught me about the absolute terror of living in a world that offers no hope.

I have abandoned my earlier website, http://peggymcaloon.com to bring you this new one.

The first blog started out as a parenting site on the tougher issues of parenting kids who are hurting or in trouble. My readers made it quite clear there are very limited resources which offer the “Hope” that is so critical to our survival and success. Especially when faced with the social injustices children struggle to overcome.

The first two books in this series have both been awarded 5-Star ratings by Readers’ Favorite.

Reader’s Favorite Award Finalist – 2018

Writing the Series

I wrote Elle Burton and the Reflective Portals and Missing for kids 9+. One of the benefits of being an author is hearing from your fans. I’ve heard from many women abused as children, who have read the first book in this series and commented to me they found healing in Elle’s story. My intention to give hope to kids somehow created a book Moms and Grandma’s love too. I’m delighted so many moms have found healing in my words from their childhood traumas.

Cosmo Is Adopted

I never intended to publish the story of Cosmo, our little rescue dog. I wrote the story trying to touch the hearts of my newly adopted grandchildren. Their struggles with foster homes, loss, and fear are not all that different from the challenges Cosmo endured after his beloved owner died.

Cosmo was first sent to the pound, then a shelter picked him up and finally they moved him across the state to his new forever home. Like my grandchildren, he’d lost everything. I wrote the story in Powerpoint, using all the pictures we’d taken of Cosmo and his journey to belonging again and emailed it to my daughter-in-law.

She shared the story with the children. My grandson jumped up when the story ended and ran around the room, chanting, “Cosmo is Adopted!” over and over again. My granddaughter immediately went back to read the story again. Their parents urged me to consider publishing it to help all the kids in the foster system.

I began by contacting Catherine Gruener in Chicago. She agreed to read the story and write discussion questions parents/adults could use to open feelings communications with kids all over the country.

I’m proud of the result and if he could talk, I’m certain Cosmo would be delighted in the last copy. As a writer, it’s always been about helping kids like I was once…kids too afraid to find the help they so desperately need.

Cosmo Travels Across the Rainbow Bridge

I am very sad to share that Cosmo left us just before Christmas, 2018. He was a loving and wonderful companion. I find comfort in knowing he’s reunited with his original owner and is happy and home once again.

Challenges Drive Our Need to Discover Hope

I still struggle with the traumatic brain injury.

The doctors told me I would never work again. I believed them for five long years. They stole every ounce of hope I’d ever had from me.

When I became suicidal, I also became angry.

I decided to stop listening to the experts and find a way to regain my life so I could raise my two little boys. It became a goal to create my hope in the shadow of everyone’s lack of faith in me. Daily, I begged for a higher power who might be able to direct my recovery. I talk about my recovery in one of my blog posts.

So, today I travel, write, paint, and enjoy life. I retired from a lucrative position in the field of commercial credit.

Now it’s time for me to share the hope and courage it took me to make it through every bump in this road we call life. Walk with me on the path to renewed hope and lasting success!

Welcome to Peggy McAloon’s Hopeful World.

Hope is critical to our success in life.

My life has been a progression of both challenges and successes.

I will not tell you the path has been easy. It was often extremely painful. At times, the author you all call Peggy McAloon, wanted to give up and stop trying. Have you ever felt that way?

This website is devoted to those of you who have stumbled like me along life’s path. There are no absolute or perfect answers to anything.

The best we can do in this life is to believe in ourselves. It’s critical for us to share the inspiration we find in the hope it will help others.

Goals Were Simple

There were never any grandiose goals in my life. Mother demanded that our lives revolve around the activities at church. Religion was not just a primary activity for our family. It was a way of life. Faith provided a solid foundation of faith and hope as I endured childhood abuse. I loved to sit in our family pew at church and gaze up at the intricately stained glass windows that adorned the sanctuary. The glow of the morning sun through those windows glazed the congregation with streams of vibrant color. The colorful scene filled my very essence with assurances that the light would always shine down and protect me.

Find Hope in Your Dreams

As I grew and began to study the history of the world, I decided I wanted to travel someday to view some of the grand cathedrals of the world. The magic of the Sistine Chapel and the works of Michelangelo and Raphael overwhelmed my senses as I gazed at the pictures in our history books.  I dreamed of personally experiencing the wonders of the finest buildings ever erected to worship God. There was never a time I didn’t believe in Guardian Angels. I experienced miracles of faith. On a daily basis, I lived with the hope the dream would someday come true.

That dream brings me to this day. Looking to the north, I am standing in one of the most awe-inspiring cathedrals ever created. I can feel God in the very core of my soul, as I stand and drink in the colors. It is inconceivable that a mere mortal could ever create the colors in stained glass that bombard my senses here.

Cathedral in the Pines

There are greens so dark they very nearly dissolve into black at their core. Those incredibly dark greens filter into soft yellow tones as I gaze through the window. Every imaginable hue of yellow ochre and orange pigments glows in the rays of the rising sun. The horizon itself is ablaze with a crimson color so brilliant I’m forced to avert my eyes. It’s impossible to describe the array of colors etched across my field of vision. The hope of a brand new day that will bring me closer to my dreams is fresh and vibrant in my new awakening.

New Awakening

I am humbled as I realize that I have achieved one of my greatest dreams in life. The travel brochures I read made me believe my journey would start in Rome. I now suddenly understand that I just needed to open my mind and heart to my surroundings. The ultimate moment of goal achievement is here today, on the shores of a Wisconsin lake in God’s resplendent Cathedral of Nature.

It’s bewildering to me that I have never understood before this moment that the most spectacular of the houses of worship would be in the very landscape the Creator placed for me to discover. Perhaps being older isn’t such a bad thing. I’ve grown through the years and have come to respect so many things I took for granted throughout my life.

Hope Can Be Found in our Simple Surroundings

Fall in Wisconsin is an astounding spectacle of changing hues. The transmutation of colors in the maple, birch, and oak trees explode against a backdrop of stately pines and limestone cliffs. A rising sun provides another rich palette of crimson and gold, which reflects from the dancing surface of the quiet waves. Brilliance and beauty shimmer across the surface of the lake.

It’s at this moment I hear the first shot. I feel as if I have been catapulted from my serene worship of creation into the confusion of man’s innate ability to change the very essence of the air that I breathe.

The distant honking grows louder as I stare at the bay. Once again, I know as I watch the first Canadian goose emerge high above the treetops on the opposite shore that I will begin counting the birds.

Hope in Dedication

Peggy McAloon learned as a small child that geese mate forever. Unlike man, they choose only one mate for a lifetime. Yet again, as I view the V-shaped formation of birds over my rooftop, I count 15 birds. I’m convinced the hunter has taken down one of the group, leaving one bird alone and one goose down near the river opening.

How many times in life do we feel like the solitary goose?  Can You remember the times you feel so utterly alone you don’t know where to find the strength to get through the next few minutes?  I’ve always counted the geese as they make their migratory way north in the spring and back south in the fall. Somehow I understand that the formations in liquid flight will contain an unequal number of birds.

We Are Not Alone

Each time I count the birds, a part of my soul weeps for the solitary bird flying just slightly behind and off a perfect V-shaped flight formation. I can identify with the bird that flies alone because it is how I have felt so often during my life. It’s devastating to feel that kind of total alienation from love and comfort.

Hope in Life

My goal is to help you walk the path of life with renewed hope. No one should ever feel abandoned. The real message here is that others have walked a path very similar to yours. We aren’t alone on this journey. It’s possible to find hope and courage in each other’s stories. My goal is to bring you to the Peggy McAloon website anytime you feel hopeless. Join me when you need some encouragement and inspiration.

Walk with me!

One thing is undeniable: Peggy McAloon continues as a work in progress, driven by love, faith, and the constant inspiration of family and friends.

Peggy’s Hope 4U Comment Policy

Welcome to Peggy’s Hope 4U.

We’re glad you’re here and look forward to hearing what you have to say about finding hope in the face of abuse, bullying, disability, and loss—the topics we write about every week.

We encourage and foster comments, the essence of interactive blogging. On Peggy’s Hope 4U, the voice of the readers—you—is a vital part of the discussion and education that goes on here.

If you’d like to comment—and I hope you do—please take a moment to familiarize yourself with our guidelines.

Blog Comment Guidelines

—The Peggy’s Hope 4U editorial team reserves the right to edit or delete comments as we see fit, without explanation. Certain comments may not be posted or may be deleted after they are posted.

—Comments are encouraged that expand on an article’s premise and add something of value

—All opinions are welcome as long as they are expressed with respect and without personal attacks on other commenters, the author, or the staff of Peggy’s Hope 4U

—Any comments considered abusive or disrespectful, in the opinion of the editors, may be edited or deleted

—Please link to your own site by filling in the “Website” field when leaving a comment, not by adding promotional links within the comment itself

—Comments linked to sites deemed, in the sole discretion of the editors, to be inappropriate, will be deleted

—For any comment, we reserve the right to edit, delete, move, or mark it as spam. We also reserve the right to block any IP address that violates our comment policy from commenting, subscribing, or accessing The Book Designer.

—You are encouraged to use your real first name and email address in the comment form

—Although comments are not moderated, those with links usually need to be manually approved. Obvious attempts to promote your business, of whatever kind, are not allowed

In Addition-

—By posting a comment, you agree that your contribution is your own and that you take responsibility for it. You agree to hold Peggy’s Hope 4U, all article authors, and all other commenters harmless

—If we receive notice that a comment violates someone’s copyrighted information, the comment will be deleted and the commenter may be blocked from posting comments in the future.

—If for any reason, you would like us to delete a comment you’ve left here just let us know at peggyshope4u@yahoo.com and we’ll delete it

—Please leave comments that carry the conversation forward, or that ask a question relevant to the topic of the article

—Please don’t leave comments that demonstrate you didn’t read the article

—Ordinarily, We do not delete or censor comments, unless they contain off-topic rants; threats to us or other visitors; defamation in any form; racism of any kind; obscenities; they violate others’ copyrights or trademarks; or they are considered belligerent by the editors

If you have any questions on the comment policy, please let us know at peggyshope4u@yahoo.com