Michael D Malone

When I was a young boy, I was quite the loner. I loved animals of all kinds and spent my days attending various dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, even a squirrel monkey. At times I bonded with each and preferred their companionship more than that of people. There were some unfortunate, hurtful and damaging situations that I attribute to this. I would prefer not to explain them for public consumption, but these events shaped me into the person that I am experiencing now.

Music, animals, and gardening, learning to attend to plants and taking care of them. Swimming daily is a treasured activity. I am a voracious reader with more books to read than time enough to read them all. I enjoy sketching and water coloring my own creations. I was told as a child that I was quite talented, but did not recognize this quality, considering myself no more talented than anyone else.

My homelife, may God graciously bless my parents, was tumultuous-even scary at times. I had and continue to have an exceptionally strong bond with my sister. Our parents always kept us as their highest priority and sacrificed all to provide us with love and care. As children, I felt a need to protect my sister from the scary parts of our childhood, perceiving her to be vulnerable, though she was strong and creative herself. I would make up stories and tell them to her when I was afraid myself. It was helpful. She and my brother have developed wonderful close relationships over time, and love spending as much time with them as possible. My daughter, for whom this book was created, is my greatest inspiration.

During the summers, we often visited by mother’s mother, Daisy, who taught me to cook, how to appreciate animals, gardening, and in the development of spiritual and moral values. She taught me how to feed and sustain these qualities. Above all, she taught me love, respect, gratitude, and taking care of others as we would like to be cared for. Many of her qualities were inspiration to the heroine of the Mousetree Tales, “Addie”. She was also an inspiration for the character, “Daisy”, also known as “Grannymouse” to “Mirelda”. Many other characters were inspired by family, friends, and people I have had the honor of meeting.

I love music of every genre and listen to it constantly. Music soothes my spirit and stimulates my curiosity and creativity. I prefer a quiet country life over the city. I do have an exceptional access to all the wonderful events, concerts, theater, botanical gardens, great museums and restaurants as I choose. I like to feel that I am just far away enough from the city to occasionally visit to enjoy the offerings of the city but am quite satisfied to stay at home with my wife, my daughter, families and close friends. We enjoy stargazing in the clear dark night skies of Granbury, where we live atop a wooded hill overlooking the confluence of the Brazos River and Lake Granbury. We are blessed with a multitude of deer, raccoons, many feral “thrown away” cats, and other wildlife. We witness magnificent sunrises and sunsets daily. I suppose that I am easily entertained, and I am quite satisfied with that.

I encourage everyone to stop, and quietly observe their surroundings, and to listen to the words and ideas of others. Watch their actions and interactions with others without judgment. Develop your imagination and record your thoughts and words and those of others you observe. The thoughts and words of others are fascinating and impactful, sometimes worrisome, and usually interesting. You will likely learn from them.

Utilize your talents. Share them with others. Be cautious, but not fearful. Take the chances you are given with courage. Be grateful and express that through your words and actions. Love one another and live each day of your life like it is your last.

Amazingly, as a student in junior high school, I made a conscious decision to begin opening up and socializing with my peers and adults. I found that through more and more frequent conversation with them to be enlightening, enjoyable, and entertaining. Many of my fears of humans lifted and I fell in love with people. A huge burden was lifted with the realization and respect I developed toward the similarities and differences that others expressed. I became hungry for understanding and knowledge and found that I offered a teaching quality that came easily and valued learning more and more about ideas and varying philosophies without condescension and judgment, and I liked it.

Education and Work history:

I completed my high school education early and enrolled in the University of Texas at Arlington, majoring in psychology. Disenchanted with the then popular methods of psychological categorization and treatment, ending up delaying this pursuit for a more palatable major. I joined the work force with various jobs instead.

My first serious job was with National Screen Service in their Dallas Branch. National Screen Service was at that time the top movie advertising company in the United States, the Dallas branch serving a seven-state territory. An opening came up for a specialized representative for Paramount Pictures. I applied, interviewed, and attained the position. Paramount was having a heyday with releases of blockbuster hits like “Saturday Night Fever”, “Grease”, “Urban Cowboy”, “Heaven Can Wait”, “Up in Smoke”, among many others. My job was to provide saturation and developing a strong association with theater owners and movie industry personnel. The job was exciting, and I did it well.

Desiring more money and challenges, I applied for a job with a major defense contractor in Dallas. I learned programming and taught myself to maneuver through immense data banks to formulate financial reports to support manufacturing contracts to satisfy proof of costs to support invoicing Boeing, Northrop Grumman, McDonnel Douglas, Vought Aerospace and Defense, as well as the US Government. I supported and assisted in audits and acted as an IT specialist for Manufacturing. The company issued the position of educator, sending me to other national sites to train employees in property management. I completed my new major in Business Management, earning a baccalaureate degree while working there.

During my job with Government and Commercial affairs, I joined the US Navy. I was rated Cryptologic Technician Interpretive (CTI). I was a member of the intelligence community and worked as an interpreter. Following a grueling immersion into Arabic, my wife and I were flown to Athens, Greece, where we lived on the Greek economy. I was always at the beck and call of the US Navy and its needs. I was supportive in numerous actions occurring in North Africa and the Middle East, highly combustible then, as it is now. The job and experience of living in Europe and visiting foreign countries was priceless. The job was intense, interesting, and scary at times. I was designated, once again, as an educator, titled, Education Petty Officer. I did my job, and I did it well. While there, my wife and I had the delight of the birth of our only child. She is my joy.

Assessing the perceived value of what I had accomplished so far, I decided to find a profession that I felt like might give back to people; one with a deeper meaning and purpose. I began working toward a baccalaureate in science in nursing and became a registered nurse. I specialized in critical care, testing out in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), and earning the title and responsibilities of Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN). I worked in ICU helping countless patients and their family members to heal, or to die with dignity and with the least pain and suffering I could muster. The communications I experienced were priceless, and yes, so very meaningful, purposeful, and spirit building. All the compassion and empathy I learned as a child taking care of animals and plants brought me through this invaluable experience with success and recognition. I was assigned the most difficult patients and family dynamics because of the perceived high level of empathy, compassion, and ability to effectively communicate with my patients and family members. I was assigned to precept countless new nurses and nurses new to the hospital. I pray that I did it all well. I now love people passionately.

My experiences with “teaching” were recognized by my peers, coworkers and management, when I didn’t recognize it myself. The role of teacher, with my daughter, with my employment management using this quality to assist others in learning about people, our responsibilities of others to care for one another, and to love.

Tragically, my dear father passed away in a rather ineptly managed dying process during COVID 19 in 2019. He was neither a patient at my hospital, nor did he die from COVID. I assisted, or “butted in” to his hospital care, but he was unnecessarily allowed to suffer up to his dying day. Unfortunately, I was the one to educate the surrounding family and friends in the steps of his dying as we watched and held his hands as I directed the actions of medical personnel to his demise. I miss him terribly.

My mother, a victim of the horrific Alzheimer’s dementia, passed away alone in a nursing home in 2020. She was a beautiful, wonderful woman who read to me daily, inspiring me to read and get lost in a story. In my youth, she was tormented by an undiagnosed bipolar condition. She tried her best and loved her children above all. I love her dearly and miss her immensely.

Mousetree The Beginning Book One is an attempt to share a tale of loss, growth, inexplicable meanness of some, compared to the divine “goodness” and giving of others. In the book’s publication, the acknowledgements intended to be included, were unfortunately not. They are needed.