There's something to be said for Kitchen Table Wisdom - you know, like in the old days when people sat around the kitchen table after a meal and talked about life, the universe and the meaning of it all - as well as the gossip doing the rounds in town...

Well, that's what this place is - a place to share common wisdom, thoughts and feelings about things important and unimportant, that bring us joy, laughter and happiness and that trouble, sadden, confuse and anger us ...

What I write here is what's 'real' for me. It won't always be PC or 'nice'. We're missing out on true connection and chances to grow and change because there's too little authenticity, too little honesty, too much holding back what we really feel and mean.

Welcome to my world...

I used to have a copyright claim here, but I've removed it...

Ideas don't belong to anyone -

they come to those who are receptive and are to be used for the well being of all...

I find images and movies and music all over the web

and I use them to accent/expand on my thoughts and understandings...


If you feel you have experienced or received something of value in reading my posts,

please consider either:

Giving a Koha/Love Offering Here - Donate with WePay

or paying it forward to those who need

material and emotional/spiritual sustenance in this world...


Thank You


As You Think, So It Is - Your Beliefs Create Your Reality

If your Reality isn't Working for You, Create a New One!

Life Unlimited!


Namaste

(the Divine in me, recognises and honours the Divine in you)

Sahila




Friday, December 30, 2011

Out With The Old?



There's a flaw in my perception that I have known about for years and not been able to eradicate...

Somehow, somewhere I have come to believe that everything will change/get better once realisation occurs...

Or after an energetically special time (like Solstice/Yule/Christmas/New Year)...

And I ALWAYS have to deal with the disappointment that things have not magically transformed...

Or at least not in any discernible way in that time frame...

And then its back to dealing with the reality of the chaos we are creating/living through on the way to a new pattern in the kaleidoscope of life...
 

Russ offered: " It's been my experience that even broken bones once set properly and healing correctly still hurt and the change is imperceptible for a time! Just remember that even seeds of change need time to grow!" 
 
And Doug sent me these words and this clip:
"Halfway into the third part of this very informative presentation, this segment examines exactly what you're talking about. And after years of feeling this way, this clip finally helped be break this mental pattern. Highly recommended watch."

 
 

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Christmas Arrived Early In Seattle...


I've already got my Christmas present,


as have many Seattle public education advocates:

"Seattle scores victory over GATES and BROAD; evicts education deformist superintendent, kicks out/dumps two education deform puppet school board directors and the deformist interim super resigns rather than having to compete for her job against other qualified applicants in an open search..."

Not a bad score for the second half of this year...

Get rid of Teach For America and MAP standardised testing and kill charters and common core curriculum before they get their feet under the table and all will be well with the world!!! 
Big grin...

Seriously though, our progress here in Seattle, education deform head honcho Bill Gates' own backyard, is giving a sense of hope to other school districts all over the country, fighting the same hostile corporate takeover of public education...
 
They think that if we can do it here, they can do it anywhere!


Thanks Santa, elves, fairies etc...


 
And the Seattle "establishment" - ie those sycophantic people hanging onto the coat tails of Bill Gates and Eli Broad - is pissy that we parents have not fallen hook, line and sinker for the lies, manipulations and half truths that have been fed to us...

They've been whining in the Seattle "media" over the past couple of weeks about us and our apparent lack of understanding and appreciation of the need for their brand of education deform...

Seattle has the most educated population in the country, in terms of the adults in the city...

And MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, if all of these educated adults have not embraced the Eli Broad and Bill Gates vision of education deform, MAYBE, JUST MAYBE corporatist education deform REALLY IS BAD FOR OUR KIDS - ALL OUR KIDS...

It requires local knowledge of the situation and the players involved to really appreciate the following contributions by parents and teachers within the community, but the visuals should be enough to get the gist:


As AuntyBROAD points out - in 2007 Big Business bought itself a school board:
 
Big Business again used big money to try to keep its school board puppets in power this year, enabling the incumbents to outspend the challengers by an average of 4-1; guess the oligarchs learned that "money can't buy me love"...

LYRICS:
Can't buy me love, love
Can't buy me love

I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend
If it makes you feel all right
I'll get you anything my friend
If it makes you feel all right
Cause I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

I'll give you all I've got to give
If you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give
but what I've got I'll give to you
For I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

Can't buy me love
Everybody tells me so
Can't buy me love
No, no, no, no

Say you don't need no diamond ring
And I'll be satisfied
Tell me that you want those kind of things
that money just can't buy
For I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

Can't buy me love
Everybody tells me so
Can't buy me love
No, no, no, no

Say you don't need no diamond ring
And I'll be satisfied
Tell me that you want those kind of things
that money just can't buy
For I don't care too much for money
Cause money can't buy me love
Ooh, can't buy me love, love
Can't buy me love, no
Deformist Superintendent does her thing:

Parents: We're Not Stupid...



and from Seattle public school parent Arch Stanton:

 








If you want all the gory details, you can find them at the Public Disclosure Commission, at the Seattle Schools Community Forum and the Seattle Education Blog 
 
Happy Holidays To One And All
 
and Get Ready...
2012 Will Be A Wild Ride
In More Ways Than One...
 
 

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Beasts Of Burden...


This has been doing the rounds...

More counting for nothing, or very little...





On a personal note...

I have four children, three from my first marriage and one from my second...

My daughters in my first family were 6.5 and 4.5 years old when their brother was born...

A few weeks before his birth, we were sitting in our lounge, with their paternal grandmother, looking through family photo albums, telling stories from the children's lives...

My mother-in-law opened her mouth and said:

"I hope it's a boy this time.   I like boy babies better than girls"...

I was gob-smacked...

WTF - here was a woman, telling her girl grandchildren in no uncertain terms, that they were lesser beings than boys and she really did not love them...

And then there was the time in 1990, when my father turned the responsibility/blame for his abuse of me back onto me.   When I asked him why he had done what he had done when I was a baby and then again when I was older, he told me that I had brought it all on myself because I "had always been a difficult child", in contrast to my younger sister who had always been quiet and compliant.   And when I asked him why he had not confronted my uncle about his abuse of me, he replied: "because he was my brother"... And I remember the stunned inner child (we all carry) inside, shouting silently: "BUT I WAS YOUR DAUGHTER!".   Years later, it clicked - if he had confronted his brother on his abuse of me, he would then have had to admit and own his own actions, and he could never do that...

And then there was my first husband, who did the same thing as my father had done - transferred the responsibility for his abuse of our second daughter onto her.   After we divorced, I challenged him about his behaviour.   He rationalised his  abuse of her by saying that from the moment she had been born, her cry had grated on him.   He went on to say (having just completed some psychology papers at university) that, according to family dynamics theory, she had come into the family and taken on the role of 'scapegoat' and he was just caught in and responding to that energetic/pattern of relationship...

Bloody hell...







More Genius...



"The human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'Universe,' a part limited by us in time and space. 

He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest...a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.


This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires, and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. 

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
~ Albert Einstein
 
 
 

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Forgive & Forget...


 
"Forgiveness, the first step and binding obligation of non-violence, hangs by a silver cord of love, high in the vault of the cosmos.
 
 
Slender and fine that thread, and woven of four sacred actions of the soul -- mnemon, anamnesis, amnesia, and amnasthakai...
 
 
Memnon -- mindfulness, that which knows. 
 
Anamnesis -- not-not-remembering, the re-call and recitation of what is true, a form of prayer.
 
Amnesia -- not-remembering, the letting go of what does not serve...
 
Amnasthakai -- amnesty, purposely not recalling and reciting, not bringing up again what is past...
 
 
By these deep and sacred actions of the soul do the possibilities of forgiveness hang...

Tonight, breathe forgiveness... 
 
Breathe it in for all that you bear against yourself... 
 
 
Breathe it out, for all that you bear against another... 
 
 
This is the spiritual practice by which a soul can move toward its intentions to the path of non-violence."
 
I offer to all those whom I have hurt in word, deed, thought or omission my deepest regret and sorrow, and ask for your forgiveness...
 
And I offer love and forgiveness to all those who have injured me in any way...
 
 
Seriously!
 
NAMASTE
 
 
 

Crisis...


As within, so without...

As above, so below...

The macro is a reflection of the micro and vice versa...


So perhaps this is an analogy for what's happening in ourselves and our world right now:

 
The Healing Crisis,
Also Known As The Cleansing Reaction,
The Detox Reaction,
and The Herxheimer Reaction

 
DEFINITION: Healing Crisis - The process associated with heightened cleansing and cellular rebuilding. A sign of improving health. Results in better health as disease-causing factors are removed. Only occurs to the degree at which the body can tolerate without injury and therefore will not cause harm.

A healing crisis is in effect when the body is in the process of eliminating toxins. Reactions may be mild or they may be severe. One should expect this and work toward it. The body's inherent desire is perfect health and we have the ability to earn our way back to that state. To do so, the body must go through an elimination process called the healing crisis.
 

A healing crisis results when all body systems work in concert to eliminate waste products and set the stage for regeneration. Old tissues are replaced with new, and stored toxins are eliminated. A cleansing, purifying process is underway and stored wastes are more easily removed. Sometimes there is pain of greater intensity that the lower level of chronic problem gives, but it is usually of short duration.

The crisis will usually bring about past conditions in reverse order to the original problem. People often forget the diseases or injuries they have had in the past, but are usually reminded during a healing crisis. Reactions may include skin eruptions, nausea, headache, sleepiness, fatigue, diarrhea, a cold, ear infections, boils, or any other way the body uses to eliminate toxins. The crisis usually lasts three days, but if the energy of the patient is low, it may last for a week or more. The body needs juices, and especially water, preferably ozonated, to help carry off the toxins. This is a time for rest - mental as well as physical rest.

One crisis is not always enough for a complete cure. The person in a chronic state, who has gone through many disease processes in life, must go through these processes again. Often the crisis will come after one feels his very best, setting the stage for the action. Most people feel an energy boost the first few days. Then toxins are dumped into the blood stream for elimination by way of the liver, kidneys, spleen, skin, bladder and colon. Listen to your body and go as slowly as your body needs to so that your cleansing is gradual and comfortable.
 

With a more serious condition there may be many small crises to go through before the final one is possible. Everything must be considered and given its proper place in the build-up to a healing crisis. One should expect it and work towards it. Then the goal of optimum health can be achieved.
 

Bruce Fife, ND in his book "The Healing Crisis" writes:

"The healing crisis is one of the most misunderstood aspects of natural healing. Even many health practitioners, including medical doctors, do not generally understand it. They will treat it as a sickness with medicines that stop symptoms and abort the healing process. Knowing what the healing crisis is, why it happens, when it happens, and what to do about it is of vital importance in reclaiming and achieving better health."

"In traditional medicine, disease is often viewed as a set of symptoms, and treatment is focused at removing those symptoms. The problem with this approach is that the symptoms are not the cause of the disease; they are only the body's response to it. Suppressing or masking the symptoms will not cure the disease."

"In natural medicine, symptoms are viewed as part of the body's healing process. The body is viewed as being smarter than human intellect; it knows best how to heal itself. Natural healing methods support and encourage the body's own healing forces. This way the symptoms are taken care of as the cause of the illness is removed."

"All drugs have adverse side effects! All drugs are toxic to some degree. But people use them because they are perceived as providing the quick fix."

"Most traditional methods of healing that involve the use of drugs, radiation, and surgery do not stimulate a cleansing crisis because, by their very nature, they induce trauma to the body and therefore cause stress and damage. The body's vital energies are channeled toward dealing with this trauma rather than cleansing or healing."

"The way to recover health is to rid the body of its toxic overload. Removal of disease-causing agents can lead to a healing crisis."

"During the cleansing process, excess fat and hardened mucus and toxic wastes throughout the body emulsify and wash out into the bloodstream to be discarded. This influx of toxins into the system brings on symptoms of sickness. People who have had problems with skin rashes or eruptions will frequently eliminate poisons through the skin and new rashes will develop. The skin, as a cleansing organ, is becoming more active."

"The healing process works in cycles. You will have feelings of health and well-being separated by periods of discomfort caused by the elimination of toxins. If you have had problems with psoriasis, when you improve your diet and start a cleaning program, it may greatly improve the condition, although not completely clear up. You may be relatively free of skin problems for a couple of months and feel the new way of eating is slowly working. Then, red, itching, flaking skin will suddenly reappear and become as bad, if not worse, than it ever was before, even though your diet is clean. Your first thought is that you are having a resurgence of the skin problems you've had for years. It may last a month or more but then clear up completely. After this you will feel and look great. The dry, flaky skin rash was the body's way of ridding itself of toxic debris. Now that the diet is clean, new toxins are not being infused into the cells and tissues, and the body was finally able to purge them from the system."

"To be physically healthy, you must also be mentally and emotionally healthy. Our thoughts, actions, reactions, and interactions with others have a great bearing on our physical health. Anger, fear, greed, hate, and other negative feelings affect the function of the body and secretion of hormones."

"While your body is cleansing, you will re-experience many of the illnesses you have had in the past, all the way back to childhood. This is called the "reversal process". In the 19th century a Hungarian homeopathic physician named Constantine Hering made a discovery that is now known as Hering's Law of Cure. He stated, "All cure comes from within out, from the head down, and in reverse order as the symptoms have appeared in the body." In other words, healing starts from the inside of the body and works outward and from the top of the head works downward, occurring in the reverse order in which sickness afflicted the body."

"Toxins from poor-quality food and putrefying fecal matter in the colon poison the entire body, including the brain. As a result, emotions are affected. This spawns discontent, anger, moodiness, and impatience, which leads to social and family problems. These problems, in turn, aggravate emotional disturbances that increase the acidity and toxicity of the body. Toxins aggravate emotions, which in turn increase toxicity. The cycle feeds itself, growing worse and worse."

"When a person first encounters a severe healing crisis, it is common to worry. Even though well informed about the discomforts of the healing process, the person doesn't really believe, accept, or understand it. What often happens is that the person begins to wonder if the crisis is really a disease crisis. If it is a disease crisis, the person may feel a need to get medical attention so it doesn't get worse. After all, medical doctors are well trained to handle emergencies and life-threatening situations. The discomfort of the crisis may get worse with each day. The person worries and begins to believe that it must be an illness and needs medical help. The person goes to the doctor. If you go to a doctor, what can he/she do for you? Diagnosing an illness won't cure it. All the doctor will do is give you some drugs to suppress the symptoms."

"The body has to heal itself whether it is encumbered with drugs or not. It can usually do a better job of healing without the added burden of dealing with toxic chemicals. The body does the healing, not the doctor and not the drugs. Taking medications during a cleansing crisis to treat symptoms stops the cleansing process." "Nature's way of purging harmful toxins from the body and restoring health is by way of the healing crisis. Crises can be so mild they are unnoticeable or so dramatic you almost think your life is about to end. In order to remove dis-ease from the body and achieve health and well-being, you must go through the cleansing crisis. Prepare yourself mentally for it. Look forward to it. When it comes, be happy that you are healing."
 


 
 
 
 
 
 

Friday, December 16, 2011

Friday...



Thanks for the good wishes/prayers people...

Outcome of today's court hearing is:



I'm restrained (for now) from taking the boy to Australia to live...

His dad and I go to trial in a couple of months to fight it out...



In the meantime, we will probably have to undergo a parenting evaluation, with the boy being questioned...

And on January 13 I have to go defend myself against contempt of court charges because I won't physically force the boy to go visit with his dad, I have to argue why his dad ought not succeed in his motion to pay less towards the boy's care and I have to convince the judge there's still a need for the Protection Order...



I had hoped this part of the journey was over...

Still things to discover and expand into, obviously...



Interesting times...

It has occurred to me that I am being asked to find a different way of relating to boy's father...

Perhaps that's why I chose not to go on the attack in the hearing...

Though it did feel like I was fighting with one hand tied behind my back, not feeling I was free/it would do any good to articulate some of the understandings I have about our situation/that have driven my choices at each crossroad on this journey...

Not sure a judge, constrained by rules and regulations and legislation that is so uni-dimensional, firstly would understand, and secondly be able to issue Orders that would honour the realities of this situation as I see them...


Boy's father's attorney was making a meal of the "fact" of our "homelessness" and 'instability"...

In all of this, we have never been without a warm roof over our heads, food in our bellies, clothes on our backs, a vehicle to get around in and access to health care etc...

Not sure a judge would be sympathetic to my view that we are on an 'adventure' and that the gift of this "homelessness" is the connection and insights we are gathering from being able to live in community with other people, all doing life differently... 


Weirdly, on some level, I am OK with all of this...

I know it's about stuff happening on multiple levels, inner, interpersonal, and on a community/societal level... 

and it needs to play out to the end...


"Focus on the journey, not the destination. 
Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it."
~Quaker quote




Thursday, December 15, 2011

It's Official...


... we're now living in serfdom here in the US, and, with the president refusing to veto the liberty and due process-stealing provisions of the NDAA Bill, in a fascist police state...

According to the latest census results, 1 out of every 2 Americans is living in poverty...



"Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.




Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too 'rich' to qualify," said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.

"The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal," he said. "If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years..."







Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Today's The Day...


...the music died...


The White House announced this afternoon that President Obama would not veto the bill that turns American soil into a battlefield and allows American citizens at home and abroad to be captured/arrested and held indefinitely in military detention centres, without due process...

The Bill passed in the House today, 283 votes for, 136 against...

The Senate is expected to pass it tomorrow (Thursday 15 Dec), after which it will go to Obama for signing...

With its passage, no presidential veto, and the passing of the SOPA internet censorship bill which gives government the right to shut down both individual websites and the internet itself, America has finally sunk into the status of a fascist police state, with informal martial law in place...

No more pretending...


LYRICS:
A long long time ago
I can still remember how
That music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while
But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
**The day the music died**
So

[Chorus]

Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey in Rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Did you write the book of love

And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so?
Now do you believe in rock and roll?
Can music save your mortal soul?
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Well, I know that you're in love with him

Cause I saw you dancin' in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues
I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died
I started singin'


[Chorus]


Now, for ten years we've been on our own

And moss grows fat on a rolling stone
But, that's not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me
Oh and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned
And while Lenin read a book on Marx
The quartet practised in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died
We were singin'


[Chorus]

Helter skelter in a summer swelter

The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
It landed foul on the grass
The players tried for a forward pass
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast
Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?
We started singin'


[Chorus]


Oh, and there we were all in one place

A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
Cause fire is the devil's only friend
And as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan's spell
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died
He was singin'


[Chorus]


I met a girl who sang the blues

And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most-
the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost-
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died
And they were singing

[Chorus:Repeat x2

 

American Pie Song History