Sinead...

This woman sang her songs in the background, as my 'awakening' began...

I listened to her as I struggled with writing, recording, editing and producing my first radio documentary, about whether life in prison was easier for younger or older women...

You Are Not Alone...

... and there's nothing wrong with you... 

... take heart - others have walked the path before you...



POST SCRIPT:
Posting the Wayseers video in no way implies my endorsement of the organisation; I have no knowledge of the founder and the group.

I wanted to share the sentiments expressed in the video as they reflect a reality many of us are struggling with - that's it's completely OK to follow your inner guidance and to live the life you choose/are impulsed from within to create...

Namaste

Sahila

Rage Against The Machine...

"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious - makes you so sick at heart - that you can't take part.

You can't even passively take part.

And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop.

And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."

- Mario Savio, Berkeley, California, December 2, 1964

LYRICS:

Come on!
Uggh!

Come on, although ya try to discredit
Ya still never read it
The needle, I'll thread it
Radically poetic
Standin' with the fury that they had in '66
And like E-Double I'm mad
Still knee-deep in the system's shit
Hoover, he was a body remover
I'll give ya a dose
But it can never come close
To the rage built up inside of me
Fist in the air, in the land of hypocrisy

Movements come and movements go
Leaders speak, movements cease
When their heads are flown
'Cause all these punks
Got bullets in their heads
Departments of police, the judges, the feds
Networks at work, keepin' people calm
You know they went after King
When he spoke out on Vietnam
He turned the power to the have-nots
And then came the shot

Yeah!
Yeah, back in this...
Wit' poetry, my mind I flex
Flip like Wilson, vocals never lackin' dat finesse
Whadda I got to, whadda I got to do to wake ya up
To shake ya up, to break the structure up
'Cause blood still flows in the gutter
I'm like takin' photos
Mad boy kicks open the shutter
Set the groove
Then stick and move like I was Cassius
Rep the stutter step
Then bomb a left upon the fascists
Yea, the several federal men
Who pulled schemes on the dream
And put it to an end
Ya better beware
Of retribution with mind war
20/20 visions and murals with metaphors
Networks at work, keepin' people calm
Ya know they murdered X
And tried to blame it on Islam
He turned the power to the have-nots
And then came the shot

Uggh!
What was the price on his head?
What was the price on his head!

I think I heard a shot
I think I heard a shot
I think I heard a shot
I think I heard a shot
I think I heard a shot
I think I heard, I think I heard a shot

'He may be a real contender for this position should he
abandon his supposed obedience to white liberal doctrine
of non-violence...and embrace black nationalism'
'Through counter-intelligence it should be possible to
pinpoint potential trouble-makers... and neutralize them.
Through counter-intelligence it should be possible to
pinpoint potential trouble-makers... and neutralize them
and neutralize them, and neutralize them, and neutralize them'

Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

How long? Not long, cause what you reap is what you sow

The young see it for what it is...

What is it that happens inside us,

to turn us all into collaborators, enablers?

Where is YOUR rage?

What are you going to DO with it?

 

Two Teachers & A Microphone...

Rapping about the oligarchy's attempt to seize control of public education in the US...  

Actually, it's more than an attempt to take over public education - it's total war on democracy and this is the penultimate battle of that war...

Living, Loving: Woody-style...

Haven't disappeared off the face of the earth in the past three weeks or so...

Just a HUGE unfolding going on internally and am feeling/seeing how to express that in the outside world... 

Almost ready to talk/write about it...

In the meantime... here's Woody...

I sometimes feel like an alien creature

for which there is no earthly explanation
Sure I have human form
walking erect and opposing digits,
but my mind is upside down.
I feel like a run-on sentence
in a punctuation crazy world.
and I see the world around me
like a mad collective dream.

An endless stream of people
move like ants from the freeway
cell phones, pc’s, and digital displays
“In Money We Trust,”
we’ll find happiness
the prevailing attitude;
like a genetically modified irradiated Big Mac
is somehow symbolic of food.

Morality is legislated
prisons over-populated
religion is incorporated
the profit-motive has permeated all activity
we pay our government to let us park on the street
And war is the biggest money-maker of all
we all know missile envy only comes from being small.

Politicians and prostitutes
are comfortable together
I wonder if they talk about the strange change in the weather.
This government was founded by, of, and for the people
but everybody feels it
like a giant open sore
they don’t represent us anymore
And blaming the President for the country’s woes
is like yelling at a puppet
for the way it sings
Who’s the man behind the curtain pulling the strings?

A billion people sitting watching their TV
in the room that they call living
but as for me
I see living as loving
and since there is no loving room
I sit on the grass under a tree
dreaming of the way things used to be
Pre-Industrial Revolution
which of course is before the rivers and oceans, and skies were polluted
before Parkinson’s, and mad cows
and all the convoluted cacophony of bad ideas
like skyscrapers, and tree paper, and earth rapers
like Monsanto and Dupont had their way
as they continue to today.

This was Pre-us
back when the buffalo roamed
and the Indian’s home
was the forest, and God was nature
and heaven was here and now
Can you imagine clean water, food, and air
living in community with animals and people who care?

Do you dare to feel responsible for every dollar you lay down
are you going to make the rich man richer
or are you going to stand your ground
You say you want a revolution
a communal evolution
to be a part of the solution
maybe I’ll be seeing you around

As Above, So Below... As Within, So Without...

Nothing from me for over a week...

Not because there's nothing going on and because there's no desire to write...

Because there's so much going on, in the inner, personal and the outer, social worlds, that it's been a process/time of 'feeling' rather than thinking...

Revolution happening within and without, here and all over the human and natural worlds...

LYRICS:

Don't you know you're talking about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
Don't you know they're talking about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper

While they're standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion

Don't you know you're talking about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper

Poor people are gonna rise up
And get their share
Poor people are gonna rise up
And take what's theirs

Don't you know you better run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run
Oh I said you better run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run

Finally the tables are starting to turn
Talking about a revolution
Finally the tables are starting to turn
Talking about a revolution oh no
Talking about a revolution oh no

While they're standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion

Don't you know you're talking about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper

And finally the tables are starting to turn
Talking about a revolution
Finally the tables are starting to turn
Talking about a revolution oh no
Talking about a revolution oh no
Talking about a revolution oh no

Will it be a slow burn or a blazing pyre?

Will the cleansing fire be stomped out, or will it break completely free and create a new reality?

What will that look like?

 

I know my new inner reality is here to stay... which is, in the cold light of day or the wee small hours of the night, quite disconcerting... there is no going back... and there are less and less people out here in this part of left field...

M Scott Peck talks about taking the road less travelled...

I seem to be creating my road/reality as I go along.... living my way to the answers, as Rainer Maria Rilke begged people would do...

I'm at the point where I do not accept any authority outside myself/Source...

Scary place to be... still have to live in the world, and to raise a child in it... how to live in it but not be of it?

How to help birth a new paradigm?

Where to start?

By The Left...Quick...March!

March... named after Mars, the Roman god of war, storms and tempests...

March... first month of Spring in the northern hemisphere, and first month of Autumn (Fall) in the southern...

March... first month of Spring was the logical first month of the year and the start of the military campaign season.

Operation Iraqi Freedom, a military campaign began on 20th March, 2003

March... famous for the Ides of March, the 15th day, the full moon, on which Julius Caesar was assassinated...

 

It used to be that August and September were months of endings and beginnings in my life - moves overseas and returns, births of children...

But for the last 15 years, it seems that March is the month of change...

March 1996 I took my 3 older children from New Zealand to Australia...

March 2004 I came with my youngest to the US from Australia...

March 2008 we moved from one house to another here in Seattle - long story, but the new house was our first 'home' here and we were very happy there...

March 2011 we begin yet another transition chapter in another house (our fourth), still here in Seattle...

Done with the old and wondering what the new will bring...

LYRICS:

It's a god-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling "No"
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a saddening bore
'Cause she's lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

It's on Amerika's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But the film is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more
It's about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

 

Charlie Is My Darling...

Twas on a Monday morning,
Right early in the year,
When Charlie came to our town
The Young Chevalier.

Chorus
Charlie is my darling, my darling, my darling.
Charlie is my darling, the young Chevalier.

As he cam' marchin' up the street,
The pipes played loud and clear.
And a' the folk cam' rinnin' out
To meet the Chevalier.

Chorus

Wi' highland bonnets on their heads
And claymores bright and clear,
They cam' to fight for Scotland's right
And the young Chevalier.

Chorus

They've left their bonnie highland hills,
Their wives and bairnies dear,
To draw the sword for Scotland's lord,
The young Chevalier.

Chorus

Oh, there were many beating hearts,
And mony a hope and fear,
And mony were the pray'rs put up,
For the young Chevalier.

Chorus

Meaning of unusual words:
Chevalier=a French order of knighthood
bairnies=children

Prince Charles Edward Stewart, the young Chevalier or Young Pretender, raised his standard at Glenfinnan, at the start of the '45 Jacobite Uprising on August 19, 1745.  The campaign lasted through the winter and although his army reached as far as Derby, by early in 1746 he was back in Scotland and was finally defeated at Culloden Moor on April 16, 1746.
   

This song is attributed to both James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, who lived from 1770 to 1835 and Carolina Oliphant (Lady Nairnie) who lived from 1766-1845. There is yet another version by Charles Gray (1782 - 1851).

And because I'm not a royalist, THIS Charlie is MY Darlin':