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, March 30, 2012

I Don't Want To Hear It...





I'll care about what the world's religious leaders/churches think/say/do when they all divest themselves of their riches and give those resources to the poor... 



I'll care about what the world's business/government leaders think/say/do when they all divest themselves of their riches and give those resources to the poor...



I'll care what the world's social elite/celebrities think/say/do when they all divest themselves of their riches and give those resources to the poor...





I'll care about "priceless art" and "precious jewels" when we don't have a single poor, starving person left on a planet that's being raped, pillaged and trashed...


 






This Says It All...



... the geometry of death and life...

on the left - the pyramid - how we, in our arrogance and ignorance, have deluded ourselves into thinking the world is ordered (almost killing the planet in the process)...



and on the right - the circle - how it really is ...

If we want a future for ourselves, our children and the other surviving life forms with whom we share this time, space and place, we're going to have to re-frame our understanding, our choices and our actions...

It's time for:

Triple P Bottom Line Accounting

Planet

People

Prosperity




Mixed Media...


... Dali + Disney = Destino...


Thursday, March 29, 2012

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda...


 
 
Working to shake off a severe case of the "coulda, woulda, shoulda saids" over representing myself in this custody/relocation trial (argument finished yesterday - judge to issue written ruling eventually)...
 
I coulda said this... 
 
I shoulda rebutted that...
 
If there had been more time, I woulda highlighted that...

Breathe and let it go... let it go... let it go...
 
Did the best I could with what I had in the circumstances... 
 
What will be, will be... 
 
AND...
 
What if the judge gives custody of the boy to his father???
 
 
 

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Last Call, Last Chance...


Last morning in court... make or break time...

Ex and his attorney and witnesses have taken up most of the time so far with their long-windedness and refusal to answer questions to the point, so I have only this morning to make my pitch as to why I should keep custody of the boy and why we should be allowed to move back to Australia... 

The challenge is to rebut all the crap that's been put on the table, put forward my own rationale without exposing myself to harmful cross-examination and without it all degenerating into a meaningless, context-less, confusing scramble of words that peeters out into nothingness because time has run out...

Judge will then take it all away, read the evidence/exhibits and come back some indeterminate time later with a written decision...

I can do this...



Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Day 4...


... Day 4 of court and we are getting to the not-so-pleasant nitty gritty...

Turns out, the boy's father didn't mean his wedding vows - he thought of our union as a Marriage of Convenience, as a formality he needed to go through to guarantee his parenting rights...

Hmmmmm...

Saturday, March 17, 2012

This Is Not A Revolution...



It's so hard watching frogs swimming around in a pot, as the heat is gradually being turned up... 

And they don't notice it and don't jump out of the almost boiling water to save themselves (and future generations)...

LYRICS:

This is not your saviour
Or the answer to those prayers
I don't believe anyone will take you there
They said the writing on the wall should read
"No one really cares"

This is not a revolution

Till we say it is
Till we say it is

This is not a revolution

Till we say it is
Till we say it is

Have you ever heard the story

Of the pauper and the prince?
They traded places, we haven't seen either one ever since
It seems we only want what we don't have, No one ever wins

This is not a revolution

Till we say it is
Till we say it is

This is not a revolution

Till we say it is
Till we say it is

And I got a hundred memories


You only make it harder on yourself

When you fought too long for someone else

You only make it harder on yourself

When you fought too long for someone else
Someone else

This is not a revolution (x4)


They said the writing on the wall should read

No one really cares, No one really cares

This is not a revolution

No one really cares
This is not a revolution
No one really cares
 

"The moral principle of revolutions is to instruct, not to destroy."
 - Thomas Paine, "First Principles of Government," 1795
 



Limbo...



Relocation/custody trial resumes on March 26, so we are still in a kind of limbo...



In the meantime...

Boy and I do better living with others...

AND we are so very grateful to be safe, warm, dry, clean and well-fed, with loving, like-minded people...
 
AND we need privacy and our own space, with our own stuff around us...

AND the other members of the household need us to have our own space too...

AND it's hard to be around a very, very bright, anti-authoritarian, know-it-all teenager in the household, butting heads all the time with his parents...


AND it's hard for me to stay out of it, when I see said teenager disrespecting his parents - it brings up my own stuff...

... sigh...





Thursday, March 15, 2012

Gender Wars...

 
Interesting yesterday, listening to ex's domestic violence treatment supervisor,  criticise earlier treatment providers for holding ex fully accountable, belittling my experience of ex's abuse and the resulting fear and need for a Protection Order, and attempting to diminish the seriousness of ex's past actions and the risk of further violence... 
 
Male judge, male opposing attorney, male opposing witnesses...
 
And I have all female witnesses...
 
What does that say about life and the battle between the genders and the male attitudes to women and children?
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

King Solomon's Choice...


 
Up at 5am, out the door by 6.45, child in tow...
 
Long day in court...
 
Representing myself in this relocation trial which has morphed into a custody battle...
 
Learning on the fly how to ask witnesses questions and to cross-examine with a specific goal in mind... 
 
No real idea how I'm doing vis a vis influencing the judge... 
 
Think I am making some headway undoing some damage ex's attorney has tried to do and forcing his witnesses to back-track, admit mistakes... 
 
Back to the salt mines for more tomorrow afternoon...
 
Setting the intention that the universe fills my coffers with moolah overnight, so I can get to court and back - gas money and ferry fare home!   No idea how that's going to happen AND it will!!! lol...
 
Namaste - sweet dreams all...

Oh - and so grateful for loving friends - especially CHRIS S today... boy and I are blessed...
 
 
 
 

Monday, March 12, 2012

If It Be Your Will...


... To some this might seem melodramatic AND... 


“Father, if thou art willing, let this cup pass from me; yet not my will, but thine, be done.” (Mt. 26:39; Mk. 14:36; Lk. 22:42; Jn. 18:10)


LYRICS:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will...






Knock, Knock, Anyone There?



... still here... just no head space to write/finish any posts at the moment...

My focus is on the trial this week, where a judge will decide whether or not I can take the boy back to Australia to live and/or whether or not to give his father custody, regardless of whether I stay or go...

I don't have my act together in the way I would have done a dozen or so years ago AND it's pretty much a schamozzle with not being clear on what I need to do, submit, say and with missing filing deadlines AND I am doing the best I can with what I have, where I'm at...

Hard to read opposing attorney's court material painting me as a horrible person and parent... especially as the day before in a meeting and on the phone, he was playing nice in an effort to get me to drop all of this and to allow ex full, unfettered access to us both, in return for ex being "co-operative" and "generous"...

On the plus side... have the support of wonderful friends... heartwarming! AND have worked the last two weekends - one breath session and two readings via the net... wonderful to be back at doing what is my calling AND to be rewarded with some dollars for that... maybe the drought has ended...

Stormy early morning here on Vashon... fitting, I think...


No idea what the day will bring - have to wait to hear from the courts what needs to happen next, given I didn't get the trial brief in on Friday (not for want of trying!)...

In fact, it was very trying(!) to work so hard on getting the documents together and then to be stymied by printing, photocopying and collating issues taking huge amounts of time to overcome...

And have promised the very patient boy a playdate with friends...

I'll Be Back...

Recorded at Tyler Ward Studios
Song written by: Eppic, Jess Moskaluke, Tiffany Vartanyan
Music Produced by Tyler Ward
Mixed By Tyler Ward
Video shot and edited by Sean Hagwell

LYRICS:


(Chorus)
If there was a way to create perfect
Make your life feel so damn worth it
I'd erase the black and blue
There's no way to stop the hurting
But I can rip open those curtains
So you can see what's left in you

(Verse 1)
How am i to get through to you i'm finding myself devising/ ways to diminish the ominous ora above your horizon/
intoxicated with hatred, toxicated by a love thats cosmic/
such a faint complex melody and you provide the harmonic/ Highly unlikely for me to hit the ground lightly/ could someone tell me how far ive fallen pricesly/ cause until today i've been improvising/ detach yourself from these anchors/ that keep pulling you under, wont you allow me to be your savior/ consider this to be your attempt to walk on water so you don't on the surface/ wont remain unchanged, will remain forever imperfect/ you mean everything to me
whether I'm drained, weak, fatigued/ I shall be your radiance your remedy.

(Verse 2)

if there were some way, avoiding superhero clichés/
have yet to exceed my extent/ getting you to see what's left in you is truly my intent/ memorize my lines to the script/
is it that what you seek, isn't quiet discrete, but i need you to look beyond the imperfections/ look beyond how your perceived, even with a crush self-esteem/ there's no getting through to you, you were through me, and you expect me to/ leave you to take on these lions, stranded on some island
No rescue/ this is just the storm before the calm, a middle finger to the devil/ took until now for me to realize/
while god is putting you through your storms, god is putting me through mine/ but if this is how you want to live your life i won't get involved/ but i'm sure as hell ain't about to let you wash your regrets in alcohol/ what pages have yet to be decoded/ deciphered by the writer such a metaphorical poet/ you mean everything to me whether I'm drained, weak, fatigue/ I shall be your radiance your remedy.

(Chorus)

If there was a way to create perfect
Make your life feel so damn worth it
I'd Erase the black and blue
There's no way to stop the hurting
But I can rip open those curtains
So you can see what's left in you
It's just the storm before the calm
the storm before the calm
the storm before the calm
Its just the storm before the

(Bridge)
I wish you could see the light
wish you could see the light
wish you could see the light
on the other side of you
the light I see through you