Asking the big and small questions:
Why? Why not? What if?
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:
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)
Severn Suzuki - an old soul in a young body - laid it on the line in 1992...
This young woman is now 31... and really, nothing has changed for the better in the two decades since she made that impassioned plea to the United Nations for the grown-ups to get real and responsible...
If we kill the earth, we kill ourselves...
So it would seem logical that we ought not to kill the earth, that we ought to nurture her, care for her, protect her, nourish her, VALUE HER...
But some of us, it seems, know the cost of everything and the value of nothing...
Instead of having stars in our eyes, too many of us are blinded by dollar signs...
And that short-sighted vision can't see value in any form other than profit and loss columns...
A friend wrote this on her Facebook status this evening:
"The woes of this world, this nation, this state, this city and all of the good everyday people, those who have no clout, who just do the best they can, yes, all of this, wears my spirit to it's core for I cannot see any light and I am tired of searching for it in the darkness."
I replied:
"I have to take it moment by moment, and ration out all the depressing stuff I read, otherwise I become completely immobilised by despair and depression..."
Another woman felt the same way...
We all keep working at it, but it gets harder every day to see that we are at least holding back the tide, let along reversing some of the really horrible stuff we humans are doing to each other and to the planet...
So, I went looking for HOPE, and found this:
Visionary Willy Whitefeather
Directed by Catherine Margerin Produced by Mary Mathaisell, Luna Media
This animated short film is a story of prophecy -the story of man going down the wrong path, with one day the possibility of finding the path of peace and love.
Combining animation, archival footage and live action, in a multi-layered non-linear story, the film brings the viewer on a fascinating journey through human existence.
HOPE documents what we are seeing around the world with wars, genocide, diseases, climate change such as global warming, and the potential earth changes that have been foretold by many seers and indigenous peoples.
HOPE is shaped around the knowledge and ideas of Willy Whitefeather, a man in his sixties of Cherokee ancestry, a fascinating storyteller, healer, survivalist and an individual of wisdom and heart.
Using traditions and stories from Native American and world cultures, the film combines dreams, images and reminiscences from our collective memory to send a message of hope for the future.
The animated scenes are in styles reminiscent of Pueblo pottery design, Sioux painted hides, Petroglyph drawings and Hopi mural paintings.
The sound track is similarly layered with the sounds of a beating heart, breathing, wooden flutes, drums, rattles, a traditional Cherokee lullaby and original music.
Now is the time to reconnect with Spirit, to recognize the effects of our actions, to evaluate the underlying causes of suffering and to reshape our life and our world into a harmonious one.
HOPE urges us to change course and follow a path of wisdom, responsibility, beauty, simplicity and gentleness.
And here, is a follow-up with Willie Whitefeather himself narrating the story...
Here in the US, there's a day called Black Friday... and no, it's not called that because it's a Friday the 13th...
It's the Friday after Thanksgiving, when Americans are urged, encouraged, enticed, manipulated, pressured to go on an orgy of spending (using money they don't have) so that retail receipts/profits can go into the "black"... and it marks the lead-up to the gross excess that is Christmas here...
It appears few people question why we would need all this "stuff". Does it add to our quality of life, does it fulfill us, does it fill a hole in our lives, in our selves, in our souls?
Now here's something you might like to know about the origins, creation and final destination of all that "stuff"...
Will this make a difference to your choices this year?
I wonder how many people think about this, as their homes and businesses are warmed and kept operating by coal-fired power and they complain about the bill each month?
I wonder if they ever see in their minds' eyes the gouging out of the earth and the destruction of the environment...
A photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station on March 31 captures a rare cloud-free glimpse of the Panian Coalfield, one of the largest coal mines in Asia and one of three coal operations on Semirara Island in the Philippines. The Semirara Mining Corporation, which operates the coal field, uses open-pit methods in which rock and soil are removed to reach coal seams below. In this image, released by NASA, several huge piles of rock and other mining debris can be seen ringing the northern half of the pit, with the dark coal seams visible along the southern wall of the mine. Also visible are plumes of mining sediment washing into the Sulu Sea.
And the death that comes to many who are trapped in small communities with no other way to earn their living?
Globally, mining companies profit from coal mining to the tune of $13.6Billion per year...
2,000+ years of the patriarchy, and where has that gotten us?
Seriously - look around you...
The Dalai Lama and indigenous elders all say women will step up, lead and make the changes that need to happen...
But we women have been fighting for eons to bring compassion and sanity back to life, to our societies, to the planet. We bring life into the world, we do amazing things nurturing that life into adulthood, despite the challenges we face daily. More is expected of us as mothers than is expected of fathers. If something goes "wrong" it's always our "fault"... And we are tired...
In native cultures, men understand that it is woman's role to bring life into the world, and their role to protect women and that new life, and the environment that supports all life...
It seems to me that it's time for men to get it - get the whole "sanctity of life" thing - and step up. Turn this people-planet killing machine we call civilisation around... And if you won't do it, move over and let us...
Unproven scientific ‘fixes’ for global warming are a major threat to the planet...
"It used to be that ‘stepping lightly on the planet’ was considered common sense for addressing global warming, but a brash new breed of planet-savers has a more heavy-handed suggestion. Since action on reducing greenhouse gases is proving ineffective, they argue, it might soon be necessary to deliver Mother Earth a huge technological smack in the climate system. For her own good, of course.
Welcome to the concept of geoengineering – large-scale schemes that propose manipulating planetary systems to counteract global warming. Humans have inadvertently altered the global environment before, but geoengineering differs in that it brings intentionality to messing with our planet. Geoengineering proposals range from dumping iron in the ocean to grow CO2-gobbling plankton, to polluting the upper atmosphere with sulphur particles to mimic large volcanoes. Such volcanoes have occasionally cooled down the atmosphere before. Unfortunately, they can also cause monsoons to weaken and fail, intensifying hunger in the tropics.
Sounds risky and dangerous? Of course it is. Seductive to policymakers? Yes, that too. But as billionaire airline tycoon Richard Branson baldly told the press last year: ‘If we could come up with a geoengineering answer to this problem… we could carry on flying our planes and driving our cars.’"... from: http://www.newint.org/columns/currents/2010/06/01/global-warming-geoengineering-fixes/
Why is it always men who think of these "solutions" but can't see the disastrous consequences?
Do they have such a deep hate of the sacred feminine that they can seriously consider these measures as 'problem solving'?
The Dalai Lama and indigenous elders all say the solutions the world needs will come from women - maybe you have to be able to have a child/give birth to really understand and value life?
Well... its been nearly a month since I last posted... something to do with it being summer, birthdays (mine and my son's), daughter visiting on her way back to Australia from Istanbul, personal stuff, public education/school district activism and focusing on growing my business/practice - there's still the rent to pay, groceries to buy, utilities to keep from getting cut off, petrol for the car blah, blah, blah...
Why aren't we at the point described in one of the Star Trek movies where everyone's basic needs are provided for because we have the resources and technology to do that? Buckminster Fuller talked about that in the 60s and Robert Theobald proposed a full unemployment society a decade or more ago.
Don't get me wrong - I was so excited to see the report. I thought - "wow, its about time" - because I've always thought that anything we can imagine already exists in some other place/time and if its all about frequencies, we only need to resonate at the same frequency to bring it into our here and now... Shamans and mystics have been doing that for eons.
But I also thought: if we're working on that, why can't we be working on a new socio-economic system that solves the problems we face in the world - population issues, health, education, housing, clean water, the environment, conflict, poverty, debt, sustainability, not enough work to go around, failure to treasure the arts and anything which doesn't contribute to GDP/GNP...
Its so depressing to think that until capitalism has completely sucked the lifeblood out of this planet, our mother, and all of her living inhabitants, until the skies are grey and the seas are black and the land is dry, devoid of trees and infertile - we will not find the will to live differently....
Would it be such a loss if our species went extinct? Really, we're just fleas on an elephant's back. The day we finally step irreversibly, irretrievably over the line, Gaia would maybe just do a huge shrug and throw us off. Gaia would survive, repair herself and thrive, as James Lovelock thinks http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8594000/8594561.stm
And because energy can only be transmuted, not created or destroyed, the individual and collective 'energy' that is each of us and all of us would surely manifest in another form somewhere else in this awesome creation called LIFE...
Born in Europe and raised in the southern hemisphere, I've lived in five countries on three continents and in two island nations...
I'm a communications, marketing and PR consultant, broadcast journalist, writer, editor, event manager, fund raiser, narration and voice-over artist...
I'm also a personal growth facilitator, teacher, breath worker, shaman, healer, ordained non-denominational minister and celebrant, in private and public practice...
Diversity, equality and equity, social justice and sustainable community issues are important to me and I'm active in social change groups...
I'm the parent of four children, three of whom are grown up and living in other parts of the world... kinda interesting doing the parenting thing again, from the far side of 50! Not as much energy nor as fast on my feet, but maybe a little more relaxed, wiser and certainly more street smart... as I tell my youngster: "with three older siblings, there's not much point in you trying anything - I've seen it all!"
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