Read Between the Lines

Once a child asked me, "Is water alive? It seems to breathe like we do." I understood, like a child, why it would appear that water is..indeed, alive.

Water is the reservoir of all the possibilities of existence. Water sustains all life forms...seen and unseen.

This awareness had much to do with the deep despair we all felt towards the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. We are joyous to have a spirit of gratitude in our ability to cap the oil well and stop it's lethal poison destroying a magnificent ecosystem.

 Morning has broken as I send this child off to a book that will explain answers to her questions about life and water. I told her, "like p'nut buttah and jelly...best together."

In Ethiopia, during the dry season, rivers dry up and the women must 'scratch' the surface to collect any seepage of water. Hard to imagine something that all of us take for granted everyday...these people must struggle to find clean, drinkable water.

The wars of the world deplete vast fortunes which could easily be used instead to give all people on this planet access to clean, drinkable water. We should think about this from time to time. When clean water becomes plentiful, all the hours spent searching and hauling water could be used to grow more food, raise more farm animals and sustain life.

"Water is life. It's the briny broth of our origins, the pounding circulatory system of  the world. We stake our civilizations on the coasts and mighty rivers. Our deepest dread is the threat of having too little- or too much."

B. Kingsolver

All of my life I have been one who tends to notice the details. Motherhood certainly enhanced those skills and as the number of children grew...I had to be quick and accurate in my visual  assessments. As I pursued a nursing  career, those skills were always helpful in attending to the needs of others. Further on down the road, my veterinary experience relied heavily upon correct interpretations of our patients, which could not verbalize their needs. Perhaps some of us are able to develop a refined 'sixth sense'. 

Nature speaks it's own language and we humans are quite adept in interpreting the message. My greatest joy in life has been studying science and making note of significant observations. One of the most fascinating forms of communication is in the wisdom found in the patterns of nature. I have currently returned to college and plan on teaching. This very notable observation of nature's patterns providing a 'lesson' is one I intend on using with  my future students. I will write more about that later, but for now...get out there and take a moment to find a pattern of nature. Perhaps upon further reflection, you may

find some direction to the answers you seek.

You never know til you try....later~

Low Tide

It is true that the Tide rolls forever in Alabama. We are considered the college football capital of the South. We learned the hard way how to play by the rules and came thundering back as the SEC Champions.
Quite a feat but football is in our blood...here in Dixie.

Rome would be proud.

Warning: Today's blog is an attempt to discharge some sorrow, grief and utter anguish. If you wish to continue to feel all warm and fuzzy...then go on to the next blog.

You will not find it here...not today.

This is Alabama, and we are at a all-time devastating low tide as the Gulf of Mexico continues her heroic battle of life itself.

Every morning I wake to an enormous lump in throat and try to swallow. I tell myself that I must rise, greet the sun and face reality. I tell myself that surely this day will bring hope...hope that we can stop the lethal arterial bleed gushing out at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The sickening cramp deep in my gut will not relent. I sleep, yet do not feel rested.

I laid in my comfortable bed, staring at the ceiling...searching for positive thought. It does not feel right to feel comfortable.

 I call out to the Universe...'Help us now'. I cry out a silent scream of utter anguish and pain. I struggle to put my feet on the floor. I muster courage to stand up. A series of events have brought me to this place of despair. A series of choices and decisions that my great ancestors made years ago that now impact the entire world. Choices that were beneficial for a select few on Earth; decisions which provided security for a select few that now their remains lay deep underground in the earth... safe and sound beneath a solid cover of soil and grass. 
'Woe to the sins of the Fathers...for they shall be passed on to the children and their children.'

My back remains worn and scarred from the weight of this world we inherited. My heart is burdened with the weight of utter despair and sadness. My brain understands how to sustain life...give life...maintain and respect life...but I cannot fix this. I grieve. What is the benefit of all the wars, all the protests, all the effort to survive if we simply cannot protect the physical realm in which we govern to experience it?

How did humanity end up here?

Several weeks ago, I was full of energy and courage...signed up with BP and ready to go fight for the wildlife that were cloaked in this putrid, crude bile. I did not feel I had a choice...I didn't hesitate. Far from my mind was the notion that we were not all on the same page: rescue, assess and implement the treatment plan. We cannot stop the oil spill but we can fight it. We can help the ecosystem battle for the lives of all organisms that call her Mother.

I had no inclination that I had just stepped onto a carousel of chaos and confusion where it was impossible to see, hear or find anything hopeful or good. The private charter captain that committed suicide last week on his boat, did so after being contracted by BP to employ his boat to help place booms. Everyone thought it was because of his shock of loosing his livelihood. May this dear Captain rest in peace, however, I believe he simply could not cope with what he witnessed; the immensity of the loss of all that mattered to him; the immensity of the massive amount of life lost is nothing less than unbearable.
He stated, "Everything is dead out there."

Now I sit and wait on a promised phone call to inform me of where I am to work. I have been told when, what and how to jump in ...but nowhere to land.
Three weeks later, the phone call does not come.
The line is silent... like Death.
I was told, "BP is cutting costs and liabilities. You may never get called now...everything is dead or dying."  Did I just hear that?

 I will refuse to believe it...our souls are not dead. As long as we can suffer the gut-wrenching pain of witnessing the slow death of an entire ecosystem, we are still alive. The tides of the Gulf are still rolling and for now, that is enough for me to cling to the hope that we will cap the well and stop this environmental disaster.

Pebbles under the Mattress

Have you ever experienced sleeping on an unfamiliar bed where you tossed and turned all night? You just could not get comfortable in any position to let your mind and body relax enough to drift off into Dreamland.

The following morning does not improve the situation because you did not sleep well and now you are facing the day ahead of you, tired, foggy and irritable. It was as if you slept on a bed filled with pebbles under the mattress; where you could find comfort in one part of your body, but felt pressure and discomfort in another area...so you toss and you turn...all night. Perhaps you tell yourself that you just need to get back home to your own bed where you know you can secure familiarity and obtain a good-nights rest. What then, is the solution of discomfort if it is your very own bed causing the lack of rest?

 Most humans walking around today are irritable, tired and frustrated because they cannot achieve a good-nights rest in their very own bed. The reason: they have pebbles under their mattress. The majority have no clue as to how these hard stones got there in the first place. These pebbles formed when mankind's logic and global stewardship was tossed to the wind for the sake of  control, security and domination. Each time mankind created, designed and manufactured an industry which supported his need for comfort, we inadvertently slipped another pebble under our mattress.

There is an interesting group of humans on Earth; we are called " The Environmentalists, The Tree-Huggers,The Flower Children, and The Green-People, who share a connection to Mother Earth which is quite opposite to the typical human being. This connection is shared with other various cultures called the Native American Indians and the Aboriginal People. Humans who instinctively act as stewards of the planet and co-exist with Mother Earth responsibly. We do not need a wake up call;we do not need to be educated that it is our responsibility to respectfully protect, sustain and nurture our planet, our home, our bed.

It is a powerful, innate acknowledgement that our very survival as a species is dependant upon the symbiotic relationship with the planet. We do not balk at the various names we are referred to, for most of us will also gladly acknowledge that we do feel alien living here with the others. We are the Tree-Huggers because without trees, we would not survive without an exact ratio of oxygen in our atmosphere.
We are called the Flower Children because children are innocent and teachable.

Mankind must adopt a spirit of global ethics that would sustain the planet for future generations.What we should be acting upon is not so much our various identities and differences, but rather we should focus on our dependence upon science and technology to solve world disasters that Mankind himself brought upon the earth.
 " The phrase 'conquest of nature' is certainly one of the most objectionable and misleading expressions of Western languages. It reflects the illusion that all natural forces can be entirely controlled, and it expresses the criminal conceit that nature is to be considered primarily as a source of raw materials
and energy for human purposes."
A God Within by René Dubos

"The single most important issue the world faces today is the need to develop an ethic of planetary stewardship, underpinned by a reverence for the beauty and complexity of our "water planet" and its diversity of life forms. Without this ethic, the forces behind our industrial consumer societies are pushing global resource consumption to higher and higher levels, eroding the essential life support systems of the planet."

- Jon Nevill

The planet desperately needs humans to explore new ideas and technology towards a sustainable retreat which involves explicit acknowledgement of their moral responsibility to protect other life forms, whether or not they are useful to us or not.
We must actively reduce human populations over time; we need to achieve 'consensus-based political decision-making frameworks' which can make hard decisions to achieve long-term goals, and

financial arrangements which can maintain a relatively healthy economy in the face of declining population and declining use of the world's resources.

What is the specific risk of choosing to not adapt to a sustainable way of life? Go ask the multitude of Flower Children who are working the BP oil spill disaster at the Gulf of Mexico coastlines this week. My point is simply to recognize that it is science and technology that must find a way to 'plug the hole'. We must change the way we live with Mother  Earth.

~Peace

The Road Map

This message is dedicated to any and all "human inhabitants" who just happen to find themselves gazing or gasping at that (scroll up )>>>OK- Stop! See that absolutely magnificent sunset up there? Notice how you immediately experience a calm, peaceful response. Yep, those kind of things are really good to have around while attempting to survive in the 21st century. Mankind can set his weary eyes upon it, no matter his circumstances, ethnicity, geographical location or bank account for the enormous ball of fire comes without a price tag. The benefits, among many, benefit ...yes, everyone and everything. Take a closer look: so what would you think it's worth? Try and put a monetary value to it; obviously ridiculous to even consider, right? As the most intelligent species on the the planet Earth, we are unable to determine value in what we cannot conquer and control.


Globally, we all woke up today to this fascinating ball of fire called the Sun and I bet not one of us ever held a doubt that it wouldn't be there...ready to warm us, grow our food and calm our frenzied, chaotic lives. Tuesday, we were forced again to globally wake up to the ongoing catastrophic crisis occurring in the Gulf of Mexico with the BP oil spill. To gaze upon it, every one of us,despite who and where we are...experiences a sickening feeling deep in their gut ; we profoundly take a moment to let our fearful eyes communicate the image of the gulf to our brains...the message that reads: 'this is a unbelievable catastrophic global crisis for our Mother Earth. Our human consumption has caused utter destruction upon the only place we live.'
Ok Human Inhabitants! Wake up!! What else needs to occur to convince ourselves that we are responsible for our toxic addiction to oil for energy and the wars we wage as a species.
 We better not blow it- Amazing planets like Earth a hard to find...even with a road map.
-Peace

Back in the Saddle!

After a rather lengthy experience with 'Total Burn Out', I humbly admit I was wrong. Yes, I was wrong about thinking that I held some super human trait which would allow me to thrive in the 21st century and keep up with all my responsibilities as a woman. What was I thinking?

In 2002, I experienced a wake up call with reality. It was determined that I was very ill. My specialist did not hesitate in telling me that it was most likely a brain tumor...a very large one at that.
I recall thinking,"Do I really have time for this?" I do not have time to be sick...I have so much responsibility to attend.
I had witnessed too many times, in the faces of patients I had once cared for, the look of grave devastation when receiving bad news about their health. It seemed rather odd to appear on my face. I quickly reminded myself that I simply do not have time to be ill, much less die from a massive brain tumor.
Complete utter denial. Case closed. This disposition appeared better than living scared everyday that I will die. Where was that nurse that had once helped so many face bad news? I recall I wasn't interested in giving up...but rather immediately more concerned about those I would be leaving behind. Facing your mortality will give anyone a new perspective. It is the individuals we leave behind that have motivated me to start blogging a bit about my observations of life itself.
 Gee 'sh, what was I waiting on?
'Love isn't Love til you give it away." Right?

Eight years later, I am dealing with a very different person inside myself. Today, I do not fully understand why I dodged that potentially fatal bullet... except it grounds me in humility everyday; kinda felt like getting my wings trimmed, yet still left me able to fly...maybe just not as high.

 If anyone had told me I would be doing what I am doing today,thriving again and pursuing even more dreams in my fifties then I would have thought you were half a nut short in your fruitcake. I was one of those that said, "I do not have time to blog." 
 I threw the blogging business into the My Space category- I did not need either of them. They could have their space...I would just sit peacefully over here in the global space and continue my study of the sciences. As I began to respond to a new doctor(the 6th), and a new prognosis, the cosmos sent out directions; grateful I was sitting so still I could listen. Perhaps that is the intention of illness.The information sent had nothing to do at all about sitting still!

 Life had pitched me a lethal ball alright and I took a hard hit. BOOM! Physically,mentally, spiritually and emotionally I was absolutely exhausted before I turned 50.
 There I was...ousted off the Hamster Wheel of Life . I heard, "Take two and call me in the morning" from doctors.
Silence. It was quite surreal and definitely unmistakable...I was lost in life and would have to fight this battle all on my own. Welcome to the hazards of life.
So,where's a road map when ya need one?