tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25870530515729694082012-01-30T15:49:05.646-08:00Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.comBlogger2521100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-42610559716381241502011-07-06T03:29:00.000-07:002011-07-06T03:29:45.646-07:00<iframe width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/T3SlsP130xY?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-4261055971638124150?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-8329906912843449672011-07-05T03:07:00.000-07:002011-07-05T03:11:47.621-07:00“I was taught to always look for the good, but not for the purpose of positive living; for the purpose of accepting abuse. I was taught to minimize my own value, I was taught to hold the abusers in high regard all the while accepting the little regard they had for me. I was taught that they had value, but that I did not.” Darlene Ouimet of Emerging From Broken<br />This quote is an excerpt taken from this article <a href="http://emergingfrombroken.com/take-the-good-with-the-bad-or-the-bad-with-the-good/">http://emergingfrombroken.com/take-the-good-with-the-bad-or-the-bad-with-the-good/</a><br /> <br />This is a really important quote. I've noticed a lot of positive living preachers who will bulldoze through people's feelings with 'look on the bright side statements' which immediately minimalises what a person is going through, lets whoever is saying it off the hook of actually being helpful, and it equally lets people get away with abuse. One example of that could be telling a kid who has just been hurt to 'grin and bear it' another more extreme example could be ignoring the human rights abuses of a country in favor of trade deals... Either way it's condoning abuse... And that is not positive.<br /><br />'Grin and Bear it' by the way is actually defined as 'to accept an unpleasant or difficult situation because there is nothing you can do to improve it ' Well, **** that...<br /><br />There is always something you can do to improve a situation. Thinking otherwise means you believe you're less than...<br /><br />You're human; deserve equal respect and to never ever feel that you cannot change the environment within which you find yourself, especially if you find that it <span style="font-style:italic;">needs</span> changing.<br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-832990691284344967?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-6082729555347165152011-06-30T03:14:00.000-07:002011-06-30T03:14:48.248-07:00<iframe width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CF9GiK_T4PA?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-608272955534716515?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-50976320107783116532011-06-24T11:09:00.000-07:002011-06-24T11:09:55.054-07:00<iframe width="480" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_JXcWwHxCBE?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-5097632010778311653?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-86914658108540208502011-06-23T15:18:00.000-07:002011-06-23T15:18:38.861-07:00‎''Sex crime does not exist, rape is a 'violent crime'; give the rapists all the shame for rape...' Alyssa Royse<br /><br /><iframe width="480" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/m19bXwFnBSo?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-8691465810854020850?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-38961926823951551162011-06-23T14:51:00.000-07:002011-06-23T14:51:08.780-07:00<iframe width="480" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lzUP15QXHs8?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-3896192682395155116?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-15073660058318394382011-06-20T06:20:00.000-07:002011-06-22T09:08:04.441-07:00I remember in a period of unemployment years ago they would provide enough money for acquiring a suit for interviews. Unfortunately my employment prospects were as an adventure instructor. The UK government paid for me to face a Force 10 gale in the Cairngorms in goretex comfort. As far as I know that is the sum total of any benefit I've ever applied for and received having been protected from the cold to this day!<br /><br />However they would equally have let me starve in the street when I was so sick I could neither work nor access benefits, and now I'm living in the paperwork bardo not fitting anyone's box in anyone's country, I'm not sure I'm entitled even to be a refugee as I have a passport, for all it's worth. I might use it one day for the local embassy to extract me from a predicament if that still is possible nowadays. Or do they just pay someone to push you out the helicopter? Turns out learning to become a survival instructor was possibly the wisest move I ever made. After all banking, law, politics and pharmasuiticals has become a trumped up world of gangsters, and I'm inclined to hold people's welfare in the highest regard.<br /><br />Once upon a time none of us needed a piece of paper to 'belong' somewhere. Now we need all sorts of pieces and whenever we can't get them we lose rights, become ineligible to have a car, a home, a country... Now we have to pay for these pieces of paper, some people pay with their lives as they have no other option and this whole system is held up by stony faced bureaucrats who have no interest in our personal well being and people who profit from other's misery. <br /><br />What should have happened in situations of profiting by pushing refugees into detention is jail for the politicians and intermediarieswho were making a lot of money for every refugee they put in detention. In the USA it's become a business to jail people... people get paid per head. IN Germany perfectly good families are having their children taken away to 'fill' beds in state childrens institutions.<br /><br /> There's a point at which bowing our heads to the so called 'law' becomes senselessand pursuing the next N166 form or whichever ludicrous papyrus hoop you have to jump through to be in the good books of the local pharoah. I don't like the local pharoahs I've decided. Having sincerely felt for a long time, that they don't like me. I don't know why they don't like me. Is it because my life hasn't conformed, not by my choice or theirs?<br /><br /><br />You don't always have a lot of choice over the direction your life takes. For me it was an uphill sturggle from the word go. Now I've reached a sort of quasi platform of stability of my own making, having shunned the circus parade long enough to hear my own thoughts. I've been trying to find out what the hoops were I needed to jump through. I'd moved country again, by action of Life's Default button - it wasn't a choice, and have a new Pharoah who happens to speak French and Eurozonian. Evidently neither of which I understand, especially Eurozonian. The Eurozonians, of which I do not include myself even though I am technically included without my own volition, are getting it in the neck at the moment. Mainly as I understand it for putting the squeeze on all their member countries. And ordinary folks suffering because of 'sovreign debts'. They're saying we should bail out the indebted, but I am thinking probably turfing them out would be wiser. I expect none of the ordianry Greek citizens did anything differently than try and keep a roof over their heads and food in the belly's of their families, and keep running a vehicle. No the people who have nicked all the money, the theives, the highwaymen, the bandits and gangsters are the CEO's, the shareholders, the politicians, the bankers, the law makers and their protectorate, the police and the military, None of whom I personally have a problem with, but collectively have a lot to answer for. Oh wait a sec, actualy President Sarcozy, it could be personal with. As he's the one who scrapped a scheme for people like me arriving in France not having paid enough insurance in the UK to fit their system here and be allowed to exist as a person.<br /><br />I am person non-grata here, through no fault of my own. I blamed myself for a long time until I really realised that I have been sick, haven't been able to breathe and would be dead had I not fought as hard as I did. when I began to see my life through glasses untinted by self judgement and the devalueing looks the stony faced bureaucrats and family gave me, I realised I've never done anything wrong. I haven't broken any laws. It seems I'm being persecuted literally for trying to breathe. And for a long time of trying to fit the system; working two jobs for no income (you don't get paid for several weeks), or one job full time 7am till 11pm seven days a week for £25 a week... (see becoming an adventure instructior) OR save up a deposit on a place and then been made jobless because the entire company closed down... made homeless because the landlord decided to do a refit, or the landlord walked round with no underwear on and then got arrested for tax evasion... You get the picture... All the while trying to fill out this form and that form and juggle P60's and P45's.<br /><br />A person should not have to be a lawyer or a finance wizard to function in society. That's not a society, it's a hedgefund for lawyers and financiers. People don't view the sort of persecution I've experienced as such. I didn't either, I thought I had 'rights', and a future and access to education and so on... That's bollocks. <br /><br />You only have rights if you can jump through the right hoops or have a Pharoah in the family.<br /><br />I come from a family of non Pharoahs. Our peasant blood is soaked into the earth all over Europe. All my Great grandfathers died in WW1. My grandmother and aunt were killed in the Blitz. I lived longer than my own grandmother. We once owned the little Lyons Tea houses in the UK but a partner one day came into the office and literally stole all the deeds and money and ran out the door... right from under the nose of my now completely down and out ancestor. Another worked as a drill instructor at Buckingham Palace, they were a snooty lot, hifalutin... off to the opera in ballgowns etc, he had 5kids from his first marriage, 5 with my grt grt gran and then had an affair with his wife's sister, had another five children and died of TB. You don't plan for this sort of thing in life... These two women suddenly had fifteen children and no money, so my grt gran went into the workhouse along with her siblings. So runs the racket of fortune.<br /><br />I have reached the point of being extremely tired of hoop jumping. I'm not sure I can look at another piece of paper even if it means I can get out of the paperwork bardo, the in betwen, the right-less limbo you find yourself when you haven't got enough points, insurance, credit or stamps, to give you access to basic human rights. I am truly in the paperwork bardo and not sure if I want to leave it. It's like the time I found I was homeless, incredibly I didn't die... I didn't cease to exist, I suddenly inherited everywhere as my address; and nowhere... in the eyes of the law... I'm not sure I want to share their myopia any more. It's a heartless cold sort of existence... where those with passports who share your citizenship are human and those without are 'illegal immigrants'. Where those with credit, are upstanding citizens and those without are valueless.<br /><br />I'm sorry but we all have value. We're inherently born with it. We have natural unalienable rights that came with our beating hearts, and our barefooted ancestors who drank the cool waters of this earth. My value is in no way indicated or chosen or reduced or enlarged upon by anyone else, My value is not measured in pounds, dollars or euros. Now currences are of division and have no honour. They only seem to shine with deceit. The truest currency, more solid than any metal, is humans helping humans to survive, as we did for thousands of years, in families and clans. Each of us with a purpose, and a future. I used to want to become something. I was forever inadequate. I tried so hard to improve myself and be 'better'. And the 'world' replayed the message of my inadequacy, and hollywood superstars paraded their achievements, like glittering flag bearers I could never catch up with. So I switched channels. <br /><br />If you imply I am inadequate in anyway you'll find I will not be listening to you. I will have thrown my lot in with the animals, I'd rather chance it, on the wing, flit from tree to tree, or nose around the edges of towns and houses than hang out with you and your lack. There's more than enough. Nature is abundant. We only suffer when we act like locusts.<br /><br />You've created this paperwork bardo that has disenfranchised a perfectly good and useful citizen, that had a lot to offer. I could have invented some amazing things. Contributed to literature, to medicine, to science even. But you threw me out with the trash. You don't know how to value what's right in front of you.<br /><br />And up till now I didn't either. The paperwork bardo showed me what's important. Freedom has nothing to do with how much credit you have, and whether you can get an accountant or a lawyer to do all your hoop jumping for you. It's all about choices; I thought I was free only if I had these choices that were enabled by the right qualifications and forms. Turns out freedom has nothing to do with paperwork at all. One of the greatest bestowals of freedom upon us comes from dwelling on the thought of death. We still get post for my late father he still 'exists' on somebody's database. Impermanence, something that can render all of our pursuits meaningless and equally precious in an instant. It laughs at us constantly throughout life.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-1507366005831839438?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-69921429874575944642011-06-13T06:35:00.000-07:002011-06-13T06:39:56.638-07:00I would like everyone I know to see this movie and then I'd like to join a movement to bring the pharmaceuticals, FDA and individuals involved to task with actual criminal court proceedings and change how the whole government and medical establishment currently functions solely for the interests of big Pharma. I'd like you to join me so that by the end of our lifetimes our children do not have to face down such insidious abuses. And I'd like full restitution for Dr Bursynski who should be given an award for services to humanity.<br /><br /><br /><iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-lXgnb6tdBY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-6992142987457594464?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-69278593743825392632011-06-06T10:28:00.001-07:002011-06-06T10:28:52.100-07:00<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/6538094?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/6538094">For The Next 7 Generations Trailer</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user2289630">Laughing Willow</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-6927859374382539263?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-90850584188306787472011-05-22T03:28:00.000-07:002011-05-22T12:30:10.044-07:00I don't give my respect lightly, folks have to earn it. I know we're facing a dire situation simply from the amount of ignorance and greed in the world, even good, clever, kind people don't know how their actions are profoundly out of touch with the reality that is their consequences.<br /><br />Often the 'poor' people of the planet are more harmless in their lifestyles than all of us with our laptops and nuclear power..., their effect on this planet is like a feather falling from the sky and often they're more creative of resilience than any urbanite, they grow things, they collect their water directly where they can, whereas our effect - you just have to look around at the deserts.<br /><br /><a href="http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/25463/slide_25463_279787_large.jpg?1306060420880" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 550px; height: 400px;" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/25463/slide_25463_279787_large.jpg?1306060420880" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span">Area 51 - Between 1951 and 1992, there were a total of 928 announced nuclear tests at Nevada Test Site. A 104-kiloton bomb was buried at a depth of 635 feet, and its detonation produced a crater 1,280 feet wide and 320 feet deep, moving 12 million tons of radioactive dirt in an instant and creating a hole that can be seen from space<br /></span><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Our 'mother' is mad at the moment... our 'mother'; the system of industries and governments that 'provide' for us has 'lost it', I don't think they ever had it. Choosing harmlessness now, is against the 'law', choosing 'freedom', choosing 'human rights' are all conspired against by the monopolizing of business. The business model is not flexible enough to become ethical and ecological. So much needs changing.. But the biggest thing we can do is to operate in realtime, to grow real things, that have real effects on our environments, real positive changes...</div><div><br />I'm not interested in bringing down the 'system'. Only in what I <i>can</i> do. I can control my choices and live more directly with my home. I can make my home resilient, I can learn to 'clean' the radiation from my environments. I can put my efforts towards finding ways to 'show' the radiation using magnetic tracer elements that attach to radioactive particles and enable them to be collected from the land and atmosphere and put it back in the uranium and plutonium mines. I can 'clean' soil using zeolytes, bicarbonate of soda, using funghi which degrades radiation significantly faster. And I can solve the root causes too... I <i>can</i> bring 'down' the system, by bringing 'up' the future, the sustainable, the harmless. I need 'we'. <i>We</i> can focus and put our collective efforts on co-operatively healing and repairing the planet. Not by trying to 'change' that which refuses to change, but simply by creating new ways of sustaining ourselves that are harmless and choosing to adhere to them instead. A group pf people responsible for cleaning the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Garbage Gyre, Fukishima and everywhere that has been contaminated. That's a great 'we', not waiting for others to do it for us.</div><div><br />We can use energy responsibly and withdraw from the old damaging irresponsible ways. We don't need so much but what we do need is each other, to make a concerted effort together, in contrast to our governments and industries, who in the words of a CEO aren't able to change overnight, their 'changes' take decades to implement. Which is why they're not changing or helping us change - they think in economic terms, in 'cheapest' rates and so on. Those rates are costing our future. </div><div><br /></div><div>I believe I live on a planet that is more than the physical, I believe we are creative, genius creatures that have the capacity to turn this around. I don't think it's an 'us' and 'them' situation. It's the same equation it's always been, between the aware and the ignorant, and in the same way you would try and intervene with a suicidal person stood on a bridge, here there are crowds unwittingly stood at the edge. So many people who have put their fates in others hands. We simply have to take our fates in our own hands and stop giving it away.<br /><br />I had a realization recently of the many ways I 'give away' my power... Through the many forms of paperwork and documents that tell me what I can and cannot do, who I am, what my rights are. Even if we don't throw them away in reality, we should 'cast them out' from within us. We are free human beings, free to travel where we want, when we want, without any intervention, free to live and do what and how we wish.</div><div><br /></div><div> Anything we believe is contrary to that is simply an 'idea', a way of 'controlling'. But how can they control thousands of people who stand up and choose to belong to none but this earth and this universe. Who choose to 'go beyond borders' literally and forever. Who choose to adhere, not to nationalism or anything divisionary, but to the wider humanity. </div><div><br /></div><div>I have found trying to live within this system; tiring, wasteful, weakening, distracting, exhausting, stressful, unhealthy, and life shortening. I've also found it a waste of time, destructive, divisionary, prejudiced and all of it unnecessary. It has never once served me or anyone I know. We are quite capable of helping each other and providing for our needs without it. I am not my national insurance number, you cannot compare me to GDP, I am not my citizenship, I am not my 'job'. What purpose do I serve? Freedom... everyones.<br /><br />Obama asked the 'terrorists' to 'renounce violence' and 'respect the constitution' - you can't ask someone else to do that unless you do it yourself. I think if we unite not with individual countries, 'China', 'France', the European Union, NATO... but instead with the people who live in China, the people who live in France, the people who live on this planet... If we look beyond all the dividing lines, where division is used for the purposes of control. </div><div><br /></div><div>If we become free ourselves, live harmlessly, live sustainably, help each other, provide freely... at least in terms of or basic needs, this world will change rapidly. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>I'm not from another country or a nation, different from you and yours. We both live in the same blue home. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>We don't need a 'system', we need to live in a way that is enlivening, focused, energising, calming, healthy, strengthening, life lengthening, respectful of time, constructive, creative, unifying and without prejudice. Without pre-judgement of each other. We need to value each other, now as we are, with all our ignorance and awareness. </div><div><br /></div><div>My heart is quite tired of the old world and it's clutches. I don't think I 'can' live in<i> it</i> any longer. I'm all out of anything to 'give' to that old system - it 'takes' so much without giving anything in return. </div><div><br /></div><div>I am struck by a perception of freedom that always catches me when I 'drop out', 'run away', 'leave', 'quit', remain silent when under attack by the ignorant who cannot possibly hear my words; when I'm looking elsewhere, to the future, to the life that exists, somewhere that isn't where I am trying to fulfil these 'duties' that aren't real, with their pretend pricetags. </div><div><br /></div><div>Freedom is fundamentally anarchic, everyone that has ever become free ceases to adhere to anything, especially something negative or destructive. Freedom implies the ability to move freely; 'dom' is from the root meaning house -Dominion, in common with demesne, domain, dominant, dominate, domineer, dominie, domino, and don, and indeed danger and dungeon, comes ultimately from Latin dominus ‘lord, master’. This was a derivative of Latin domus ‘house’ (source of English dome) and, like the parallel Greek formation despótēs (source of English despot), originally meant ‘master of the house’. -The prehistoric ancestor of 'free' was a term of affection uniting the members of a family in a common bond, and implicitly excluding their servants or slaves – those who were not ‘free’. It comes ultimately from Indo-European *prijos, whose signification ‘dear, beloved’ is revealed in such collateral descendants as Sanskrit priyás ‘dear’, Russian prijatel’ ‘friend’, and indeed English friend. Its Germanic offspring, *frijaz, displays the shift from ‘affection’ to ‘liberty’, as shown in German frei, Dutch vrij, Swedish and Danish fri, and English free. Welsh rhydd ‘free’ comes from the same Indo-European source.-</div><div><br />So this implies that if we are to be free we should unite in a common bond as dear friends. And when I say my 'free' friends I'm declaring my affection, for my ''dear and beloved'. And those who are enslaved perhaps are those who still adhere to the old system, the ways that do not serve the whole family, but only the master, while destroying life whether it be in subtle ways; insidious daily leeching from our vital force, or from taking the air we breathe and turning it bad. Even the air from the highest mountain is now no longer impure, tainted with particles that would erode our bodies. Even our bodies, as dependent as they are on certain conditions, limit us. </div><div><br /></div><div>We can with the minds and spirits we have been given go beyond even our bodies in terms of freedom and potential, our minds and hearts have such power, such abilities; not only for physical creation but for spiritual, for relationship with the space in between things from which everything comes. There is a great 'freedom' there, that lies in the origin of all things, and every moment. It is even beyond the effects of atomic particles, of free radicals. And as humans we have this possibility of finding this precious gift, within our lifetimes.<br /><br />Don't limit yourself to the garden; to the seed and the soil, but question where does that seed and soil come from, what prompts the flower to grow and become itself... There is no paperwork that can grasp that or measure it. Potential is truly our secret weapon, and love likewise... When a person expects the tip of a knife to hurt and yet through the blade courses only compassion, healing and life... using such a knife we can cut away the old bonds.</div><div><br /></div><div> With those bonds, we limit ourselves to the bureaucracy, to the urbane, to the passing of time, to the strictures of expectations, to the roles, and the defining words. To live in this country I needed Form N166, in the old country I needed to pay National Insurance, in this country a social security number, in the old country I was fastened to another number.</div><div><br /></div><div> I couldn't keep up with the number. I fell behind, I slipped off the edge of the forms... P45, P46 Employment contracts, 'Sickness benefit', P60 'End of year earnings', Self Declaration of Yearly Earnings; Council Tax Declaration Category A,B,C,D, Car Tax, Passport Forms, Pension Forms, Refuse Collection Rates, Utility Bills for water, electricity, communication, maintenance... Car insurance, House, Health, Holiday, House, Contents, Land, Pets, Personal Injury, (Insurance against death 'Life Assurance'!)... Marriage Contract, Prenuptial Guarantees, Commercial Insurance, Public Liability Insurance, Employers Liability, Premises Security Guarantee, Child Benefit Allowances, Housing Benefits, Declarations of In-Validity benefits, Carers Support Forms, Income Support; (If your employee doesn't pay the rates the employer has to do the paperwork to pay the court fines from their employees salary). Association paperwork, the law society, Protection Against Malpractise, School Registration, Teacher's association, Trade unions forms, Doctor's forms, Bank forms, Loan and credit, debit and mortgage forms, College forms, Criminal record forms...<br /><br />Is it any wonder I'm finding it difficult to con-form. I have this wish to never sign any form every again. It's fiery and fierce in my heart. I want to shake all of it off like dust. All of the trappings. to wander freely like the yogis once wandered across Asia. </div><div><br /></div><div>In Tibetan Buddhism there is a practise called 'taking the essence'. The master has gained so much mastery over his mind and body that he can even control the elements of his body. He takes 'essence pills' full of minerals, and flower essences, practises controlling the breath and the energies within the body. There are side effects; the ability to control the temperature of the body, telepathy, control of the dreams, bliss... </div><div><br /></div><div>One day he can absorb the light of the sun and the various elements and it is enough, he needs nothing else to sustain him. And later on he can dissolve his body into it's elements at death, it's called the 'rainbow light body' or he can choose to inhabit an eternal 'vajra' body, his light body, capable of appearing and disapearing at will, travelling vast distances, multiplying, restoring life, entering another body or consciousness.</div><div><br /></div><div> It appears to us as magic, and yet it is science. It can only be approached with three qualities; the altruistic intention, true insight into reality and the wish for freedom. And of these, altruistic intention or compassion, is the most necessary, you can reach this potential with compassion alone and yet of the other two qualities both require compassion as well.<br /><br />It begs the question what are our basic needs? Well even the buddha needed a bowl of rice milk for strength to continue in his practise. In Asia back then it was possibly for him to wander. He did not have to stop his meditation to fill our any forms. Can you imagine if upon taking his seat beneath the bodhi tree, someone had approached him, the owner, and said 'You can't sit here, it's private property...' I'm sure the owner would have stood no chance. The most powerful mind can win all the battles.<br /><br />Here, not having the right paperwork can limit your rights. Now you do not have human rights, because you don't have the right paperwork. All of this paperwork is supposed to be providing us with freedom, with more rights and yet it actively oppresses and prevents us pursuing our intrinsic freedom. We have to tick all the boxes to belong. Except I don't fit any boxes. I slipped off the edge of the forms...</div><div><br /></div><div> By signing these forms I give power for people to manufacture and drop bombs in my name, to further limit my freedoms by forcing me to choose 'medicine' created in a laboratory and not the natural herbs I would prefer, forcing me to assist corporations monopolising and corrupting the foodsupply and making it unhealthy and inedible, forcing me to protect the interests of people intent on mining, manufacturing, warring, controlling and destroying, forcing me to assist those would take the rights from others through slavery, crime and corruption.<br /><br />I am intent on restoring, re-storying, changing my story. I may have to rewrite all the rules, because the rules no longer serve us. It's no longer a matter of civil disobedience, it's uncivil. Because the constraints society forces us to adhere to are uncivil, inherently prejudiced, marginalising, undemocratic, capitalistic and ballistic.</div><div><br /></div><div> I cannot live harmlessly if my only choice for energy is nuclear power. I cannot live harmlessly if you won't let me use natural gas made from compost and waste as by far the most harmless alternative available everywhere right now.</div><div><br /></div><div> I can't live harmlessly providing for my basic needs if I have to drive three hours to find and fill out your paperwork, using petrol and chemicals which are changing our climate and polluting our land and oceans. It's killing birds and animals and people. </div><div><br /></div><div>I can't live harmlessly if my water supply is through pipes ripped from the earth. </div><div><br /></div><div>I can't live harmlessly if my food is brought from thousands of miles and through intensive processing using masses of chemicals that kill and enslave.<br /><br />People are worried about being unemployed. Why? You have so much to do. We don't cease to exist without a job or house... We need to work together, we need to produce food wherever we are. So much land has NOTHING in it! (Well it does but not ENOUGH). People have land that is empty when it could be stacked with food using vertical growng, aquacultures, permaculture, magic gardening and fuel supplies using the Jean Pain Composting method... Offering a home for animals, birds and bees struggling to find habitats. </div><div><br /></div><div>We could be abundant. Not just one crop but multiple crops all in the same few metres. We need to create food right up to the canopy layer. We NEED a protective canopy layer. The green skin of the earth is what creates our weather protects our soils, mediates the radiation from space AND our atmosphere. </div><div><br /></div><div>We need to turn our backs on the money and the form requirements - We CAN grow! We need to focus on what we CAN do together. GROW GROW GROW and create your freedom. It's not that nothing is possible. It's not that there are walls that are too high to climb - they're just idea walls they aren't real. You can tell what is real and what is not by asking a simple question 'If I die tomorrow what will remain because of me?' Everything that falls away is unimportant, everything that remains is... </div><div><br /></div><div>It's not that you're in debt - what for? For travelling freely, for building a home? Did the first tribes need to pay off debts when they crossed the oceans and climbed the mountains? Were they yoked to mortages? Are we any different to them...? NO!<br /><br />Without a job, without a home, without money; you are still standing. We have each other. We have where we are and where we go and what we choose to focus on. We can gather seeds and plant them. We have places that remain free.. We have places without forms.<br /><br />I am becoming formless. I am becoming free. And the first step is to see where you 'think' you are not free, and shake it off like the dust that it is. We are incredible creators. As much as we bear witness to the destruction on this planet we will bear witness to our ability to create ways out of it; ways even where there are none. We don't have to change the unchangeable, we don't have to convert the unyielding, we don't have to squander all our energy on trying to make the 'blind with ignorance', see.<br /><br />We only have to take steps to turn around and put our foot forward 'The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life, it's so easy to make it complex.The solution maybe for a lot of the world's problems is to turn around and take a forward step, you can't just keep trying to make a flawed system work.' (From Chris Malloy's film 180 Degrees South)</div><div><br /></div><div>So make connections, network, create co-operatives, housing co-ops, work co-ops, with the aims of repairing, growing, creating, solving, strengthening, calming, healing, enlivening, focused, energising, healthy, strengthening, life lengthening, respectful of time, constructive, creative, unifying and without prejudice, valueing... And if you're doing any of those things you're on the right track. But if what you're doing is tiring, weakening, distracting, exhausting, stressful, unhealthy, life shortening, a waste of time, wasteful, destructive, divisionary, prejudiced, and unnecessary.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a simple lesson you learn as a survival instructor. It's the energy equation. So often survival is about energy; calories over time. How much energy you need to expend to survive and the corresponding energy necessary to consume to be able to do that. The best survivor is someone who consumes energy the most efficiently. I hazard a guess that our future survival as much as our past hinges upon this simple equation. Of course we could master this energy equation, we could get incredibly good at transforming energy, at creating and optimising our <i>adaptivee capacity</i>, that is our ability to create the resources we need to survive, to adapt to our changing situations and environment. We can <i>change</i> our environments, we can recognise how everything interacts, how energy morphs from one form physically manifested to another.</div><div><br /></div><div> What's crazy, what's really mad, is that we have, with the supercomputers of our minds and bodies; the ability to manipulate space, not just with our hands, but with our minds, with our thoughts and feelings. You want to see magic, well there it is, right there. We've barely begun to grasp this as a race. A precious few have figured this out. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I talk about <i>magic gardening</i>, I'm not talking about growing a few spuds...I'm talking about mastering the energy equation. Mastering your thoughts, your environment, the elements of your body, you love quotient - that is your ability to experience and create bliss. Because the bliss quota is what everyone's missing. It's our true nature. It's what we're made of, actually it's our common bond with the entire universe. When science captures that element and puts it in a petri dish, then we'll be able to travel beyond the speed of light and time. But we already have a petri dish... ourselves. We're the laboratory, we're in the lab of our own making. We're the eyes of the world. Space is not something that exists out there, beyond the confines of our atmosphere. It's right here in our bloodstream. So you see formlessness can indeed be interpreted in some interesting ways. Formlessness is what we're made of as taught in the Heart Sutra:</div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote></blockquote></div><blockquote><div> Form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form ;</div> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form,</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">all truths are marked with emptiness ;</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">they are not produced or stopped, not defiled or immaculate, not deficient or complete.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">in emptiness there is no form nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness ;</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind ; No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables or objects of mind ; No sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to :</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">No mind-consciousness element ; There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to : There is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">There is no cognition, no attainment and no non-attainment.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">It is because of his non-attainmentness that a Bodhisattva ( a being who dedicates all their lives to liberating others from suffering), through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought-coverings he has not been made to tremble,</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">he has overcome what can upset, and in the end he attains to Nirvana (and beyond)</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">All those who appear as Buddhas (awakened ones) in the three periods of time (past, present and future) fully awake to the utmost, right and perfect Enlightenment because they have relied on the Perfection of Wisdom.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Therefore one should know the Prajnaparamita - Hridayam (the Perfection of Wisdom and Hridayam means of the 'heart') as the great spell, the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell, allayer of all suffering, in truth -- for what could go wrong ? By the prajnaparamita has this spell been delivered. It runs like this :</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">'Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail ! -- or gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha'</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">(Bodhi means one who is free of greed, hate and delusion, or has achieved enlightenment. And Svaha means 'so be it' or hail, it's a form both of honouring and manifesting.)</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">This completes the Heart of Perfect Wisdom as told Sariputra by Avalokita the Holy Lord and Bodhisattva who moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which has gone beyond, <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>looked down from on high, He beheld but five heaps, and He saw that in their own-being they were empty.</p></blockquote><p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cWBz_pxYC0A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; ">Lead me from the untruth to the truth. Non-existence to existence. Non-reality to Reality.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; "><div style="text-align: center;">Lead me from darkness to light.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Lead me from death to immortality</div><div style="text-align: center;">Om Shanti Shanti Shanti (Peace Peace Peace)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">(From the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;">-'This is true prayer—the seeker’s admission of his sense of limitedness and his heartfelt cry for assistance in transcendence. It is not a prayer for the things of the world. It is not a pray for food, shelter, health, partnership, riches, success, fame, glory or even for heaven1. One who recites these three mantras has realized that such things are full of holes, soaked in pain and, even in abundance, will forever leave him wanting. It is in this full understanding that one turns to this prayer. The essence of each of these three mantras is the same: "O, teacher help me free myself from my sundry misunderstandings regarding myself, the universe and God and bless me with true knowledge.'<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-9085058418830678747?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-69013251214597135602011-05-11T16:07:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:30:35.684-07:00<div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span">You can read it here.... <a href="http://www.coalcares.org/faq.html">http://www.coalcares.org/faq.html</a> I thought it was a joke. But no its real. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px; ">I wonder are they feeling guilty coz of the kids dying of asthma because of what they do... Not being able to breathe wow thanks - that should be a human right you know and they should be done for human rights abuse. I remember my asthma school, Shell oil company came along and took photos of us in these jumpers with the Shell logo on and then the jumpers got taken away</span></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span"> I couldn't walk before I was 4years old because of car fumes, and industrial pollution. I watched friends die, not in a war, but because they couldn't breathe. Because the world created this monster. And I nearly died alot. Bloody miracle I'm here and healthy - no thanks to them.</span></span></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: normal; ">People then say, 'But they can't be that bad - theygive to charity' </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Thats why all the rich folk have a foundation, like the Rockerfella foundation </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">or the ones that back GM research, all run by the same money/powergrabbers. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Grrr! I'm such a gentle person, I don't like getting angry... but if I ever met one of these suits Iwould tear them apart with my words, so hard they would never be able to go back to work. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Ironically I was on those inhalers for decades and now I have one for emergencies. Which is ironic as the same inhalers were responsible for my nearly dying. I now learned the buteyko method of breathing, stopped dairy and stress as much as possible and have some herbs for asthma... Also tbetan stuff helped a lot as did a mineral supplement called Maximol and Natures Plus cleanse kit too.... inside out healing. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">And talkingabout my EMOTIONS really really helps a lot...</span></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">15000 people have recommened that coal cares site... We're doomed. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">We at Peabody want to make Asthma-Related Bullying (ARB) a thing of the past' I'll give them asthma related bullying. I've got asthma directly related to them, and boy I wish I was a bully and they weren't a giant corporation because I'd put them head first in a pile of coal dust and ask them to breathe deeply... Or take steroids all their life... or do their shopping while carrying another human and being underwater, as thats what its like. These people have been doing water torture effectively to people with their work... stopping us breathing... for money. And we don't need coal. There's enough power from renewables for the whole planet and you can driveyour car on methane gas.</span></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">'</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 67); line-height: 24px; ">"But why should weak lungs mean the end of your social life? We are excited to help a whole new generation of children hold their heads high while inhaling."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 67); line-height: 24px; "> Angela Smith-Wooten, President of Peabody's Global Corporate Social Responsibility Division. Weak lungs my ****. If my lungs were weak I wouldn't be here. I have strong lungs because Im still alive after breathing in all their crap. I don't want their stupid steroid puff puff. That I had to take, which stopped my own body producing steroidds naturally until I healed myself. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">'How can we afford not to? Coal is a $7 billion per year industry, producing more than half of all U.S. electricity. We know we can't do this without you, the consumer, and especially without your children, who will continue consuming coal long after you're gone. We depend on your children's mental well-being and goodwill.' WTF! WTF! Notice how they write MENTAL well being... coz your kids and grandchildren will be really messed up.</span></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Well here's one consumer you'll have to do it without... Bye then. And if anyone who reads this has any sense you'll bring down the coal industry too for good. So as kids can breathe again and learn to walk before they;re four years old, and not died when they're eleven, or before that.</span></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Peabody Energy has put a price on killing children - making $7billion is too much to stop. Know what, they'd probably do it for 70 cents.</span></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-6901325121459713560?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-83661421398567109782011-05-04T03:59:00.000-07:002011-05-04T04:57:52.394-07:00<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Jcdx175bBPg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br /><br />You know I think Lara Logan is one of the few journalists to still be saying it like it is, and I don't think her terrible experience in Egypt is going to stop that happening, I think instead it will inform it.<div><br /></div><div> For example the Tahir Squre story of celebration of the end of a dictatorship turned out not to be the biggest story - the biggest story in my mind was evidenced by the mistaken racism unleashed, and in particular <i>genderism</i> shown by the random men in that square who felt able to take Lara's life in such a violent manner without any retribution... </div><div><br /></div><div>That she got away was entirely because of her fighting spirit and chance - landing in the lap of an egyptian women and initially being protected by them (and a few men) and then also by the actions of her team in initiating the help of the egyptian army.</div><div><br /></div><div>The entire 'woman bashing' was one of many similar events going on across the world but in particular unfolding in north african countries and many places where men still 'rule' so to speak. And women as whole are regarded as 'less than'.</div><div><br /></div><div> I myself have suffered a lot of unwanted attention from north africans and middle easterns who seem to have no idea of appropriate behaviour with women. It's not just them I've encountered it from men from any background but it seems to proliferate in societies and situations where women aren't respected as equal.</div><div><br /></div><div> Lara is like the opposite of an oppressed woman and yet here she's suffered something so many women suffer, which journalism needs to address. It's not a back story, this issue of inequality between women and men, it runs right through the middle of the revolutions in the middle east. </div><div>People need to associate with societies with such rampant inequality, with more awareness. If you see no women in the picture it's because they're not included... And the amount to which they are shows how much say they do and don't get in matters pertaining to their rights and to society in general.</div><div><br /></div><div>I refuse to be looked down upon by anyone for any reason and I will not do that to others. None of us is 'less than' for any reason whether it's because we're a woman or child, because we do or don't have a passport, or a house or a job. Nor is anybody 'more than' for any reason whether it's status, property or money... I think Lara is fearless.</div><div>She has fearlessly shared an absolutely soul annhilating experience, in her words to 'break the silence' </div><div><br /></div><div>And she is fearlessly facing her fears in order to one day be back in the game she chooses. I expect her experience may choose somewhat for her. Things like this don't happen for no reason. </div><div><br /></div><div>You might think fearlessly facing fears is an oxymoron - it's not, because I've done it, many people have done it. When you have fear and you continue anyway you don't do it with nothing, you do it with courage. Unfortunately suffering a trauma can massively amplify a fear, especially if you had no idea how long it would go on for, 25minutes can feel like 25 years and all the emotions and thoughts therein. </div><div><br /></div><div>I would like to ask a few questions I'd like answered in my lifetime.</div><div><br /></div><div>One can Muslim/Islamic countries have equality between men and women? For that matter can western countries truly have that too? We've tried at least and some are better at it than others...</div><div><br /></div><div>Can we take the system of abuse and control that's in our society and our homes and workplaces, out of our heads and hearts; out of our speech and our bearing?</div><div><br /></div><div>Can we stop chucking weapons and armies around for <i>corpolitical</i> or <i>politorate </i>interests? And perhaps use them in a humanitarian manner... to protect the innocent and oppressed, to recover from disasters not create them...?</div><div><br /></div><div>And having asked those questions how can we answer them. I think the Lara Logans of this world are doing a fine job of that... And they're everywhere. The ones who create answers are the Egyptian woman whose lap she fell in somehow after being dragged by the mob... her answer was to wrap her arms around Lara. And the women and men with her.. their answers were to draw around Lara and to fend the mob off with <i>water; </i>no guns, no ammunition, water... Water to protect the innocent.</div><div><br /></div><div>When that is the armies job isn't it... I see no victory in death. I see no celebration in violence. I see it in a stranger opening their arms to protect a stranger picked on by a mob created not just by their own actions, but by all of the conditions that led to their actions. All of the anti Israel, and anti-Jewish rhetoric they had downloaded but in particular all of the anti-woman words, action and silence they had grown up with that reinforced that. The middle east and Muslim countries like these don't evidence respect for women... This is not respect for women...?? And Lara's right when she says it 'Should not be happening'. </div><div><br /></div><div>We have to detoxify ourselves of inequality in all ways, in speech, in behaviour... in thoughts and feelings... It doesn't mean we all have to look the same; inequality is not countered by sameness... By not being anti-race or religion or gender, you don't have to be 'for' something... you can just refuse to be against. It's about equality of respect... of existence... of value and self esteem... Not looks, beliefs, politics, nationalism and gender...</div><div>I am proud to be the same as you, neither less than nor more than. It's about quality, not inequality or equality...</div><div>What is the quality? Lara Logan has it. Do you? Does your family, your work place? Does your school? What about your country? Does your religion have it? Are you 'less than' or 'more than'? And what are you if you're neither?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>You can watch the story of her experience here http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/28/60minutes/main20058368.shtml?tag=contentMain%3BcbsCarousel<br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-8366142139856710978?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-73513358347493120982011-04-28T17:24:00.000-07:002011-04-28T17:25:04.120-07:00<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px" width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-qhZQR5Grok?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-qhZQR5Grok?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-7351335834749312098?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-47822722796629396222011-04-28T07:36:00.000-07:002011-04-28T07:40:25.799-07:00This article is amazing ' Essiac is a cure for cancer. I’ve seen it reverse and eliminate cancers at such a progressed state that nothing medical science currently has could have accomplished similar results. I wouldn’t have believed it myself had I not seen it with my own eyes. I feel very strongly that Essiac is the single most beneficial treatment for cancer today.' Dr Charles A Brusch Source- http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/health/cancer-cure-found-in-secret-indian-herbal-formulation-54456.html<br /><br />I have more resources on how to make essiac and where to get it <a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/07/essiac-or-caisse-tea-cancer-cure.html">here.. </a> and <a href="http://thepillspages.blogspot.com/2007/08/health-and-fitness-videos.html">here</a><br /><br />http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/health/cancer-cure-found-in-secret-indian-herbal-formulation-54456.html<br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-4782272279662939622?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-89974817383024604632011-04-28T06:05:00.000-07:002011-04-28T06:05:12.317-07:00<iframe width="480" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zgtjYDnOHUw?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-8997481738302460463?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-35946958880280154132011-04-28T05:45:00.000-07:002011-04-28T05:46:36.572-07:00I wish all the people currently growing and selling herbs would continue to do so as an act of resistance against the illegal law to ban herbs in the EU that's about to come into effect. I for one will not heed this law <br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-3594695888028015413?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-57588412677946734222011-04-02T03:39:00.000-07:002011-04-02T03:39:23.562-07:00<iframe width="480" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/akm3nYN8aG8?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-5758841267794673422?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-88015483000710093312011-03-28T05:07:00.000-07:002011-03-28T05:07:25.015-07:00I love this little film very much! What does freedom mean to you? What about the meaning of life? What's the meaning of your life?<br /><br /><iframe width="480" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/o0oHlX8Kmxk?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-8801548300071009331?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-22570802943456303562011-03-28T04:56:00.000-07:002011-03-28T05:00:58.528-07:00Pharmaceuticals and drugs companies rarely if ever provide medicine that cures a condition. Only suppress or control it often and usually with terrible side effects, and sometimes resulting in early death. For example I have been given steroids all my life for asthma - in other traditions like Tibetan and Chinese medicine this would have been cured when I was a child. The same goes for diabetes, severe arthritis and many forms of cancer. Herbal medicines often right the imbalance in the body that predisposed a person to an illness so they no longer have the symptoms. I am now having to balance withdrawal from a lifetimes medicines which stop my body from producing its own natural steroids with adopting healthier alternatives.<br /><br />Drugs companies motive seems so often these days to be profit over welfare. I have only seen a handful of medical miracles - like spray on skin for burns patients, and surgical procedures that DO cure a condition or relieve it. Everything else seems geared towards reseach grants and propping up the pharma industry and professionals outrageously highly paid with little results<br /><br />I have spent my life searching for solutions for my own health issues and for others both inside and outside the western medical tradition - mainly because it offered me none. And often impeded my progress. I noticed I was only benefitted if I was nearly dying - and we must remember that for 500yrs the medical profession of the west has studied the dead and the ill. From victorian open studies of cadavers to the study of how much dosage a human should have based on the point at which laboratory animals die having consumed however much drug it takes to do that.<br /><br />It is a pathologically based system.<br /><br />Only recently is it beginning to study the healthiest people in the world and adopt alternative systems of medicines especially for chronic illnesses because they have proven so effective.<br /><br />Recently they have banned 60 different herbs. They hold up a handful of negative case studies as a reason, carefully compiled from around the world. When at least 50000 people or more are dying every year from western drugs related sideeffects I call that an abomination and a crime. We go to health professionals because we trust them to know more than we do. Well it strikes me that this has become a dangerous misplacement of trust. MRSA and other germs have got out of hand in hospitals. I have heard many stories of people given antidepressants who then become suicidal. I have lost friends who have comitted suicide after taking these drugs. And I have also had friends who stopped taking them because they recognised this in themselves. It is about time these crimes of science were looked at and addressed and responsibility placed on the heads of those who profess it and carry it out.<br /><br />Some of the ‘banned’ herbs are the reason I am here, they helped me heal significantly. They were once part of our everyday diet, as simple as the salads you buy in the supermarket. The real reason they have been banned is because they have become a huge competition to pharma drugs because they work. Not only do they work but they don’t cost very much and frequently grow abundantly in the wild.<br />If you want this economic centred focus to take away your rights to freedom and well being – go right ahead, don’t say anything, remain silent. But if you want to retain your rights, have these flaws of the scientific industry investigated, addressed and reformed – then say something. We owe it to ourselves, our children and the people we have lost because of the myopia of science and the greed of corporations in the health industry.<br /><br />I appreciate hearing your views of your experience with modern and alternative medicines!<br /> <br />Thank you<br /><br />Louise<br /><br />Copyright © 2011 Louise Brookes<br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-2257080294345630356?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-55361645843236014262011-03-18T09:45:00.001-07:002011-03-18T09:46:47.963-07:00People are reeling from terrible things<br />In this world<br /> <br />Falling out and melting down<br /> <br />In this world<br />I find myself in <br />People are reeling from terrible things.<br /> <br />Quaking, rumbling and tumbling<br /> <br />And running and rushing<br /> <br />And waiting - for help<br /> <br />After this shock<br /> <br />Can we erupt with a love quake?<br />Defend the helpless<br />With effort that's a magnitude 10.<br />Open our hearts like an ocean?<br />Fuse the estranged with the notion; you are not alone.<br /> <br />Can we react with a fission of understanding and empathy<br />And generate a visible Rise-IN of kindness and love?<br /> <br />Neither helpless nor hopeless<br /> <br />We carry in us the opposite of devastate<br />We can build<br />We are risers<br />We raise hope<br />We rise up<br />We raise help<br />We rise IN<br /> <br />This fallout; millen-ium(s) of ignorance<br />Piled up debris of brokenness<br />Is the beginning of the end - of defeat <br /> <br />People are reeling from terrible things in this world<br />But in you is an incorruptible element<br />It endures beyond all things<br />It has no half life<br />It shares a whole life<br />It does not split but unites<br />It does not destroy but creates<br />It is the opposite of devastate<br /> <br />We have a clear urgency<br />We're solidifying <br />Cooling tempers and calming fears<br />Water and steam and fires of the heart<br /> <br />We're rising up<br />Pumping the waters of hope <br />From the endless sea<br />Come rise<br />Rise up with me<br /> <br />We are the opposite of devastate<br /> <br />I know 6billion reactors<br />Full of the electricity of hope<br /> <br />We are the epicentre of create.<br /> <br />We are the opposite of devastate.<br /> <br />It is time to elevate<br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-5536164584323601426?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-11339523597339372392011-03-08T10:15:00.000-08:002011-03-08T10:15:52.567-08:00<iframe width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KMkmgolAj6o?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-1133952359733937239?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-41884238239069768762011-03-04T11:57:00.000-08:002011-03-04T11:57:05.338-08:00<iframe width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mUn--Euiiyo?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-4188423823906976876?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-42397852512938580002011-03-04T09:44:00.000-08:002011-03-04T09:44:25.071-08:00<iframe width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yEvHVXoNZCE?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-4239785251293858000?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-36108620853317290072011-02-26T12:36:00.000-08:002011-02-26T12:38:19.187-08:00<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8irRLv2Vz1A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-3610862085331729007?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-57645854757684958242011-01-20T17:18:00.001-08:002011-01-20T17:18:43.339-08:00<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-LA-S64QY3o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-5764585475768495824?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-35850349942000112552010-12-18T14:13:00.000-08:002010-12-18T14:14:35.609-08:00The truest words I've heard for a long time<br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tOde31QYbI0?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB"></param><param 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src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-3585034994200011255?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-1018522968108715892010-12-15T05:54:00.000-08:002010-12-15T06:27:51.716-08:00John Pilger to Martha Gellhorn ‘What’s ‘Anti American’?’<br />Martha ‘I’ll tell you what Anti American is…’ She said ‘It’s what governments and their vested interests call those who honor America by objecting to war and the theft of resources and believing in all of humanity. There are millions of these anti-americans in the United States, they are ordinary people who belong to no elite and who judge their government in moral terms though they would call it common decency, they are not vain, they are the people with a wakeful conscience the best of America’s citizens. Sure they disappear from view now and then but they are like seeds beneath the snow. I would say they are truly exceptional…’<br /><br />If you would turn your anger to action - do it without guns. People would be truly free if they stepped from their doorsteps into a garden of everything they need, all we need to do - is grow it... Planting seeds for freedom is not so literary<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gXL998q7skI?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gXL998q7skI?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-101852296810871589?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-70888295175429597962010-12-09T03:37:00.000-08:002010-12-09T03:41:54.791-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSEtAbxaMvRR4cN_XIzoWADLFoRNMej_qTxN5XV8ooOFRV-FG6QuQ"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 191px; height: 222px;" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSEtAbxaMvRR4cN_XIzoWADLFoRNMej_qTxN5XV8ooOFRV-FG6QuQ" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Gandhi did it. He held to the truth that was the injustice of occupation and to the conviction that people would be able to have the strength of will to remain non-violent and he swayed an empire. He didn't do it through hate. He did it through love. Love of the individuals involved even though they were ignorant. He grieved for their ignorance - he pointed it out, he fought against it and his own.<br />We ALL of us have ignorance, it is on so many levels. It is the cause of such sadness and anguish and suffering. But it's OK, because as much as everyone of us has such ignorance we also share truth and awareness and we are undeniably connected one to another.<br />Therefore our obstacles, be they those that prevent us from our daily bread, or our own self doubt, or the oppression of others, these obstacles are not set in stone, they are impermanent like everything. Like everything can be moved by love, they can. Like everyone can be moved at the plight of others, we recognise our shared struggles. Let's not fight each other for bread or space, or position.<br />I don't have a lot of money, that's one of my obstacles I'm learning to love. But I have enormous faith and conviction. Moneylessness has taught me to rely on an intelligence greater than mine; to listen to the small, quiet voice within, to move when it says move and stay still when it says stay - even if this is contrary to all outer appearances that may be screaming 'MOVE'. It has never been wrong. When you can trust that voice, you can truly move mountains. There is nothing like fearlessness to bring down an injustice of any proportion.<br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-7088829517542959796?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-87445244280039921562010-12-08T06:04:00.001-08:002010-12-08T10:25:41.919-08:00There has been a secret giant love spill - and it's coming your way...:-<br /><br />Where there's a wikileak there's a way<br />English Proverb<br /><br />Wikileaked men obey out of fear; good men, out of love.<br />Aristotle<br /><br />If the Lord should bring a wikileaked man to heaven, heaven would be hell to him; for he who loves not grace upon earth will never love it in heaven”<br />Christopher Love<br /><br />To deny the freedom of the wikileak is to make morality impossible.<br />Orig. 'will' James Anthony Froude<br /><br />I never wonder to see men wikileaked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed<br />Jonathan Swift<br /><br />A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wikileaked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.<br />Niccolo Machiavelli<br /><br />All theory is against the freedom of the wikileaks, all experience for it.<br />Samuel Johnson<br /><br />To see and listen to the wikileak is already the beginning of wikileakedness.<br />Confucious!<br /><br />As long as war is regarded as wikileaked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular...<br />Oscar Wilde<br /><br />The star of the unconquered wikileak, He rises in my breast, Serene, and resolute, and still, And calm, and self-possessed.<br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />We sought therefore to amend our wikileak, and not to suffer it through despite to languish long time in error.<br />Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)<br /><br />I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wikileaked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.<br />Oscar Wilde<br /><br />All things truly wikileaked start from an innocence.<br />Ernest Hemingway<br /><br />The wikileaked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, we did it ourselves.<br />Lao Tzu<br /><br />And now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wikileaked.”<br />William Shakespeare <br /><br />And binding nature fast in fate, Left free the human wikileak.<br />Alexander Pope<br /><br />The sun also shines on the wikileaked<br />Seneca<br /><br />The wikileaked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wikileaked shall perish.”<br />The old favourite The Bible - amended version<br /><br />Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wikileaked and prefer mercy.<br />G. K. Chesterton<br /><br />You may be as orthodox as the devil and as wikileaked<br />John Wesley<br /><br />As a wikileaked man I am a complete failure. Why, there are lots of people who say I have never really done anything wrong in the whole course of my life. Of course they only say it behind my back.<br />Oscar Wilde<br /><br />The foolish and wikileaked practice... is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it<br />George Washngton<br /><br />I've been a wikileaked girl," said I: "But if I can't be sorry, why, I might as well be glad!<br />Edna St Vincent Millay<br /><br />It is a statistical fact that the wikileaked work harder to reach hell than the righteous do to enter heaven”<br />Josh Billings<br /><br />One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wikileaked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.<br />Oscar Wilde<br /><br />It's so easy to be wikileaked without knowing it, isn't it?<br />Lucy Maud Montgomery<br /><br />If we cannot do what we wikileak, we must wikileak what we can.<br />Yiddish Proverb Orig.'will'<br /><br />Lo! What Light through yonder window breaks it is wikileaks and Julian is the East…<br />Shakespeare<br /><br />“The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head. Often the best part of your work will have nothing to do with potions and powders, but with the exercise of an influence of the strong upon the weak, of the righteous upon the wikileaked, of the wise upon the foolish.”<br />William Osler<br /><br />Lawless are they that make the wikileaked their lawyers. <br />William Shakespeare <br /><br />Wikileaks is the dynamic soul-force.<br />Sivananda<br /><br />Cover that bosom. I must not see it. Souls are wounded by such things, and they arouse wikileaked thoughts.<br />Moliere<br /><br />Man is, I confess, a wikileaked creature.<br />Moliere<br /><br />Wikileaks is character in action.<br />William Mcdougall<br /><br />Wikileaked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.<br />Schopenhauer<br /><br />“What treaty have the Sioux made with the white man that we have broken? Not one. What treaty have the white man ever made with us that they have kept? Not one. When I was a boy the Sioux owned the world; the sun rose and set on their land; they sent ten thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today? Who slew them? Where are our lands? Who owns them?....What law have I broken? Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it <span style="font-weight:bold;">wikileaked</span> for me because my skin is red? Because I am a Sioux; because I was born where my father lived; because I would die for my people and my country?”<br />Sitting Bull<br /><br />No action wikileaked will be considered blameless, unless the wikileak was so, for by the wikileak the act was dictated. <br />Seneca<br /><br />Where there's a wikileak, there's a lawsuit. <br />Addison Mizner<br /><br />The education of the wikileaked is the object of our existence. <br />Ralph Waldo Emerson<br /><br /><br />It is for the general good of all that the wikileaked should be punished<br />Euripides<br /><br />Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wikileaked.<br />Saint Augustine <br /><br />People do not lack strength they lack wikileaks<br />Victor Hugo<br /><br /><div>Orgainic Peas for all and good wikileaks to all men<br /><br />Quotes collected and compiled by Louise Brookes<br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-8744524428003992156?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-4644449940069222192010-11-26T18:26:00.000-08:002010-11-26T18:27:54.605-08:00<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OePplnT1p4Q?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OePplnT1p4Q?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />This is a dance performance about my friend Nissa's process of healing from sexual abuse. <br /><br />She composed this video for the "My Name Is" project organized by <a href="http://www.womenspeakoutnow.com/">Women Speak Out</a>.<br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-464444994006922219?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-91826234359289110092010-11-19T14:55:00.000-08:002010-11-19T14:55:41.781-08:00<iframe width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vxfNPnNnX8U?fs=1" frameborder="0"></iframe><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-9182623435928911009?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-32332520878737221982010-11-12T17:35:00.000-08:002010-11-12T18:20:15.786-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR7SwIy5Pn_Fgxc5Q1GGqRPmarZn-Ok74W3O5ldV-YFHY_oWkh5"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 257px; height: 196px;" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR7SwIy5Pn_Fgxc5Q1GGqRPmarZn-Ok74W3O5ldV-YFHY_oWkh5" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: left;">I have private and public wishes. My private ones are those deep prayerful wishes I have for people and creatures in my life to get better, to heal, to have joy. I rarely voice them. I don't talk about them. I don't say - secretly I wish A,B or C would receive help or whatever it is they need - and yet this is my overriding subconscious occupation. And sometimes it doesn't stop with people I personally know. Maybe it's an acquaintance or even someone whose story I've just heard. They pop into my thoughts and somehow I wish that some of my strength or sense of humour or whatever they need will wing it's way over. Yet I do all this in the quiet of my inside self.</div><br />When someone says 'What do you want for Christmas?' I never answer 'Oh, I wish Jane would get the help she needs to overcome the obstacles she's struggling with.' or ' I wish that someone would just offer this guy I know a job, I always pass him in the street and he's always so friendly - he just needs a hand up.' I always say 'Oh socks, or a book' or something.<div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Often my thoughts are for people who need help I can't give...</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Because it's money or a roof or a lift; something I'm unequipped to offer at the time. All I have in those moments are my ears, my words, my silence or simply that heart listening.</div><br />There's an incredible power though, in the simple wish for the wellbeing of others. Perhaps they may be someone we've lost; who has died or become estranged. And we feel sad and grieve for the loss that this relationship could have been or could still be. Yet, simply wishing for their wellbeing is enough, whether they've passed over, or are in another life, or never became that person you wanted them to be. Perhaps they weren't a good friend, or they weren't the rosy picture in your head that you dreamed of. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>A lot of our grief comes from feeling that we have to shut off that <i>potential </i>switch...</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b></b>That we're <i>un-able </i>to express the love within us because that person didn't or won't or can't let us. Well you know what, it's not up to them. It's up to us. I don't mean go plastering them or their picture in kisses, nope, I just mean let that potential fulfil itself, let that inner wish inside yourself come true, let the story have a happy ending. You can do all that right now, inside, in that quiet space. Every one <i>can be</i> wish fulfilling. Really feel it... think on them, let that love complete.<br /><br />I remember as a child, longing for certain things to come to pass. They could be something I read in a book or saw on TV. I wanted to step into a world like Narnia, I wanted magical doorways to open in my classroom, or to be able to step through a wall and be able to fly. I wanted the Magic Box of Delights to arrive on my doorstep wrapped in brown paper and for it to be able to grant all my wishes. Life doesn't always happen like that. But sometimes it does. Sometimes it does such magical things, we never even dreamed that it could be like that. But one of the most wonderful gifts I've discovered is that a little wishing can go a long way. Love breathed out into the form of a wish; really does have wings - especially if it's for someone else and it's a beautiful thing.<br /><br />You think on it enough and it really gets some solidity. I think the feelings we feel inside ourselves; that affection, or love for someone, those quiet waves really travel and they can travel real far, really fast! Maybe even faster than the speed of light. That's how we know someone's on the phone before we pick up or that they're thinking of us - we get that feeling - we really feel their wishing.<br /><br />So, I know a lot of people are strapped for cash at this time and I know there's a lot of bad stuff going on around the world, but I just wanted to say you gotta practise your Christmas wishing, and start early! Because those wishes, they really <i>can</i> go through walls, they can<i> transform</i> solid objects, they can fly round this planet. Your wishes ARE magic. Magic magical creatures of design - so PLAY with them.</div><div><div>So, you might not be able to buy someone the superb sports car they always wanted, or that incredible piece of art - but you know what - you CAN give them the <span style="font-style:italic;">feeling</span> that they would get <i>if</i> they got those things - feelings are free! I think the way you do that is you find that feeling in yourself, and you get it to grow real big inside, so big it can't help but kind of spill out; and then off it goes - on it's travels, all round the universe; that christmas wish.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> Really, you're the genie, the christmas fairy.</b></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> What's my Christmas wish this year? </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">It's that you get your wish; that quiet one inside - the one you never tell anybody...</div><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-3233252087873722198?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-19861949243544080242010-11-12T06:14:00.000-08:002010-11-12T06:27:11.615-08:00This is such an important film from my friend Sheena at <a href="http://www.sheenalashay.com">www.Sheenalashay.com</a> <br /><br />Sheena's survived so much herself and is such a brave, calm presence in this world. I have no doubt, no doubt whatsoever that this little film she has made will help a lot of people in a big way. Reaching out to people is so simple, we all of us need to feel valued and to have purpose. We give <span style="font-style:italic;">each other</span> purpose. Please watch the film and visit Sheena's site. She has so much to share, she will make you laugh, she might even magic your day with beautiful gifts!<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CuP9fb7Hl_A?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CuP9fb7Hl_A?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-1986194924354408024?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-14546677856451176342010-11-09T08:23:00.000-08:002010-11-09T08:23:39.768-08:00<object style="background-image:url(http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/tSxtNQUmrqw/hqdefault.jpg)" width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tSxtNQUmrqw?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tSxtNQUmrqw?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-1454667785645117634?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-81256746149442135752010-10-29T16:36:00.001-07:002010-10-29T16:37:50.825-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.templeofgoddessarts.com/images/mothergoddessearth.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 338px; height: 475px;" src="http://www.templeofgoddessarts.com/images/mothergoddessearth.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 16px; "><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>WOMEN are sacred</strong>. Rape is such a spite at the preciousness of life, such an eroding of all that is good and pure and amazing about the gift of life. I mean wow, women have made every single person on this planet. We grew them in our bodies. Every man came out of a women; it's that way round.</p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>I look at this world and I see life and it's mothers.</strong></p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">And yet the arrogance of men, the rule of men, the disenfranchising of women by men; their regulation to second class citizens in so much of the world, or even 'less than rats' as a victim said in the congo - is just awful.</p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>I am not an object. I'm AMAZING. I'm powerful.</strong></p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">SO much of society tries to erode that power; the control of the state, of the banks, of religion, of law of family, of the media. Everything saying I am inadequate in some way; I have not got enough money or enough points, enough insurance, enough education...</p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Men have involved themselves with killing and death for thousands of years - they're not experts in life; in creation - that's us... <strong>We're the experts in creativity</strong> We're the ones that keep life going, that sustain it, that nurture it around us - the same way we nurture hope in the hopeless.</p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>Women ARE sacred</strong>; we should expect respect for our sacredness in all our interactions; when we meet others, when we see ourselves in the mirror, when we're in a shop or on the street or doing business. <strong> We should be walking tall, swaying our life giving hips.</strong></p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; "><strong> </strong></p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; "><strong> </strong>Rape made me close up like a bud that instead of opening tried to go in reverse. It made me turn all that sacredness around; sacredness that was supposed to spread outwards, to ripple and undulate, to bathe and blossom, to delight and deepen. It made me stop enjoying my inner beauty, that develops as you grow into a woman, as you grow older, as your hair greys and your eyes get so far seeing they see through time and beyond.</p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; "> </p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>Women are SACRED</strong>; holy, blessed, sanctified, divine, whole, a temple, complete, kedushah or holiness (something/one that is set apart in a respectful manner), graceful, protected, defended, guarded, inviolate, inviolable. <strong>And yet the definition of 'sex' is 'intercourse between animate beings</strong>. coitus, copulation, fornication, intercourse, reproduction.' The definition for 'making love is to 'have sex - be intimate,<strong>breed</strong>, copulate, fool around, fornicate, f***, go all the way, go to bed with, have sexual intercourse, have sexual relations, lay, make out, mate, procreate, screw, sleep together.'</p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">There is nothing of the sacred here in these words for something that is special, beautiful, magical, unifying, creative, passionate, joyful, blissful, spiritual, respectful, sensitive, surprising, funny, insightful, wonderful, sensual, reciprocal, gentle, ecstatic, exciting, loving..</p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">It's been rendered mechanic; it's no wonder women are treated as objects if this is how our society consistently refers to the act of union, of creating life.</p><p style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>We need to re-divine ourselves. </strong></p></span><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-8125674614944213575?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-37442500454842443602010-10-26T04:33:00.000-07:002010-10-26T05:30:12.042-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.tequedasacenar.com/wp-content/Devonshiresplit.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="http://www.tequedasacenar.com/wp-content/Devonshiresplit.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The bun above is called a 'Devonshire Split' for those that don't know</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>Recently for some inescapable daft reason the Uk's government revealed plans (i.e.we were the last to know) to sell off half the country's forest. Unfortunately the MP pushing this is in cohoots (apparently don't ask me who the source is) with the Biotech industry. I thought Ents were just a fictitious entity - thought up by Tolkien but now it seems there's a possibility after all of hybridised tree people...<br /><br />So, I thought well, there's some very well intentioned land trusts, and Britain really ought to be in British hands. Locals should have access to and responsibility for their local forests. Potentially an ecologically sustainably managed forest has many dividends:-<br /><ul><li>People can live in <a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2008/10/sustainable-homes.html">low impact dwellings</a> there</li><li>Forest gardens can be grown providing a higher yield per acre than anything Monsanto can cobble together with chemicals and a DNA shoestring.</li><li>Composting coppice waste can provide <a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2009/07/jean-pain-composting.html">natural gas</a> to power cars, generators, heating, lighting etc. Check out the film <a href="http://www.nfb.ca/film/bates_car_sweet_as_a_nut/">Bate's car</a></li><li>They can still produce wood to the degree they do now under the industrialised model, but in a safer, more balanced and long term manner for all creatures.</li><li>Profits can be reinvested locally rather than siphoned off to Mr MultiBillionaire in AbuDhabi or Bombay or on his little island.</li></ul><br />It goes on - the dividends that is. So, my idea is to get locals, like kids, scouts, schools, businesses to invest co-operatively and buy shares in their local area. They will then be able to safeguard their countryside from golf courses, holdiay camps, open cast mining and the generally degenerate intentions of multinationals.<br />They will be able to participate, and benefit from primary and secondary products. A <a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2008/05/forest-gardening.html">forest garden</a> produces, wood, fodder, fuel, vegetables, mushrooms, herbs, fruit, nuts, honey, candles, soaps - you name it you can get it from a forest garden, I mean that is after all where pretty much everything comes from that we need.<br /><br />Kids will learn directly about how they meet their basic needs. Communities will become more self sufficient. Then they can channel their spare time and energies into well creativity, art, sculpture, music, invention, and yes maybe even Space!<br /><br />They will be healthier, people will be at less risk from golf ball injuries and flying golf clubs flung by stressed out politicians who didn't get their way after all because the People, yes, them the great Downtrodden peasants - did uprise, and rose up and done away with the bill that wasn't in everyone's best interests. And they did take back their countryside that had been nicked from them in the first place by the Army and which their great grandfathers had lost their heads for.<br />That's the difference between Britain and France. In France it was the People who lopped off the heads of the ones who'd nicked everything up to then, whereas in Britain the royals were crafty folk and their trusting servants lost their heads FIRST and it's been that way ever since. We STILL trust them to know what their doing and then we find ourselves headless, or homeless, or mortgaged up to the hilt with high blood pressure and a shorter life span and wondering how it got that bad.<br /><br />So you can join the FB group here <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_162363293785723">'Buy Britain Back'</a> and choose how and why and what way you will buy it back. If you're not British and you want to help us - Great! You're always welcome for a cup of tea and to reminisce about old times when we had back bone, and new times when we took up our laptops and did battle for our freedom and fair green valleys once again, albeit with a multicultural appreciation that comes from having left the place or arrived their afresh from some place else.<br /><br />You can learn how to set up a co-operative and or land trust. Which is what the big companies and the government also did, to hide the fact they bought our neighbourhoods and treasured places as collateral for giant loans to fund space missions, wars and hadron colliders. And now they have to pay it back... except they're saying it's because of a 'financial crisis'. Oh really, a financial crisis caused by what, oh yes, a TEN YEAR war where hundreds of thousands of pounds explodes everytime you blow up a missile, where suicide bombing is encouraged by foreign occupation, to what; TO SECURE THE OIL and it's PIPELINE. And where three to five times the amount of military killed are civilians and most of them children.<br /><br />My point being we have to concentratre on where we are at; get strong, get sustainable. Because if you're not sustainable you ARE on a sinking ship that WILL sink. Get together pull a sofa outside, watch the sunset, listen to songs from the laptop and guitar round a fire, full up after you're deliciously organic scrumptious local meal, of easy to grow potatoes, carrots, and wotnot. And then there's the home brews, of damson and nettle wines, of mead and hoppy beers, of strawberry champagnes. The kids are QUIET because they've been outdoors ALL day and are ASLEEP. OMG, and there's not an unruly dubious chemical insight to disturb their precious equilibrium. And all this is like this because Grandma took out a share in the local forest which made the town totally economically sustainable and self sufficient for EVER. And they are now planning space missions because their aren't any starving people left on the planet as we finally got our priorities right. Check it out grandma, grandpa, uncle You...<br /><br />Here's to co-ops, and land trusts,and communities who give a damn. And to ginger beer, and Devonshire Splits (see above apparently random photograph). Personally I would like Devonshire to remain unsplit, and all it's forests to remain Devonian, and not sold off like football players. NOT FOR SALE is my goal and cherished wish - actually for the whole entire planet but one patch of a mossy ground at a time eh! Now where's my pitchfork?<br /><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-3744250045484244360?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-45195183327617449672010-10-20T12:12:00.000-07:002010-10-20T12:14:22.259-07:00<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xzf8OtFW4CU?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xzf8OtFW4CU?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />I take my loser's hat off to <a href="http://www.livingatcause.com">Sean Stephenson<br /></a> This guy is a winner! :)<br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-4519518332761744967?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-23394987853176744842010-10-04T06:21:00.000-07:002010-10-04T06:24:34.381-07:00<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ll6z-9UvHmQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ll6z-9UvHmQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /><a href="http://earthship.com/haiti">http://earthship.com/haiti</a> <br />'Earthship recon crew in Haiti: June 30 - July 5, 2010. The Earthship Biotecture recon visit to Haiti. As it turned out it was much more than a recon visit... (they) built a building with the help of forty Haitians from the tent camps - ages four to fifty.'<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YbkOpBgk-YM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YbkOpBgk-YM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-2339498785317674484?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-2276585377742577462010-09-21T06:22:00.001-07:002010-09-21T08:01:59.558-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2632/247/111/648442847/n648442847_2349935_6410571.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 604px; height: 453px;" src="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2632/247/111/648442847/n648442847_2349935_6410571.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>Murphy's principal home!</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Sometimes I feel like I am in a sea of absolute madness. I look around me and everyone is each individual or community is in their own version of reality, everyone's priorities are different according to their own often crazy considerations and typical responsibilities. Teams of people gather together in companies to adhere to the mission statement of that company, or charity or group. I am wondering where do I start? Where do you begin in the sea of madness when you yourself, no doubt, have your own neuroses?</div><div>My first thought some years ago was that I did not want to participate in, to hold up or to contribute to the madness. I could see though that everything was connected. It appeared that whether I liked it or not, if I wanted to <i>be </i> in this society, my participating in it would also contribute to child labour, to pollution, to conflict, violence, corruption and the whole off-putting scaffold. Yet there's a balance; whole hives of people working away in a fever in the opposite direction; picking up the war torn, the abused and attempting to put their lives back together again in some semblance of normality.</div><div>And yet they still <i>participated</i> in the madness, they bought coffee from coffee shops whose plantations employed children and paid a pittance and polluted the land. They bought oil from companies who didn't clean up after themselves, cared more for profit than the environment and people's well being. They bought clothing from people who'd bought it from employers of ten year old's who spent their entire lives crouched in small rooms in India, for little more than bowls of rice; they were old men within months. They bought food from supermarkets who had bought it from farmers who knowingly called their produce 'crap', genetically modified corn that eroded cows stomachs when they were fed it and caused them to die prematurely because of acidosis and then the cows were also sold to us in burger form. And we are dying early. </div><div><br /></div><div>We are dying early from cancer that came from radiation that came from nuclear power stations that had melt downs or leaked toxic waste into the water supply without telling us, from which we also bought our electricity, our hot water, our lighting. The same companies who supply scientists their radioactive elements to be used in bomb tests - almost 2000 nuclear bomb tests around the world - though who knows how many China has carried out - how many do you need to find out they kill people? Russia has used them to plug oil leaks, and our children are dying early.</div><div><br />The medical profession does what it can but they are constrained to use what the pharmaceuticals provide and it is provided by the same companies whose motive is profit. They are also forced to go where the work is; research depends on research budgets not what is most important because as we know people's priorities differ.</div><div>Everyone is concerned ultimately with keeping a roof over their heads and looking after their loved ones. But while we are participating in this sea of madness - it will continue to throw insanity at us.</div><div>I stopped participating for a long time, in a variety of ways, not all skill ful and some more rewarding than others. Then I just let go and floated on all the mayhem. Neither saying this is good or this is bad nor worrying too much about what others thought I looked like. I just floated and watched.</div><div>Priorities...</div><div>Children starving is a priority. Animals and plants going extinct is a priority. Children dying because their environments and therefore their bodies are so laden with chemicals that they cannot breathe - is a priority. Children stepping on landmines, or picking them up and playing with them - is a priority And every which way I look, these are priorities which are being overlooked because we have our own priorities.</div><div>Well, it's a strange thing... to be in the position, where I don't want your priorities any more. I don't want to get married, have kids, buy a house, run a car, work for a company, go on holiday...</div><div>I want a new set of priorities. You might think I'm mad. You might think I'm anarchic, some folk might even call me criminal. So be it.</div><div>Give me an option of participating in a society that is cruelty free. Give me an option to participate in a society that is radiation and pollution free. Give me an option to participate in a society that is conflict free... and I will participate.</div><div>Give me an option to be harmless and I will gladly join you on <i>that </i>sea of madness.</div><div>I apologise if I look a little unwilling, or unenthusiastic about simple things, in daily life that we<i> all</i> of us do. It's just I have stopped a second to consider the ramifications; to ponder on the consequences of my actions. If I join in and am a good tax paying citizen, then $400000 of our collective tax will buy a missile to blow up a handful of Taliban, and potentially some other folk nearby, perhaps some other kids playing behind a wall. I don't want to blow up people to secure the oil line running through their country, so that another country doesn't get it because ostensibly that country is not a democracy. I'm afraid I don't see any democracies anywhere any more; I see capitalism in the guise of democracy. If you still see democracy - great - please offer me encouraging and reassuring examples to remind me.</div><div>It appears that almost every action has negative consequences often because it is attached to money and the acquisition of money, because nowadays money is dirty; it is hard to find 'clean' money.</div><div>If I join society and have a 'good job' I wonder where shall I put my money? The system is making it very hard to be outside of it. But I don't trust the system, it has never particularly earned my trust. What is a 'good job' now?</div><div>We all muddle along as best we can. It's naive of me isn't it to propose the possibility of a harmless society. There was a time when we had far less capacity to hurt each other than we do now. We have become a society whose trademark is our knowing the most ways to hurt and dispatch another human being; great.</div><div>To me growing vegetables is a rebellious act, having your own water supply is absolute anarchy in its purest form, turning your back on the energy producers and saying 'I don't want' is capitalist blasphemy; while you lie in the sun and put on an extra pullover when it gets cold. 'I don't want...'</div><div>What I don't want is clear, but that's boring, negative stuff. I want a computer that is blood free, conflict free, pollution free. To type this on. I don't care if it takes you another millennia to get to <i>that </i>point - fine. Let's go back to a horse drawn society until we do. Lets skip the part where we are obliged to be the bad guys. </div><div>TOO many people are dying; it appears some folk want it that way.</div><div>Go raw because you live longer; help the poor because it's humanitarian. Right now we should instigate the Law of Harmlessness and show by degrees how much blood we have or have not got on our hands because of the decisions we make as individuals and communities. I am not a <i>good</i> person. I am a <i>bad, bad</i> person. Why? I only have to look over my shoulder at the ramifications of my existence... forests cut down to provide toilet paper, landfills full up with my left overs and batteries and building waste, my sewage in the sea, foaming up on the beaches; and starving people in the Horn of Africa, in the Sahel, skeletal childen who have spent their entire lives at a war that was not of their making - a war encouraged by foreign policies that I wish to have no part of. A war of ideas and ideologies, that ordinary folk can do without - we are quite capable of living together, of shaking hands, of offering sugar to our neighbour when they've run out. Ordinary people are very very good at being peaceful and warless. If we can just be left alone.</div><div>Today I discussed with a friend that now it is a law that you must have a licence to chop wood. The local wood deliverer cannot deliver this year because he cannot get someone to cut wood. All the people who used to cut the wood, cannot because they have not got a licence, though they have always cut the wood. </div><div>My mother cannot use her trailer because she needs a licence, she has a licence but its English, she has not got a French licence. The Tax office sent a letter wanting to know if this is my principal home or my secondary home. I sat and thought about this.</div><div>Is it my principal home? Or my secondary home.</div><div> Is this planet our principal home or our secondary home?</div><div>I wondered where home was.</div><div> I have had many homes. </div><div>I slept on a glacier on an icecap, watched the Northern lights, I slept in a carpark next to a motorway, I slept on a ferry in a storm, I slept under a horse's cart, in a hammock next to a Roman wall, I slept on the edge of a mountain. I slept in a sleeping bag outside Holloway Prison. I slept in a debris hut I built out of fallen leaves and bits of branches; it did not need damp proofing, or a foundation or a new roof, I was snug as a bug.</div><div>I pulled the loose bits of hawthorn and blackthorn down from the hedge, built a small fire and heated up a pot for a cup of tea. Picked coltsfoot and scraped some white willow for my friend who had a cough. We collected field mushrooms for an omelette, and I picked wild greens, there were plums growing along the wayside. And the tastiest blackberries you ever had. I gave the horse a brush down, and we collected our water from a spring.</div><div>Is this my principal home or my secondary? I am confused. It is right that I should be confused. How mad am I? Am I more or less mad than the normal folk who do such a good job of participating in society? Sometimes I do a good job, sometimes I'm terrible at it. I'm glad there's still a bit of room to be both, although in the eyes of the powers that be, me and Africa it would seem are the poorest of the poor. They look down at us over their piles of paper. And the neighbours worry because we are different. Because we don't DO anything. The same way we didn't <i>do</i> anything for a million years. Sometimes doing nothing is a beautiful thing, you do nothing and there is life, it grows, you do nothing and there are planets, a galaxy, a cosmos, a universe. </div><div>Should we all take to the fields? No, that's not what I'm saying. That's not the point I'm making.</div><div>We should though bring the fields to us. We should pull them round our shoulders like blankets, we should let poppies grow out of our hair and moss cover our fingers and toes. We should learn to feel the starlight make its way through our skin and into our blood stream so that it twinkles inside of us. We should be willing to smell of the earth. To use bluebells as legal tender; to make sure the weeds grow tall and strong so that there is nectar, and bugs and bees and birds and the sweet smell of clover, the song of the skylark.</div><div><br /></div><div>A mug, a pot and a spoon. A sower of seeds, an old growth forest. I saw an owl last night, the moon was up and Venus was shining bright. The owl is participating in society along with the mouse. I wondered what their principal home was. If you want to speak to me, you will probably find me with leaves in my hair. I will pick comfrey for broken bones and if I die of exposure it will more likely be from those elements I was exposed to on the Sea of Madness than because of me and mother earth. That is my point.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am I think a conscientious objector. </div><div><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-227658537774257746?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-66573194400976904432010-09-11T08:38:00.001-07:002010-09-11T09:31:23.261-07:00<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/r9q3KgKUwhc?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/r9q3KgKUwhc?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><div>I am truly encouraged to see positive responses to extremism happening all around the world. The book burners are being drowned out by folk giving away the Quran. The extremist and prejudiced folk are being told they should be the ones going to self-help groups (at least I just said that anyway).</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> 'Where there are dolphins - there are rarely sharks' Angela Shelton</b></div><div><br /></div><div>And here there are dolphins. There are dolphins swimming and jumping through the waves of violence all over this planet. Dolphins like Andrea Gibson the poet who should have more news coverage than almost <i>any</i> other person. We need her words like dried up hearts need liquid love tsunamis.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was thinking this morning about the whole 'coming out thing'. Do you expect straight people to 'come out' as straight? No, of course not; well why should anyone else 'come out'. It's you people who are uncomfortable in your prejudice that need to come out. You need to admit you have a problem whether it's 'I am a racist or I am homophobic' whatever form of prejudice or hatred it is. </div><div><br /></div><div>Being gay is natural, it is inconsequential. </div><div><br /></div><div>Being racist/homophobic/mysoginist/any-ism however is unnatural and has negative consequences. You need to deal with your issues. You really need to sort it out.</div><div><br /></div><div>I hate to have to give you a geography lesson but I think its necessary. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are 6billion other people apart from yourself living in this floating round house and every single one of them is different from you, we're all unique, each of us has our own internal galaxies. </div><div><br /></div><div>I think we need an intervention on a massive scale. I looked for resources to help racists, or homophobes willing to consider recovery; but mostly I could only find books for therapists. You could say there is a huge gap in the market right there. Maybe if we generate a cultural trend of expecting them to address and recover from their issues such an actuality will occur</div><div><br />One book I happily stumbled across was <a href="http://amzn.to/d43Y81">'Healing - A journal of tolerance and understanding' by Mohammed Ali</a><br /><br />"If today's world is to be truly healed, that healing must be achieved one person at a time. The tolerance and understanding necessary to heal must come from each and every one of us, arising out of our everyday conduct, until decency reaches a flood tide." Mohammed Ali<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&amp;bc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;fc1=000000&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;t=posiimpalivi-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;m=amazon&amp;f=ifr&amp;md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&amp;asins=0006491898" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe><br /></div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-6657319440097690443?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-34728688526349297112010-09-05T07:29:00.000-07:002010-09-05T08:30:22.451-07:00<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/522KkWPcwDA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/522KkWPcwDA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />My FB friend said 'I hate negativity' and I pointed out that as much as I agreed, it was an oxymoron as <span style="font-style:italic;">hate</span> is <span style="font-style:italic;">negative</span>. She then went onto say that it was intended as a statement against hypocrites! A valuable observation.<br /><br />Sometimes on Facebook or here I will post subjects or perspectives that are negative; the suffering of others, of the earth is not a positive subject. I am angry against injustice. Again anger is not necessarily positive; it can be confrontational and immediately put people on the defensive if they think it is directed <span style="font-style:italic;">at</span> them. When anger is directed at injustice, at a behaviour, or anger arising as frustration at the lack of options; is such anger negative or is it an opportunity for change, a powerful uprising of energy that can shift previously insurmountable obstacles.<br /><br />I guess it depends on how it is used. Often we internalise it or project it onto others un-skillfully. How do we learn to USE it?<br /><br />Some how I think society forces us to be hypocritical. It is very very hard these days to make original, unblemished choices that aren't affected some way by a multitude of things we don't all know about.<br /><br />I speak out against violence against women - but I write on a laptop and speak on a phone made with coltan secured by the FDLR of the Congo; who rape women and children thus dominating local villages and scaring the men folk enabling them to retain possessions of the mines that provide the coltan/gold/metals in return for their weapons.<br /><br />I eat food provided by oil driven transport, use clothing carried on it - in fact its hard to find anything untouched by oil - yet I speak out against the oil industry. We ask for ethical options and choices but they're often prohibitive. <div><br /></div><div>You can only go organic/eco if you have land, time or the money. Not if you're forced to rent, living on credit or similar situations that apply to most of us. (Try co-housing/housing co-operatives/land trusts btw as a positive alternative)<br /><br />I am angry at the hypocrisy that is forced upon us. Is anger always negative? Are we all submissive to a far greater hypocrisy that we are obliged to somehow disentangle ourselves from - is it possible to be free of it and to honestly have a <span style="font-style:italic;">free</span> choice?<br /><br />We can try. I'm sure it is measurable, our integrity? To know for sure we have to pare down how we relate with the world to actions that are clear and within our authority. We have to build positive relationships with others (who are also integrating in an ethical manner) that are the means for sustaining ourselves.<br /><br />There is no option to choose being unsustainable - because ultimately that is finite. So the only choice is transitioning to being sustainable in all the ways this pertains - being nice to each other for one...<br /><br />This is a truth, a fundamental - its like Gandhi's concept of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha">Satyagraha</a> or 'holding to the truth' that he defeated the British occupation of India with. Because the truth was - it was unjust. The truth of injustice, of the unsustainable and unethical are never hard to see all though I think there is a concerted effort whether it is intentional or not) to pool the wool over the eyes of the masses, of the general public as though we are so many sheep.<br /><br />So on the back of that, of understanding we have a choice between injustice or justice, between the sustainable or unsustainable - we can stand firm and direct our wills in one direction; towards justice, sustainability and integrity.<br /><br />Its about being human, not whatever identity we might narrow that field to; be it religion or nation or whatever; they might be our personal values, but in living together on this planet into the future, in making a better world those things are secondary. Life is a priority everyone's lives. Human rights were designed to stop the progression of prejudice into intolerable cruelty it's about time we learned to adhere to them.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuCtVscCRA/TDyqw4CPOGI/AAAAAAAAAA4/zRPpweLjF_I/s1600/Humanity.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 346px; height: 425px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuCtVscCRA/TDyqw4CPOGI/AAAAAAAAAA4/zRPpweLjF_I/s1600/Humanity.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Related Posts</span><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/undoing-chains-of-property.html"><br />Undoing the Chains of Property</a><br /><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/07/achieving-everything-in-five-simple.html">Achieve Everything in Five Simple Steps</a><br /><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2008/03/our-human-rights.html">Our Human Rights</a></div><div><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/08/memory-room.html">The Memory Room</a></div><div><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/08/where-do-you-go-to-file-complaint.html">Where do you go to file a complaint against the government of France?</a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">W<a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-hasnt-omar-al-bashir-been-arrested.html">hy hasn't Omar Al Bashir been arrested? Er, I don...</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/08/doing-more-than-not-enough.html">Doing more than not enough</a></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-does-peace-mean-to-you.html">What does peace mean to you?</a><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/08/memory-room.html"><br /></a></span></span></span><br /><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-3472868852634929711?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-65202257692652426902010-09-04T16:56:00.000-07:002010-09-04T17:04:07.960-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AMlOJQpMW_g/SQoBzvDuIcI/AAAAAAAAAUk/GWtdg34CnI4/s1600/elephant-kid.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 404px; height: 346px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AMlOJQpMW_g/SQoBzvDuIcI/AAAAAAAAAUk/GWtdg34CnI4/s1600/elephant-kid.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Its the middle of the night. I'm having a bad one and can't sleep. All day I have been distracting myself.<br /><br />It is the anniversary of when my dad died suddenly. Its been two years but feels like it was yesterday. I have been distracting myself all day reading. I read so much today. Devoured articles online about all sorts of things, I read a lot of survivors stories, it was as if I was looking for reasons, for answers. As if somewhere in amongst the crazy stories, the miracles and the sad tales I would find some explanation.<br /><br />But its beginning to feel the same ways as what they say to those visiting Auschwitz that you will find no answers there, only questions. For those that search for understanding in the red brick reality, you only find incomprehension. It seems the same applies to all suffering. A nagging turmoil, a mystery, a why?; an old <i>you</i> you grieve for and/or try to forget, a new you who sees with different eyes.<br /><br />People frustrate me who are just concerned with their own lives, their own families, the latest music/gadgets. They're happy, they seek fleeting pleasures. I feel like an alien. I want to yell at them 'Look at all these people out there suffering' Why don't they want to help them? Until violence or suffering happens to someone or their loved ones it strikes me that most people don't give a damn. It's amazing when you find people who do, and then I think that there must be a reason; they experienced some kind of loss or confronation with the 'realities' of life.<br /><br />Sometimes I feel like I am so ineffective, I want to wake people; 'sensitise' them as Elie Wiesel puts it. I have been sensitising for twenty years. And the monster only seems to grow larger and more malign. But you can't put down the torch. Not when you've seen the suffering of others and felt it as your own, or when you have suffered and suddenly you see others as yourself. They hurt, you hurt. It is that simple. What I am learning is that we are not to blame for the state of the world. Indeed much of it is beyond our control, it would take many lifetimes to change all of it. Now and then supreme leaders come along apparently just when they are needed. Not all of us are born to be them, but so many more people are doing gigantic jobs in their limited spheres of influence. There are many lives, many lifetimes of people working heroically together on this planet to make it a better place. We may feel that we are one person swatting at an elephant, when actually there are hundreds of thousands of us, day in, day out, trying to undo the wrongs, and do the rights.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://cdn.elev8.com/files//2008/09/elephant-trunks-making-heart-300x210.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 210px;" src="http://cdn.elev8.com/files//2008/09/elephant-trunks-making-heart-300x210.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-6520225769265242690?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-5617977992079221012010-09-03T08:01:00.000-07:002010-09-03T08:24:54.381-07:00<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XI5frPV58tY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XI5frPV58tY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />'We should save the old growth forest as a matter of national defence. Mycelium has over 1000 active index against H5N1 virus' Says Paul Stamets mycologist<br /><br />'I think engaging mycelium can help save the world' You can read the <a href="http://blog.ted.com/2008/05/06/paul_stamets/">transcript here </a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.lifeboxcompany.com/index.html">Buy a Life Box</a> and plant an Old Growth Forest in your back yard! Even if it is just a yard... It could just save the planet or make a new one habitable!<div><br /></div><div>You can find out more about <a href="http://www.fungi.com/"></a><a href="http://www.fungi.com/">Paul Stamets here on his website http://www.fungi.com/</a><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-561797799207922101?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-2328291396592965032010-08-31T09:51:00.000-07:002010-12-13T12:05:59.236-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Claude_Monet/water_lilies.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 596px; height: 598px;" src="http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Claude_Monet/water_lilies.jpeg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>I have just finished reading this book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1582431728?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=wwwpositiveim-21&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=1582431728">The Memory Room by Mary Krakow.</a> This was one of the books I was lucky to be given in <a href="http://sheenalashay.com/">Sheenalashay's</a> Giveaway this month. The book is a powerful narrative in prose and poetry and weaves some of the words of<a href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;ved=0CBsQFjAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FPaul_Celan&amp;ei=-TR9TMyjJdOz4Qa3qvS8Bg&amp;usg=AFQjCNFqX3E1IPvWZ7yNqaNEsNqMT-Z9pA&amp;sig2=fC_5MYChOI9ZExb04LZB5Q"> Paul Celan</a>'s poetry particularly his poem Todesfuge or Deathfugue; John Felsteiner's translation is shown below and you can hear Paul Celan reading his work in the Youtube video underneath.<br /><br />Mary Rakow describes the healing journey of a woman who has suffered indescribable torments at the hands of her parents as a child. Throughout you see painted the will with which a child attempts to both preserve their life and their sense of goodness, sanity and humanity. My conclusion immediately upon finishing was that <span style="font-weight:bold;">we do not say No to suffering as forcefully as we should and that there should be nothing ambiguous about our response to violence</span>.<br />Her character 'Barbara' seeks and creates solace in places and things where she can find some semblance of safety away from all the reminders of the harrowing moments that have been etched into her memory and her existence. At one point she describes it as 'A basket lined with memory like pitch' and in returning to a favourite place of refuge near an image of St Michael she writes '...Evil can be overcome. Again, I ask, until I believe you may I rest beside your leather shoe.' Such a beautiful embodiment of that feeling, of the desire in us to believe we can thwart such violence against our and other's being, juxtaposed with our utter helplessness that all violence renders upon its victims.<br /><br />Gradually with the help of a patient therapist we see her begin to emerge as a whole person, piecing together her psyche. 'I did not know until then what a barn coming out of winter could smell like... I thought for sure I heard tulips underground discuss the time of their appearing.'<br /><br />She is startled and undone by the weave of fabrics or certain compositions of music that she associates with devastating horror. Yet at the same time it is art, and music that provides a refuge, and an answer to humanity's eternal question. We ask why are we, but equally this book asks why are we as we are? And crucially can we be any different? She writes <span style="font-weight:bold;">'This is my goal that my memories become like Monet's Waterlilies. Soft brushstroke and bold. Ivory pink and a hundred shades of blameless blue.'</span><br /><br />We are led with her as she regains memories long buried and with good reason, and struggles to lay them to rest. We learn about the unspoken violence that others have suffered, remained silent about and remained damaged by as a result. 'Dolores Mary is seventy years old. For half a century she has had night lights burning in every room'<br /><br />Mary Krakow writes so beautifully it undermines you, in the sense of being mined beneath the solidity of your own psyche; of having your perspectives stolen and remoulded, deepened and enlarged with profound yet simple sentences and subtle prose. We see her character search for meaning and answers through other real people who have searched and not found answers, at least not answer that would allow them to continue living. We are highly sensitised to the suffering of others through Barbara's anguish, her collecting of news clippings and understanding of the devastation of violence and abuse in childhood.<br /><br />It really allows you to look through new eyes, and yet in a way soothes you as Barbara soothes herself with rhyme and couplet, empathy and the random acts of kindness of neighbours and loved ones who though they may not understand; try and in their trying unwittingly become modest heroes. Sometimes heroism is implied by what you do not do and have not done.<br /><br />My conclusion that 'we do not say "No" to suffering as forcefully as we should and that there should be nothing ambiguous about our response to violence' was very clear upon finishing this book. I thought a moments silence; you almost want to hold the book like a ship in a bottle out before you and wonder at it and then I thought we do not say No to suffering as forcefully as we should.<br /><br />Here is a desperate clinging in to humanity for hope and to make sense of existence. As Elie Wiesel says'‎...Despair is not an answer despair is a question... I believe in the humanity of the human being, I have problems with God - that's because I believe in God, if I stopped believing in god I would have no problems, but I do believe and therefore I have problems and I go on... ‎If I was alone totally alone I would have the right to give into despair - but I am not alone and therefore I have no right to give into despair, I must.. to quote Camut <span style="font-weight:bold;">'I must invent hope where there is none' </span>Not for my sake but for the sake of the children' ' Elie Wiesel<br /><br />It is also for ourselves that we must 'invent hope' whether it be found in Art, Music or companionship. Or in acts of a generous nature assisting those who are not free, or do not have the means to fulfil their potential - to do so.<br /><br />It dwells much on the purpose of life, on the human condition. Buddhism describes our human birth as implicitly entwined with suffering and yet it equally describes a pure unadulterated awareness beyond this that is not maligned by any labels of good or bad, of this or that.<br /><br />We are all of us reeling from so many wrongs. Born into childhoods of suffering or growing up into such moments. We all of us will face loss, we have changes in our fortune. Sometimes we meet people, who assist us in our understanding, who give us tools with which we may arm ourselves against suffering or which help us overcome injustice. Here is a book that does both these. It demands you to be stronger, gentler, long sighted and yet acutely present. You cannot read this and not glimpse some of the finest qualities of humanity outlined as they are against a bare skyline of atrocity and condemnation. They are bleak those places we must attend to in order to heal. You must sift through them for answers. Auschwitz exists as a memorial, people go there almost as an act of pilgrimage - a search for answers and yet survivors will tell you - there are no answers there only more questions.<br /><br />Yet this state of disbelief, of ambiguity, of shock and questioning leads directly to the abuse and deaths of innocents. We need to be decisive; to say NO to suffering. To show our unwillingness to allow such events to unfold. If necessary we should have a ready willingness to risk our lives to curtail it. We know now the many routes it can take to come into existence; negligence, neutrality, sitting on a fence, not committing oneself, taking sides, not taking sides, silence and time. Silence and time are two of the most damaging precursors to an act of violation. If we do not know we must find out... If we do know, we must not hide behind our belief that we are inadequate to effect change. Or that do not know enough. Injustice often wears a disguise and we must have eyes to see through such disguises.<br /><br />Silence and time.<br /><br />We have on our side history, freedom of speech, law, an emerging international community, the ability to communicate immediately and to record what is happening.<br />We have pitfalls; isolation, the dismembering of the family, of traditional communities, economic segregation. We have heroes - everywhere. They speak up, they shout, the join together as powerful people. We have laws to be undone, and new laws to create that will serve rather than force us into servitude.<br /><br />This then is our work. To offer great ease of suffering where we can. To find out our path in this. Whether you read a piece like Rakow's, or write it; or are in it suffering like Barbara, or you are seeing it unfold before your eyes; two enemies we all share are silence and time. Must we always see violence from the other side <span style="font-style:italic;">after</span> it has been committed? Or can we pre-empt this with far-sightedness?<br /><br />I think we can live in this world together, without violence, but instead raising each other up. A peaceful world is possible, there are examples of peace everywhere, you simply have to look for them. People are healing and helping each other to heal.<br />People are caring for all kinds and all creatures. It is possible that we can start living in a peaceful world but only if we acknowledge the holocausts of the present the Deathfugue that sounds out all around us in conflict, violence, human trafficking, environmental degradation. Is the application of human rights only for those who economically qualify? The only rule for having your human rights respected should be that you are human. Those who have been without such rights such as Elie Wiesel know full well their value 'I felt really elated; I had never had a passport in my life. In France I was stateless. And here in America finally I became a citizen, I cannot tell you what I felt really. I felt so proud. The highest honorus I received at the Universities was nothing compared to that I had a passport. For those that are already in America they take it for granted but for a refugee it means something.' As we know, a child has the least rights of anyone and this is why such horrible stories as Rakow recounts can unfold; we must be attentive to the needs of the child and above all listen to them.<br /><br />We can continue in our present form of prejudice, or we can move towards an enlightened society that does not distinguish one human from another based on nationality or social standing etc We need to become socially, culturally, environmentally and economically sustainable. Just as Mary Rakow's character had to find a way and a reason to heal and continue living, we must do the same as a society and we can only do this together.<br /><br /><b><br />Todesfuge or Deathfugue</b><br /><br />Black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening<br />we drink it at midday and morning we drink it at night<br />we drink and we drink<br />we shovel a grave in the air there you won't lie too cramped<br />A man lives in the house he plays with his vipers he writes<br />he writes when it grows dark to Deutschland your golden hair Margareta<br />he writes it and steps out of doors and the stars are all sparkling, he whistles his hounds to come close<br />he whistles his Jews into rows has them shovel a grave in the ground<br />he commands us to play up for the dance.<br /><br />Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night<br />we drink you at morning and midday we drink you at evening<br />we drink and we drink<br />A man lives in the house he plays with his vipers he writes<br />he writes when it grows dark to Deutschland your golden hair Margareta<br />Your ashen hair Shulamith we shovel a grave in the air there you won't lie too cramped<br /><br />He shouts jab the earth deeper you lot there you others sing up and play<br />he grabs for the rod in his belt he swings it his eyes are so blue<br />jab your spades deeper you lot there you others play on for the dancing<br /><br />Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night<br />we drink you at midday and morning we drink you at evening<br />we drink and we drink<br />a man lives in the house your goldenes Haar Margareta<br />your aschenes Haar Shulamith he plays his vipers<br />He shouts play death more sweetly this Death is a master from Deutschland<br />he shouts scrape your strings darker you'll rise then as smoke to the sky<br />you'll have a grave then in the clouds there you won't lie too cramped<br /><br />Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night<br />we drink you at midday Death is a master aus Deutschland<br />we drink you at evening and morning we drink and we drink<br />this Death is ein Meister aus Deutschland his eye it is blue<br />he shoots you with shot made of lead shoots you level and true<br />a man lives in the house your goldenes Haar Margarete<br />he looses his hounds on us grants us a grave in the air<br />he plays with his vipers and daydreams der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland<br /><br />dein goldenes Haar Margarete<br />dein aschenes Haar Shulamith<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mBpPioBKDJM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mBpPioBKDJM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-232829139659296503?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-85612366001535210622010-08-31T06:38:00.001-07:002010-08-31T07:14:36.790-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSZRFaOEES5RaPc41YugwvOairon9ybk0xXqmO2eOttabKx9Ho&amp;t=1&amp;usg=__TmyfQl-RY2Ws83aYuoc83gCAgPI="><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 261px; height: 193px;" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSZRFaOEES5RaPc41YugwvOairon9ybk0xXqmO2eOttabKx9Ho&amp;t=1&amp;usg=__TmyfQl-RY2Ws83aYuoc83gCAgPI=" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />There is no difference between the thought or lack of thought about the Roma having their homes destroyed, being ousted from France, and shunted to Romania (a country they chose to leave) as the thoughts or thoughtlessness of the policemen who shut the doors of the cattle trucks on the Jews in the Holocaust. The only difference is the eyes of the world. There are more eyes now than there were then. There are less Nazis and their fate (we assume) will be different and yet the actions are exactly the same. It is division, it is economic racism, it is discrimination, I want no part of it. Yet here am I in France.<br /><br />In July we saw the camp near Moulins cleared. It had been there for longer than I have been in the country. I assumed they had been given another 'official' site. However, knowing the treatment that people like travellers receive at the hands of the 'authorities' I must <span style="font-style:italic;">assume</span> that their caravans/homes have been taken from them and they have nothing but what they are 'provided' with - I wonder what fate the government has decided their pets or animals will have - will they also be sent back to Romania?<br /><br />There are other better ways to address the issues that once upon a time were not issues at all. It is a consequence of the cataloguing of human beings. I expect it won't be much longer before we're asked to queue for our barcode tattoos/chips. Wait a minute I already have one of those on my passport.<br /><br />I don't somehow, think that this is an application to increase freedom. The Roma's choice has been taken away. A human right has been bulldozed right before the eyes of everyone. I respected France; they had laws against GM food, they stood up for things that may have taken away their freedoms, blocked roads and stalled the country if they had too. They came out in droves to protest when the right wing could have got power. Why then the inaction? What is so frightening about crumbling caravan sites with people who are trying to eke out a lifestyle on the edge of so called <i>society;</i> people who have been given no options. There is no box on a form for those wishing to retain their freedom and identity and there should be.<div><br /></div><div>There should be paperwork for everyone, or at least the assumption of a right to land and tenure ship while you are on that land, and those rights should be respected. Immigrants should have provisional passports that give them the same rights as everyone else; homeless people should be given an address at least that they can use as their own for filling out forms. What is so hard about recognising your fellow human beings as just that?</div><div><br /></div><div>These are people who are deserving of the most deference and generosity. Persecuted through out centuries; their means of making a living literally whittled away until the few options left to them include crime or disenfranchisement from local communities. Embrace and adopt them - don't amputate them like a diseased limb - they are human beings. Everyone should have human rights</div><div><br /></div><div>Article 1 -We 'should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.'<br />Article 2 '<span style="font-style:italic;">Everyone</span> is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind,'<br />Article 3 'Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person'<br />...<br />Article 6 'Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.'<br />Article 7 'All...are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law'<br />Article 9 'No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.'<br /><br />Clearly none of the above have been taken into consideration n the actions of the Government of France pertaining to the Roma People. It begs the question are human rights in this day and age only applicable to those identified by the law, conforming to the law, having the right paperwork and economic contributions to society? Or are human rights a birthright bestowed upon you at birth, qualified by you because of your status as a human being? I know the answer to that question, it would seem that the government of France does not.<br /><br />What should happen now is this. The forced 'exile' of the Roma should stop. Those who have already been repatriated - which is a term that is not correct; the Roma do not belong to a country specific, they belong to themselves as a people and should have the right to travel freely as a consequence of identifying as such - they should be given the means to return to France if they so choose. There nomadic lifestyle should be assisted; not corralled and they should be given the rights of anyone who chooses to live in a house or stationary place of residence. Here lies the problem. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Place of residence </span> As a human being my identity is broader than the country I was born in and the place I choose to live in. There should be an International Passport for those of us unconstrained by nationality. We should be assisted in our identifying ourselves as global citizens rather than demonised for life experiences that have led to inadequate paperwork.<br /><br />France could continue as myopically as it has been recently, or it could set the precedent for an enlightened society. It has the space, the opportunity and the resources to do so. Failing the government to act thus - the people should act on their own initiative, not through violence or crime, but through generosity of spirit and a spirit inclusiveness. We should share what we have. <br /><br />I am a Roma. I have no papers. Come and get me.<br /><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-8561236600153521062?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-78586052879824298332010-08-28T09:55:00.000-07:002010-12-13T12:18:38.263-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.yourdrum.com/yourdrum/images/2007/11/21/drc_civil_war_congo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 499px; height: 379px;" src="http://www.yourdrum.com/yourdrum/images/2007/11/21/drc_civil_war_congo.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I have my own antiques<br />This rock, this majestic soil<br />Passed through the gullets of Pharoahs<br />Shat out into the Nile<br />Washing up at my feet<br />Antique<br /><br />I can hear Joan of Arc’s voice still<br />Ringing from the stake<br />And God stood at her side as<br />She screamed and burned and succumbed<br />To humanity’s fate.<div><br />It is the arrogance of men they should put in museums<br />We should go there to look at its folly<br />And wander the cool mausoleums<br />Where the dead hide their stories<br />And their horrors<br /><br />See the blue sky<br />Grab it while you can<br />Before you’re raped and mutilated<br />At the hands of stinking men<br /><br />Leaves a bad taste in my mouth<br />Like radiation<br />To live in a world where a woman’s<br />Silence deafens the screams of her<br />Suffering and writhing to get away<br />And clawing, and screaming the<br />Names of her children to ‘Run, run’ run<br />To safety or to remain quiet with<br />A look from her eyes,<br />As she looks through the unseeing<br />Men as they pull at her clothes,<br />To where her children hide<br /><br />We sit here in the<br />Cool. Outside the café<br />Drinking iced tea<br />And smoke spirals up from the Camels.<br />And the arms dealer smiles because<br />He has made a tidy packet<br />And the politician is smug because<br />The election is in the bag.<br />And the soldiers go where they are told.<br />And the masses surge up against the barriers of injustice<br />And the blood pools under their feet<br />And the mound of dead rises higher and<br />Higher<br />While we conspire around our polished<br />Glass table, what it is we will do this evening<br />And where we will have our dinner.<br />And the mound grows higher<br />‘Camarero, la cuenta por favor’<br />Waiter, the bill please, we ask<br /><br />The bill please<br />And the millions dead keep dying<br />The millions raped keep<br />Surrendering<br />up their bodies<br /> to the savagery of<br /> men whose eyes<br /><br /> hold knives of lust<br />And whose hands thrust<br />their vile-nce<br /> into girls vaginas.<br /><br /> It is the hatred<br /> To which we are unaccustomed<br />As our mother reared us gently and with </div><div> love<br /> If this is a man? I ask<br />At the table, shielded in the shade<br />From the hot spanish sun.<br />If this is a man? I ask<br />Then what’s become of us?<br /><br /><div><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b>Please support <a href="http://www.womenforwomen.org/global-initiatives-helping-women/help-women-congo.php">http://womenforwomen.org</a></b></p><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VeMkMlXk3NM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VeMkMlXk3NM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"> </div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-7858605287982429833?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-90750468839924772242010-08-28T08:16:00.000-07:002010-08-28T08:18:30.270-07:00<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hGpCtK1KHwI?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hGpCtK1KHwI?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />Disclaimer - 'All creations declares the praises of the Lord' is the perspective of the film maker whose endeavours I highly respect. <div><br /></div><div>My personal opinion - I personally find 'the Lord' a constrictive term to my experience and am more inclined to praise the crickets and their inherent divinity and the metaphysical presence of Dr Seuss in the universe<div><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><br /></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-9075046883992477224?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-25584668013201751292010-08-28T06:43:00.000-07:002010-08-28T07:18:18.365-07:00<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CNQCkTY25Xs?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CNQCkTY25Xs?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />It's time to protect the women and children isn't it?<br />Read more:- <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/27/omar-al-bashir-war-crimes-kenya">http://ow.ly/2w8ks</a> and at the <a href="http://www.icc-cpi.int/menus/icc/home">International Criminal Court</a><br /><br />Who should clean this mess up? Should the Arab world take more of an active stance? Who is arming these people?<br /><br />Will it continue to be the case that Arms dealers from Russia, China, Israel, India and big business in the US continue to make money on the backs of this sort of suffering? No it will not continue, it cannot continue. Should we arm the women so that they can protect themselves, their children, their livestock and their villages - at least then they would be on an almost equal footing with those 'that come on horseback and by air' to destroy them an their homes. There are certain people that it serves to have an immoral politician in the seat of government who will turn a blind eye to the smashing and grabbing of resources in return for wealth. It is my opinion that they should also be up for war crimes - because they are paying for them...<br /><br />If you foot the bill of a war crime then you are complicit. It strikes me that you want this turmoil to exist between the Arab world and the rest of it because it serves you.<br /><br />If I was the International Criminal Court I would find out who arms these people, who pays the bill and that is who I would arrest for war crimes. Perhaps that would mean condemning these countries/companies.<br /><br />Whatever it takes to stop 'business'. Whatever it takes - that's what we need to do. And we need to help the ordinary folk. Who need the cavalry. They need to be seen as the last marine that the rest never leave behind.<br />because we are leaving these 6year olds and 70 to be raped and brutalised. We are leaving these so militias to mercilessly burn and kill. We are letting this happen.<br /><br />We are complicit by our inaction. Anybody want to start paying for some security for these people? I mean anyone can buy a militia nowadays. Are there any wealthy humanitarians out there who wouldn't mind seeing the back of some of these dirty dealing folk be they arms manufacturers or genocidal dictators and monsterous militias. Either they turn themselves over to the ICC or someone scary will come and get them. The scary good guys.<br />In WW2 millions of people fought to bring an end to such abominations. People want to bring it to an end now. We don't want to hear any more stories on the news of the latest barbaric atrocities carried out with no repercussions. We want repercussions. I want repercussions.<br /><br />Why hasn't Omar Al Bashir been arrested? Er, I don't know - why hasn't Omar Al Bashir been arrested? Because...<br /><br />If you know the answer to this question please contact me. I want to know and also you might be able to tell me how we can stop the murdering/raping b********<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Don't you think that if someone doesn't comply with UN human rights laws that someone should at least take their sweeties away?</span><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-2558466801320175129?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-10879725480839380812010-08-27T17:54:00.001-07:002010-08-27T18:07:28.867-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/THhe61yDGJI/AAAAAAAABZ8/Ava4S7fWPPQ/s1600/DSC_5297.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/THhe61yDGJI/AAAAAAAABZ8/Ava4S7fWPPQ/s400/DSC_5297.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5510258509050222738" /></a><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">When I went to Auschwitz I couldn’t believe what human beings did to each other even as I stood with my feet on that ground. No doubt the same disbelief went through those people as their breath was stolen from them. Is it that we have to believe it to stop it? Do you have to say ’Yes’ without any trace of wishful thinking or escapism, ‘Yes, this is how it is’. To stop fighting the truth with denial, with doubt and with anything that makes it less real. We spend a lot of our time making life look as little like its real self as possible. We are the plastic surgeons of our life. The last thing we want to face is our impermanence – our one hard solid truth, more reliable than God; a truth as hard and solid as its counterpart; existence. Our awareness and our awareness of our impermanence do this awkward dance in life; it will always end the same.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Until we put our faith in the truths that are apparent, we may as well float around in a spinning teacup looking at the stars for all that we will ever find out and learn about ourselves. And if we want to stop suffering; well, then we really have to take off our tinted glasses and take a good hard look around us. We need a curing song. Our souls are starving as we stock the supermarkets of our days with false nutrition.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We swallow a pill to mask our hunger pains. We want truth, understanding,, an answer to our ‘whys’. We want security and control and will even avoid joy to have such certainty. We cling to suffering; it is an old old friend. We know the outlines of its face, the haunting of its sorrows, the weight of it about our shoulders. But when we start feeding ourselves joy, and bliss, divine stories, unassailable truths; such a little nutrition begins to persuade us that it comes down to the way we look with our eyes, the way we hold with our hands, the way we enunciate and<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>alliterate life <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">with</i> love.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"></span>The suffering happens because we enact it. It is a play we prompt and allow to unfold; and are forced to watch.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But what I know is that there is a final act and that played out upon the same stage is a dance of joy, a poet’s rendition of recuperation. After all of it is said and done it is a stage that we are standing on, with all the plays of the world upon it and we are the Shakespeare sprinkling tragedies and comedies upon it. What never changes is that stage. It is unsullied by joy or suffering. It is reliable, it is pure, it is the same shining awareness that runs through all things.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is one of my favourite poems by the Yuma Indians of North America:-</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>The Curing Song</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Your heart is good.<br />(Spirit) Shining Darkness will be here.<br />You think only of sad unpleasant things,<br />You are to think of goodness.<br />Lie down and sleep here.<br />Shining darkness will join us.<br />You think of this goodness in your dream.<br />Goodness will be given to you,<br />I will speak for it, and it will come to pass.<br />It will happen here,<br />I will ask for your good,<br />It will happen as I sit by you,<br />It will be done as I sit here in this place.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">As much as I am undone by suffering and walk through it in lost disbelief, disassociating, denying, wishing it away. It undoes me in away that forces me to unfold, it bruises my ignorance, it bullies my stuckpoints until they give way. I wonder - can't such a thing be done with love. I think it can, but when I think of how stubborn and willful we are as children; how a mother has to watch her child make mistakes, get hurt, before she can rush in with a mother's love; I wonder if it isn't like this also on the big scale of things. Such a warmth of love can envelop us when we finally surrender to understanding. I think this can take more than one life. That's why I think there are so many inexplicable tragedies; things that happen to good people; our lense is to small to see the whole picture. Really what tiny focuses we have got.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p></p></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-1087972548083938081?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-87896890572754843012010-08-24T14:25:00.000-07:002010-12-13T12:25:17.151-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/THROqer_XbI/AAAAAAAABZs/2o1h5VyNDPc/s1600/karen+woo.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/THROqer_XbI/AAAAAAAABZs/2o1h5VyNDPc/s400/karen+woo.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509114735880002994" /></a><br />I see Twitter as a kind of meme storage device. Therefore often I will post Tweets of news stories I consider a 'priority' i.e. something of immediate importance that I think deserves attention. I also consider Retweets to be a gauge of whether other folk also consider your tweets important and worthy of attention.<br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">It strikes me that what most of us find worth of attention are quotes that make us feel better; that make us see the world through new eyes, that reaffirm the truths we already have figured out.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">The desperation of the world's poor, economic prejudice, conflict fuelled by <i>our</i> economies; these aren't considered important. In my experience they NEVER get retweeted; but then I don't have thousands of followers I have a random 600 with a hardcore loyal bunch of tweetery folk and some interesting newcomers who I enjoy getting to know.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">My guidelines for following folk on twitter are that:-</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><ul><li>You're not on a personal development pyramid scheme that wants to help me all for only a $100 or a $1000 or more become more succesful, perfect, healthy and the same as everyone</li><li>Your'e not a giant corporation or individual twittering on behalf of said giant corporation</li><li>You're not in the Tea Party or right wing anything</li><li>You're not an idiot or a time waster</li></ul><div>It doesn't take too much perusal to figure out who fit into the above categories.</div><div>Of course if you are any of the above, I will be eternally patient with you and your ignorance. But you should know that:-</div><div> A - I haven't watched a commercial/advert since I learnt to use a remote control and especially the mute button and</div><div>B - I will spend a small amount of my time attempting to dissuade you from your chosen path on your behalf - not mine - yours; I have better things to do; there are worthier causes out there.</div><div><br /></div><div>What I have discovered about Twitter is that a Tweet can save a person's life. I have discovered that you can connect with like minds. I have discovered that people love a good quotation. It must be part of our byte size capacity for using information as an escapist diversion - its feels good, its quick fix, it affirms that other people are like us; though sometimes when you delve a little deeper they're sometimes not, it's just that you both like football but don't mention health care.</div><div><br /></div><div> I have been doing a little experiment to see what people's priorities are. I think Tweets fairly accurately reflect people's priorities; they are an informal log of people's daily or weekly activities that they consider noteworthy. So Retweets should also reflect this; my conclusion... ...my conclusion is that we are not doing enough. My conclusion is that <i>most</i> of us (not <i>all</i> us) have our priorities screwed. Well and truly superficially screwed. </div><div><br /></div><div>Many of you know that cake is a favourite of mine. I often tweet about cake. The fact is most of the time I can't eat cake not if its got dairy, or wheat, glucose fructose or eggs in and lets face it - that's cake isn't it. So cake is generally symbolic. It stands for something I love that is a little out of reach, it stands for wishful thinking, for memories of happy moments full of friends, family and fun. But next to my cake tweet you will also find a article about genocide in Africa, or economic prejudice in Europe. You will find links to the stories that are absolutely crucial to all of our futures. Next to cake you will hear me talk about violence against women and children, about the insane economic bandwagon that ALL of the world's industries are on; the one that says 'It's Ok to turn a blind eye to massive conflict, industrial pollution and environmental degradation, not to mention the huge possibility of world immolation in the nuclear fallout from some random corporate human error/intention - 'Oh oops I pressed the wrong switch...' Oops-y-daisy.</div><div><br /></div><div> But then those things are things that have ALREADY happened -we've already had 1000+ nuclear bombs blown up on this planet albeit in 'remote' places. Chernobyl happened and they never told us that they narrowly avoided a second explosion which would have rendered the whole of Europe uninhabitable. Narrow in that it was the observations of ONE scientist and the actions based on his advice that avoided it at least for now. That possibility looms once again - except <i>they</i> don't want to fund the 1billion for the avoidance of it this time - they'd rather pay 18billion for the hadron particle collider or <i>whatever</i> that is. </div><div>Please all of you nuclear loving folks out there, <i>carry on, feel free</i> after all it doesn't look like any of the big corporations or the governments are listening to any dissenters does it. And why aren't they listening? Because they can get away scot free, or at least they've budgeted for irritating court procedures ahead of time? Or because we don't care?</div><div><br /></div><div>Some of the comments on Youtube - 'Why should we care about the West abandoning the Congo when we haven't even heard of it?' So the fact that the UN peacekeeping mission is clearly failing miserably doesn't really matter does it. or that four baby boys were gang raped along with 200 women less than a month ago. But it doesn't matter does it - because that was in the Congo and we've not heard of it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Clearly the big corporations didn't care in the first place because this was happening when they knowingly bought the shipments of minerals, or conflict diamonds, or sold them arms or nitrate fertilisers or GM seeds. I'm not just talking about the Congo, I'm talking about anyone that knowingly trades with those who don't care about human rights - and that's everyone. All of us by our silent acquiescing are buying up oil fields for the next fifty years, drilling for more oil; open-caste mining for nitrates to make armaments and fertilisers to feed us on our deeply eroded soils and fuelling conflict to destabilise areas for the smash and grab that is the 'free market' - .</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> My soul is deeply eroded by all the suffering we are willing to casually stand by and </b><i><b>let</b></i><b> happen because its someone else's problem</b>. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There's some strange collusion between countries that agree to the capitalist manifesto regardless of human rights. China, Russia, Iran sell arms to Afghanstan, the Afghani police being trained smuggle them south to their opponents; we also do business with China, Russia and Iran. Anyone failing to see these connections or the careful balancing act that is international business and politics and considers them unimportant is kidding themselves.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div>'It's the governments who are dealing with it; they're doing something about it aren't they?' - we blithely assume. The corporations wouldn't do <i>that, (</i>sharp intake of breath at horrifying details); our almighty God the corporation would never do that - they love us and care for us like we are their children; this is a <i>democracy</i>.' Right, it is a democracy of corn-fed fatigued zombies easily mollified by technological gadgets, fantasy movies, anti-depressants and low-fat ready meals. There are no Churchill's or Eisenhower's standing in the wings ready to lead us; the Martin Luther King's of the present are dead; killed by clever advertising campaigns and distracted by Machiavellian political slandering and concocted media storms; while the corporations act out reckless smash and grabs around the world - wherever they wish.</div><div><br /></div><div>We are not doing enough. The future is being wrenched out of the hands of children via the neglect of us - their parents. By our absence, by our silence, by our willingness to accept the status quo, by our willingness to let errant behaviour go, by our watching as power is confronted and then returned to those who were absolutely irresponsible with it. You think a corporation is responsible because they have high share prices? You think a government is responsible because... well fuck knows what makes you think any government is responsible. Four years is not enough time to prove integrity especially when most of it is spent maintaining power and deluding the public. </div><div><br /></div><div>We are so myopic it sickens me. We are so willing to be ruled; to abdicate our seats of decision, to give up our freedom. We have given it up - everyone of us that rents or buys property, or lays claim to one kind of passport - that's nearly all of us except for those Aboriginals, or tribes, or travellers, or nomads, or homeless that don't fit the capitalistic 'ideal' of conformist zealots - <i>especially</i> those who don't adhere to one place of residence, address or country. Oh those address-less people, those <i>country swapping parasites -</i> they are sooo frightening. You know who <i>they</i> are? They are <i>us</i> before we became domesticated - before we became tamed or afterwards; after our moment of disillusion, after the matrix came undone, after we swallowed that red pill of flagellation by the world at large - when we became one of them, one of the parasites; by default, by flood, by landslides of falling stocks and shares. If you have a roof over your head do I consider you lucky? No, I consider you naive - as one homeless man put it 'I just got here first, it won't be long and everyone else will come and join me'.</div><div><br /></div><div>We are not doing enough. We are not doing enough because the suffering is escalating all around and we are tweeting about 'community building', 'sustainable lifestyles' and 'raw food' - oh wait a minute, hang on, wrong list - those are my '<a href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;ved=0CBwQFjAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRedpill&amp;ei=7kp0TOqCIuCJ4gatoKmBCQ&amp;usg=AFQjCNGaVYhnA3rQgTQXsoG8E8PGa_8Vyg&amp;sig2=YVv3nBj5jTHV0SnkeIH7Mw">Redpill</a>' Twitter friends. The bluepills are talking about the temperature their Ipad's melt at, portraits of weird germanic guys with flamboyant moustaches and beards and fox furs on their heads, (oh it's Dave Mead's <i>Magnificent Specimens</i> exhibit which recently came to New York city) and the endless advice about how to increase your presence on social media, or business acumen... 'Stop wait a minute; <i>YOU</i> wrote that tweet - you, my favourite liberal Obama loving leftist who supplies me with endless links from diverse and wonderful charities and dogooders around the world; and your Ipad melts at what temperature?</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Because the thing is none of us have really taken the redpill.</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">We can not escape our realities that easily, though we try. We try with cake, with discussions about politics, movies, the news, the latest catastrophe. The conditioner for our reality, is our awareness - it's our life lube - except nothing goes smoothly, its hard to focus, we don't ever know what will happen next, so we Twitter about cake and German moustaches and devote our lives to distraction, to entertainment, to our children, or our nearest and dearest, to control and compromise.</div><div><br /></div><div> Even if we're the Aid worker up to our necks in deepest darkest Taliban crawling Afghanistan we're talking about acquiring silk for evening dresses and the amount of cosmetics on display at the local supermarket - we weren't to know, were we that we would be next weeks latest victim. Why do we do that; talk about these inanities next to dire straits?Because it <i>enables</i> us, it helps us to do <i>what we can</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Dr Karen Woo did more than not enough. </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b></b>(See Karen's picture above)</div><div style="text-align: left;"> She went to a valley to help 50000 Afghanistani people to have access to eye care and medical aid; she did it while praising the <a href="http://www.shewee.com/newstore/">Shewee</a> that enabled her to pee standing up or in a moving vehicle. She did <u>more than not enough </u>while caring for stray cats and lamenting the idiosyncrasies of Kabul that mean security guards are given the leftovers of Westerners to eat (and they wonder why there's a security issue).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Her <a href="http://explorerkitteninafghanistan.blogspot.com/">blog</a> makes for fascinating reading, shining light into the daily life of westerners, aid workers and journalists in Afghanistan as well as the lives of the local people. Throughout her concern for others is obvious - she laments the freedoms we so readily take for granted being unavailable in so many places; she grates at the disparity between the affluent and the poor and the ostentatious ways we try and mould the natural world and the human environment to fit our idea of how it should be. Poverty doesn't fit and we prefer to look away. Except she didn't look away, she was compelled just days before her wedding to go to one of the most hostile places on the planet and help people. Compelled by humanity, compelled by the needless suffering of others, compelled by the massive obstacles facing a mother bringing a child into the world in the rugged environment that is Nuristan where there is the highest infant mortality. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-death-of-my-friend-karen-2046693.html">Dr Karen Woo was killed </a>on the way back from her successful humanitarian mission. She was one of a team of nine on that mission who were killed doing more than not enough. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">They are dead but we are still alive. We can carry on where the inspired have left us - our options; to be humanitarian or die, or to be humanitarian <i>and</i> die. There is no other choice, we are going to die any way - all of us eventually. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So I will continue to Tweet about cake and when I do so please don't think that my priorities are screwed, or that I'm a bluepill. I am a redpill at heart. We <i>all</i> are. We are Churchill's, Eisenhowers and Martin Luther King's-in-waiting; with the political. military and humanitarian will there just when it's needed.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Karen set up an organisation called<a href="http://bridgeafghanistan.blogspot.com/"> Bridge Afghanistan</a> to channel hospital stock from the UK that would have been destroyed to where it was desperately needed. Her work is being continued by close friends who are setting up the <a href="http://www.karenwoofoundation.com/">Karen Woo Foundation</a> to this end. </div><div style="text-align: left;">The question is what will you do? Will you let <i>them,</i> who ever they are, decide our fate?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 720px; height: 405px;" src="http://mootzman.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/red-pill-or-blue-pill.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://mootzman.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/red-pill-or-blue-pill.jpg"><br /></a></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://mootzman.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/red-pill-or-blue-pill.jpg"><br /></a></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://mootzman.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/red-pill-or-blue-pill.jpg"><br /></a></div><div><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span></div></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-8789689057275484301?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-91692505253956961672010-08-23T05:08:00.000-07:002010-08-23T05:18:18.022-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&amp;hl=en&amp;msa=0&amp;msid=113852013865922308472.00048cc80736c82d7fba4&amp;source=embed&amp;ll=42.762014,-89.242586&amp;spn=8.230347,15.094472&amp;output=embed"></iframe></div><small>View <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&amp;hl=en&amp;msa=0&amp;msid=113852013865922308472.00048cc80736c82d7fba4&amp;source=embed&amp;ll=42.762014,-89.242586&amp;spn=8.230347,15.094472" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">The #140conf Roadtrip: Aug 22-28 2010</a> in a larger map</small><div><small></small><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://roadtrip.140conf.com/">#140conf: Roadtrip</a> </span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">will be taking place from August 22 to August 28, 2010 and they intend on broadcasting live from inside our car while we are on the road. You can call them at the same time on Skype and join in. They are going on </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">the road to reach out and meet community members across the Midwest in advance of</span><a href="http://detroit.140conf.com/" style="color: rgb(159, 162, 164); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> #140conf Detroit</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, which takes place at the Fillmore Detroit on October 20, 2010.</span></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Cities</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">: Cleveland, OH - Columbus, OH - Dayton, OH - Cincinnati, OH - Indianapolis, IN - Bloomington, IN - St Louis, MO- Kansas City, MO - Omaha, NE - Sioux Falls, SD - Fargo, ND - Minneapolis, MN - Dryersvile, IA - Madison, WI - Chicago, IL - Detroit, MI</span></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Have your voice and your stories heard in The State of Now. Thye’ll be having breakfasts, lunches, dinners and events including the opportunity to sign up for test-drives of Buick cars. They’ll also have t-shirts, give-aways, and more surprises along the way.</span></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:medium;">The<a href="http://140conf.com/"> #140conf</a> events provide a platform for the worldwide twitter community to: listen, connect, share and engage with each other, while collectively exploring the effects of the emerging real-time internet on business.</span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:medium;">Find me on <a href="http://twitter.com/louisembrookes">twitter</a></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-9169250525395696167?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-60155822938840241692010-08-13T07:36:00.000-07:002010-08-13T08:34:15.483-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.daveburchett.com/blog_media/doubt.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 402px; height: 337px;" src="http://www.daveburchett.com/blog_media/doubt.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />The cessation of doubt is the beginning of fearlessness. Doubt also has a purpose - overcoming your own doubts gives you the tools to challenge and overcome the doubts of others. Doubtlessness is an extremely powerful and healing state but it is not to be confused with bloody mindedness. Doubtlessness is also a state without the crazy commentary we have in our heads. It is without the monkey mind. It is pure unadulterated awareness.<br /><br />It is said that a situation will continue as it is until the lesson is learned, doubt is a good measure of thumb to know if you've learned it yet. We have to answer all our questions and grey areas to gain conviction. Oh and we have to have humility too, without that we won't necessarily have the grace to achieve our goals. Humility is an openness to possibilities, it is a friendly disposition towards impermanence, it is recognising that our not knowing is the truth and all of our knowing is rooted in that single unique mystery of existence. Explain that and you explain all things. Except most of us try and explain the things and leave out the biggest question.<br /><br />My biggest doubt was 'Should I be this happy when others are suffering?' Both my perceptions of 'I' and of 'other' were wrapped up in this. In essence it was the lesson I had to learn. I had reached a place of doubtlessness, or quiet; a place where I was not suffering (not simply that I wasn't ill - I was at the time quite unwell) it was a place where I didn't have the anguish that accompanies suffering or the pain itself even. Somehow I recognised that my 'I' was not that. As a Tibetan teacher once said when he went to the dentists and didn't use anaesthesia and the dentist asked him if it hurt; although he himself was not hurting he answered 'The glass over there is...' He had removed his identifying with himself to a much broader version inclusive of all things and so the pain was displaced. Pain is something we '<i>identify</i>' with. To be capable of fully lovinng something Amma says we need to lose the 'I' and 'mine' the past and the future. So there's a measure with which to check yourself - is there an 'I' in this problem, is there a 'my' in this problem, is there the 'past' in this problem or is there the 'future'. Then you can be truly present, fully loving and no doubt the answer is also waiting there for you. Freeing yourself up from those things provides a great deal of space around any issue, any suffering that you may have. <div>The reason I stumbled upon this place was because I wanted to find for myself that place without suffering that I understood existed according to all those enlightened people's experiences. I pursued it with great determination at a time when I was in unbearable pain and discomfort. In fact I didn't have a lot of recourse. I had understood that in <i>any</i> human state, at any point in time it was possible to free ourselves of suffering. One of the greatest tools for this was a single pointed mind, a focused mind, the other was self reflection - the mind looking at the mind so to speak, then a great wish for freedom and a wish to help others.</div><div><br /></div><div>For many months I lived in that state of 'no thought'. I had no preconceptions, no commentary, no filter, no judgement. It did not mean that I didn't speak. The words came without any precursor or thought. It was much more like I was living in realtime as opposed to a step behind as we are when we filter everything through our 'experiences and judgements'. I also had a great sense of well being and bliss, I knew exactly what I needed, I knew exactly what level of vitality I had, I was helped with both western and chinese traditional medicine. It was the confidence I had that was most remarkable as though that is our natural state. My vision also changed, things seemed to emit their own light, and were absolutely beautiful, I could not separate myself, nor could I call something inanimate - everything was vibrating with a life, an essence that ran through all things. As my mind remained peaceful and still, so my body calmed. I even looked at 'my' self in the same way, its kind of an intrinsic detachment if that makes sense. i could treat myself in the third person and approach otehrs with the same care and attention I used to reserve for myself.</div><div><br /></div><div>This state went on many months until one day I had one thought. My first thought in all those months. On that day I thought 'Should I be this happy?' I did not answer it, my mind returned to its clarity and stillness like a pebble has just landed in the water. The next day the thought continued 'Should I be this happy.... when others are suffering?'. And in that way my thoughts continued to grow right back up to monkey mind again. That chattery non stop commentary upon life and experience, only this time I was watching. I am still watching. It was an unusual doubt that interrupted my repose, but I think actually that it holds within it many answers.<br /><br />Conviction overcomes doubt but sometimes looking for and finding the truth can be painful. Having the humility to capitulate when you're wrong is a marvellous trait leading to learning and peace. But one should not capitulate if your awareness would remove the suffering or the ignorance of others. Yet it doesn't mean you're there to proselytise; a silent example is enough, a word of warning, just as you would teach a child and even then, even if you have the ability to move mountain of ignorance, sometimes the right thing to do is to let them make their own mistakes.<br /><br />You'll always be there for them, the rules are - you can't always take on their burden of suffering. Sometimes it seems we have to carry our burdens until we have exhausted the results of an action and then we can put it down. The act of carrying it, of butting our heads against the obstacle in frustration, the fighting, the loss and the despair, all of these can be great and pure lessons; the main obstacle that we are repeatedly confronting being ourselves. <span style="font-style:italic;">We</span> have to step aside. One thing such suffering teaches us is empathy for others. We will help others, we will carry the bags of a stranger, we will share what we have because we know what it's like to suffer, or we understand we could be there too. And lastly there is a disentanglement from the self; much of our suffering is a direct result of our concept of 'self', remove that and a whole swathe of types of suffering fall away.</div><div><br /></div><div>What is left when there is no doubt is a beautiful state of confidence. It is <i>always</i> there. My nan used to say 'Trust in providence'. Our confidence is profoundly shaken when we have an 'I' and the rest of the world, an 'I' and the other. What a frightening place to step into when we are so separate and so alone. But step into a place where everything is intrinsically connected, where your 'I' is not in bits, not an island, and then you're not alone; your awareness stretches out through all time and through all existence. It reassuringly blinks back at you. We are in a world full of mirrors of the same awareness.<br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-6015582293884024169?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-24914314162502123302010-08-12T14:50:00.001-07:002010-08-13T07:25:08.073-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://zlataleta.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/400px-fluorescent_pigs_paint.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="http://zlataleta.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/400px-fluorescent_pigs_paint.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>To me a glowing pig is pig abuse. You might think that's going a bit far especially if you're from the medical profession. You may tell me that this pig is well looked after that it hasn't suffered. I know that a lot of animals have and do suffer all over the world because of medical experiments, besides you say the pig is a GM pig. Like that makes it OK. People think because animals don't present intelligence like a human that its OK to cause them suffering, especially if it's to preserve human life. In the natural world the pig and the jellyfish would never meet let alone cross. I take umbridge that science thinks that in the name of medicine this is OK. I don't object to advances in medicine, I object to the proposition that its OK for pig and jellyfish to be crossed in the name of medicine. I don't care whether it helps you look up a donkeys arse - find ANOTHER way.<div><br /></div><div>Take longer if you have to, people might die, yes, but at least there wouldn't be glowing pigs and you never know I expect there is ANOTHER way.</div><div><br /><div> Another experiment where there was this issue was the mice growing human ears where they had the ear attached to them while it grew. If scientists want to grow ears perhaps they should attach them to themselves, and if they want things to glow they should inject themselves with jelly fish which is the aim eventually isn't it to use the jellyfish glow in medicine?</div><div><br />I see all living things as sentient. Pigs are very intelligent, dogs are very intelligent. Many animals present an advanced set of emotions, empathy, protectiveness, cognition - all sorts of human qualities. However they don't have choice, we have choice, they don't. In my opinion we should not cause suffering to any living being. <b>Even if our modus operandi is to find away to reduce suffering of any sort, it should not be done through the means of suffering or genetic manipulation that would never happen in nature beyond what happens when you cross roses in your garden.</b> That's the same species. Why it strikes me that <i>that</i> is OK and it isn't Ok for interspecies crossing and yet this seems to have been completely overlooked by science, I don't know. Interspecies breeding = BAD. Same species breeding = GOOD. Does it make it OK if the characteristics have been genetically isolated = NO. Why? because it has taken millions of jellyfish years to get that jellyfish glow. Glowing pigs were another billion years away and more than likely NEVER a possibility. So when I accuse science of playing God, that is why. I don't think we are wise or capable enough to take such decisions. That we do this on so many levels for <i>progress</i> is quite frankly frightening. Things like this include:-</div><div><ul><li>GM foods like Glucose Fructose sanctified by the scientific community, the FDA and WHO which are now causing diabetes, obesity and terrible allergies. People are dying because they drink soda with this stuff in</li><li>Nuclear power whose consequences have the potential of just one incident; just <i>one</i> human error could make the entire planet uninhabitable. Also we are leaving a lethal legacy for hundreds of generations to be equally threatened by. </li><li>Petrochemicals, nitrates, dioxins, radiation, asbestos - all these scary words are products of science they have said its OK to have in our world. That we previously didn't have that kill people, cause water on the brain in babies, make two headed babies, children with terrible deformities, cause asthma and eczema, leukaemia and cancer</li><li>Medicines; antibiotics, radiation therapy, thalidomide, vaccines - all ostensibly OK'd by the scientific community - who it is apparent DON'T KNOW </li></ul></div><div>We can choose not to. We can create new guidelines that protect us and future generations from all of these scientific<i> breakthroughs. </i><b>To me a scientific breakthrough should have its consequences considered when it is created and these should be fully considered before it is allowed into the mainstream. </b>If the consequence is 100000 year old lethal substance, then it should NOT be allowed. If the consequences are NOT known, then it should not be allowed.</div><div> Science carried out without causing suffering, without manipulating the natural rules that already exist is OK. It could be amazing. Imagine a Buddhist and a Scientist being one and the same things; experimenting with wisdom and awareness, not causing suffering in any way- understanding the <u>natural laws</u> that govern. We have lost much of our respect and our roles as guardians, we don't know how to live in nature so we make misguided decisions that we consider OK. They're not OK</div><div><br /></div><div>To me creating a glowing pig is pig abuse. I would not like it if I was made to glow in the dark or if my dog was; what are the consequences of such an action? A jellyfish and a pig who'd of thought they'd get it on?</div><div><br /></div><div>Will we all one day glow in the dark because of a genetic accident?</div><div><br />To me all existence is sentient; my awareness doesn't stop at my skin. I sense some places to be lovely, beautiful, scary, horrible, calming, unsettling; places not just people. Take a rock from Auschwitz and rock from where the Buddha sat beneath the Bodhi tree; the Auschwitz rock is a <i>sad</i> rock, the buddha's rock is a <i>healing</i> rock.<br /><br />And yet we cast about assignations that imply humans are hierarchically above everything else. This subtle perception permits us to blow vast holes in the earth, scar swathes of it with open cast mining, drill in it, spray DDT on it, irradiate it, destroy it. We have no comprehension of balance. A long time ago we lost our connection, our understanding and ability <span style="font-style:italic;">to</span> live in balance with the earth. Even those of us that do care are locked in an inbalanced way of life. We are reliant on fossil fuels, or nuclear power that generates tons of toxic waste so lethal it could kill all of us. We accept this because we are not given other options when there are other options. We are yoked to a chain of paying for our basic needs, of expecting a certain level of service in return for which we pay and pay and pay and so does everything and everyone else.<br /><br />I do not want to pay any more. I want to honour the rock around me. I want to have a healthy respect for the glowing pigs of this earth that symbolise such an erroneous assumption on our parts it is astounding. It is the emperor in his new clothes. It is madness argued as sanity walking amongst us. I want to honour the plants around me. We manipulate them, we package them, we sell them as if all the sacredness had been drained out.<br />I want to honour the people around me. They walk around as if divinity and freedom were myths told in fairy tales. I bow to the spirit within all things. You can find it, it begins with the recognition that you don't know. The question is - after all these scientific <span style="font-style:italic;">advances</span> can Pandora's box be closed? I think that depends on us coming to our senses. How can we fight against the invisible, against the illogical when it is presented to us as truth, as the gospel of science, engineering, chemistry and economics? When it is dressed in the anonymity of a corporate brand and 'licenced to kill'. They have been killing with negligence, with human error, with arrogance, with disdain, with accountability, without accountability. They have been killing for years and years and years in the name of this new deity Science and his consort the Economy. I think its time to choose your religion and choose it wih care and consideration, to recognise your ignorance wherever it is.<br /><br />I live in a country where 80% of its electricity is from nuclear fuel. Even though when Chernobyl exploded it spread a plume of deadly ash all over it, all over Europe. Even though the highest rate of breast cancer is here, even though they have to bury waste that is lethal for 100,000 years in a repository that will cost billions and only function for a century; with capacity for 20years waste. It will take twenty years to complete. It is illogical when a methane digester fuelled by waste, by rotten vegative matter, by the renewable resource that is poo, can equally capably provide for our energy needs, especially when accompanied by other harmless renewable resources.<br />We <i>can</i> grow organically instead of using pollutive nitrates, ferilisers, pesticides and GM.</div><div><br />I don't know why we are doing this. Why are we acting so insanely. I know most people have no idea about living in nature, they are clueless, a business man from the city who goes camping, who earns a fortune and is qualified up to the hilt, will take a dump <span style="font-style:italic;">outside</span> his tent because he <span style="font-style:italic;">doesn't</span> know. It is these same people deciding the fate of the earth, of nature, of ecological systems they know nothing about. How can they decide when they don't know the effect they have when they turn the light switch on or flush the toilet?<br /><br />We are trusting animals. We believe what they tell us. We listen to them with our eyes closed. In the light of the lamp I am writing by and by the hum of this computer, my quota of nuclear waste has been produced by those atoms splitting and my legacy will be something that is hazardous for one hundred thousand years. When I could wait until daylight, when I could use a candle, when I could plug into a solar panel or a generator fuelled by vegetable oil, by methane gas, or by hydrogen.<br /><br />I don't understand their plans but I'm going the other way. I expect they will catch up shortly at least I hope so. I guess they won't get lost in the dark as they have glowing pigs to see by.<br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-2491431416250212330?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-24827938141421118972010-08-11T16:32:00.000-07:002010-08-22T15:10:06.303-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ87zUNyWJiSj5ocfBs4Rqo3eUdg8gli_BHDQFBpLbFVHew6xE&amp;t=1&amp;usg=__OgvHU1ZLgs4vs83FDv1Oq8rb9tI="><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 284px; height: 178px;" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ87zUNyWJiSj5ocfBs4Rqo3eUdg8gli_BHDQFBpLbFVHew6xE&amp;t=1&amp;usg=__OgvHU1ZLgs4vs83FDv1Oq8rb9tI=" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I love this quote - 'Where am I willing to die? It all depends on how I’m choosing to live.' <a href="http://sheenalashay.com/about/about-the-blogs/">Sheena </a>wrote in <a href="http://sheenalashay.com/2006/10/todd-skinner-a-pioneer-in-free-climbing-dies-at-47/">this post</a>.<div><br /></div><div>In my life I have done my bucket list. I did as much as I could and then one day it became unnecessary. I had a dream I did everything it is possible to do in a human existence. I did every career ( did it all in a kind of sped-up real time where I <i>remembered </i>doing it). At the end when there was literally nothing left to do, I found myself in a red desert in that beautiful time of the night when some of the sky is still light and blue and yet it is dark. Nearby a group of bushmen elders sat (like Kalahari bushmen) they moved aside so that there was space for me to sit. They said nothing, but there was some laughter that I had <i>finally arrived</i> as though it took me a long enough time to figure out the truth. They had on loin cloths and a digging stick/spear and nothing else but the flames of the fire, the night, the desert and Oceans of wisdom. And then I woke up.... </div><div>What do you do when you have 'done' everything already? That's how I woke up.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since I dreamt that dream I have been in one long, extended gesture of thoughtfulness, like a two year long repose. Kind of like surrender or saturation or both.</div><div><br /></div><div>I love finding the other yogis out there; Sheena yogis.</div><div><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-2482793814142111897?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-6514126363866562192010-08-10T14:02:00.000-07:002010-08-10T15:06:53.447-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/TGHMNiSRDJI/AAAAAAAABZc/hFjYOc26voU/s1600/theone.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 256px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/TGHMNiSRDJI/AAAAAAAABZc/hFjYOc26voU/s320/theone.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503904752537242770" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>'Delicious recipes for life.' </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>'Optimising our adaptive capacity to personal and planetary disasters.'</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> I have gathered ingenious and simple answers from all over the world and put them together after over fifteen years of seeking solutions; what works, what really, really works!</div><br />I'm a qualified survival instructor. I know what it takes to live directly and sustainably with the earth. I know how much energy is needed per person and extremely accurately. But I didn't stop there; I wanted to know how nature could be designed to support our needs as we grow, as our awareness increases, as our technological abilities advance. Whether we live in a house or a hammock. I wanted to know how to help the most desperate, the ones that can't find a way out; learn how to <i>avoid</i> catastrophes both inner and outer and minimise their damage.<div><br /></div><div>To do this I met ballistic missile engineers who became ecovillage pioneers, I learnt to run visioning workshops and solar installations, I listened to lectures on 'Living machines' and built them, I did sweat lodges and retreats with people who retained and resurrected the old ways, set up co-operatives to acquire land and hold it in trust. I met refugees, put asylum seekers up on my sofa. Listened to stories from the families of those fighting corporate injustice and/or ignorance, like Ken Saro Wiwa.</div><div><br /></div><div> I took homeless folk out for a night on the town and a proper dinner and brought them home so they could sleep in a bed and get cleaned up. I encouraged them to seek out their families and try again.</div><div><br /></div><div> I worked in minimum wage jobs where you end up with less than nothing for a month's work and barely manage to feed yourself. I had two jobs but nowhere to live and nothing to save for that <i>better</i> life. I bought train tickets for families with small children when the conductor was going to throw off in the middle of the night. I heard the tales of Africans forced to travel illegally; I worked with them, I heard their stories. If they had had a legal option - they would have taken it, but there was none. <b>There was no box for those with nothing but their names. </b></div><div><br /><div>All of these stories informed me. I wanted to <i>know</i> the truth, not guess at it, or make presumptions. I wanted to throw out my preconceptions and come home laden with truth. </div><div>It is difficult now. It is very very hard for many people. But I think I have found some ways to make it easier. </div><div><br /></div><div>I had a vision of a human being so in touch with their surroundings, with nature that they no longer perceive a sense of separation.<b> We actually produce the fuel for life with our bodies; plants NEED us, the soil needs us, the air needs us. </b>Let me explain...<br /><br />A garden is not simply somewhere plants grow; in a sense the entire planet is a garden. All of our biological processes happen here. Over the last two hundred years we have a developed rudimentary systems for the basic requirements of towns and cities. We discovered processes and chemicals that enabled mass production, mass waste treatment, mass provision of food and water. But unfortunately these weren't sustainable processes.<br /><br />At some point many of us stepped away from the very natural knowledge we need to survive from one year to the next. But this doesn't mean that there aren't processes we can adopt that ARE sustainable - there are... and they can be applied at any scale they are needed. I have brought <span style="font-style:italic;">all</span> of them together. They are the very essence of survival lore and ecological design adapted to an industrial standard - applicable to the individual, the village or the mega city. If you are stuck in your life. If your freedom seems to be diminshing rather than increasing. If you can't imagine what true freedom feels like - then this is the book for you. Its the kind of book you wish your grandmother had given you. It has recipes for life, for living, for vitality, for abundance. </div><div><br /><b>It explains what to physically focus on to empower yourself and those around you</b>. You <span style="font-style:italic;">will</span> have a positive impact on your surroundings, on your colleagues, your friends and families and <i>their</i> future. It is called 'Positive Impact Living' because you cease to have a negative impact upon yourself with your thoughts, words and actions - you begin <u>to generate life</u>, that's what humans are for. We're creative geniuses, capable of manifesting our dreams; we haven't even begun to imagine our potential.<br /><br />It is a How-to-Guide for the desperate, for those of us at our wit's ends, for those of us despairing of anyone doing something sensible. It's economic basis is rooted in balance and harmony. None of this profit-over- purpose-and-sustainability malarkey. If you build this it won't break down and you won't have to buy a new one. Its a garden. Its <i>your</i> garden. its one you can carry with you wherever you go.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sounds ambitious. It is. Our souls are starving for meaning and sense; for encouragement, wisdom and balance. We don't know why it is we shrink away from things. From chemicals, hospitals, from congested roads and empty neighbourhoods. We're not empowered to take control of our lives; we need to take that power back and be in total control of our decisions and environments. Our ancestors had that freedom - together we can find it again - its not gone anywhere.</div><div><br /></div><div>I had a great vision when I was young and I also had a long line of very practical grandmothers. They were left to bring up fifteen children, they were left without their husbands, they washed clothes and floors, rented dresses, started shops. And my grandfathers; they were carpenters, builders and policemen, they died in wars, gassed in the trenches, killed in the streets, eaten by cancers and lost, their names are on stone memorials and in the warmth of my heart. I asked my family for the stories.</div><div><br /></div><div> Every generation has a different priority. For my generation, it is one of salvage; salvaging hope, of unearthing solutions, of changing rapidly. Change doesn't equal hardship though. We have been out of alignment; knocked there by such a fury of violence, but now we are stepping back into alignment and with those steps comes harmony. We are all taking those baby steps in our different ways, at different paces. We have to be gentle on ourselves and each other and we need to listen and <i>hear</i> because the answers are there. The prayers have already been answered all we have to do is become silent enough to hear them and be focused enough to be a conduit for those that matter. This is not just a theoretical book or a poetic book although it has some of those qualities, above all it is a practical book - follow the recipes and you can SEE the results. I can explain the why's the wherefores and the how to's but only you can make the magic.</div><div><br /></div><div>We <i>will</i> feed the hungry, house the homeless, educate the poor and cure the sick. We will not only get <i>through</i> this year but we will heal and make next year better :) I saw it it's written on my soul.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">NB It' coming out in October, but you can contact me if you would like to pre-order and I will add you to the first come first served list :)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-651412636386656219?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-87861684877053730092010-08-09T02:56:00.001-07:002010-12-13T12:41:06.697-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.picturesof.net/_images_300/A_Cow_Wearing_Lipstick_Earring_a_Dress_and_Red_Shoes_and_Carrying_a_Purse_Royalty_Free_Clipart_Picture_100322-012774-033053.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 162px; height: 300px;" src="http://www.picturesof.net/_images_300/A_Cow_Wearing_Lipstick_Earring_a_Dress_and_Red_Shoes_and_Carrying_a_Purse_Royalty_Free_Clipart_Picture_100322-012774-033053.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />So everyone is making their own cosmetics. Well a lot more folk are and WHY is that? The shelves, the shops, the stalls are stacked with cosmetics. In Afghanistan you can purchase the latest hair, make up, body mask-not-quite-bomb-proof-age-reducing substance (puts a whole new spin on it that does) and plaster it all over in the hope of staving off wrinkles, or dryness or god forbid saggy bits.<br /><br />Except we're all turning to the kitchen cupboard. We're splitting egg whites, we're looking for pure mud - just the mud nothing else. We're searching for Natural Oils, not the denatured gumph that's being spewing in the Gulf these last months - after all that IS mostly what our cosmetics have been made of. And our toothpaste is the leftovers from the Aluminium industry.<br /><br />The big companies have been making a great BIG extra profit all these years, by making sure nothing goes to waste. Nothing at all. And if they can put it into something we use and buy EVERYDAY, perfect, it all adds up in the precious columns of profit.<br /><br />Except for one thing; I can't use ANY of their shite. None of it. Sensitive skin you see, so sensitive it just about fell off when I turned up on the planet and breathed.<br />Lanolin, mineral oil, petroleum jelly, any kind of preservative and more recently the soya and coconut derivatives that are killing Orangutans. It seems anything made, processed by a BIG company wants to kill me. I am almost thinking there's a real effort to try and kill me. If its not the fumes making my lungs rebel, its the washing powders with 'enzymes' that make your whites whiter than white, only this white goes a shade of deep red and attempts to die when it comes into contact with the lethal everyday household product. Oh my poor genetic heritage - maybe one day I'll be able to buy a tub of new genetic heritage and plaster it on and be reborn as a God with eternal life and similar godly attributes. Except I doubt it, immortality doesn't sit well with those on high; there's an overpopulation problem don't you know; <span style="font-style:italic;">they</span> have a scarcity consciousness?<br /><br />So I retreat for some sanity to a bottle of extra virgin olive oil or freshly squeezed lemon juice. I find consolation in almond oil and surprises in the herb cabinet. Cloves fight tooth decay and so does the humble Tea Tree oil (though don't swallow the stuff) so does Myrrh, used for thousands of years.<br />Oats are a soap when you add water, hey presto! Even the most sensitive skin is soothed with the simpicity of oats. In fact 'saponins' the quality of soap is in a lot of green stuff including grass. That's why when you go camping you can wash your pots with water, grass and ash and it works really well. Wow! My mum was trying to clean the fire place and for years she'd used this stuff that nearly killed me if I was within a few feet of it and I said 'Why don't you use the ash and some vinegar?' and it wasn't until one day she ran out of her cleaning product that she took my advice and WOW it worked better than the chemical cocktail.<br />It is sooo true nowadays that you should take everything with a pinch of salt. But if someone is making a profit from what they are selling you and it has anything remotely chemical in it, you should take it with a whole shipment of salt. Because some of it i<span style="font-style:italic;">s</span> killing us. Not just me with my flawed genetic watsit that made staying alive very precarious and forced me to become an ingenious genetically mutated hippy hybrid; but people like you. <div><br /></div><div>If you've just cracked open a can of soda it is 100% likely that you have just swallowed the latest in death speeding cocktails 'glucose fructose'. It used to be simply sugar in those things - from sugar cane. But now it is a GM version of corn or wheat that's been so processed it couldn't get more different from the original. Its killing off the cows that they feed the 'corn' it comes from to. They're dying from acidosis and holes in their tummies. It's appalling the suffering of those animals. So what do they do? The FDA says it's OK to put it in soda, in cereals, in desserts, in <span style="font-style:italic;">sweets</span> and liberally apply it to our kids. OMG everyone is getting sooo FAT, and they're getting diabetes, OMG obesity and heart disease have risen so HIGH in the last ten years, OMG. People like my mum and I have been forced to stop eating wheat products (coz they're no longer wheat) but primarily the glucose fructose because we damn near pass put. My cousin <span style="font-style:italic;">did</span> pass out - on the motorway...<br /><br />Everyone I know knows someone who's 'allergic'. Our family members are dying like flies from this or that cancer (it is MORE, way MORE than it used to be as attested by those who can remember). Fuck the flying bombs of WW2, this shit is staring up at us from our breakfast cereals and we bought it because it said 'Natural goodness' on the front. What complete knuckleheads we are... we are beating ourselves up and shortening our lives starting with cleaning our teeth and looking in the mirror.<br /><br />When my mum got her severe reaction to this stuff we did the obvious and stopped buying the crap in the first place. Except this crap is in EVERYTHING. Whatever used to have sugar in it now has this crap in it. What I wouldn't give for a natural cream cake that had actual fresh cream in it and real pastry, OMG but no, not gonna happen unless <span style="font-style:italic;">I</span> make it.<br /><br />But I'm not going to put that on my face, I might save it for throwing at a CEO someday, poor used flotsam and jetsam that they are. Everyone is in the same chemical confusion, it doesn't matter whether we run the bloody companies selling it or are kneeling at the end of the conveyor belts swallowing the stuff with our hands tied behind our backs. There is ignorance to a degree that I find incredible. All these intelligent people, doctors, scientists, managers - saying 'It's OK. It's SAFE'.</div><div><br />Hmmm? Why don't I believe you? After one of mum's worse reactions I went away and thought about what might help. It was before I knew about the cows etc. What I knew about gluten reactions/leaky gut syndrome, which is where these 'ose's (glucose, fructose, sucrose) go into your blood stream, was that it causes an acid reaction. Your body is like 'Holy shit... INCOMING' it thinks it's being attacked by the 'missiles it can't recognise'. In the history of your body it never ever saw glucose fructose until like ten years ago. So it shuts down, blood pressure gets scary, you keel over, your blood is boiling in an acidosis reaction to the scary stuff. It's actually trying to protect you. Its trying to do the right thing to 'KILL' the invading bastard'oses'. So I thought about 'bitter herbs'.<br />Bitter herbs do the opposite, they calm the acid reaction, they alkalise the blood. Many of them have magical properties - really and NO side effects. Goldenseal is one of these, with breast cancer curing properties, its superb for tummy things, a natural antibiotic its great against Flu and other viruses, also for skin healing.<br />I doused my mum liberally with some glycerin based Goldenseal and it WORKED. Instead of passing out for hours, she recovered quickly. Go Dr Lou! I am qualified up to the rand of my boots in medicine - literally I have about an inch of traditional western medicine, but I sturdied Tibetan Medicine for six years and most of all I was forced to study myself. Truly we are our own best doctors up to a point. I realised early on that Doctors know fuck all about skin. They didn't know that my eczema/asthma was caused by my gut going OMFG look at all the chemicals, and the STRESS. Help I wanna die now. I had to slowly figure out I was allergic to milk, wheat and eggs the hard way, by being ill and nearly dying. I had to figure out that I couldn't use 'biological' washing powder because I would 'biologically' cease to exist once the anaphylactic shock set in. No Dr told me that I had to cleanse my gut for my asthma to calm down, or use blood purifying herbs to heal my skin or attend to my emotions.<br />And why was I so F***** ill, because some Doctor in the early 80's gave me a cocktail of antibiotics for a <span style="font-style:italic;">cough</span> and a neuroleptic called Phenergan when I was a baby. Because he didn't know did he, I'm assuming, that such a thing is not a good idea. Or that giving vaccines to a baby is like a fast track to them getting some other illness. The antibiotics wiped out my fledgling immune system and and the neuroleptic gave me the apparently rare Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome at aged 2 (which is a bit like that film about the Vietnam era soldiers being guinea pigged on hallucinogens that made them kill each other coupled with acid burning all over your body) and stress suddenly became something I had no weapons to deal with. If you're going to take antibiotics and neuroleptics ONLY do it if you're about to drop down dead anyway - is my advice.<br /><br />And my other advice is started making your own cosmetics. Sheena of the 'Sociology of Sheena' has some great ideas and practical advice here at <a href="http://sheenalashay.com/category/granola-tendencies/">Granola Tendencies </a><div><a href="http://sheenalashay.com/category/granola-tendencies/"></a>Natural <i>is</i> best. The closest to the original is best. yes western medicine can serve us, its diagnostics are excellent if a little slow compared to some traditions and certainly full of holes in relation to chronic conditions. Western medicine needs to develop some new thinking that involves the other world medical traditions that ARE healing people who would otherwise die. Thyroid diseases in Tibetan medicine can be healed even without a thyroid, now you guys can't do that can you? Asthma, eczema, chronic fatigue syndrome, leukaemia, cancer epilepsy, autism, diabetes, M.S, M.E, the FLU, obesity, acidosis... all healed and potentially cured altogether in other medical traditions.<br />Ageing is caused by a low level of inflammation to our organs. The raw food revolution is happening at the moment and resulting in cancers and obesity being reversed and these same people who were facing imminent death in their twenties and thirties are now glowing icons of the raw food industry - it is happening for a REASON. Because it works. But not for L'Oreal, or Glaxo Smith &amp; Kline, or Kelloggs and especially not for those beneficent folks at Monsanto. I'm sorry chaps you're just going to have to be made redundant or come up with some new and healthier ideas for the rest of us. And some lipstick that's not been tested on animals.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><br /><div></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-8786168487705373009?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-4302754849032095352010-08-09T02:49:00.000-07:002010-08-10T10:43:52.549-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR6rjTyKz6ZYViJT-KWCP_0tNvvWjgFvf-12buSmZKX8YtT2G8&amp;t=1&amp;usg=__Z6nRAGdVb_2-l6Kc6sQRDRmS6Z0="><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 225px;" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR6rjTyKz6ZYViJT-KWCP_0tNvvWjgFvf-12buSmZKX8YtT2G8&amp;t=1&amp;usg=__Z6nRAGdVb_2-l6Kc6sQRDRmS6Z0=" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: left;">A FB friend commented this:- 'Contrary to the prevailing beliefs and weak male role models of the past 50 years it actually is still OK to be a strong man.'</div>And there was a huge discussion beneath it which covered everything from single mums to muscle building - and my comment got extra long (see below). I want to know what you think though.<br /><br />'Ooh, I enjoyed that semantics discussion :) I think there is a new dynamic from single parent families - it's very hard to be both parents and of course everyone who becomes a parent figure affects a child's behaviour and personality. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Strong men who are confident in themselves and who they are = GREAT. The world needs them. Not namby pamby folk who can't stand up for shite. And women need men to stand up on their behalf around the world. There are so many countries with so much oppression that if the strong fellas began to speak out on behalf of those who are oppressed it would help so much. </span>Like in the past a strong man had to have so many qualities; as a provider, as a protector, but in particular caring for everyone; the old, the young. And women have done that too, in a way with so many men dying in wars over generations they have had to man up so to speak; my family was all women brought up on each side because all the granddads died in WW1 and the same a generation before that. In a way that helped women folk gain their equality - its sad but true to say. Did we lose something? Yes, we did. A strong man to me isn't just someone who can get the lid off the jar, its someone who can choose where they stand in the complex field that is today's world and say something really important and be a rock among the craziness. It always amazes me how - un-leaderish our male leaders look; muscling up would inspire some confidence I think, but empty posturing - no thank you. I don't think I ever thought it wasn't ok to be a strong man - I just think a lot killed and our society burns them up. Come out come out wherever you are? We need physically strong chaps and mentally strong ones. We need all the strength we can get. We need savvy ones. I don't think its just OK to be a strong man/role figure I think there's an absolute necessity.<br /><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-430275484903209535?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-36067761948052351322010-08-03T11:51:00.000-07:002010-08-10T10:52:31.963-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XsVALQtGIZM/RsDCHiFY-CI/AAAAAAAABp0/iRhd1yBYnCo/s400/Water+Babies+book.jpg"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_XsVALQtGIZM/RsDCgyFY-DI/AAAAAAAABp8/TnwKR9WSYCM/s400/Water+Babies+strip.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 311px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_XsVALQtGIZM/RsDCgyFY-DI/AAAAAAAABp8/TnwKR9WSYCM/s400/Water+Babies+strip.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />As inspired by <a href="http://sheenalashay.com/2010/08/sociology-of-sheena-book-giveaway/">Sheenalashay…</a> My favourite books... Firstly, regarding spirituality or awareness - The 'kun byed rgyal po' or 'The Supreme Ordering Principle in the Universe' written by Longchenpa, the 14th century adept of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism . It is titled <a href="http://amzn.to/bw26Zg">'You are the Eyes of the World' </a> published by Snow Lion. It's about discovering 'pristine' awareness everywhere, all the time. Quote:- 'Innocents, through deception are seduced to a path that is just an idea, with neither time for setting out nor time for realisation - how will they be able to seek reality on it's own terms? When following teachings of a monkey like master which have no logical basis. You end up believing in a false path.' and 'This message which really opens up one's primordial condition is beyond all foundations or bases; it is the core reality of pure and total presence...' It goes on to describe the means and method of realising this awareness.<div><br />Then also I like the edition <a href="http://amzn.to/bymzlX">'Yoga spandakarika' </a>written by Daniel Odier about the origins of Tantra - it has teachings from the ancient Chinese, Tibetan and Kasmiri masters. Quote:- 'If you don't do it yourself, what good will Dharma practises of others do you - it is like a beggar's dream in which he is rich in splendour food and wealth upon awakening all is gone without a trace, like the passing of a bird in the sky, all composite phenomena in the world are just like that.'<br />I love these books because they are written empirically based on experience, for the well being of others and have lasted thousands of years, only to be picked up by me in Borders of all places. It's like finding a corner of the Himalayas in my backyard. Also in my own life they have strengthened my mind, lessened my suffering and opened a giant window that wasn't there before. They have made me go and meet Tibetan Lamas from the lineages that trace right back to those authors and hear the wisdom afresh and applicable to today. In fact I discovered that my Lama who I went for refuge with is said to be a reincarnation of an aspect of Longchenpa - there's a surprise, puts a whole different spin on the length of an education. I have had so many blessings because I read these words and 'freedom' for me ceased to be a concept and became an actuality. A warning though - reading such books is dangerous to 'normality' you can begin to appear to others as very illogical and this isn't helped by you're being unable to justify your actions. At least that's my experience :) </div><div><br /></div><div>Also I have a taste for survival stories because they teach a lot and this was kicked off with a wonderful read by Ian Serraillier's <a href="http://amzn.to/aKePwS">'The Silver Sword' </a>about refugee children in WW2. He went to my college and became a conscientious objector. I loved Nevil Shute's <a href="http://amzn.to/b8AVXU">'A Town Like Alice'.</a> It's the way they write. I like a writer who isn't pretentious and can communicate profound thinking with simple words. The Tibetan Buddhist books force me to think and stretch mind as do any on an unfamiliar subject, but the other books force my character to stretch too - to me reading is like being able to choose your own family.</div><div><br />As a child when I was very ill and in bed for years suffering unimaginably, the only way I could escape was by staying still and reading - I read<a href="http://amzn.to/9u1O3G"> Enid Blyton books</a> and would have incredible adventures in my mind. I read so much, it was all I could do and then astoundingly as I got better, I actually began to live those adventures. I totally have understood creating our own reality since those days, but the amount to which this happens depends on the clarity and one pointedness of our thinking beforehand... I think a book has the potential to answer the hunger of a soul - its what you search for when perusing bookshelves; which book will fill that gap, answer that aching question or bring joy? I am inclined to think that one must have one's own adventures thoughYou can't rely solely on the lives and learnings of others to inform you. At some point you have to leave the comforts and the house and the familiar and have your own hero's journey..<br /><br />Winnie the Pooh then, certainly informed me as a child and no doubt an adult too. My love of cake is not unlike Pooh's love of honey in fact <a href="http://amzn.to/a3kbmz">Winnie the Pooh</a> and I are quite similar in many respects.<br /><a href="http://amzn.to/9BMz0u">'Greyfriar's Bobby' </a>by Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson based on true events about a little loyal dog in Victorian Edinburgh with beautiful descriptions of the city You can read the book <a href="http://bit.ly/a87MVe">here -</a> </div><div><br />Laurie Lee's <a href="http://amzn.to/cA2q18">'Cider with Rosie' he also wrote 'As I walked out one Midsummer's morning'</a>. <a href="http://amzn.to/diRRoZ">'Lark Rise to Candleford'</a> by Flora Thompson is in a similar vein and<a href="http://amzn.to/df4yYk"> 'On the Black Hill'</a> by Bruce Chatwain author of <a href="http://amzn.to/abZ6Jv">'Song Lines'</a>. All autobiographical in nature, gentle tales, beautifully written and heartwarming. I also loved Tolkien's <a href="http://amzn.to/cr6s0n">'The Hobbit'</a> for those same reasons. <a href="http://amzn.to/9na1Y0">'Jane Eyre'</a> by Charlotte Bronte was an old favourite as a teen especially as I visited the Bronte's country. I love to go to places in books. Also Jack London's writing <a href="http://amzn.to/9WHx86">'Call of the Wild'</a> and <a href="http://amzn.to/cUp7ZD">'At the back of the North Wind'</a> by George MacDonald.</div><div><br />Ernest Hemingway's <a href="http://amzn.to/aervwm">'A Farewell to Arms'.</a> He was a great moment catcher. I once read about an article he wrote 'Throng at a smallpoox case' when he chanced upon a crowd of people at a train station. They were surrounding a very sick man who had collapsed with smallpox, the ambulance had been called but did not come... 'distressed that nobody would help him bring a smallpox-afflicted victim to the hospital... Hemingway called a cab and charged the fare to the Star newpaper' and took the man himself picking him up and putting him in the cab. That is why I like Hemingway - all his books are a rage at the people who do nothing but stand and stare and he himself was the antithesis of that. If a book doesn't make you change for the better I generally don't want to read it; if it doesn't rouse you out of a stupor, transport you elsewhere and elsewhen or show you which way to go when you did not know - what good is it to write it or read it when life is but a blink of an eye, of not knowing and then you too are but memory and then history?<br />My favourite book is<a href="http://amzn.to/cRZw7L"> 'The Water Babies'</a> by Charles Kingsley (and my favourite character is Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby). Especially the Purnell Classics edition with pictures by Jesus Blasco<br /><br /><a href="http://angelashelton.com/">Angela Shelton's</a> August 1st live show on writing tips:-<br /><br /><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="480" height="386" id="utv642433" name="utv_n_848051"><param name="flashvars" value="loc=%2F&amp;autoplay=false&amp;vid=8663167&amp;locale=en_US"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="src" value="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/video/8663167"></object><br /><br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-3606776194805235132?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-63132568773834412862010-07-31T18:30:00.000-07:002010-08-10T10:53:00.689-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/TFTOvqnvYnI/AAAAAAAABYY/DWpYK4Ond6w/s1600/Sunrise.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/TFTOvqnvYnI/AAAAAAAABYY/DWpYK4Ond6w/s400/Sunrise.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500248363216364146" /></a><br />Some of my fave peace Quotes:-<br /><br />Poetry is an act of peace. Peace goes into the making of a poet as flour goes into the making of bread.<br /><br />-- Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)<br /><br />There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they grow up in peace.<br /><br />-- Kofi Annan<br /><br />Peace, to have meaning for many who have only known suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health and education, as well as freedom and human dignity.<br /><br />-- Ralph Johnson Bunche (1904-1971)<br /><br />One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.<br /><br />-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)<br /><br /><br />If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.<br /><br />-- John Lennon (1940-1980)<br /><br />Peace may sound simple - one beautiful word - but it requires everything we have, every quality, every strength, every dream, every high ideal.<br /><br />-- Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999)<br /><br />In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. Only when this really happens - when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men's hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing.<br /><br />-- Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)<br /><br />Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.<br /><br />-- John Muir (1838-1914)<br /><br />If there is to be peace in the world,<br />There must be peace in the nations.<br /><br />If there is to be peace in the nations,<br />There must be peace in the cities.<br /><br />If there is to be peace in the cities,<br />There must be peace between neighbors.<br /><br />If there is to be peace between neighbors,<br />There must be peace in the home.<br /><br />If there is to be peace in the home,<br />There must be peace in the heart.<br /><br />-- Lao Tzu (570-490 B.C.)<br /><br />Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.<br /><br />-- The XIVth Dalai Lama<br /><br />It is possible to live in peace.<br /><br />-- Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)<div><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><br /><div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-6313256877383441286?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-783474469547051952010-07-28T04:14:00.000-07:002010-08-10T10:55:34.054-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTChPTx21R4WOSs2oFWkJb7LcPX07kF8eDk3qLTzSd2-u1OyhU&amp;t=1&amp;usg=__HHsVsmaIqOsBlHpcYCmvtKKzb2o="><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 272px; height: 186px;" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTChPTx21R4WOSs2oFWkJb7LcPX07kF8eDk3qLTzSd2-u1OyhU&amp;t=1&amp;usg=__HHsVsmaIqOsBlHpcYCmvtKKzb2o=" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">When I wake up and go to sleep at night often it's with a thought to what I have or have not addressed on my mental To-Do Lists. It helps me keep track of my long term goals, it helps motivate me, and often the largest motivations are much larger than simply for me and mine. People give in many different ways. We may look out for our elderly neighbour, sponsor a child or volunteer. In many cultures round the world helping people is built in; people go out of their way to be neighbourly and ask for nothing in return. Here in France neighbours will help with your garden, give lifts to the hospital or even get your car out of a ditch. People don't wait for the 'Authorities'. They help with whatever and however they can.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">I like to do a little something every day towards my both my Personal and Global To-Do Lists. It means I can leave this world without the regret that I didn't do anything to clean up the mess. Someone has not gone hungry or homeless because I did something. Perhaps someone hasn't died, because I did something. Perhaps because I did something, even though the situation has not changed now, a future generation will not have to address this because I left it for them to solve - to me that's gross negligence. Doing something is doing whatever you are capable of or have the capacity for - not overstretching your limits, although sometimes I think that's a necessity. The Berlin Airlift was and overstretch and 71 Pilots and other technicians lost their lives ensuring that 100'000's of tons of food and supplies were delivered over several months during the blockade. It was truly an astonishing effort. I wonder if we are capable of similar gestures now that are not rooted in economic motives but simply because people need the help and for as long as it is needed. The Haiti Earthquake, the Tsunami - these terrible disasters actually unite us through heroic acts of a generous nature. And if there's anything we need most it's unity... There is enough love on this planet to do EVERYTHING on our To-Do Lists and to do it in style...</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><b>Personal To-Do List</b></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">1 - Clean everything! <b>WARNING</b> Hurricane Lou is in the house</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">2 - Do garden; weed, lay compost,mulch, sow endives, cabbage, beans, fennel, kohlrabi, beet, spinach, carrots, radish and lettuce</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">3 - Have a Bonfire</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">4 - Finish Illustrations for Book!</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">5 - Ah and get creatures food</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><b>Global To-Do List</b></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">1 - Stop causes of global conflict (Don't fund them via your supermarket)</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="text-align: center;"> <b>'Those who start wars - never fight them. Those who fight wars never like them' Michael Franti</b></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="text-align: left;">2 - Care for refugees and IDP's (some folk may need to look that word up, it's 'C.A.R.E'). Let them have futures, not incarceration.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">3 - Help grow food for the 1billion hungry folk - abolish hunger. When we've done that I may begin to consider calling us a 'civilisation'.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">4 - Look after the orphans of AID's, conflict and poverty. This means school, love, everything they need... </div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><div>5 - Care for the elderly. Only the best... for the old folk. None of this squalid hospital negligence.</div><div style="text-align: left;">6 - Change law and paperwork requirements for immigrants and homeless folk so that they have OPTIONS! An option for a homeless person means a piece of paper, not the nothing that forces them to become a criminal or become ill and die. It means something that offers them an education or a job, or a Community Service option. Anything is better than nothing.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Sometimes the only reason we're stuck is because there's no box for the life we've led... </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b></b>It's not for lack of trying. It's a bureaucratic wall that's impossibly high to climb over... We are all immigrants and any of us could become a refugee in any moment.</div><div style="text-align: left;">7 - Stop <b>Human Traffickin</b>g by convicting the enablers whatever their station whether they have diplomatic immunity or not... Human Trafficking is about to surpass Drugs in its scale...</div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ehu3wy4WkHs&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ehu3wy4WkHs&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><br /><div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-78347446954705195?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-11312113148860232962010-07-22T06:18:00.000-07:002010-08-10T11:00:34.531-07:00<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tdJh64Odlw8&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tdJh64Odlw8&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /><div>She has been persecuted by the judicial system in Austria for speaking out against the H1N1 virus and its inadequate testing and the mainstream media's panic pushing so that the World Health Organisation and the Pharmaceuticals made massive profits. That was the only reason everyone went on and on about the'Pandemic'. Not for any valid reasons or science; other than pseudo science we see a lot of nowadays supporting companies like 'BP' for example. Hmmm? So what to do about it? Having your property taken away is a big deal -HUGE! In fact having any rights taken away at all is a big deal. All the 'criminals' now are hiding in suits behind corporate logos and judges/politicians who are very willing to accept a bribe or two. Don't take my word for it just open your eyes and look around. Take your head out of the sand. This could get worse before it gets better. That said there are equally many good people out their, good honest judges and politicians trying to stop such a scernario of another corrupt world power ever getting complete control. Let's help them. Let's help the blogger Jane's of this world who are keeping it real. Don't be another sucker who swallows everything they says as the God's truth. Question, question, question... Who are the real criminals? The one's putting the neck on the line trying to share information? Or the one's trying to protect <i>their</i> interests by silencing them?</div><div><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><p class="MsoNormal"></p></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><!-- Facebook Badge START --><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Positive-Impact-Living/125466960797737" title="Positive Impact Living" target="_TOP" style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; color: #3B5998; text-decoration: none;">Positive Impact Living</a></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Positive-Impact-Living/125466960797737" title="Positive Impact Living" target="_TOP"><img src="http://badge.facebook.com/badge/125466960797737.1753.421618002.png" width="120" height="235" style="border: 0px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/business/dashboard/" title="Make your own badge!" target="_TOP" style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; color: #3B5998; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "></span></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/business/dashboard/" title="Make your own badge!" target="_TOP" style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; color: #3B5998; text-decoration: none;">Promote Your Page Too</a></div><!-- Facebook Badge END --><p></p><div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-1131211314886023296?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-31069404449221203992010-07-22T04:43:00.000-07:002010-08-10T11:02:42.924-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQIU5KbnqLoR6l7n348n9QC_oDr7Vu5F8hOfj81B3jaqYmGkuo&amp;t=1&amp;usg=__jFa9RjnKoq-UdyBQbjAR92dDBQk="><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 202px; height: 250px;" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQIU5KbnqLoR6l7n348n9QC_oDr7Vu5F8hOfj81B3jaqYmGkuo&amp;t=1&amp;usg=__jFa9RjnKoq-UdyBQbjAR92dDBQk=" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />By Pablo Neruda<br /><br />Now we will count to twelve<br />and we will all keep still.<br />For once on the face of the earth,<br />let's not speak in any language;<br />let's stop for a second,<br />and not move our arms so much.<br /><br />It would be an exotic moment<br />without rush, without engines;<br />we would all be together<br />in a sudden strangeness.<br /><br />Fishermen in the cold sea<br />would not harm whales<br />and the man gathering salt<br />would not look at his hurt hands.<br /><br />Those who prepare green wars,<br />wars with gas, wars with fire,<br />victories with no survivors,<br />would put on clean clothes<br />and walk about with their brothers<br />in the shade, doing nothing.<br /><br />What I want should not be confused<br />with total inactivity.<br />Life is what it is about; . . .<br /><br />If we were not so single-minded<br />about keeping our lives moving,<br />and for once could do nothing,<br />perhaps a huge silence<br />might interrupt this sadness<br />of never understanding ourselves<br />and of threatening ourselves with death.<br /><br />Perhaps the earth can teach us<br />as when everything seems dead in winter<br />and later proves to be alive.<br /><br />Now I'll count up to twelve<br />and you keep quiet and I will go.<div><br /></div><div><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><br /><div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-3106940444922120399?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-86137669076604353362010-07-17T04:47:00.000-07:002010-08-10T11:07:25.568-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><u><br /></u></span></div><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bLuqUpu6cY0&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bLuqUpu6cY0&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />Today I learned about <i><a href="http://primal-page.com/spliting.htm">splitting</a></i><a href="http://primal-page.com/spliting.htm"> and </a><i><a href="http://primal-page.com/spliting.htm">projection</a></i> before during and after World War Two in Germany and the extreme detrimental effects of using shame as a way to modify a child's behaviour. You can read more about the work of <a href="http://www.marykarmstrong.com/focusing.html">Mary Katherine Armstrong here</a>. She has also written a very interesting article called <a href="http://www3.sympatico.ca/m.armstrong/11.htm">The Price We Pay for Shaming Little Boys</a><div><a href="http://www3.sympatico.ca/m.armstrong/11.htm"></a> I went on an internet safari researching several things at once following a very busy day I had yesterday. Following reading <a href="http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/France.htm">reports on child protection</a> especially those about the 'Rights of the Child' that were several years old; it struck me fairly heavily the collusion of judicial courts of law on both sides of the Atlantic in the tradition of favouring abusers' rights over children's rights to the extent that many professionals like Doctors and Nurses, even fear for their careers and disciplinary punishments if they disclose findings of abuse.</div><div><br /></div><div> The suggestions of the Rights of the Child report haven't sufficiently been followed through; there are still 'waiting rooms' where trafficked children are mistreated and even beaten by French Airport Police, mother's trying to protect their children from their own fathers are still being locked up a year at a time because they have 'prevented their child from seeing their father'; original findings of Doctors that show a child has an STD (sexually transmitted disease) are later overturned and changed to ambiguous phrases like 'I was misled, the abuse was <i>alleged</i>, their behaviour tendered the assumption' - I think there is nothing more unambiguously a sign of abuse than an STD in a minor. </div><div><br /></div><div>The fact that the French Government backs up the Judicial Courts who are in charge of caring for families and children, as well as the Medical Board; smacks to me of much more insidious collusion by people in authority to not have full transparency over their actions, or to change laws simply to reinforce protection of a child over a potential abuser. The involvement of police, the identification by NGO's of many abusers being <b><i>in </i></b>the judicial system all begs for a massive upheaval and sifting through of courts of law and re-evaluation of many cases - without the <b>protectionism <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">that is clearly rife within them.</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">This is a deep scar across European and worldwide systems of government and judiciary systems. It is blatant; it is clear that children are being trafficked along routes of transportation that the police already know about as revealed in the McCan case where the Portuguese police 'always believed she had been kidnapped by an international paedophile network who could leave the country to Morocco via the nearest port'.</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></b></div><div><div style="text-align: left;">I also found out that according to projections; profits from Human Trafficking are going to be higher than the drugs trade. That there is a highly complex network of criminal gangs operating across Europe and that 'France is a destination country for women and girls trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation from Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, and Malaysia and other Asian countries. Men, women and children continued to be trafficked for the purposes of forced labor, including domestic servitude, many from Africa.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <b>Often their “employers” are diplomats who enjoy diplomatic immunity. </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b></b> - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And yet it was only a few years ago that police expressed doubt about the existence of such networks - oh I wonder why? It strikes me that if you want to find out who these are run by then asking those people 'protecting' them; should be your first port of call.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The recent findings of the child abuse scandal in Belgium that eventuated in the sentencing of Marc Dutroux also uncovered multiple perpetrators from diplomats and judges right up to the royal family - none of whom have ever been sentenced despite identification and testimonials by their victims. This is all covered in the book Dossiers X which was the evidence that had to be leaked by its finders after their investigation was 'taken over' and therefore <i>buried </i>and they themselves lost their jobs. I would hate to be a police officer stumbling upon the fact that his/her superiors were involved in human trafficking for their own scary pleasures - I mean what do you do? You leak the evidence to the public. Then what? Then what do you do? What can the public do? I mean even if they question and debate they may not act. And what actions can they take?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Well these were the questions I asked myself today. There were lots of suggestions from the <a href="http://www.stopthetraffik.org/language.aspx">NGO's</a>, from individuals who speak on <a href="http://www.stopthetraffik.org/startfreedom/">behalf of children's rights.</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">First action that might be helpful is to increase space for children at risk. There was for example only one home for one area of France that could take only 1 out of 10 abused children. Which left oh about 900 kids to just get on with it. That's unacceptable and this is only one department of France. Recently in front of the world's eyes France bulldozed camps of illegal immigrants many of whom were clearly minors. I think people have this rosy idea that they were immediately '<i>taken care of by the authorities</i>'. I dread to think what that really means.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There are thousands of NGO's and individuals around the world that are working against this tide of human trafficking and child abuse within their communities. All I can say is, wherever you are, whatever your role in society - <a href="http://www.helpfindmychild.net/child-trafficking/signs-human-trafficking">help them</a>; blow the whistle, make a mental note of strange activities you might see, check over the faces for kids who go missing and their locations AND connect the dots. Then when you finally discover something like the Dutroux case, find away to follow the leads and sentence ALL of those involved. Many police have apathy that though they might find a network one day and close it down, it starts up again the next. We have to find a way for this to NOT possible. Only convicting the middlemen is an impotent approach - of course they will start again the next day. I think alliances between organisations are very important to be able to get the bigwigs, the profiteers, the ones 'allowing' and perhaps even aiding and abetting the continuity of trafficking. Maybe they're benefiting financially and perhaps the 'silence' of some folk is also obtained financially.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If abusers have diplomatic immunity then there needs to be some way the law must also apply to them. Immunity should not mean the ability to get away with crimes, especially crimes of this insidious nature. Otherwise trafficking networks will continue to spring up the next day - because they <i>can.</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm no genius but in my humble opinion there's few worse crimes than child abuse and yet in a court of law there is an almost casual approach to the punishment of child abusers erring towards leniency than their removal from the reach of children. Perhaps because there are so many. Perhaps because they are usually also victims and it goes way way back. Which brings me back to <i>splitting</i> and<i> projection. </i>Splitting and projection are psychological defenses:-</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;">'Splitting is understood in this way: when we find a personality trait in ourselves which we consider unacceptable, we deny that we are like this. We split off ownership of this part of ourselves. As for projection, we attribute the hated quality to someone else and despise it in the other.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Splitting and projection allow us to think well of ourselves and to be comfortable with ourselves. We have all the self-righteous satisfaction of being “right thinking people”. We belong to the right side. We are one of the “good guys”. We are worthy of love and acceptance.'</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">How many of us are splitting and projecting all the time. We are reeling from one the most violent centuries in history and never before has there been more violence, more slavery, more crimes against humanity than there is now.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Alice Miller wrote 'Whoever they are and however dreadful their crimes, deep down inside every dictator, mass murderer, terrorist cowers the humiliated child they once were, a child that has only survived through the complete and utter denial of its feelings of helplessness. But this complete denial of suffering once borne creates an inner void. Very many of these people will never develop a capacity for normal human compassion. Thus they have few if any qualms about destroying human life, neither that of others nor the void they carry around inside themselves. Today, we can actually see the lesions in the brains of beaten or badly neglected children on the screen of a computer.'The Wellspring of Horror in the Cradle” </div><div style="text-align: left;">And here's a case in point 'Alice Miller provides a dramatic description of Hitler's night terrors as witnessed by his followers when der Führer<i> </i>would wake at night with convulsive screams, yelling for help like a frightened child, hallucinating that "he" was there in the room'. And look what happened because of his shame, his splitting and his projection...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If we can start healing the shame; start holding back the raised fists of others, interrupt their verbal put downs, alert them to their own suffering <i>and</i> their potential for healing. If we can change the paperwork to <i>really </i> protect a child, suppress laws that favour abusers, build more sanctuaries for those who are neglected, who are on the peripheries of society; those who have been pushed there by the endless tide of greed and profiteering at their expense and also by our closed eyes, our closed ears, and our closed mouths.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">To have a positive impact in this world sometimes you have to shout louder, much louder than the crowd and you have to have your priorities straight.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Yes each day do one thing on behalf of yourself and your family. But each day do one thing on behalf of the world and your global family.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><!-- Facebook Badge START --><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Positive-Impact-Living/125466960797737" title="Positive Impact Living" target="_TOP" style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; color: #3B5998; text-decoration: none;">Positive Impact Living</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Positive-Impact-Living/125466960797737" title="Positive Impact Living" target="_TOP"><img src="http://badge.facebook.com/badge/125466960797737.1753.421618002.png" width="120" height="235" style="border: 0px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/business/dashboard/" title="Make your own badge!" target="_TOP" style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; color: #3B5998; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "></span></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/business/dashboard/" title="Make your own badge!" target="_TOP" style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; color: #3B5998; text-decoration: none;">Promote Your Page Too</a></div><!-- Facebook Badge END --><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-8613766907660435336?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-91901242232814090992010-07-14T08:45:00.000-07:002010-08-10T16:36:50.502-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs173.snc4/38000_1575530395159_1442559672_31524977_3126991_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 400px;" src="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs173.snc4/38000_1575530395159_1442559672_31524977_3126991_n.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>Picture - The Healing Journey by Margeaux Gray</b></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></div>This morning I was talking to a survivor about her healing journey. 'Ten years ago' she said she acknowledged what had happened but then it took four years to reach out and start healing, then she encountered the <a href="http://www.armyofangels.net/">Army of Angels</a> and it wasn't until last year at <a href="http://armyofangels.eventbrite.com/">their conference</a> that she felt able to forgive <i>herself; </i>because so often instead of blaming the appropriate people we blame ourselves.<br /><br />I asked her because I have been having terrible dreams - she also had terrible dreams to the extent that she would freak out - while asleep and once nearly punched her husband when he kissed her goodnight while she was already asleep; because as a child of course her abusers had similarly disturbed her at night.<br /><br />After talking I couldn't stay awake. I had had a rough night. When you get bad dreams you don't want to sleep. But then even as you're not sleeping the worst things can enter your mind. It's like a spiritual Dante-an type of purging of the psyche or something. The more I move these days; the more 'stuff' comes up. Needless to say I haven't wanted to move for a very very long time. But that's exactly what has prompted me to move, to exercise, to take risks that may seem small fish for other folk.<br /><br />She said that 'everything' that happened in her healing journey was something she found difficult to do or deal with. Essentially she was facing and overcoming her fears and not necessarily for herself either but for those around her; so that she could be a rationally protective parent rather than the one that was still traumatised years later, or overprotective, and just wanted to sleep the whole day through.<br /><br />Like I did. I just wanted to sleep. I wanted 'it' to 'end' that continuum of awareness that says 'I am bad'. Only 'it' is me. It's as though I had to become someone else because I can't be that 'me' any more. And that 'becoming' is tremendously difficult; it's like a whole realignment of your consciousness, of your self awareness.<br /><br />One of the reasons she cited for her own self-forgiveness was the joy of all these other survivors at the conference; how they lived their passions; their joy at having survived and their strength; that same strength that enabled them to carry on now shone in their smiles and eyes and their work.<br /><br />As she spoke about this joy that she encountered I listened enthralled. It was so uplifting; such a counter weight to the'badness' I persistently felt inside and heard in my head; 'I am bad, I'm a bad person'. I had heard and felt it for days now. But these were survivors; they had suffered and come through to the other side and now they tried to help others heal not in an ineffective sympathetic wishy washy way; but in a way that said 'This worked for me and her and him and them. Try this' or an 'I'm here for you if you need to talk or to call'. Or 'This is how I came out of a dis-empowering situation where I had nothing, where I felt trapped, where I felt insignificant and 'lower than a dog' and 'now here I am, I have bought my own house, I have got my driving licence, I have my own business, I have kept down a job for three years, which is two years and eleven months longer than any other job AND I have forgiven myself. I deserve to be joyful'.<div><br /></div><div>'Joy cannot coexist with violence' as<a href="http://angelashelton.com/"> Angela Shelton</a> says. And it's as much the violence that persists within; that we do to ourselves as that which has been done to us by others.<br /><br />Joy is also the greatest weapon we have against our self doubts and self harming thoughts and actions. Our discovery of the passion that leads to that joy somehow comes about through this mysterious healing journey. Without what happened or is happening; perhaps we would never know what our 'joy' is; what our 'passion' is, or what our 'work' is. Nor would we be able to value and appreciate it as much if it had not once been taken from us, if we had not once deemed ourselves unworthy of it, if our strength had not been sapped so perniciously by others.<br /><br />'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger' But what almost kills you can make you weak for a very long time afterwards. There is no indignity in trying to fight that fight, and giving up again and again and losing that fight again and again when it rears its head in other circumstances and misfortunes. There is no shame in failing again and again because the weapons you have left to fight with have got so worn down they are blunt and useless; the shield is dented, the helmet holed; your fighting heart is so weary and sad. None of that makes you a bad person. It does not matter if you couldn't do your job because you could not sleep the night before, or were literally afraid of your boss, or interacting with customers. It does not make you a bad person.<br /><br />You are not bad because the weapons you were born with; your fighting spirit, your pride, your head held high, your cheek; all those things have got whittled away, eroded and thrown aside. For many of us, all that we had left to fight with was our raw spirit that had been trodden on again and again.<br /><br />It does not make you a bad person because you can't explain yourself; because you get tongue tied; because your heart beats so fast at the simplest of things the fear strangles your throat and you have to hold a table real hard just to appear 'normal'.<br /><br />It does not make you a person that you have no money left, that your paperwork is in disarray, that you can just about manage to keep body and soul together from one day to the next.<br /><br />It does not make you a bad person that when others 'need' you that you're short tempererd; that what you really want to do is cry and curl up and sleep or die only you can't. You can't because somehow these others are saving you with their presence. Without you, <i>they</i> could not keep going. Without you, they would not know love. Without your short tempered moments, they would not have dinner and the loving moments. Because believe me they see you want to cry and give up and die, but they also see how your anger fuels you to keep standing; to find the tin opener and tin and bring the two together. You have just taught them how a soul, though it has already given up a hundred thousand times; how it persists. You have just taught them how to keep going when there's nothing left but raw will holding you together.<br /><br />So you are not a bad person; I am not a bad person. Actually you are extraordinary. In those ordinary moments that absolutely no-one else notices or sees or values. That you can never give as an example of your strength of character because there have been so many of them and yet they were all so ordinary - there was nothing <i>special </i> about them you think even to yourself.<br /><br />Those moments when you got up, stood up, carried on, kept going, lifted your head up, or just trudged on looking at the ground, or had tears falling down yourself while you pretended to be looking in the fridge for something. Or those moments when you went to the sanctuary of the bathroom for time out. Those nobody-else-knows-about moments. I want to say they're your extraordinary moments; they are something incredible.<br /><br />That you who were so engulfed by pain, so that your body contorts and yet there is no escape, whether you curl up or straighten up; some internal and external meeting of agonies and yet somehow you created and 'afterwards'. You got up you wiped your face, you walked out every step laden by the same pain that just had you collapse to the floor or bed, or against the bath, or a wall, you walked out and you said 'Hello, how can I help you?' and 'Have a nice day'.<br /><br />Those nobody-else-knows-about moments. I want to say I know about them. And you; you are amazing. And if you're amazing, then that must mean I'm amazing too and NOT a bad person whose everyone-should-know-about moments, nobody knows about, except us, because we were there. That 'bad person' we carry around inside of us that's torn at us, berated us, hurt us and degraded us; we've been carrying all along <i>for</i> them. We are that strong that we chose to carry the badness of others as our own. </div><div><br /></div><div>So drop it...</div><div><br /></div><div>And what happens when we lighten that load?<br /><br />Joy happens and love because we are not and never have been 'a bad person'.<br /><br />But maybe now we get to be bad ass...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Bad Ass - 'A person who defines supreme confidance, fearlessness, nearly divine abilty, and a frequent disregard for authority...'</b></div></div><div><br /></div><div>And if that authority is unjust then that's the kind of bad ass that rocks. Because there is a hell of a lot of authority out there that preaches injustice as though it was a 'nice' thing and there is nothing nice about it at all. They're carrying <i>our</i> 'nice person' round as if it was their own and really, I think it's time we got it back...</div><div><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div>Find your way out of Trauma:-<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 129px; height: 96px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/S9YmhzBvCdI/AAAAAAAABSw/Y011d6c0Wdg/s200/AngelaWorkbook-1+click+to+buy+this+workbook.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464597559935699410" /> <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">The Survivor Warrior Workbook</a><div>This powerful workbook is used as a teaching tool with therapists, support groups and community education programs. It was inspired by Angela's Removing the Sword of Trauma events. It is for survivors, warriors, advocates, loved ones and supporters ready to move past pain and suffering and reclaim joy and happiness. You can use the workbook in a group, on your own or with your therapist.This workbook is 117 pages long and is a DOWNLOAD. Thank you for your commitment to healing <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">BUY NOW $9.99</a></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-9190124223281409099?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-34212865910598061802010-07-10T13:49:00.000-07:002010-08-10T11:11:51.632-07:00<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5Ycih_jMObQ&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5Ycih_jMObQ&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/content/take-action">'If you take conflict out of your product - I will buy it'</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><br /><div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-3421286591059806180?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-52280617665707304362010-07-08T04:03:00.001-07:002010-07-08T10:06:12.003-07:00<div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">200th Post on Positive Impact Living!</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">So I don't know what you do when you've reached the 200th blog. Hmmm? Write a book maybe... Fireworks? have a party? Or I could say <b>'Stop Raping Your Kids go F*** Yourselves'</b> in the great words of <a href="http://angelashelton.com/">Angela Shelton</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">If you turn a blind eye to the criminal trafficking industry that is upheld in the INjustice system you're allowing kids lives to be a living hell.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="text-align: left;">I wonder how long it would take if military specialists like the Seals and the SAS were told to take out the people that run the whole thing and not the folks at the bottom of the ladder or the middle men, before this world would be a better place. I mean that's why these guys joined the specialists in the first place to kick some arse.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="text-align: center;"> <b>I'd like to see them abseiling into a cult and freeing enslaved kids; or turning up in the Congo and liberating child soldiers. Now that would be a positive impact.</b></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">Or, all the resources currently spent on conflict, going on education and empowerment to avoid conflict in the future. Go organic, get out of conflict <i>anything</i>; conflict diamonds, metals, ammunitions - they're highly related to conflict as is fertiliser because it's made of the same thing Nitrates. If you support the fertiliser industry; if you eat non organic food, if you sprinkle it in your garden, you're inadvertently supporting conflict in the world</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">Or refugees, the unemployed and the homeless given <b>an exit strategy</b>. Because you know there's no paperwork for these folk and sometimes they're just a form away from freedom. I know because I have been there; or they're an extortionate deposit away from actually being able to start university let alone finish it. Or a quarter of a million pounds away from being able to freely own a squalid little flat in London that you still have to pay council tax on and it takes you 25years at a crap job to keep a roof over your head.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">Well I have slept better in a hammock swinging amongst the trees. So property agents can go F*** themselves. And the crap job employers are going to have to look for someone else. You can't earn enough money to live on a crap job wage anyway, you're forced into debt to make ends not meet and you can never never save. I know it used to be different but this is how it is now. If you haven't figured that out and you're in a crap job (or jobs) trying; working your blessed socks off, I'm sorry. People say don't look down upon minimum wage jobs as un-dignifying - well get F***** they<i> are</i> undignifying. There's more disrespect in those disposable type jobs,where <i>you're</i> the disposable one than almost anywhere else, no matter how much self-esteem you've got. And you can't make ends meet I know I've tried. I tried with two jobs, one full time one part time so I had no days off, I was homeless, and I couldn't make it work. You can't even save up for a deposit on flat. People that 'make it work' have parents who buy them a flat or pay their way through university, or they're business geniuses.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">If someone hasn't got the right form, help them anyway. If you're a bureaucrat give them the goddam form. It's like paperworkism - a very subtle form of prejudice and segregation. If you have form IB70 then you can get a job, get a house, get insurance, learn to drive; but woe for you if you can't get form IB70 - then you're really F*****</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">For example I came to France in 07 and that year Sarkozy had just scrapped a scheme for people who came from the UK who hadn't bought enough National Insurance stamps to qualify for French Insurance. Now I hadn't bought enough because I had spent my life being sick with neither job nor benefits because I was too sick to sort out either - I just survived. So I arrived in France to help my family who'd had some misfortune and found myself without a box, no-one knew what to do with me. The bureaucrats themselves didn't know what to do, so how was I supposed to. I was sent on a wild goose chase.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">Eventually, two years later I have discovered that a form I received when temporarily working in France (and was previously told didn't count for anything because it had 'run out') actually could have qualified me the whole time. Lucky me for doing a spot of grape picking. That's two years of my life wasted; unable to get insurance, unable to work officially, unable to settle or do anything. So thanks a bunch.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">The same thing happened in the UK a lot when I was sick. I had been so ill with M.E or Chronic Fatigue and Asthma/Eczema that I couldn't get up to get water to drink and nearly died a few times. One day I felt well enough to walk to the benefits office to try and get sickness benefit. Essentially it came down to <i>points</i>; the form asked me if I could walk, see, hear etc. I was like 'yes, yes, yes'. The day before however it would have been 'No, no,no' and besides I wouldn't have been there, in the office, because I couldn't even move. There was no option for an illness that wasn't a permanent condition. The fact that my M.E took me several years to recover from and people don't normally recover - was only because I took the rare step of getting Tibetan Medicine which <i>does</i> cure chronic conditions.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">So that meant no sickness benefit and I walked home because I didn't qualify for enough 'points'. I walked home feeling hopeless, feeling like S***. feeling like something society had spat out.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">I'm a clever person, I could have been useful, I could have studied. If I'd had a little help. It's very demoralising to be shunned because of paperwork. Your life literally comes down to a piece of paper. And everyone else seems to have that piece of paper.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"> If we are going to be enlightened or civilised. If our futures are going to be different; we need LESS paperwork, not MORE. In fact possibly even NONE. No paperwork, nada. Also countries, nations need to stop forming barriers between each other. If you identify as your nationality it supports another form of racism, subtle but there, that says anyone not from YOUR country is an 'alien'. How ridiculous.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">In the future nationality will be a thing of the past - hopefully only there in a cultural/traditional context.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">And that would mean no-one needs a passport and you could live anywhere. And why not? Can you imagine if Columbus arrived in America and was told by the American indigenous people 'You can't stay here; you haven't got the right paperwork, sorry, go get F*****'. And what's terrible about that is that since then all the 'rights' of those same indigenous people have been taken away because 'they' haven't got the right paperwork. I say F*** paperwork, and for good reason.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="text-align: center;">Oh and<a href="http://survivormanual.com/"> 'Stop Raping Your Kids go F*** Yourselves'</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div>Find your way out of Trauma:-<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 129px; height: 96px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/S9YmhzBvCdI/AAAAAAAABSw/Y011d6c0Wdg/s200/AngelaWorkbook-1+click+to+buy+this+workbook.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464597559935699410" /> <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">The Survivor Warrior Workbook</a><div>This powerful workbook is used as a teaching tool with therapists, support groups and community education programs. It was inspired by Angela's Removing the Sword of Trauma events. It is for survivors, warriors, advocates, loved ones and supporters ready to move past pain and suffering and reclaim joy and happiness. You can use the workbook in a group, on your own or with your therapist.This workbook is 117 pages long and is a DOWNLOAD. Thank you for your commitment to healing <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">BUY NOW $9.99</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-5228061766570730436?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-23050734951177679212010-07-05T05:23:00.000-07:002010-07-05T05:45:57.993-07:00<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dq8notC6PfU&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dq8notC6PfU&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Showing between 29th June and 11th July at the Rosemary Branch Theatre, London, <a href="http://www.hoorayforhollywood.co.uk/">'Hooray for Hollywood'</a> is a puppet/performer theatre piece for adult audiences. It represents a fractured tale set within the child pornography industry. This criminal underworld is revealed in flashes and glimpses from a child’s vantage point. Laced with black humour and a haunting live violin score, it presents a window on both human frailty and resilience. It is based on a true story.<br /><br />'<a href="http://www.ravenkaliana.com/">Raven Kaliana </a> has chosen to share her horrific autobiographical tale of exploitation... ...in a series of tableaux that serve to demystify a subject that society refuses to discuss the truth of. There are barely any productions I have seen that have had as strong an impact on me as this one. It touches the heart, mind, conscience and soul in a way that most West End shows could only dream of. The nightly presence of<a href="http://www.childline.org.uk/"> Childline</a> at the post-show discussion that follows serves to further highlight the immediacy and urgency of the issues portrayed, and one can only hope that this piece achieves what it hopes to by provoking discussion about a subject so repellent the public at large refuse to interrogate it... ... Without bitterness or blame, Raven has produced a piece of theatre that demands to be seen by anyone that cares for children. '<a href="http://www.remotegoat.co.uk/review_view.php?uid=5533"> Gabrielle Apicella at </a><a href="http://www.remotegoat.co.uk/review_view.php?uid=5533">RemoteGoat.co.uk</a><br />Tickets are available <a href="http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?query=search&amp;INTERFACE=ticketweb&amp;category=misc&amp;region=gb_london&amp;search=hooray+for+hollywood&amp;beginmonth=06&amp;beginday=29&amp;beginyear=2010">here at Ticek Web</a><br /><br />Mon-Sat - 7:30 p.m., Sun - 6:30 p.m., no show Mon 5 July<br />£10/£8 conc. Group discounts available.<br />Suitable for 18+ adult audiences only.<br />45 min./10 min. interval/30 min. post-show discussion<br />2 Shepperton Road, London N1 3DT<br />Box Office: 020 7704 6665<br /><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="addthis_separator"><br /></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Related Posts</span></div></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/searching-for-angela-shelton.html">Searching for Angela Shelton</a></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/06/marathoning.html">Marathoning</a></span></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/04/kids-for-sale-in-cambodia-and-what-to.html">Kids for sale in Cambodia and what to do to stop it</a></span></span></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/candle-in-dark.html">A Candle in the Dark</a><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/searching-for-angela-shelton.html"><br /></a></span></span></span></span></b><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2009/06/honour-list.html">The Honour List 2009</a><div><div><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/honour-list-2010.html">The Honour List 2010</a></div><div><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/06/will-you-marry-me.html">Will you Marry Me?</a></div><div><br />Find your way out of Trauma:-<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 129px; height: 96px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/S9YmhzBvCdI/AAAAAAAABSw/Y011d6c0Wdg/s200/AngelaWorkbook-1+click+to+buy+this+workbook.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464597559935699410" /> <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">The Survivor Warrior Workbook</a><div>This powerful workbook is used as a teaching tool with therapists, support groups and community education programs. It was inspired by Angela's Removing the Sword of Trauma events. It is for survivors, warriors, advocates, loved ones and supporters ready to move past pain and suffering and reclaim joy and happiness. You can use the workbook in a group, on your own or with your therapist.This workbook is 117 pages long and is a DOWNLOAD. Thank you for your commitment to healing <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">BUY NOW $9.99</a></div></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-2305073495117767921?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-76302010848852289922010-07-04T10:37:00.000-07:002010-07-04T10:48:21.608-07:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Treatment with herbs and super foods for Fibroids, Fibroid Tumours or Myomas. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When I approach an illness I do so by first reducing the causes, and introducing foods, herbs and supplements to help.</span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> One of the biggest factors causing fibroid tumours is caffeine/coffee, dairy, and sugar - these leach the nutrients out of your body that make your lymphatic system and hormonal system function.<br />Its necessary to help your liver as much as possible and to take herbs that can reduce your tumours size and prevent bleeding and associated symptoms. The herbal bitters will improve your iron absorption. If you have constipation the whole foods, superfoods and fibre rich vegetables will help. I hope the list below helps.</span></p></div><div><div class="GBThreadMessageRow_Info" style="margin-bottom: 4px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:Georgia, serif;"><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></b></o:p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Herbs</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Take Hormone Balancing herbs - Chasteberry<br />Horsetail Juice and dandelion juice (in the leaves) help urination and reduce symptoms.<br />Burdock, slippery elm, indian rhubarb and sheep sorrel (the four symbiotic herbs in Essiac/Caisse Tea reduce tumours of all sizes as well as cleansing the liver.<br />Dandelion root is also superb at healing the liver.<br />Cinnamon, Ginger, Red Clover, Red Raspberry Leaf, Stinging Nettle, Vervain, Yarrow and Yellow Dock.<br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />Diet</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />Eliminate non-organic meat, poultry and fish that contain estrogen<br />Eat food with more essential fatty acids.<br />Eliminate Caffeine (which also increases estrogen)<br />Eliminate fried food, margerine and oils except for Olive Oil.<br />Eliminate preservatives and alcohol<br /><br />EAT sea herbs to reduce tumour growth<br />EAT Roughage from fresh fruit, veg and whole grains to improve elimination. Also almonds, spinach and parsley (for anemia)<br />EAT Beets, carrots, dandelion and burdock roots, and milk thistle seeds. Kelp, Tofu and whole grains. Apples, celery, leafy greens and watercress. Chickweed.<br />Take Evening Primrose Oil which is super for fibroids (often a cure by itself)<br /><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Superfoods</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b></b>Muira Puama super tonifier for our womens bits</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Spirulina and Chlorella - yummy iron thats easy to absorb.<br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />Externally</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />You can bathe in horsetail juice and wild yam.<br />Also a poke root poultice and massage helps significantly.</span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">WIth help from the excellent resource 'The Juicing Bible' by Pat Crocker and Susan Eagles<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&amp;bc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;fc1=000000&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;t=viefromyten-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;m=amazon&amp;f=ifr&amp;md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&amp;asins=0778800199" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe><br /></span></span></div><div><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Share</span></a><span class="addthis_separator"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">|</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></span></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Related Posts</b></span></div><div><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/06/superhero-cocktail.html">Superhero Cocktail</a></div><div><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/04/8-ways-of-living-long-and-strong.html">The 8 ways of living long and strong</a></div><div><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/04/hyperbole-or-very-real-answer-to-your.html">Hyperbole or a very real answer to your prayers</a></div><div><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/06/medicine-and-first-aid.html">Your Optimum Diet</a></div><div><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/06/divine-hedonistic-and-simple-biscuit.html">Divine Hedonistic Biscuit recipe</a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div>Find your way out of Trauma:-</span><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 129px; height: 96px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/S9YmhzBvCdI/AAAAAAAABSw/Y011d6c0Wdg/s200/AngelaWorkbook-1+click+to+buy+this+workbook.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464597559935699410" /> <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Survivor Warrior Workbook</span></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This powerful workbook is used as a teaching tool with therapists, support groups and community education programs. It was inspired by Angela's Removing the Sword of Trauma events. It is for survivors, warriors, advocates, loved ones and supporters ready to move past pain and suffering and reclaim joy and happiness. You can use the workbook in a group, on your own or with your therapist.This workbook is 117 pages long and is a DOWNLOAD. Thank you for your commitment to healing </span><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">BUY NOW $9.99</span></a></div></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-7630201084885228992?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-135357827883349322010-07-04T08:17:00.000-07:002010-07-04T08:29:01.773-07:00<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7r0KpWMNxnM&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7r0KpWMNxnM&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />Uncommon Valour is a rap by The Rugged Man - Jedi Mind Tricks otherwise known as R.A Thorburn <o:p></o:p><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Its about the Vietnam War. The second verse is actually a completely true story about his father, John A. Thorburn. He was affected by Agent Orange and it handicapped two of his children that later died early from it.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>"Coming from a broken home, R.A.'s father was a Vietnam veteran affected by Agent Orange. His family was forever changed by the potent chemical — his brother Maxx was born handicapped and blind, eventually dying at the age of 10, while his sister Dee Ann couldn’t walk or speak. R.A. tells the story of his father, Staff Sgt. John A. Thorburn, in the Jedi Mind Tricks track "Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story"</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The same disfiguring diseases are happening in Fallujah Iraq because of the toxicity in their water supplies from weapons dumps. You can see some pictures of these birth deformities <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27086036@N02/sets/72157608598850653/detail/">here </a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">and read an article <a href="http://gorillasguides.com/2009/02/26/iraqs-war-disfigured-babies/">here:-</a><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Another reason that I wrote the <a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/emergency-prevention-handbook-coming.html">Emergency Prevention Handbook</a> which has a chapter on cleaning up contaminated sites</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Related Posts</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/simple-solutions-for-survival-issues-in.html">Simple Solutions for solving survival issues in global communities</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/06/music-medicine.html">Music Therapy</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/06/making-money-from-poo.html">Living machines</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/06/helping-refugees-in-ecuador-with-simple.html">Helping Refugees in Ecuador with Simple Design</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/06/making-money-from-poo.html">Biocultures, Aquaculture and Living machines</a></p><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div>Find your way out of Trauma:-<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 129px; height: 96px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/S9YmhzBvCdI/AAAAAAAABSw/Y011d6c0Wdg/s200/AngelaWorkbook-1+click+to+buy+this+workbook.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464597559935699410" /> <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">The Survivor Warrior Workbook</a><div>This powerful workbook is used as a teaching tool with therapists, support groups and community education programs. It was inspired by Angela's Removing the Sword of Trauma events. It is for survivors, warriors, advocates, loved ones and supporters ready to move past pain and suffering and reclaim joy and happiness. You can use the workbook in a group, on your own or with your therapist.This workbook is 117 pages long and is a DOWNLOAD. Thank you for your commitment to healing <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">BUY NOW $9.99</a></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-13535782788334932?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-79809986522029715362010-07-04T05:41:00.000-07:002010-07-04T06:26:30.140-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/TDCHCq3yE2I/AAAAAAAABYQ/qEA8--i4E6Y/s1600/Basic+Solar+Water+Heater.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 216px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/TDCHCq3yE2I/AAAAAAAABYQ/qEA8--i4E6Y/s400/Basic+Solar+Water+Heater.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490036425702380386" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><u><br /></u></span></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.iwilltry.org/b/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/solar_thermal_collector_intro_1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 560px; height: 420px;" src="http://www.iwilltry.org/b/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/solar_thermal_collector_intro_1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Basic Solar Water Heater Design</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">'If you want to stop the tales of climate doom from coming to pass. Yes reduce your carbon footprint then USE IT TO KICK SOME ARSE!'<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BQcGPcXpCYY&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BQcGPcXpCYY&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div><div><br /></div><div>Related Posts</div><div><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/06/solar-water-heater-part-motivation.html">Solar Water Heater Motivation!</a><br /><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/simple-solutions-for-survival-issues-in.html">Simple solutions for survival issues in global communities</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/emergency-prevention-handbook-coming.html">The Emergenyc Prevention Handbook</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2009/01/building-energy.html">Building Energy </a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2008/10/sustainable-homes.html">Sustainable Homes</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/07/achieving-everything-in-five-simple.html">Achieving Everything in Five Simple Steps</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-do-i-reduce-my-ecological-footprint.html">How do I reduce my ecological footprint?</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div>Find your way out of Trauma:-<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 129px; height: 96px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/S9YmhzBvCdI/AAAAAAAABSw/Y011d6c0Wdg/s200/AngelaWorkbook-1+click+to+buy+this+workbook.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464597559935699410" /> <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">The Survivor Warrior Workbook</a><div>This powerful workbook is used as a teaching tool with therapists, support groups and community education programs. It was inspired by Angela's Removing the Sword of Trauma events. It is for survivors, warriors, advocates, loved ones and supporters ready to move past pain and suffering and reclaim joy and happiness. You can use the workbook in a group, on your own or with your therapist.This workbook is 117 pages long and is a DOWNLOAD. Thank you for your commitment to healing <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">BUY NOW $9.99</a></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-7980998652202971536?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-18142455464586288472010-07-04T04:14:00.000-07:002010-07-04T04:46:42.513-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos.upi.com/topic/3fc25d5ead1644ebd0f62032f82026f3/Barack_Obama_1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 580px; height: 386px;" src="http://photos.upi.com/topic/3fc25d5ead1644ebd0f62032f82026f3/Barack_Obama_1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: left;">The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public relief program for unemployed men ages 18 -24 related to the conservation of natural resources in rural America between 19933-1942. It provided relief for those who found it hard to get jobs in the Great Depression.</div><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">It became the most popular program among the public providing relief for 3million people and their families it also raised the awareness and appreciation of the outdoors and the nation's natural resources especially for urban/city youth.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="text-align: center;"><b>They planted 3 BILLION trees, 800 national parks, and built roads and public buildings and developed wild fire fighting methods.</b></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">The question is why <b>HASN'T</b> President <u>Obama reinstated the Civilian Conservation Corps</u>? To clean up the effects of the oil spill AND help the millions of unemployed as well as potentially provide cheaper housing for those families who have been foreclosed upon.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">It seems to me that the bail out money could have been used much more wisely for this program, than just giving it to those Bangsters who lets face it aren't very responsible with other people's money. They haven't learnt anything either from causing a financial collapse that has literally killed people (who were driven to suicide) and forced entire families and their children onto the streets or into tent cities.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">I like Mr Obama and I am on his side. He is by far the best president for a long time; he's clever and his hearts in the right place; same goes for the First Lady Mrs Obama - super first lady in my opinion. But they're up against a lot and WE need to ACT too to make a difference. </div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">We need to stop tolerating and accepting the oil economy as a NORM. It is not a necessity; most of us have been duped into believing it is.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">The first cars ran on Peanut oil, a car can now be designed to run on water, wood gas, and methane from rotted anything. All our energy needs can be provided from methane which is a clean gas, plus it is SO easy to provide you can watch a film here about the <a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2009/07/jean-pain-composting.html">Jean Pain Composting</a> method. Also you can fill a dustbin with a wee bit of manure like chicken, and collecting the gas from this will fuel your car which can be easily switched to run on gas. It will also provide electricity and heating and hot water for you house and fertilser for your garden. and minimise forest fires.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">You can get free hot water year round using a diy <a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/06/solar-water-heater-part-motivation.html">solar water heater</a>. You don't have to pay a fortune for one that looks pretty but you can't fix it youself.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">There are simple ways to live without oil; lots of them. And they free you so you don't have to pay bills. They free you FOREVER and they can help very vulnerable people to survive and thrive too. Please see the <a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/emergency-prevention-handbook-coming.html">Emergency Prevention Handbook</a> - tools for optimising our adaptive capacity to humanitarian crises.</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">Related Posts</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/simple-solutions-for-survival-issues-in.html">Simple solutions for survival issues in global communities</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2009/07/jean-pain-composting.html">Jean Pain Composting</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/undoing-chains-of-property.html">Undoing the chains of property</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2009/01/building-energy.html">Building Energy</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/06/solar-water-heater-part-motivation.html">Solar Water Heating</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/07/achieving-everything-in-five-simple.html">Achieving EVERYTHING in 5 simple steps!</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-do-i-reduce-my-ecological-footprint.html">How do I reduce my ecological footprint?</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=inwoods" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a><a class="addthis_button_google"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=inwoods"></script></div>Find your way out of Trauma:-<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 129px; height: 96px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9gXXPONbRH4/S9YmhzBvCdI/AAAAAAAABSw/Y011d6c0Wdg/s200/AngelaWorkbook-1+click+to+buy+this+workbook.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464597559935699410" /> <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">The Survivor Warrior Workbook</a><div>This powerful workbook is used as a teaching tool with therapists, support groups and community education programs. It was inspired by Angela's Removing the Sword of Trauma events. It is for survivors, warriors, advocates, loved ones and supporters ready to move past pain and suffering and reclaim joy and happiness. You can use the workbook in a group, on your own or with your therapist.This workbook is 117 pages long and is a DOWNLOAD. Thank you for your commitment to healing <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=91890&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=92767">BUY NOW $9.99</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Subscribe to the Positive Impact Living Blog<img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2587053051572969408-1814245546458628847?l=poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Louise Brookeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15437974187198920151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2587053051572969408.post-43472106640719406782010-07-03T06:26:00.000-07:002010-07-03T07:06:33.682-07:00Day 3<div><br /></div><div>Ooh yeah! Lovely stuff, muscles and everything. Today I did the Kung Fu streches from <a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/08/shaolin-workout.html">'The Shaolin Workout'</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?lt1=_blank&amp;bc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;fc1=000000&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;t=wwwpositiveim-21&amp;o=2&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;m=amazon&amp;f=ifr&amp;md=0M5A6TN3AXP2JHJBWT02&amp;asins=1405093420" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div>Super they are, the link describes my first attempt at this amazing 28 day workout written by Sifu Sin Yang Ming. Fantastic stretches.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I followed this with the home heart warmer workout written in<a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2007/05/ultimate-fitness.html"> 'Fighting Fit - The complete SAS Fitness training guide</a></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?lt1=_blank&amp;bc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;fc1=000000&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;t=wwwpositiveim-21&amp;o=2&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;m=amazon&amp;f=ifr&amp;md=0M5A6TN3AXP2JHJBWT02&amp;asins=0752805894" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><br />It does exactly what it says. And also has advice for passing the Commando test for the Parachute Regiment and the basic Fitness test as well as the SAS selection.<br /><div><div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">This is my first months <a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/07/louises-half-marathon-training-schedule.html">training schedule</a> for the marathon. Donations can be given <a href="http://www.firstgiving.com/louisebrookes">here for the Angela Shelton Foundation</a> Thank you. And I hope this inspires you. Please get in touch with me if you have done similar or are thinking about it. <a href="http://twitter.com/louisembrookes">Twitter me!</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><br /></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">Related Posts</div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/06/marathoning.html">Why am I doing the marathon?</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/06/marathon-training-log.html">Marathon training Log</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2010/04/8-ways-of-living-long-and-strong.html">The 8 ways of living long and strong</a></div><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a href="http://poitiveimpactliving.blogspot.com/2008/06/yoga-challnege.html">The Yoga Challenge</a></div><div class="addthis_too