Eviction in the U.S.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1463341016/bctid3856257001

Naomi Klein's shock doctrine

DJ Spooky AKA "The Subliminal Kid" - his new creation "Rebirth of a Nation"

EFT - energy medicine

Life consists more of energy than of matter. Western medicine focuses on matter, usually oblivious to energy, often with toxic results. Consider alternatives while eating real food, food as medicine, not food to support the corporate bottom line. The EFT process has similarities to the healing/curing techniques of Wilhelm Reich shared in his book CHARACTER ANALYSIS.

Rally against budget cuts

The financial crisis shall not be a hatchet in the backs of the poor, middle class, disabled, ill, school children, universities, libraries, but should be a scalpel to extract a pound of flesh at least from the reckless multi-millionaire criminals who caused it.

Gas drilling-Making sure we get it right 3

Gas drilling-Making sure we get it right 2

Gas drilling - Making sure we get it right 1

Fritillaria - white

Here I'm standing IN the part of the front garden that's in the strip between the driveway and the neighbor to the right so that I can take a photo of the two white fritillaria stalks. They go up over my head so. One was leaning over such is the weight of the very thick stalk so I pounded a tall stake into the ground behind and then tied the two with rope to the stake. Not elegant but it keeps them both up while they're still blooming.

Lost and found

Self and not-self

Misty morn on the river

The 22nd of June 2008 at 8:00 a.m. on the upper Susquehanna.

Flowers take over

An example of converting a lawn to something more nature-friendly. Coreopsis, red rose bush, marguerites about to bloom, a few iris yet to bloom, a marjoram bush, a few lilies yet to bloom.

Bees feasting

I saw these bees feasting on blossoms in a patch of lambs' ear. I felt thrilled to see them because of the news about bee colony collapse. Instead of being from a hive that's trucked around, perhaps these bees are free-bees? Heh, heh!

Gardens in spring

One of several gardens on a college campus with a horticultural program.

Truth about homeopathy

Link to an article that addresses misinformation about homeopathy.

http://www.zeusinfoservice.com/TruthAboutHomeopathy.html

Retreat 1

A gazebo at least 100 feet above a narrow chasm with rushing water below.

Bridging 1

A typical image but still pleasing.

Oppositive perspective 2

Amazing what goes on of which you can be totally unaware.

Oppositive perspective 1

Created while listening to DJ Spooky's "Sound Unbound." Some parts of this CD I really like, others not, especially the spoken voice parts related to U.S. politics and commercialism.

Gold floating

Created while listening to Eckhart Tolle

River rushing gorge dungeon

I like the contrasts between the bridge to seeming nowhere, over rushing water, beside dungeon-like edifice. What would it be like to be inside that construction next to the roar of the waterfall?

This weekend I created this card for sis' birthday. It's more about me than her, I think. I'm having some aggravation, possibly, from the Staphysagria - 2-3 days of vision issues (flashing lights, spots shifting from right eye to left eye where spots turned into a thick black wire). This drawing, with coloured pencils and felt pen, could represent female rage or, on the other hand, a woman playing a lute while being stage curtains.

Staphysagria redux

I decided it seemed a good idea to try Staphysagria 200c again, doing so Friday night. Two weeks ago I took it in 30c with no aggravation resulting. Friday and Saturday night, themes of abandonment and/or rejection. Some aggravation on face. The chief feature of Staphysagria also showed up, possible an aggravation. I started this drawing yesterday and finished it today. The left side seems to indicate the tension in the muscles on the left side of my face from the nerve damage. In colored pencil on Bristol paper. Spraying matte preservative on it faded the colours so I used HP Photosmart Edit to restore some of the colours. I return to British spelling.

Desperate for warm weather

No need to say anything more. One of the many gardens on campus.

Life - as it is - 2

The lower half of "Optic Irritation." It's possible the midsection is missing. Hmm.... Considering the date of this drawing is early February, I suspect it expresses some of the trauma from being shoved and then verbally bullied on the bus. The effect lasted for several months. Only now, in April, does it seem to be lifting.

Life - as it is -1

The top half of a larger drawing titled "Optic Irritation." Sharing my blog today with a brilliant young student with multiple stresses inspired me to post this larger drawing.

Bird Series - A08

After several attempts at processing the trauma from the combination of the two incidents of bullying on the bus, I might be experiencing the start of an opening. First, the word "bullying" came to me from reading a New York Times report on the high incidence (c 45%) of bullying in the workplace in the U.S. so now I had a word, a label to pin on the behavior of the people that seems more accurate than harassment. I also signed up for a writing workshop series for six Saturdays at the local Environmental Education center. People there mostly wanted to talk rather than write but one person suggested I write something about the incident from the perspectives of the different people involved. That appealed to me at first. I had focused on the idea of transforming the incident into a short story. But I still seemed stuck, unable to write. Yesterday, I went to the first of another writing workshop of four Saturdays, with a focus on memoir writing, run by a local poet and creative writing journal founder. I knew I would get more professional guidance there. He asked us to think about the place in our body and the place outside the body where the memory of the event lies. I wrote and revised repeatedly in the short 20 minutes. He remarked that he knows I write poetry and what I wrote seemed clinical. . . something like that. Then it hit me. The place in the body is my throat, being unable to scream. the place outside the body is a vehicle whether it be the bus or my car from long ago when it's possible I was caught in a riot. Then I came home and worked on the drawing above, the first in many months of not being able to draw, in fact since the bus bullying. Poetry seems the more proper medium here to express the linkages between recent and long buried trauma.

Getting fried on the bus in more ways than one

Part of the many reasons I've stopped riding the bus and am now driving my car back and forth includes the frequent use of cellphones (loud ringing, loud conversations, non-emergency) by at least 4-5 passengers. None seem to have considered the potential negative impact on their health much less that of those around them. I wanted to include in this post a link to a book recently published on the website for the National Academies for Science, Engineering and Medicine, but Blogger said no. The book is report of a conference on the potential biological effects of EMFs, specifically cell phones. What about the cell towers?

Still processing - righteous raging rooster

I'm telling myself that I'm experiencing in a very micro way the national obsession in the U.S. with racism/sexism currently in connection with the campaign for the country's next president. The contraction, the gasping. Here's my response: a hermaphrodite barnyard bird that appears tamed but when necessary whips out hot courage that threatens the squawking chickens around, I guess. That's as much compassion I can muster right now for sexist/racist ignorance. Go chick-en/rooster! Is that a middle finger thrust in the air at lower right, or a penis or a writing implement?

The hurt and the healing

I'll leave this one for you to figure out why I put it here now. Several interactions intertwining. It's best if you click on the image to get the bigger picture :). The man and the woman beside him are looking at a photo for sale in lower Manhattan at Battery Park, not far from the site of the hole in the ground from the attacks on the World Trade Center. The photo shows the skyline now bereft of the Twin Towers. The photo behind the couple shows young people gardening. Occupying myself in my garden always has a healing effect on me.

Still processing the hurt - the ramparts

Engaging more with the feeling of hurt, I'm processing the back and forth of expansion and contraction as I try to move towards resolution and peace, using this medium as a healing modality. In other words, the blog as healer, which is what my main work is about! Healing through creativity! Instead of resorting to violence to the other, which I don't see myself being able to do, or turning on myself (e.g. catching a cold, getting an ache), I lance this boil by opening up the tool box of creative resources which are there for everyone at all times. This photo is of a building being constructed upwards floor by floor. It could just as well be a photo of a building being deconstructed through engaging in battle, with the pipes sticking out being guns instead of being part of the construction of that floor. Perception, perception - ah...

Red Hot Pokers

Before I post the drawing of the raging rooster, I felt the need for a healing image relevant to how hurt I now realize I really feel from the woman on the bus shoving me aside. Here's another photo of another section of my garden in the spring/summer. These plants are truly called red hot pokers. They seem to not mind being next to the smaller of the two blue spruce trees in front standing as guardians on either side of the front door.

Frustrage

I've been sitting on a bus every week day for one hour from and one hour back to where I park my car about 15 minutes away from my house, early morning and late afternoon. Heat to warm the chill of the air on the bus from the temperature outside being anywhere between -2 degrees F and 45 degrees these past 3 months comes only from heaters that warm you only if you sit right on top of them. One night I returned home with feet so chilled that it took me 45 minutes of soaking them in very warm water before the feeling returned. I called the bus company, which apparently relayed this item to the driver, who advised me to sit on the left side as he's "got more heaters there." Tonight the bus was 50 minutes late and crowded. In a tired daze I approached a seat on the driver's left as instructed only to see and feel the arm of the woman sitting on top of the heater firmly blocking me, pushing me away, saying not a word. The woman behind me in the aisle then sat there. I can only guess that the woman on the heater was saving the seat beside her for this woman. I sat across the aisle on the non-heated side of the bus, crammed next to another woman. I could see no other seats on the left.

I've given myself the task of how to draw this out - literally and figuratively. I reported this today (1/11/08) to the driver, my voice surprisingly breaking as I did so. It then occurred to me that this could fall under "assault" so I called the bus company.

I did draw out this poison pus by talking to my sister on the telephone and by finishing a drawing of what appears to be a rooster on a rampage.