Ah, a gift, for you.
A little electro-magno-neuro-cardio-web-based cosmic gift for you whether you be girl or boy (aka honorary girl).   Its a story called "embrace your inner girl" by Eve Ensler


But, first, before you push play to start this brief but stirring video, riddle me this....

What sorts of things might you be doing that if someone said "you do that like a girl" that you would experience this comment as a compliment?

Fill in the blanks....You are  _____ or, do  _____  like a girl.

Enjoy the video, I think you will.



Namaste, salaam, and hallelujah

Sharon

Welcome guest author Jane Flink from Columbia Missouri.   

The "Raging Grannies" Youtube video (see earlier post) and their rollicking response to CBS "right to life" advertising funds inspired Jane.  She mobilized her inspiration and wrote a wee story called "Gods Idea" and I have included it below.  

GOD HAS A GOOD IDEA - By Jane Flink

God is sitting in the Garden of Eden, contemplating all that s/he has made. “I want another experiment with Persons,” God thinks.  S/he wants to create a tiny Person.  S/he will call it a Baby and Adam and Eve will learn about themselves as they watch the Baby grow to be like them.

“Where will I put this Baby I will create?” God wonders.  “I could hide the Baby under a large cabbage leaf in the garden and when the Persons come out to gather food, they will find the baby.  But will they understand what a Baby is if they find it under a cabbage leaf?”  And God says, “That is not a good idea”.

I could drop the baby from the sky, God thinks, perhaps from the beak of some large flying bird.  But the Baby, as I envision it, would not withstand the fall to earth.  “So that,” God says, “ is not a good idea.”

God thinks longer.  “Perhaps I should first create a council of elders, made in the form of Adam, and when they open their council meeting lo, a baby shall be in front of them, and these wise elders can decide what to do with it.  But for all their wisdom, will they understand what a Baby is, and what a Baby needs?  God thinks it likely a council of elders would find a Baby only something more to argue about.

God’s mind roams over his/her creation. “I could give the baby to Adam, but he is always jumping and plunging into streams to swim and climbing tall trees.   Adam might not understand how to grow the Baby to become a Person, male or female, as I have created them.” 

As God is thinking, Eve strolls down a path near the place where God is sitting. She has built a raft to cross a stream to gather berries and along the way she finds a young rabbit, one of God’s newer Creations. Eve is playing with the rabbit, feeding it bits of lettuce from the garden and she and the rabbit roll over together in the soft grass.  When the young rabbit grows tired, Eve nestles it against the hollow of her throat. Carrying the rabbit, Eve finds a soft tussocky place under the shade of a tree and she and the rabbit curl up together, and they sleep.

God loves them all -- s/he loves the cabbages and the high-flying bird, and Adam and the Council of Elders, and Eve and the little rabbit and so it is  hard to know where to put the Baby he is planning to create.  S/he looks again at Eve and the rabbit.  When she found it in need of play and food and sleep and love she gave the rabbit all of them. The Baby God is thinking of would need all those things, not just for an afternoon; not just in cabbage season; not just when high-flying birds cared to carry cargo, or when councils of elders sat down to disagree. For the Baby, God wants love that will never die.

Finally, God decides.  He gives dominion over the animals to Adam.  But he gives dominion over the Baby to Eve, to carry inside her body until it is strong, until God himself can breathe life into its nostrils and make of it a living soul.  When God tells Adam about the animals, Adam leaps with joy. But when he gives the Baby to Eve, her head is full of visions of the blessing of life given and the sadness of life taken and the need for a love that never dies.

The sun closes down the day, casting shadows of blue and gold and God sits quietly, looking with satisfaction over all her/his Creation. “The one about the Baby,” God thinks, musing  –“that was a very good idea,”

The End....

Abortion politics is nasty business and unsteady ground.  It has divided and hurt us for so long.  In the middle of Jane's story I felt suddenly disorientated as if air was rushing into my mind bringing me a sense of space.   Into this space came laughter and its near companion, compassion.  We need all the questions, all the wisdom, and all the humor that we can muster for this collective heart-sore. 

Then, Jane added in our email exchange, "At any rate, God's decision carries everything I believe about how necessary and delightful and strong and needy and merciful and fun-loving and caring women are, and I have thought, since my first pregnancy, that God was a pretty wise old guy to put the Baby where he put it.  And if there are times when Woman finds she cannot give the Baby what it needs, and must part with it, I believe with all my heart that abortion is her decision and hers alone -- not only do I believe that, but I think God believes it, too. All those televangelists can't fool me!"


Thanks for being the inspiration for something i have long wanted to write!"    Love, Jane 

Ah but the honor is mine....Love Sharon 
and
Thanks to the Salonistas in Missouri and to other warm hearted strong minded women who have inspired us to continue to explore, talk, and listen.

Dancing

Dancing into remember

swirling and circling closer
closer
back to here and 
now
re-connected (re-membered) to my body and its parts
Ah.. here are my arms

and, my body moves, again, heart first.

Thanks to Loveleen Kaur Nijjar for connecting the picture (artist unknown) 
and the inspiration for the poem

Haiti: information about assistance

The earthquake in Haiti is a sudden unimaginable disaster that occurred amidst the chronic humanitarian disaster that is sadly normal for the Haitian people.    The challenges to the people and the organizations that are committed to work with Haiti were already huge and are now unbelievable.  This additional disaster--the type that leaves a person's mind reeling because the Universe seems no longer to follow its normal rules-- is paralyzing and saps resilience and adaptability.

Members of the American Public Health Association (APHA) International Health section have offered to monitor the Congress as they formulate a response program, to create and update a list of deserving operational groups working in Haiti, and to help distribute this information widely.   What follows here is the information I have so far.  If people know of more groups or have additional suggestions, I would be happy to update this and link with APHA and others.

This may be a huge disaster, but we must not believe that it is TOO big.  The worst thing is to believe that problems are insolvable or that we cannot make a difference.  Creativity and compassion matter.

Actions for Haiti

1. Donate to Meds and Food for Kids (MFK).  Meds and Food for Kids produces Medika Mamba or Peanut Butter Medicine, a highly nutritious, fortified peanut paste designed to treat malnutrition. It is a non-profit program.  Ila Irwin, a public health practitioner in Columbia, Missouri, has known this project for many years and spent time on site with them.  It is run by Dr. Pat Wolff from St. Louis. Thankfully, Dr. Wolff, her staff, and the Medika Mamba factory survived the earthquake. Ila wrote: "MFK is an amazing and very reputable organization that is poised, in Haiti and employing Haitian workers, to quickly address this urgent need for non-refrigerated food. The demand for ready-to-use food will be astronomical and will quickly outstrip MFK’s current ability to produce this life saving food.  They must be able to increase production to address this dire need.  Please go to http://mfkhaiti.org/  or donate directly at 

https://www.justgive.org/nonprofits/donate.jsp?ein=20-1257910

2. Partners In Health. They’ve set-up this Facebook group <http://apps.facebook.com/causes/431732/129609?m=71bb3202>  and email alert system. Click here to sign up for earthquake relief efforts: http://act.pih.org/haitiearthquakeupdates

3. Circle of Health International <http://www.cohintl.org/>  (COHI) is currently putting together a team of women's health experts (practitioners, public health experts, trauma specialists, etc.) to help with the response in Haiti. Here’s a website and contact info for Executive Director Leilani Johnson: leilani@cohintl.org <mailto:leilani@cohintl.org> .
 

More information to come.  Please look to news sources beyond the traditional media-- go to websites for reliable agencies and share good sources. This is important. Talk to people who know Haiti.

Light a candle and offer this light.