Bent-- Not broken

 
A friend mentioned that he didn't wear t-shirts or buttons anymore
Overt slogans might intrude & close gentle civil inquiry
Under the radar --polite and safe. Safe?

I think that as a crone, with the crown of age
I shall start wearing a few more signs of my ideas
goosing the world & to explore for myself

which ideas fit and match 

Jewelry made of my own pin buttons
One says "imitate water"

 My current favorite you see here
it says ..."Bent"
It caught my eye and tickled me
niggled at me
I made more of them in many colors
yet no one asks 
'what is bent?'

Perhaps what captivated me was a
line of word play; a loose chain of associations

I mean this
I am not straight
or narrow
I am weathered still flexible
I have a vein of dark humor and some twisted ideas

I am bent
Not broken
holding some measure of the worlds weight
I will bend to it
Be bent with it

Say this..."I am not in a hurry"

"It's ok. I am not in a hurry."

Say this to people & time slows down, 

You can hear it.. feel it...there are a few extra beats

&

a bit more air

 Plus

It surprises everyone. 

Try it.

Where are the frogs going now?

Frogs and Toads - Images by Mother-Daughter Press

Our first cold snap is coming here in Maine.
Maybe all the ticks will die. Oh yippee! Stay tuned to our tick experiment going on in the jar. Yes, with photos -- we just had to .... ugh.
But, each autumn there is a flurry of online inquiry about the "cold blooded" animals and how they will fare.  Each species does it a little differently and the  details are very interesting.
The specialists say this about it all

"leave them alone. They will find their way, you do not need to herd them off or take them in".

Smart little beasts that they are they will dig down snuggling in the mud and leaves in a pool or river and "chill out". They need some oxygen and Bullfrogs will stay near the top of the mud. Meanwhile frogs on land stay  within the leaf cover.  In contrast, Toads can dig down under the surface. It is all a type of hibernation. And if you want to see it for yourself you should check out this video - with Robert Krulwich and real frozen frogs and miracles.

This video and a nice explanation of the frogs fate can be found at a website called "frogsaregreen.com: See you later frogs.

Women for Peace- Everyone uluate

Nobel Peace Prize winners

Leymah Gbowee, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf,  Tawakul Karman

Today is be a good day for ululation

A sound from ancient Greece and Egypt that continues to now

the sound of women celebrating 

feeling strongly

in India, throughout Africa and the Middle East
It is onomatopoeia known by many names
in many tongues

my favorite is Ulu-uli

Ulu-uli...yes....

a long, wavering, high-pitched sound accompanied by

moving the tongue, rapidly, from left to right

repetitively

A cry of praise in honor and today in celebration
Three women share the peace prize

It is a foreign sound to many of us in the west
but it is familiar to this years winners.
  

So, maybe we can practice it for them.

Join in with a woman at the 2010 ululating competition
in Nagaland a state in far nothern India

Each of these women is worth knowing better. In my research, starting in earnest today, I offer these words from Leymah Gbowee from an interview that is worth hearing with Michel Martin on NPR's program "Tell me more"

"MARTIN: Finally, do you have any wisdom to share? Perhaps to a younger you
who is just starting this sort of path of awakening that you've been on. 
Ms. GBOWEE: Well, one of the things that I always say is never despise a
humble beginning. That's my word of wisdom. No matter how small, if you have
a conviction that this is something that is going to change your community,
if you have a conviction that this is something that is going to change your
family, if you have a conviction that this is something that is going to do
some good, step out and do it. That's one.
                  
The second word of wisdom that I would like to leave with the American
people, in the face of evil, in the face of depravation, in the face of a
lot of horrible things when you turn on your radio, people sometimes lose
hope, that evil is winning. But I just want you to know that from a tiny
part of West Africa, a group of women there taught me to know that in this
life, good always overcome evil. Thank you."

Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli...Ulu-uli
Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli
Rises up from the Ministry of Crones and gorgeous women everywhere

Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli...Ulu-uli
Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli..Ulu-uli

Stand by me - There is hope

I must respond. There is a wonderful inspiration started by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes on her facebook page (a very rich place to hang around).. A kerfuffule -- a communal gasp-- a rise of energy around the song 'Stand by Me'.

Dr. CPE says "South African Yvonne Chaka Chaka sang this song a cappela to an audience after she warned Batswana to quit sitting around shaking one's head, and instead to be alert and to guard in every way possible, against increasingly devastating child pornography and human trafficking in all of Africa.
 She sang this POWERFUL song afterward."

It is a marching song, a question, a fearful longing, and an answer. My favorite version is from "Playing for Change"-- Musicians from all over the world are recorded and one by one brought into the shared space of the message in the music. In the end it is a joyful awakening --to the answer of many voices joining together --- and it lets us throw back our heads to sing louder and more fearlessly and to move our bodies.   An accompaniment to the work of many hands reaching out to make sure others know, "I am here".

Today I send this good medicine to Abdi and Hassan Nur Iftin in Nairobi (see Abdi flies Somalia from March 2011)  because we feel that there is now real hope that their dream of being college students in the US may happen.

As Dr. E says "we can make mere 'light' into Lightning!....¡Relampago!"

In April when I was sick nearly to death in the ICU, Hassan and Abdi found a phone line that reached all the way into that room in St. Johnsbury Vermont from Nairobi.  In my fog of grace and darkness a nurse said "Abdi called and his mother is praying for you".  I was felled.  This mother of mothers living in a Somali refugee camp, whose boys are not safe with her, who has no certainty of food still stops and offers me her prayers and stands by me.  This song is for her too.

I met Abdi and then Hassan through his stories on the radio. Listen as Abdi tells of life in Somalia as more and more people move to the restless rhythm of drought and lack of food, again.
Be reminded, he is a good storyteller and we can stand it. The Story: Abdi talks of Somalia now

If we are lucky these young men will soon get to open a course catalog and begin to choose -- feeding their hearts and their brains. Medicine for the murders they witnessed, the sister they lost to starvation, the threats, and the nightmares born in hiding caves, hopes lost in refugee life.  Its not perfect medicine but it is strong and it will help,

To pull this off we may have to ask for help but today there is real hope. Wahooo!
Sharon y familia

Grandmothers revenge & a lovely grand-daughter

This is from one of Gay's photo files.
I have come to know my mother-- after her passing-- as a careful but ironic keeper of records. This photo was in a file called "Kids with guns".
My heart leapt at the possibilities.


This is Michelle McDonnell at 6 years of age looking pretty fierce.
She is at her grandmothers house where grandpa would let the kids shoot guns
while their parents would smile fixedly and ultimately join in.
Now she is a college graduate and more even beautiful and fierce

A friend (with 5 children) once said
"Socialize them as fast as you can before they can get to the knives and guns"
We were in Pakistan at the baby shower for my own son & now it seems
as good a rule as any for new parents

Pictures for facebook indeed! Watch out grandchildren Grandma had a camera.

Everything is a human being-- a la Alice Walker

.....even spiders

From Alice Walker dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr, 1983 

And,  it comes to me as I follow her reasoning THAT I believe we should be allowed to declare  war only against people whose language we speak and whose culture we understand.  In fact I am quite sure that if we had a Ministry or Department of Old Women (aka Crones) in our political system that they would over-rule a war between strangers as  irrational and self-destructive.  If we do not know people well enough to skillfully befriend them then neither do we know them well enough to hate them.  The opposite of love is not hatred but indifference; whereas the source of most hate is fear born of ignorance (and unfamiliarity).    Moreover, the chances of winning a war are significantly reduced if we do not take the time to know who we are fighting and why they are fighting back.  Remarkably, knowing people well enough to wage war against them effectively also exactly what protects us from ever starting a war against each other. 

I am shaking my head that so few Americans speak Dari or Pashtu and I think wishfully about a Ministry of Crones. So it is to Alice Walker that I return (certainly she would be in the Ministry) but this time on the topic of war.  In her essay "The Universe Responds: Or, How I learned we can have Peace on Earth," she says,

"War will stop when we no longer praise it, or give it any attention at all. 

Peace will come wherever it is sincerely invited. Love will overflow every sanctuary given it. Truth will grow where the fertilizer that nourishes it is also truth".

How difficult for us to do.... 
Meanwhile, everything is human, yes, my lovely daughter, Natalya, even spiders, or if not exactly human they are enough "us" to be worthy of our respect and far beyond our capacity to imitate - or create. They are weavers and spinners and since time out of mind there have been stories woven with spiders-- remember Arachne? 

Here -- to all the lovely forms of existence-- we dedicate these images to our many legged spinning friends that live life on their toes & up in the air like members of cirque du soleil.

Spiders: Artistry and competency - Story by Sharon McDonnell