In my Foundations of Holistic Health course we did a group painting in one of our last classes (each person could only make one stroke on the canvas at a time). After we decided the painting was "finished" we each thought of a name for the paiting and wrote it on a piece of paper.
Here is the poem we created from that naming:
Naming the painting
Angelico
Creation by Community
Visual poetry
Vigniettes
She who dances
Beginnings
Strokes of multiple centers
Where we are
Fresh unity
Collaborative flow
Orange lightning
Push-pull
Hint of integration
The homeostasis process
Make Room
New life
Strokes of Colored Life
Running with colors
Elements of the journey
Friday, December 18, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
A well-written excerpt by Gregg Easterbrook for further reflection
Last night in my graduation ritual/ceremony of my Alternative Approaches to Health Care course, I brought a rock from Hawaii to put on the table. This rock for me represents my forever connection to HI and to the learning, growth, and shift in consciousness/perspective that happened there. Ever since I went to Hawaii, many parts of myself clicked together. It was like everything I knew solidified there. I saw the world more clearly and wholly, and I promised myself I would never let that knowledge go unforgotten or left behind. So I brought my rock to share with the class, to tell them that what the rock represented was what truly pushed me to join the Holistic Health Studies program and begin my new journey living my own life.
What I wanted to share today is a seemingly gloomy passage that my professor from my Ecology and Health clas shared which I think explains quite strongly and creatively the current world of environmental challenges we humans face. This passage serves not to be gloomy but calls to my attention, again, that we as a collective species must wake up and figure out if we really want to be here or not.
Gregg Easterbrook writes:
In the aftermath of events like the Exxon Valdez oil spill, every reference to the environment is prefaced with the adjective "fragile". Nothing could be further from the truth.
The environment is damned near indestructible. It has survived ice ages, bombardments of cosmic radiation, fluctuations of the sun, reversals of the seasons caused by shifts in the planetary axis, collisions of comets and meteors bearing far more force than man's doomsday arsenals and the lightless "nuclear winters" that followed these impacts. Thought mischievous, human assaults are pinpricks compared with the forces of magnitude nature is accustomed to resisting.
One aspect of the environment is genuinely delicate, though. Namely, the set of conditions favorable to human beings. ...
Nature doesn't care if the globe is populated with trilobites or thunder lizards or people or six-eyed telepathic slugs. What nature cares about it that the ecosystem live. Should man sour the environmental conditions now slanted in our favor, creatures will rise up in our stead that thrive on murky greenhouse air, or dine on compounds human metabolisms find toxic.
---
Pretty powerful writing, and true dat Gregg! haha...sorry (trying to lighten the mood).
It is estimated that we lose about 135 species a day. That is 6 species killed off in an hour.
Every 29 minutes a whale is harvested somewhere.
For every hamburger you eat, 67 square feet of rainforest was cleared to make space for the cow.
While with the power of mass communication and technology, these facts are more well-known than before, we ignore it because life as we see it is too stressful to focus on something like saving the planet. BUT I think it is necessary to remind ourselves of the damage we continue to do to our planet and to one another, and I think it is important to remember that once an animal goes extinct that is it. Its done.
Now, I don't mean to be gloomy about this all. According to my professor of Ecology and Health there are two do-nothing traps out there:
1) Technological Optimism (believing humans will always come up with the technology to right the wrongs)
2) Gloom and doom perspective (immobilizes people who are feeling too overwhelmed, leaving them in a state of inaction)
By sharing this information I don't mean to make anybody feel guilty about the life they lead, but to make people think about the life they lead and ask: do you cherish your life? What could be changed in the world for you to appreciate life more? Can we as individuals care about our lives enough to have empathy and care about the lives of other people and creatures as well?
This is the question I ponder a lot. I am still searching for an answer that can be more easily understood and accepted among people.
For more environmental notes, (and less dramatic and reflective ones and more what you can do to help notes)-- I typically post to my Go Green Machine blog. This post however I felt immediately fell under the umbrella of my program, so I wanted to include it in here.
What I wanted to share today is a seemingly gloomy passage that my professor from my Ecology and Health clas shared which I think explains quite strongly and creatively the current world of environmental challenges we humans face. This passage serves not to be gloomy but calls to my attention, again, that we as a collective species must wake up and figure out if we really want to be here or not.
Gregg Easterbrook writes:
In the aftermath of events like the Exxon Valdez oil spill, every reference to the environment is prefaced with the adjective "fragile". Nothing could be further from the truth.
The environment is damned near indestructible. It has survived ice ages, bombardments of cosmic radiation, fluctuations of the sun, reversals of the seasons caused by shifts in the planetary axis, collisions of comets and meteors bearing far more force than man's doomsday arsenals and the lightless "nuclear winters" that followed these impacts. Thought mischievous, human assaults are pinpricks compared with the forces of magnitude nature is accustomed to resisting.
One aspect of the environment is genuinely delicate, though. Namely, the set of conditions favorable to human beings. ...
Nature doesn't care if the globe is populated with trilobites or thunder lizards or people or six-eyed telepathic slugs. What nature cares about it that the ecosystem live. Should man sour the environmental conditions now slanted in our favor, creatures will rise up in our stead that thrive on murky greenhouse air, or dine on compounds human metabolisms find toxic.
---
Pretty powerful writing, and true dat Gregg! haha...sorry (trying to lighten the mood).
It is estimated that we lose about 135 species a day. That is 6 species killed off in an hour.
Every 29 minutes a whale is harvested somewhere.
For every hamburger you eat, 67 square feet of rainforest was cleared to make space for the cow.
While with the power of mass communication and technology, these facts are more well-known than before, we ignore it because life as we see it is too stressful to focus on something like saving the planet. BUT I think it is necessary to remind ourselves of the damage we continue to do to our planet and to one another, and I think it is important to remember that once an animal goes extinct that is it. Its done.
Now, I don't mean to be gloomy about this all. According to my professor of Ecology and Health there are two do-nothing traps out there:
1) Technological Optimism (believing humans will always come up with the technology to right the wrongs)
2) Gloom and doom perspective (immobilizes people who are feeling too overwhelmed, leaving them in a state of inaction)
By sharing this information I don't mean to make anybody feel guilty about the life they lead, but to make people think about the life they lead and ask: do you cherish your life? What could be changed in the world for you to appreciate life more? Can we as individuals care about our lives enough to have empathy and care about the lives of other people and creatures as well?
This is the question I ponder a lot. I am still searching for an answer that can be more easily understood and accepted among people.
For more environmental notes, (and less dramatic and reflective ones and more what you can do to help notes)-- I typically post to my Go Green Machine blog. This post however I felt immediately fell under the umbrella of my program, so I wanted to include it in here.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
What's the gossip about?
Last night in my Culture as a Resource in Health and Healing course I learned so many things. I want to share ONE story because I can't really move on with my day until I get this out. (The true woman gossiper within me just has to tell somebody). This story was told to me from a classmate who interviewed a Chippewa Shaman and Healer from the Wolf Clan.
An elder told this healer a story about women, men, and gossip:
"People think women gossip and women talk amongst themselves- it's not true. They go to one another to share their experience, their secrets, to release and to learn.
Man holds it all inside, this forms a fire pit in his stomach. It fills man with sorrow. They hold it in and then they start a war.
No woman has started a war because they share.
Man starts war because he holds too much inside.
Native women have a higher level of spirituality; they know their roles in and with their partnerships. Their stomachs, their wombs are shaped like mother earth.
This scared men and their ego got in the way. They conquered women.
Now things are changing, women are bringing men closer to God.
Women are healing man, themselves and Mother Earth."
This story is really powerful to me and holds a lot of truth. Sometimes I envy men and their ability to keep bonds between their peers strong while women tend to get swept up into her man's life (in my opinion due to tradition), however this story reminds me of another truth-- about the power and strength and healing that women hold in their beings and their ability to share and to be open about their emotions and feelings.
What is even greater about the wisdom of this story I am sharing is that for those people who are so stuck on knowing the "science" behind everything, here are some interesting articles talking about the health benefits of "gossip." For me, while the science is important, I have come to a point of knowing and believing that sometimes I don't need science to know a truth. And I prefer the elder's story over the research, I find it more fascinating, beautiful, and more human.
Gossip is good for women's health
Men gossip, too
An elder told this healer a story about women, men, and gossip:
"People think women gossip and women talk amongst themselves- it's not true. They go to one another to share their experience, their secrets, to release and to learn.
Man holds it all inside, this forms a fire pit in his stomach. It fills man with sorrow. They hold it in and then they start a war.
No woman has started a war because they share.
Man starts war because he holds too much inside.
Native women have a higher level of spirituality; they know their roles in and with their partnerships. Their stomachs, their wombs are shaped like mother earth.
This scared men and their ego got in the way. They conquered women.
Now things are changing, women are bringing men closer to God.
Women are healing man, themselves and Mother Earth."
This story is really powerful to me and holds a lot of truth. Sometimes I envy men and their ability to keep bonds between their peers strong while women tend to get swept up into her man's life (in my opinion due to tradition), however this story reminds me of another truth-- about the power and strength and healing that women hold in their beings and their ability to share and to be open about their emotions and feelings.
What is even greater about the wisdom of this story I am sharing is that for those people who are so stuck on knowing the "science" behind everything, here are some interesting articles talking about the health benefits of "gossip." For me, while the science is important, I have come to a point of knowing and believing that sometimes I don't need science to know a truth. And I prefer the elder's story over the research, I find it more fascinating, beautiful, and more human.
Gossip is good for women's health
Men gossip, too
Monday, October 26, 2009
Poem about love
Poem about love (by me)
Tired minds and worried brows
Will make their mark,
Forget to sow
Those hopes, and dreams, and fears
We can’t remember.
Locked pinkies under the sheets,
Hot legs touched by cooling feets,
I rest my head against your furless shoulder.
Love awakens our holy hearts,
Puts to rest those broken parts;
Heals some memories at the start
Within us, stirring ‘til morning.
At the bright sun, the cock then cries,
“Love is patient, love is kind,”
creating for us, in us, those blind—
Blind-spots.
Hiding all our fears and faults,
Protecting shields from reckless thoughts.
Light rays shine dismantling waves
And every falsehood melts away…
Liquids dissipating
Into thick, heavy air—
The ending nightmare
Bobs somewhere
In atmosphere-
Now plainly forgotten.
But here in bed, still, I lay.
Caressing your calm,
Sleeping arm.
My very core is penetrating
Pretty picture shows
Which enter in and out my soul.
Locked pinkies under the sheets,
Hot legs touched by cooling feets,
I rest my head against your furless shoulder.
----------------------------------------------------------------
This poem was written last night after I had a discussion with some friends about art and creating art. I have never been a poet, and after looking at a poetry journal I kept through a creative writing class I took in 2006, it is clear that then too, I was not a poet, however, I will still commit myself to trying to be a poet when I have a free moment.
As I have been learning in my program about finding the healer within you, I have been told that the artist within us also has a great role in the healing process. So it is with great pleasure that I continue to challenge and use my creative side here and there no matter how pitiful it might look in its final production in hopes to be a healthier being. The process is much more important than the finished product, which is cliche, but true.
If there are questions to what this poem means, I believe it is about love or at least I intended it to be about love, but I am open to interpretations. In honesty, lately I have been having vivid dreams each night, so it was probably not in my best interest to write a poem before bed, but as I read through the poem I noticed that my dreaming self seems to come through in the poem more than I was consciously aware of...kind of weird, but cool since it reflects me. It feels good to write again.
Tired minds and worried brows
Will make their mark,
Forget to sow
Those hopes, and dreams, and fears
We can’t remember.
Locked pinkies under the sheets,
Hot legs touched by cooling feets,
I rest my head against your furless shoulder.
Love awakens our holy hearts,
Puts to rest those broken parts;
Heals some memories at the start
Within us, stirring ‘til morning.
At the bright sun, the cock then cries,
“Love is patient, love is kind,”
creating for us, in us, those blind—
Blind-spots.
Hiding all our fears and faults,
Protecting shields from reckless thoughts.
Light rays shine dismantling waves
And every falsehood melts away…
Liquids dissipating
Into thick, heavy air—
The ending nightmare
Bobs somewhere
In atmosphere-
Now plainly forgotten.
But here in bed, still, I lay.
Caressing your calm,
Sleeping arm.
My very core is penetrating
Pretty picture shows
Which enter in and out my soul.
Locked pinkies under the sheets,
Hot legs touched by cooling feets,
I rest my head against your furless shoulder.
----------------------------------------------------------------
This poem was written last night after I had a discussion with some friends about art and creating art. I have never been a poet, and after looking at a poetry journal I kept through a creative writing class I took in 2006, it is clear that then too, I was not a poet, however, I will still commit myself to trying to be a poet when I have a free moment.
As I have been learning in my program about finding the healer within you, I have been told that the artist within us also has a great role in the healing process. So it is with great pleasure that I continue to challenge and use my creative side here and there no matter how pitiful it might look in its final production in hopes to be a healthier being. The process is much more important than the finished product, which is cliche, but true.
If there are questions to what this poem means, I believe it is about love or at least I intended it to be about love, but I am open to interpretations. In honesty, lately I have been having vivid dreams each night, so it was probably not in my best interest to write a poem before bed, but as I read through the poem I noticed that my dreaming self seems to come through in the poem more than I was consciously aware of...kind of weird, but cool since it reflects me. It feels good to write again.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
First night of Culture as a Resource in Health and Healing, First Impression: Love it.
People's Theory
I am rather tired to reflect much on tonight's class right now, but since I had enough energy to come on here I thought I would post the Cultural Wellness Center's little diagram on how they believe sickness develops. Take a look folks and see if it makes sense to you at all. My fourth and final class for this semester takes place at this center where their mission is "To unleash the power of citizens to heal themselves and build community." I want to work there.
But for now, I must rest so I can wake up early and do some research because it is clear by my droopy eyes and sleepy brain do not want to do much more than rest.
Good night, and I hope you have a positive sense of belonging and worth!
Love, me
I am rather tired to reflect much on tonight's class right now, but since I had enough energy to come on here I thought I would post the Cultural Wellness Center's little diagram on how they believe sickness develops. Take a look folks and see if it makes sense to you at all. My fourth and final class for this semester takes place at this center where their mission is "To unleash the power of citizens to heal themselves and build community." I want to work there.
But for now, I must rest so I can wake up early and do some research because it is clear by my droopy eyes and sleepy brain do not want to do much more than rest.
Good night, and I hope you have a positive sense of belonging and worth!
Love, me
Writer's Blog
So I thought I would create my first post today because I have some serious writer's block right now. And I figured if I could just get some reflective juice flowing here maybe it would help me get started on my first assignments due for my grad program--for the class, Alternative and Complementary Approaches to Health Care.
I have two short reflective papers due this Thursday, one that simply evaluates a particular website and another that provides research on H1N1 and homeopathic/naturopathic remedies/options out there. Sounds basic and simple enough, but I stand boggled and corrected. I've tried coffee, exercise, dialogue, reading, browsing, and nothing can get me motivated to start this work. So here is to hoping that blogging works. And cheers to my breakfast too. I started out with some veggie sausage links and an english muffin. (I'm trying to get more protein in my diet to help boost my energy). And let me tell you, the Morning Star "Sausage" Links are not very tasty! To rid myself of the taste I am trying 'Egyptian Chamomile Tea with delicate Apple' and it is good (after adding some honey) but not the ticket to getting me all jazzed up about writing this paper.
So I apologize for this posting, it is clear that I have writer's block and I hope that something worthwhile will come out of me in the next couple hours!
Have a cheerful day!
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