The Call

I have heard it all my life,
A voice calling a name I recognized as my own.

Sometimes it comes as a soft-bellied whisper.
Sometimes it holds an edge of urgency.

But always it says:
Wake up my love. You are walking asleep.
There's no safety in that!

Remember what you are
and let this knowing take you home to the Beloved with every breath.
Hold tenderly who you are
and let a deeper knowing colour the shape of your humanness.

There is no where to go.

What you are looking for is right here.

Open the fist clenched in wanting and see what you already hold in your hand.

There is no waiting for something to happen, no point in the future to get to.

All you have ever longed for is here in this moment, right now.

You are wearing yourself out with all this searching.

Come home and rest.
How much longer can you live like this?
Your hungry spirit is gaunt, your heart stumbles.
All this trying. Give it up!

Let yourself be one of the God-mad,
faithful only to the Beauty you are.

Let the Lover pull you to your feet and hold you close, dancing even when fear urges you to sit this one out.

Remember- there is one word you are here to say with your whole being.

When it finds you, give your life to it.

Don't be tight-lipped and stingy.

Spend yourself completely on the saying.

Be one word in this great love poem we are writing together.

© Oriah Mountain Dreamer, from 'The Call', 2003

[Thanks to Jon for introducing me to this brilliant brilliant author]

"Children are always a good thing, devoutly to be wished for and fiercely to be fought for."

Pray tell, my brother,

Why do dictators kill

and make war?

Is it for glory; for things,

for beliefs, for hatred,

for power?

Yes, but more,

because they can.

INFANTICIDE:
In law, the killing of a child under 12 months old, and more generally, any killing of a newborn child. It is often seen as a method of population control, especially among hunter-gatherers and nomadic societies where it may be impossible for a mother to carry around more than one small child and still perform the tasks necessary for survival.

In some societies, especially in India and China, more girls are killed than boys because of the higher value placed on male offspring. It is estimated that more than one million children worldwide are killed each year because they are born female. Infanticide may also be practiced on deformed or sick infants or for religious or ritual purposes; in some African societies twin births are thought to be supernatural and the twins are left to die. Although relatively rare, cases of infanticide today receive wide media coverage. The number of children killed by their parents is probably much higher than statistics suggest, however, as many infant deaths are never officially recognized as infanticide. Women offenders are usually perceived as being psychologically unstable and receive non-custodial or psychiatric sentences, while men almost always receive prison sentences.

In China it is important to have boys, as only boys can carry on the family name and honour the ancestors. This preference for male children has led to approximately 10,000 female infants being killed in China each year (1996), and along with the abortion of female fetuses has resulted in a sex ratio of 131 males to 100 females (1997); worldwide the ratio is 105 males to 100 females. In rural areas of China it is even higher; in one county, the ratio of live male births to female in 1995 was 316 to 100. In China, couples are permitted one, at most two, children. Too frequently a girl is a disappointment. But Chinese society is throwing away its little girls at an astounding rate. For every 100 girls registered at birth, there are now 118 little boys - in other words, nearly one seventh of Chinese girl babies are going missing. "Some of those girls are alive, they are just not registered," says Professor Zhai Zhenwu, of Beijing's People's University. "Some are abandoned, but many are aborted when the parents find out the fetus is a girl. Stop the quiet killing spree in India, China, and other countries that practice female infanticide and feticide.

The following photos are heart breaking but I feel it is important to show that such barbaric, savage, inhuman events take place nearly every day and it would be too convenient and too easy neglecting them. The world needs to see, and people need to be informed of the atrocities that take place. Is this how we value human life?

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-women2jan02,1,2391876.story?track=rss

vergognoso!!!!


OGNI COMMENTO E' SUPERFLUO!!!!

Le immagini che seguono sono estremamente dure, però riteniamo doveroso mostrarle, perché fatti così gravi non devono passare inosservati. Il mondo deve sapere, la gente deve essere informata di quanto accade in Cina, di come possa disumanamente divenire normalità il disprezzo per la vita.

Una bimba appena nata giace morta sotto il bordo del marciapiedi, nella totale indifferenza di coloro che passano.
La piccina è solo un'altra vittima della politica crudele del governo cinese che pone il limite massimo di un solo figlio nelle città (due nelle zone rurali), con aborto obbligatorio.
Nel corso della giornata, la gente passa ignorando il bebè.
Automobili e biciclette passano schizzando fango sul cadaverino.

Di quelli che passano, solo pochi prestano attenzione.

La neonata fa parte delle oltre 1000 bambine abbandonate appena nate ogni anno, in conseguenza della politica del governo cinese.
L'unica persona che ha cercato di aiutare questa bambina ha dichiarato:
'Credo che stesse già per morire, tuttavia era ancora calda e perdeva sangue dalle narici'.
Questa signora ha chiamato l'Emergenza però non è arrivato nessuno.

'Il bebè stava vicino agli uffici fiscali del governo e molte persone passavano ma nessuno faceva nulla... Ho scattato queste foto perché era una cosa terribile...'
'I poliziotti, quando sono arrivati, sembravano preoccuparsi più per le mie foto che non per la piccina...'

In Cina, molti ritengono che le bambine siano spazzatura.
Il governo della Cina, il paese più popoloso del mondo con 1,3 miliardi di persone, ha imposto la sua politica di restrizione della natalità nel 1979.
I metodi usati però causano orrore e sofferenza: i cittadini, per il terrore di essere scoperti dal governo, uccidono o abbandonano i propri neonati.
Ufficialmente, il governo condanna l'uso della forza e della crudeltà per controllare le nascite; però, nella pratica quotidiana, gli incaricati del controllo subiscono tali pressioni allo scopo di limitare la natalità, che formano dei veri e propri 'squadroni dell'aborto'. Questi squadroni catturano le donne 'illegalmente incinte' e le tengono in carcere finché non si rassegnano a sottoporsi all'aborto.

In caso contrario, i figli 'nati illegalmente' non hanno diritto alle cure mediche, all'istruzione, né ad alcuna altra assistenza sociale. Molti padri vendono i propri 'figli illegali' ad altre coppie, per evitare il castigo del governo cinese.
Essendo di gran lunga preferito il figlio maschio, le bambine rappresentano le principali vittime della limitazione delle nascite.

Normalmente le ragazze continuano a vivere con la famiglia dopo del matrimonio e ciò le rende un vero e proprio un peso.

Nelle regioni rurali si permette un secondo figlio, ma se anche il secondo è una femmina, la cosa rappresenta un disastro per la famiglia.
Secondo i dati delle statistiche ufficiali, il 97,5% degli aborti è rappresentato da feti femminili.
Il risultato è un forte squilibrio di proporzioni fra popolazione masch ile e femminile. Milioni di uomini non possono sposarsi, da ciò consegue il traffico di donne.
L'aborto selezionato per sesso sarebbe proibito dalla legge, però è prassi comune corrompere gli addetti per ottenere un'ecografia dalla quale conoscere il sesso del nascituro.
Le bambine che sopravvivono finiscono in precari orfanatrofi.
Il governo cinese insiste con la sua politica di limitare le nascite e ignora il problema della discriminazione contro le bambine.

Alla fine, un uomo raccolse il corpo della bambina, lo mise in una scatola e lo gettò nel bidone della spazzatura.

Nonostante tutto, ti penso.

A volte mi sembra un sogno, a volte mi sembra un'incubo.

Abbiamo avuto 'bassi' e 'alti', piu' bassi che alti, ma nonostante tutto ti ho sempre voluto bene, e a modo tuo, tu hai sempre voluto bene a me. Avrei voluto dirti tante cose, avrei voluto abbracciarti di piu' e magari volerti anche piu' bene - forse non l'ho fatto, o forse tu non mi hai lasciata. Adesso, con il passare degli anni, con la maturita' e avendo capita me stessa maeglio tramite le nostre esperience, tragedie ed episodi della vita apprezzo e ricordo solo cio' che porto dentro di me che e' in parte anche tuo. Se sono chi sono lo devo anche a te, ed e' attraverso me (e i miei fratelli) che teniamo vivo il tuo spirito, la tua gioia di vivere e il tuo amore per il tuo paese e la tua gente. Di questo io sono fiera.

Buon Natale, ovunque tu sia - da chi continua a volerti bene.
Tua figlia, Nina

This Time of Year

Around Christmas time it has become a tradition of mine to watch the movie “Love Actually”. I guess when I like something I seem to stick with it and this movie has certainly stuck with me - I love it! This time as I watch it I find a slightly different type of pleasure in it, perhaps is due to a different state of mind that enables me to see things differently and also the state of the heart which rules how I ‘Feel’, and of course this last one is the state that matters most :)

With that in mind I post this song [above]. It is the perfect song, the perfect scene and the perfect voice to describe my state of mind AND state of my heart.

Merry Christmas
Buon Natale
Geseënde Kersfees
Milad Majid
Natale hilare et Annum Faustum!
Feliz Navidad




Peace on Earth

This never happened before

Garfield says it best

Let’s face it, as a nation-no, as a species-we’re dumb and getting dumber. People are eating a big bowl of stupid for breakfast with a side order of folly. Just turn on the tube and watch some boob stick his tongue into a beehive. You’d swear Einstein was watching Fear Factor when he said: Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not so sure about the universe. I’m telling you, if aliens landed at our place, they’d report no intelligent life on Earth!

Telemarketer should start their calls with "May I speak to the moron of the house?".

Many people don't even seem to be able to think for themselves these days, we are versing thoughts and ideas that aren't even ours. We need instructions for everything these days, and we don't even attempt in figuring things out on our own.

I was browsing some pages on the net today and I stumbled upon this site and I read:

Let your extemporaneous descantings and unpremeditated expatiations have intelligibility and veracious vivacity, without rodomontade or thrasonical bombast. Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic profundity, pompous prolixity, psittaceous vacuity ventriloquial verbosity, and vaniloquent vapidity. Shun double-entendres, prurient jocosity, and pestiferous profanity, obscurant or apparent!!

Well, I had to use the dictionary several times! Suddenly I thought, “I love dictionaries!” Indeed I do, and I’d be lost without them. Dictionaries are a place where words live. Big words, little words, useless words and snazzy jazzy words.

DICTIONARY = Reference book containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings, and syntactical and idiomaritic uses.

I’ve always been fascinated with BIG words. It’s always been easier for me to write than to speak when it comes to the use of this language that isn’t mine. I figure that if I can’t pronounce it, I want to at the very least know it. I’ve always found it somewhat sexy to hear someone use difficult, obscure ‘big’ words perhaps because it stimulates my brain and therefore other areas. I believe my brain is connected to the rest of my body. However, there is also much substance in simplicity which most of us have lost completely. In other words, it’s ok to talk plainly, briefly, naturally, sensibly and truthfully. Say what you mean; mean what you say.

Most people make finding happiness way too complicated. You don’t need to be rich, or handsome, or famous to find bliss. I’m sure somewhere there are poor, ugly, unknown people who are perfectly happy. For me happiness is sleeping through a Monday;) Or simply being in the company of my closest friends.

Speaking of ‘friends’, the Beatles song once sang, “I get by with a little help from my friends.” Without friends whom would we share our hopes, dreams with? While my best friends will always be me, myself, and I, I still need my ‘friends’. And while we may have our ups and downs, I wouldn’t trade my friends for anything, although I might be tempted by a 60” plasma wide-screen TV;)

I admit it; I’m a movie junkie. I love films of most genres mostly comedies, dramas, mysteries and documentaries, and even the occasional musical (Grease to name one). However I won’t mindlessly watch just anything. Luckily there are still a lot of fine films released every year.

There is also the occasional ‘love story’ which still gives us the ideal of romance we long for but don’t necessarily believe in anymore, that ‘gone with the wind’ kind of passionate love, or the ‘notebook’ type where you find eternal commitment to one’s heart. Love sweet love. What is the many splendor thing that conquers all, makes fools of us all and makes the world go round? More has been written about love than any other subject. Love can be characterized as anything from madness, to an itch to the heart or a pain in the brain. Love can be blind, it can be two hearts beating as one or song sung by two. It can even be a score of zero in tennis. Puccini’s song “nessun dorma” describes the powerful emotions of “love” like no other, and Pavarotti' voice delivers them flawlessly. All this stuff adds up to a headache for me. I prefer to keep it simple. I love my son, my family, my friends, my food and myself. Call it safe? I’d rather think of it as waiting to find that somewhere I have never traveled (ee cummings).

Life’s like that.

STOP RACISM

“This poem was voted the best children’s poem of 2005. It was written by an African kid."

When I born, I Black,
When I grow up, I Black,
When I go in Sun, I Black,
When I scared, I Black,
When I sick, I Black,
And when I die, I still black…

And
you White fellow,
When you born, you pink,
When you grow up, you White,
When you go in Sun, you Red,
When you cold, you blue,
When you scared, you yellow,
When you sick, you Green,
And when you die, you Gray…

And you call me colored???………

http://www.gnb.ca/hrc-cdp/e/sayno.htm

This thing called life

the most amazing thing happened to me tonight! I found a ladybug sitting on my computer. I SWEAR it is pure coincidence.

this 'also' prompts a "WOW".

La vita e' veramente bella:) Only in Marianna's Planet!

WOW

The little ladybug was suddenly inspired, as she jumps up with a smile on her face and runs towards the nearest softest flower she can find to fly into it with such compelling desire as if she can't get in it fast enough. She lays with joy and begins flickering her wings in slow motion, up and down, round and round. The motion of her wings is slow at first almost forming steady turning curves that grow faster to reach rhythmic dimensions. The ladybug's life becomes a volcanic eruption as she stares into the universe exclaiming: WOW!

The very happy 'little red sphere' flies away with a grin on her face ready to bring the next lucky person who she rests on some of her little-ladybug-luck:)

Gotta love ladybugs!

Little dots

We cross path we all kinds of people in the course of our life. Some become life long friends, some are in and out but leave an impact, some are gone, some you wish you never met, some are not even human and some you hide from;) (And it even rhymes.)

But the most irritating kind are the cocky ones. There is a clear line between confidence and cockiness, not to be mistaken with coccyx which is a recently added word to my ever so growing English dictionary, and I figure that the more I use a word the less likely I’ll forget it (my brain can only accumulate so much information) – as well the more you pronounce it the easier it rolls down your tongue (or is ‘over’ or ‘on’. Darn English).

Completely lost the point I was trying to make. Right, cocky! Arrogance is ignorance. I like to think that I’m a fairly confident individual and even if I weren’t I wouldn’t show it. However I’ve met people in the past who are overly confident, arrogant, critical and overall cocky (seems to be the word of the day). Why is it that the most incredible geniuses of our times were the most humbled ones? I don’t think education necessarily makes for an intelligent individual (though admittedly in some cases it helps). It’s obvious that it takes far more to make people ‘intelligent humans’.

By no stretch do I consider myself an intelligent human (in fact by some past events I often wonder if I came in contact with some of that ‘dumb ass’ virus often goes around) but at least I can ‘confidently’ say that I am without a doubt humanly intelligentJ

Hmmm, I really did have a point initially….