5K To End Sexual Violence

Fair Trade saves lives...

  ”A bite of Fair Trade chocolate means a lot to peasant farmers in the Global South. It opens the doors to development and gives children access to health care, education and a decent standard of loving” ~ Ohemeng-Tinyase, Kuapo Kokoo Cocoa Cooperative, Ghana.

Yesterday was the most perfect of days! It started out with a pouched egg on bakery bread, went on to support a very grand chaos, and ended with Taboos along with a reunion! Yesterday marked the first run I’ve done for the NYSCASA, or the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault and also was the first raffle that I’ve ever won! We got our faces painted and did spin-arte. Stav also won a purse from New York and Company along with a Theatre Gift Certificate! Congrats! But oui, yesterday was very very good for me. It was considered perfect in my book. With some homemade Indian Food and Indian Tea, along with some Disney animation and my old best friend Eric visited and we kicked ass at Taboo! It was a night filled with laughs and for once, no alcohol. Interesting…

Here are 12 ways you can Support Fair Trade:

1. Vote! EVERY purchase of a fair trade product is  vote for a better future & world.

2. Learn! READ and learn why we need Fair Trade and how it helps everyone and everything from the farm workers to the greater environment.

3. Join! SIGN UP to join other supporters of Fair Trade. Go to www.FairTradeCertified.orgor also add uys as your friend on myspace.com/fairtradecertified.

4. Share! TELL people about Fair Trade. Publish fliers or articles on your campus or in your community.

5. Give! FAIR TRADE products make wonderful and thoughtful gifts to give again and again.

6. Donate! UNFORTUNATELY we rely on American’s tax-deductable contributions to TransFair USA to be our source of funding. Please donate to TransFair USA today.

7. Host! PARTIES make the best way to get Fair Trade out there. House parties, film screenings, and even product tastings bring Fair Trade to the eyes and mouths of people who don’t know about it. Have fun.

8. Ask! DON’T see your favourtie Fair Trade products in your local grocery? Ask for them! Often store managers respond well to the whole supply and demand.

9. Serve! ENJOY FT Products like tea and cafe at your place of worship. “It is a wonderful way to live out your values and make a difference for the world’s poor.”

10. Raise! FUNDRAISERS are another great way to sell Fair Trade Products.

11. Start! JOIN or begin your own FT Group in your school or community! You can go to the main website for more details.

12. Celebrate! OCTOBER is Fair Trade Month and World Fair Trade Day is every MAY. Join a movement and promote this for good change during these times of the year, if not all year!

  

Number One Song

 

Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On Earth

 ”Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.” ~Unknown

Thanks to a cute email that I received today, I now know what the number one song in history was on my birthday. On 3 December 1987 Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” was the song. It’s funny because I have always really liked this song; and it has always been able to bring me into a happier mood. So, what about you? What was/is your song? Check this link out to find out!
#1 Song on This Date in HIstory

tuesday’s spinach soup

my weekend adventure

“I prefer the mystic clouds of nostalgia to the real thing, to be honest.” ~Robert Wyatt

A little milk, a little soy. Some spinach, cheese, heavy creme, carrots, broccoli and presto! Creamy Cheddar Spinach Soup! For lunch! That’s what is cooking!

I have nothing more to say other than I got my new job! New schedule! New place! I can’t wait I start and transfer next friday! Hip, hip. Other than that I would like to share my new profile song, “Mystic’s Dream” by Loreena McKennitt. Watch. Listen. Namaste.

happy monday mabon!

happy, happy equinox!

 ”Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile.” ~ William Cullen Bryant quotes (American Writer, 1794-1878)

 Mabon. The Second Harvest Festival. Wine Harvest. Feast of Avalon. Equinozio di Autunno (Strega). Alben Elfed (Caledoniac). Cornucopia. The Autumnal Equinox. Winter Finding, spans a period of time from the Sabbat to Oct. 15th, Winter’s Night, which is the Norse New Year. Today is my favourite day. Today should be my favourite day. And in a way it still is. This past weekend was, surely, something surprising, in more ways than one. In ways grand, in other ways sour. Needless to say I am grounding myself from liquors and beer for the next three months(at least). It is strange when horrible things, shocking things happen to you you want to blame anyone and everyone, except yourself. This is in everyone’s case. But what of the innocent ones? Are they morally at fault for wanting to blame others? What of those that are not so innocent, who take and say it was their fault, but still want to blame others? Is that moral? To make a very complicated story short, Saturday night wasn’t as fun as I hoped and thought it was at the beginning of the night. But anyway, I hope and wish everyone a Sacred, and SAFE Equinox! Bundle up, settle in. Enjoy. Reflect and prepare for the coming cold. Namaste!

At this time of equal day and equal night
The season has changed, colours in my sight.
Pumpkins, mums, apples too.
Telling stories both olde and new.
Leaves & leaves and winds abound.
Dancing magick in sky around.
Gibbous moon is waning true,
To the New Moon to where all is dark and blue.
In these changing times, be at peace.
May war and violence stop and cease.
At this harvest be filled and bright.
Give a witch’s Thanksgiving, this is my plight!
Happy Mabon by apple, pumpkin, mums and trees
May You have the best of equinoxes and blessed be!

    

Invitation, invitation.

 

Pumpkins for Sale, Anyone?

    At such a loving invitation, Pinocchio, with one leap from the back of the orchestra, found himself in the front rows. With another leap, he was on the orchestra leader’s head. With a third, he landed on the stage.”
~Carlo Collodi

 This weeks Sunday Scribbling prompt is of Invitations. How exciting! How festive! How curious. Invitations now adays are almost a dieing species. The only time you get them are for two things: Deaths and Weddings. There are no more childhood birthday party invitations posted by mail. There are no more unique, hand-written pieces of paper intrinsically decorated for the event. I have always been one to make invitations. There is something just so personal, and I don’t mean going out to Walmart or the local Hallmark store and purchasing already done for you versions. I mean I took the time. I took the creativity that was in my blood, the strong current of it all and CREATED.

Invitations are curious then when you do receive them. Even if they aren’t hand-made, but at least they put forth some effort. You wonder. You do the 5 Ws. What is this about? What will happen? Who will be there? When do I actually have to be there? What will I wear?! I begins to get fun, you plan in your head the perfect outfit, the perfect gift…

And then it hits you! Do they even want me to go? I know this is cynical sounding but you can’t help it but to wonder. Are they just sending me one out of courtesy? Just so I don’t feel left out? But there is when you have to stop those negative thoughts! You must cast out a butterfly net and snatch them out of your mind! I take every invitation serious. I show up early to help out, and I become this quasi- post millennium Martha Stewart. I can get quite crazy, but it is soo much fun! Can’t you just imagine it? Receivingan invite? You feel respected, you feel accepted. You feel loved. So, here I am prattling along, as I always do. Now, to do something CREATIVE! And what other than nature is more creative? It is almost the autumnal  equinox, nature itself is practically inviting us to a grand event! So why don’t we take her kind suggestion and invite upon ourselves the Spirit of this new season!

Invitation, invitation.
Earth’s subtle words.
Summer is oh-so over, havn’t you heard?
It’s Autumn’s turn to shine.
So good-bye parasol, it’s pretty scarf time.
With this season, so beautiful and crisp.
May all of our hearts be filled with freshness and bliss!
As the leaves fall gently on the ground,
May these words be a song of sound.
Sing it out loud, or simply a whisper.
But remember, remember you were invited Mister!

Post Script. It is also worth mentioning that I go to an invitation party this weekend! A surprise celebration for a woman that has made me the person I am. Today is her birthday of forty annuals, so I wish her the brightest and most blessed wishes on her day. Hehe, I can’t wait to surprise her, she thinks I am working this weekend. (thank-goodnessthat she isn’t very computer savvy otherwise I wouldn’t be able to post this!) As you can see, I did go to the market to pick out Mabon decor, just somethig small, something to honour its passing. Also, I went shopping and wow I hope everyone likes their gifts! They better!! Hehe.

  

Hanging Gardens & Hanging Hearts

"Asia-Mae's" Hanging Harvest Garden

 

“The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.”
- John Updike, September

 Yester-night was an odd night. Probably because I did not sleep again for another two days. But more so, because when I did have time to sleep I was unable to due to someone else’s sour mood. So working off of each other we both had a forced night, and plenty of trying to get comfortable when it WAS bed-time. There was a moment where I felt completely disjointed with him. Yet again because I find myself not being informed of what goes on in his life. I do not expect to be told everything, mind you, but I would appreciate being told about things that makes him happy or would make a normal person happy at least. To bring it all down: it come up of earrings. Diamonds from H&M, which were recently purchased but unknown to me. He couldn’t find them so, grumpily stewed around the apartment until he could find them, he never did. I can understand he hadn’t worn them yet, okay, but they were relatively inexpensive and why was he so dead-set on getting them on before going grocery shopping while i was to sleep? Honestly I don’t care now, but I could have helped him or at least if I had known about them I wouldn’t have let them be thrown on the floor in a bag, which mysteriously disappeared. But when you’re in a 25 by 30 apartment, and especially with an untidy treasure hoarder, things get lost. So sour moods were getting to me and I continued to feel disjointed, so much so I almost lost it completely, but I brought myself back down to earth, calmful earth, and went for a walk, outside, while he went to grocery. And I brought my CAMERA.

On the way around the grounds, I walked in the grass and took shots of the changing autumn vegetation. I was gathering some fallen leaves when I noticed something: a garden. I did not know we had gardens in our little “Brandywine Village,” but I guess we do. That is where I met “Asia-Mae” as I call her. She showed me hanging squash, tomatoes, huge string-beans, her herbs, and a quaint little eggplant. It felt good, it grounded me and took away all of my hurt feelings; just as the dew was beginning to fall onto the garden, it was covering me with a warm, comforting blanket making all my worries evaporate into the gloaming of dusk.

Today was an adventure, an insane sleep deprived adventure. After work, I went to my favourite relaxation centre: Borders. Which shelf? Need you ask? First I walked around seeing new arrivals and what not, but then I gravitated, as I always do, to the Metaphysical section. I was looking for Ellen Dugan’s Autumn Equinox book, but sadly they did not have it upon the shelf. So….I alphabetized the entire section in hopes of finding it! Crazy I know, but it took some stress away and was oddly soothing in its own unique way. I found two, well I found several but you know how it goes. I found two books of interest: “Pagan Rosaries” and Ellen Dugan’s How to Enchant a Man: Spells to Bewitch, Bedazzle & Beguile.I figured this may energize Scott a bit if I should learn a thing or two, just a little something to re-kindle after this doomy kind of cloud that we’ve had lately. I read some things, and learned something else. That if we can all be beautiful, we can all be sexy, and if we can all be sexy then why the hell am I mopping around. Rekindle means: fire up some candles and fire up some love! Hehe, so after thinking on what Ellen had to say I’m home now about to take a ritual bath, and soak up some much needed god(dess) desire.

 

small gems just under our nose

mushroom just outside our apt building.

“Six essential qualities that are the key to success: sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity.” ~Dr. William Menninger

 they are there, right under our noses. small, tiny gifts that we pass by every day. after night’s last and today’s shift i arrived home ready to eat lunch and then get some much needed rest& relaxation. Some much needed R&R. but before i stepped away, there it was, there they were. a small fluff of a feather resting ever so gently on a single mushroom fungus. It astounds me how life will grow even in an urbanesque area. Surrounded by leaves fallen from the sky and above, this tiny little treasure is very precious to me. I see how independent it is, how beautiful. I just hope that it will make it to see the frost (and not have some clod-minded individual stamper onto it). So I whispered to it, “grow little thing, grow!” How can people just dismiss things in nature as grotesque or ugly? The world is filled with fungus’ some dangerous, some no, but they’re all beautiful just the same. They come in all sizes, all colours. There is something simple and yet ingenious about them. I wish I could just sit on one and read all day!    

P.S. Just thinking about Mabon coming up on Monday. I came upon this link. So, I hope it inspires you with some information! Also, I will probably go to Borders tomorrow and find Ellen Dugan’s Autumn Equinox novel. There is sure to be some very inspirational words in there!  

                                                               

Jill Bolte Taylor’s powerful stroke of insight | Video on TED.com

Jane Goodall found@ TED.com

“Jane Goodall, dubbed by her biographer “the woman who redefined man,” has changed our perceptions of primates, people, and the connection between the two. Over the past 45 years, Goodall herself has also evolved — from steadfast scientist to passionate conservationist and humanitarian.” ~From TED.com

A few days ago I found this video. I am very glad to share this piece with you & please believe me that all of it, every minute of it, is worth the time out of your life. Also, due to this video I am now an avid and faithful viewer of all TED videos. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design which started in 1984, which is a conference of the worlds leading intellectuals, leading thinkers and designers. AT TED you will discover “Ideas Worth Spreading.”

more about “Jill Bolte Taylor’s powerful stroke o…“, posted with vodpod

 

 

 

Monday’s Comical Memory

unknown photographer but found on http://speechnsound.blogspot.com/2008/06/its-true-what-they-say.html

“Firefighters are hot stuff!  ~Author Unknown”

Well, I tried to make a vow to post everyday no matter how small. However the past two days have been crazy (I just finished a 15 hour shift & yes i know it’s bloody 2pmEST!) So due to my sleep deprivation and small cat nap yesterday afternoon before work i had no time to post. So, here will be yesterday’s would-have-been post followed above by today’s separate post. And away we go!

monday 9.15.08~

Today was in one word: hilarious! And another: frightful. Around 2am I heard this horrendous crack and sound of something falling, HARD, outside. The winds were blowing and the trees were shaking. Since i had been watching NGeo (National Geographic Channel) which was discussing dinosaurs I figured it for a special effect HD style. However, when I actually felt the earth rumble underneath me I knew it was no Hollywood trick, the world was shacking just outside the bay windows. I peered outside gingerly, because I knew that sound. The sound of a tree being torn from its mother and I prayed that my car was safe (it’s been through enough). So, as I looked outside sure enough a tree had fallen just outside the windows, the wind was blowing its warm breath, birds and other fauna were scrambling for safety, the moon- full. I got into my car and put it into DRIVE and calmly drove it forward away from the hazard-zone. As I moved it a swig fell on my windshield and I thought to myself, damn the gods! But, no, it was intact- the windshield not the stick. Blast the stick! I got out and stared into the strangeness of the night. No, that was a wake-up call! I looked up at the moon, smiled and walked back inside hearing the wind say goodbye to me as I shut the front door. This all happened to me awhile at work, just to refresh your memory of my strange schedule. Ha! Can you imagine though? Thinking a dinosaur was loose? Ha! The insanity! Ah…the sleep deprivation!

Later on that day, waking up my consumers (all eight) I decided to make my special pancakes, and were they special! They came with firemen and whistles! HAHA. It is never a true pancake day without the fire alarms going off! But how the air smelled of steamed butter! Mmmm. I will have you know though, I did not burn one single pancake! No sir, no madame! Five minutes later- the police. Ten- the firemen! The alarms I knew were automatic alert senders to the fire station, etc. etc. But I was under the impression that they were notified…obviously they were not. Now, in a perfect world, in my fantasy world, I would have invited them in (and they would have looked more like the photo above, hehe) for some pancakes and cafe, but of course they had jobs to do: polls to swing off of and donuts to consume. You know, real world jobs. Haha. Just thought you may get some chuckles to that!

And as I left my first shift that morning, with the Sunshine just barely coming through the trees, hitting the fallen. Dandelion seeds filled the air, floating, ever so serenely. Bumping the broken limb, falling onto my head, hitting my nose. In all that chaos, in all the worry, I found peace. And I smiled as I walked away, to a longer still day sure, but with the perfectness of that moment in my mind as the leaves under my feet begin to crunch, I remember that moment to this moment today. Simply divine.

Sacred Life Sunday

“Nothing else in this world means more to me than my books.”

This is my first post for Sacred Life Sunday! For me the first thing, the first possession that brings me closer to spirit would be my books. They have inspired me to look at the world through different eyes. And not just my metaphysical books, but the novels, the poems, the essays that I read everyday. Life’s natural poetry is all around me, everyday. And for that I am most thankful for.

Today I plan on cleaning, however I will be taking an hour or two before work in which I will read and consume the pleasurable words of literature that is a complete and utter addiction! Also, I would like to say Happy Birthday to my dearest friend Rachel who today will be twenty-one! She is a wonderful and loyal friend not to mention a very creative soul! Shh handmakes jewelry out of precious stones and various other things. Check out her beautiful gems at Etsy! (I’ve also put a permanent link to her line called “Rockelle” in my Blogroll. Enjoy! A most special day indeed! I send to you all of the happiest orange crayons in the world! Special also, because today is also one of my favourite author’s birthdays as well: Ellen Dugan! (Do you see the top two novels on the stack?) Happy birthday to you both (but mostly Rachel )!

Happiest of days, this day be.

From my heart to your’s, please think of me.

Brightest wishes at summer’s end,

Peace, light & love I do send!

Happy Birthday each and every year.

Hear these words soothful and clear!

Blessed Sunday Everyone! Namaste.